It's One Big Conspiracy!

[@julianholmanaudio4807]

Great vid, not sure if it's been suggested already but we've all seen the blind shootouts that adertons have done. Would be great to get Rob Chapman on the show doing some blind tests, as he does actually seem to have super human hearing!

[@SpectreSoundStudios]

He’s hearing the acoustic part of the guitar. Nothing superhuman about it. I’ll be impressed when he can do that with a recorded guitar.

[@averyweissman4093]

@@SpectreSoundStudiosit’d definitely be cool to see.

[@georgoroth]

Time to start a new style, heavy metal with electric guitars recorded like acoustics, no piezo, no plug, just a mic in front

[@julianholmanaudio4807]

@@SpectreSoundStudios I hadn't thought about that!

[@frankcarter6427]

chapman can tell the colour of the guitar and the name of the pickup winder blindfold

[@An2oine]

With all these geniuses, I can't understand why the world has all the problems it has.

[@joecordell1714]

Clearly they are focused on the distinctions between tonewood and pickups, instead of working on World peace or curing cancer.

[@mrcoatsworth429]

With all these geniuses, you'd think one of them would be able to produce some scientific evidence for their claims.

[@coldacre]

what was your guess in the poll?

[@An2oine]

@coldacre I didn't guess. I knew better than to do it.

[@markcheetah4960]

​@@coldacreI thought it was obvious which one the Harley Benton was. It was quieter with less treble. I couldn't tell the difference between the other three.

[@lemonade7740]

I love the people saying you eqed the guitars to sound the same because that implies you can make a 300$ guitar sound like a 3000$ one

[@bassyey]

lol got'em. There's just no way around it.

[@reav3rtm]

You can also make different argument towards guitar snobs who use EQ in their recordings. "You use EQ? Why? Your $3000 guitar for sure sounds perfect and didn't need it, right? Right?😂"

[@ericcotter1984]

You cant and ive been asked to play for Opeth

[@damienalvarez2957]

D’Oh!

[@wolfgangdevries127]

Hehe just bought a whole guitar setup for less than 500 bucks. Guitar, amp, 14 mini pedals, supply, plugs and cables. Kinda curious. Haven't played for ages :)

[@dustinbrummett3774]

I really can’t think of any possible way of demoing and testing equipment any better than this show is capable of doing. Great content Glen, keep going and growing.

[@AJ_Drums]

​@skratchrapturewho gets the same results..

[@watersnortmoment3734]

@skratchrapture Jim Lil’s videos are good, but he’s doing an overarching test that happened to come to the same conclusions (it’s almost as if it’s repeatable…), while Glenn is going for specific tests.

[@alrecks619]

the snobs really want to bring the beginners down the drain at this point.

[@DS-nw4eq]

The people who don’t want to work for anything are really destroying the industry

[@yucatansuckaman5726]

Well yeah, they were duped into spending way too much money so why shouldn't you!!!!?!?!

[@murrayguitarpickups9545]

As a tone snob I can tell you that I just wanna hear you make better sounds, its not about money for me, its about preserving the art of guitar playing

[@HabAnagarek]

​@@murrayguitarpickups9545I'd rather learn and play than go on and on about "tone"

[@ericcotter1984]

There is a sifference berweena biginner engineer and a beginner songwriter

[@connorpursell1228]

It's so funny how offended some people were 😂 love the info you're giving, FOR FREE !

[@damienalvarez2957]

@bloomtikbloom9593what’s unethical about showing people where to actually spend their money? Glen isn’t the only one who has proven that expensive amp with cheap guitar will always beat expensive guitar with cheap amp. Please, explain to me how a Gibson Les Paul is so much tonally superior to an Epiphone Les Paul? They’re the same damned guitar at the end of the day, except for the fact that the Epiphone will stay in tune better and the headstock won’t break if you breathe on it, unlike the Gibson. Also, what’s unethical about showing that spending 300 bucks on pickups will not create a tone change as big as dropping money on speakers or moving around your mic? Sorry you’ve been duped by marketing departments for years into believing in tone magic.

[@topfloorstudio2684]

The comment at 5:30 was so funny about cheap gear! I'm pulling the trigger on a $2,800 Gibby in a few days. Lol I'm a Cork Sniffer!!

[@coldacre]

what was your guess in the poll?

[@Martin-kn6vc]

I love that no matter how you structure a test, being as meticulous as possible, there's always a slew of people who will always move the goalposts and say "yeah, but you didn't do this, so your test is invalid!" No matter what the test, these types of people will always just say it's invalid because they don't want to listen.

[@damienalvarez2957]

Oh yeah. They’re all over this comments section, too. Always gonna get the cork sniffers who don’t wanna admit they overpaid for poor QC.

[@coldacre]

what was your guess in the poll?

[@chrisgeo1642]

It’s not moving goal posts, the guitars all had differences in tone. They did not all sound the same. Just because it’s difficult to blindly place the tone to the guitar doesn’t matter the test U.S.V.I. whether or not people can guess which is which the test is do they sound different. Yes they do.

[@tony_n316]

Been playing for 40 years. I’ve owned many different rigs along the way and I’ve been saying what Glenn says for years, but people are simply convinced they can “hear” every little difference. Whether it’s because they trust the marketing and just believe it, or can’t come to terms with how much money they’ve wasted is something we may never know.

[@chaptermasterpedrokantor1623]

It's part tone snobbery, part groupthink, part how dare you criticize my rig worth tens of thousands and part bragging rights of owning vintage out of production stuff.

[@forkless]

@@chaptermasterpedrokantor1623 That and post-purchase rationalization.

[@juancarlossuarez7486]

​@@chaptermasterpedrokantor1623what zero practice does to a mf

[@watersnortmoment3734]

They’re hearing the “in the room” sound and assuming it translates to recorded sound.

[@chrisgeo1642]

So did all those guitar samples sound the same to you? Because I could clearly hear differences in them. While I couldn’t be sure of which was which (except the HB because it sounded shit) I heard differences. If you heard them all the same then I’m not sure what to say. In a real world situation there would be more frequency response in the mic captures using multiple mics at various locations and polarities which would show the differences to even a greater extent. Whether or not someone could match tone to guitar really doesn’t matter in terms of the test, because the test showed that there are differences.

[@MarkusPix]

Thanks for the shout out! 😁

[@SpectreSoundStudios]

You’re very welcome! Please keep making great content!

[@Sean_Plays_Guitar]

I won a Line 6 Pod Go from Henning's channel a couple of years ago in a song writing challenge. He provided bass and drums. I used a Fender Mustang Micro (100 bucks) a Harley Benton DC-600 VI guitar (211 bucks) and my iPad mini with garage band (about 150 bucks used at the time) and was able to get a pretty decent mix for not being an engineer with any proper recording gear. Henning liked that I was using bare bones gear to get the sounds. It was not the best sounding recording, of course, but I had SO MUCH FUN and the song was really meaningful to me and I have that as well as the Pod Go to show for it. I think that we guitarists and musicians would all be a lot happier if we just stopped thinking so much about the gear and focused more on the art. I don't mean people should stop loving the gear they have or stop buying gear that they want, I just mean....I guess just leave each other alone? Like...its OKAY to love what you love or not love what you don't. Just enjoy it. Glenn is doing a good thing by showing us how to get GREAT tone without breaking the bank. That is very useful for many of us. It's not always based in hate for the bigger brands. Most of his hate comes from us....the Comments Section...getting all up in arms every time he tries to save someone some cash. Don't lose sight of the fact that he is also teaching, here. There are really valuable lessons to be learned in those comparison videos if you wish to pay attention. Much love!

[@theoryofmine7473]

A second channel, long form experiment videos. Yeah. Also, the Glenn Fricker Album needs to happen. I'd love to be a part of it too...

[@zacthe1st455]

I've never come across a channel that actually puts out genuine and useful information on KZbin. I've learnt so much about guitar tone and how spending money doesn't get you a kickass guitar tone, keep up the great work Glen!! 🤘

[@ClarkColborn]

Glenn, I feel your pain so much! My video “exposing” you has generated a ton of similar comments. But most of them were positive & supported you. I thought you should know 95% of them were on your side. Thanks so much for doing what you do!

[@squeezylo]

Glenn, I genuinely hope you read this as I’ve taken your experience and experiments into consideration in changing my mind on the common misconceptions that guitarist have said for fucking years now. I don’t know why so many guitarist and musicians dig their heels in the mud so much on these tone topics other than to sound like musician snobs. But please remember this quote by Bill Murray( I think) “It's hard to win an argument with a smart person. It's damn near impossible to win an argument with a stupid person.”

[@robwoodring9437]

"Never argue with a fool. People watching won't know which is which"

[@jasonbone5121]

When the Tonex Capture came out I was excited to capture my different amps. I did captures of just the heads, no speaker. Imagine my surprise when they all sounded the same. I then did captures of the head with various pedals. While the amount of gain changed, the actual tone of all the captures was the basically identical. You can do these tests at home people!

[@gilbertspader7974]

I finally solved my guitar tone problems by switching to Bass.

[@Ran-tan-tan]

Holy fuck the editing gets even better every week! Absolutely god damn hilarious, again!

[@damianfennelly5752]

For all those people who say these experiments aren't scientific. You explained in the original video the procedure you followed for gathering your sample files. That sounds like a repeatable set of experimental criteria to me. I'm going to try this myself. I'm going to run all my humbucker'd guitars through a Boss Katana (because we all seem to own one of those these days) into my DAW using the USB audio interface. Guitars on full volume, amp settings left unchanged. Then I'm going to splice the recording together. Leave it a few weeks (so I've forgotten which order I put the guitars in) and then listen back to see if I can spot the different guitars in the one recording file. If I can't tell the difference (and I suspect this will be the case after watching your initial video). I'm going to keep the one I like playing the most and sell the rest. I'll probably use the cash to buy more guitar related crap I don't need. Only to find out years later that it all sounds the same. Because we're guitar players and we never learn...

[@tommyareli]

I've got Mesa road king 412 loaded with Mesa MC90 (the ONLY original speaker), Jensen Jet Tornado Neo on the open back half and Warehouse Veteran 30 + ET65 on the closed back. So, I bought 3 new speakers. ONE OF THE BEST INVESTMENT IN MY GEAR!!!

[@scottyknows]

Just bought Element Bass. Thanks for putting it together Glenn! Hopefully I'll find sometime this weekend to test it out. I have no doubts it will sound killer!

[@SpectreSoundStudios]

Let us know how you like it!

[@Killadey]

MarcusPix is a great channel, great to see him getting a mention!

[@frayedinsanity]

I've been playing guitar for over twenty years, and started at age twelve. It only took about five years of playing a bunch of different types of guitars before I learned I can get the same sound from any them through my particular amp setup. Since then, I only chose guitars based on how they feel in my hands.

[@beefnacos6258]

Tone deaf huh

[@revivedfears]

There's no way this is true. I very rarely change my amp settings and I only ever play with distortion. The difference isn't staggering but there definitely is a noticeable difference between my ones with stock pickups over a one with an EMG81.

[@frayedinsanity]

@revivedfears I agree passive pickups and active pickups can give you a noticeable difference, but in my experience, it was more about how my amp responded to the signal. My Boutique amp made my emgs sound digital so I went to all passive in my guitars. I have 6 guitars, only two have the same pickup configuration and the rest are very different from one another. I recorded all of them for my demo, and I couldn't hear any tonal difference. The differences I did hear was just output intensity. I ended up finishing the song with one guitar for distortion, and another one that had the best clean tone for the soft parts. It's all just relative to the player. If you listened to my song you wouldn't even know which parts were played with different guitars. My conclusion was, for hard rock and metal, just grab a guitar that feels good to play.

[@ryanmattie974]

That "make up your minds fuckers" line made me spit my coffee out! Love ya Glen! Haha

[@romanempire6427]

Thank you Glen for all your insight and balls of steel with the truth. Most of us bedroom players and home music makers use your advice to not go BROKE!!! Love from Toronto. 🤘🤘

[@jphormiga]

Glenn, let's face it, there will always be people willing to argue about how tonewood, pickups, paint finishes or tubes make HUGE changes in tone (while also calling those differences "nuances", that you can only hear without youtube compression, in isolation and over high quality speakers) and willing to pay thousands of dollars for such massive differences (or ...trying to justify the thousands of dollars they already spent). People need hobbies, let's let them have them. Those of us willing to learn new things and make a smarter use of the little money we have will always appreciate your work, doing the heavy lifting so we can make better decisions. Thanks! JP

[@natrixxvision6997]

16:27 Jack Pearson. Played with the Allman Brothers and is one of the greatest guitar players you may or may not have heard of. He plays Squires. And sounds amazing doing it.

[@guitarnutbolinuli5788]

Came looking for this comment; great point.

[@marin_real_estate_photography]

Not only does he play squiers, he plays the least expensive squiers, without modding them, iirc.

[@natrixxvision6997]

@@marin_real_estate_photography And I was yesterday years old when I found out that he’s a MONSTER jazz player. Sometimes he uses a Squire telecaster for that as well.

[@740325318]

Nothing wrong with a squier but if you’re saying it sounds like a Gibson Les Paul - prove it. Two big fallacies in these videos - “bands only do one song per set” - “Rythm guitar is the only thing that matters.” Yeah average guitar players who play Rythm think a tele or strat sounds like a Les Paul Three hours playing a Les Paul live verses 3 hours on a high action squier with single coils that’s a major difference - the one song band is not a reality Seems like a stock squier has that single coil hum which i guess is a myth

[@1-eye-willy]

this dudes gimmick of berating the viewer with intense screaming is the kind of sado masochism i need in my life right now

[@Roberto06111]

Hey Glenn! I would like to ask a question: If you repeat the same test (les paul vs strat) but in lower tunings for example C standard, do you think that the difference in scale length between both guitars might create a bigger tonal difference? Also it would be a great idea to test Baritone vs regular scale guitar in B Standard. Keep up the good work!

[@scacchomattho]

Shorter scale = floppier strings

[@Guitarpima]

5:36 someone in the UK, launched a rocket with a camera attached to it. The camera went up high enough to take pictures and get the curvature of the earth. NASA went to him and wanted to know how he did it.

[@ghostsmoke11]

one of the few times you can be happy about being a drummer vs guitarist; tonewood is very real with drums/percussion.

[@IZE83L]

It's very important on acoustic guitars as well

[@slayabouts]

It's a double edged sword; this means drummers still have to pay more for better sounding materials if they want that extra edge while us guitarists can save money by using cheaper parts

[@TheKlaun9]

I'm a guitar player, but I'm learning the drums at the moment. That's great news indeed, finally something to spend my money on. I will now get an aircraft hangar and put a bunch of different drum sets and other percussion instruments in there. Life without debt just isn't the same - you get so much more work done when your entire existence depends on that next pay check. Can't wait to join a band as a drummer now and test out the different sounds and see what the other guys and girls think. I'm sure their minds will be blown, it will certainly not just be empty expressions and "I don't hear the difference" or "I don't care" or "can we move on?" or "you're fired!". I actually wanted to stay a bedroom drummer, but I'm sold. But all jokes aside, drums are awesome. Why aren't you happy more often with your choice?

[@slayabouts]

@@TheKlaun9 hell yeah brother keep us updated on how it goes

[@morbidmanmusic]

Actually not not so much. More about hard ware lugs and isolation. I've test CB 700 against my 5000$ GMS kit. Under mics and done right... good luck.

[@BlockDefender]

Can I just say using the word tone instead of timbre makes angry guitar players that much funnier

[@Keiko_Kitsune]

I really can't believe that you're trying to help all of us save money and going out of your way to share some of your years of experience that many people would charge for and all these people do is hate and whine at you. You can't please stupid. Thanks for trying to help us all out Glenn!

[@chaptermasterpedrokantor1623]

People just don't like it when you destroy their deeply held beliefs and make them look like fools for having spent thousands on the wrong thing.

[@Keiko_Kitsune]

@@chaptermasterpedrokantor1623 A fair assessment, and very true.

[@Gueli]

@@chaptermasterpedrokantor1623 Spot on!

[@coldacre]

what was your guess in the poll?@@chaptermasterpedrokantor1623

[@740325318]

There are tons of ways to save money. Good thing because it’s really hard for people to get a hundred bucks.

[@seanhartman509]

Love the new little coming up in the show thing you did at the beginning man, nice touch!

[@stevenpipes1555]

My good friend's son is in a hardcore metal band and is a big big fan of your show. They dont actually make money so he and the bass player got actual WORK with a band that does weddings and local gatherings. Whata ya know, as soon as he turned down his high gain in a band situation, his lower mid level Ibanez sounded muddy and lifeless. He went against your advice and sprung for some decent Seymores. They weren't very expensive, they made a huge difference in the clarity and presence of the tone, and it still sounds great in a metal setting as well. And . . .oh yeah, he started his journey by changing his speaker. It made a big difference for sure but didn't help the old muddy sounding pickups. So far his metal recordings haven't made him any money, but the wedding band has been doing very well. Would you agree that in this situation the money spent on the pickups was well spent?

[@jasondorsey7110]

If it did the thing, it was worth it. If it didn't do the thing, it was a waste.

[@Artgc123]

I was already typing my credit card number to purchase a new guitar when that video came out, but you opened my eyes and I realized I didn't need another guitar. Thank you for saving my money

[@ElevatedLevetator]

you can always just sell it later for the same price if you buy used

[@babahias]

"It's a really fantastic time to be a guitar player..." 🙏🙏🙏 Exactly what I thought again watching this! Today you can buy awesome guitars for about 200 bucks, use some amp sims and IRs and get tones that are pretty damn close to what you're hearing on the biggest records. 20 years ago this would have cost you a fortune (plus learning things like how to mic up a cabinet just for example... 😃). Instead of being excited about the endless amount of affordable possibilities, too many people are b*tching about questions like which of the 4696457 pickups aimed at the modern metal guitarist are the best if you wanna play [oddly specific sub-sub-genre]. 🙃

[@greylocke100]

As for KZbin's compression, it's only an issue on lower bit rates under 480. Listen to a song at 240, then listen to it again at 480 or 720, and the sound difference is quite noticeable.

[@Technicolorslave]

If you can just EQ the guitars to sound the same, as some are saying, why does it matter that they're different to begin with? Isn't that just complaining about the point that's being made? EQ'ing a HB to sound like a Les Paul seems like a pretty neat and cost saving trick. Seems like the complaints kind of prove the point. Either naturally or through manipulation, electric guitars mostly sound the same, with very minor differences that can often be EQ'd away.

[@benstanfill363]

People always take your "they sound very similar" to mean exactly the same and it cracks me up. Everyone can hear there are differences, they just aren't worth worrying about. The difference one to another isn't going to make or break your tone.

[@somerandomguy8725]

Now all this guy needs to do is collab with Jim Lill, these two can alone DESTROY the current gear snob mentality in the guitarist sphere today!

[@jackbootshamangaming4541]

Some big channel blocked me after I called out his tonewood BS and brought up both Jim and Glenn, he insulted both, left me unblocked for a day, then came back and blocked.

[@lannyfce4786]

The whole "youtube compression" thing is one of the dumbest myths that i somehow see almost daily

[@BlueMoonFuzz]

The worlds gona run out of copium if you keep doing these videos.

[@mykeryu]

excited to see some reviews of S by Solar. I actually like their fretboard markers much more than the regular Solars.

[@dewey7330]

@Glenn. Some people make it real hard on you to save them money. One day if you ever say FUCK IT I’m done. Then they will miss you. Great vid as always. I appreciate you.

[@ErickC]

Apologies in advance for the long comment: Anyway, I am no stranger to messing with guitar electronics. I don't think any of my guitars are unmodified, and that means I have a sizeable collection of junk parts. When I bought my Flying V, I bought it with the specific intention of stripping it to the bare wood and modifying it. In fact, I specifically chose a Gibson because I knew the paint would be easier to strip (one of the end goals is to actually throw an Ibanez decal on the headstock so the Gibson purists can critique how a Rocket Roll sounds inferior to a Flying V). Leslie West and Geordie Walker (both RIP) are two of my guitar heroes, and I really liked the sound of my ES-125 (McCarty era, PIO caps, ultimate defense against tone snobs), so I decided to make a custom pickguard and throw a pair of cheap P90s on it (side quest: they sound more or less the same as the '60s P90s in my ES-125), then wire up a custom circuit (1 volume, 1 treble cut tone knob, 1 bass cut tone knob, push-pull on the volume to invert rhythm pickup polarity - ultimate flexibility). This left me with a 496R and a 500T that were surplus, so I bought a cheap kit body and threw a whole bunch of discarded hardware, including the whole loaded pickguard from the Gibson, on it. First, this cheap poplar bolt-on piece of crap covered with hobby paint (a la George Harrison) sounded the exact same as the Gibson did before I yanked the electronics. Second, it just didn't sound very good. Conventional wisdom is that the ceramic magnets in these pickups are the problem. Well, since I am no stranger to repairing pickups, I have plenty of Alnico bar magnets lying around. So I threw a 2 on the 496R and a 5 on the 500T. The end result? They still sounded pretty much the same. No treble. These are high-output pickups, so I figured lowering the pickup height might bias the signal towards the treble spectrum (another piece of conventional wisdom). I dropped them as far as they'd go. No major shifts in tone, but the output level certainly was different. This was the part where I remembered that Gibson uses 300k pots and that this tends to filter off a fair bit of treble. Oops. Ultimately, I think that people get so caught up on magnet types and wire types and coil spacer material and whether the caps are PIO or ceramic and whether the fretboard has nibs that they forget that the average signal chain has much bigger filters in it (potentiometers, speakers) than the pickups. If people find joy in debating minutiae of materials and using certain brands, more power to them. I like Gibsons, I got a few of 'em. I don't feel the need to justify having them in terms of sonic quality. They sound like guitars. I like the way they look and I like the scale length and neck profiles. Those are valid reasons. But let's not pretend the major filtering work isn't being done elsewhere.

[@nerdsforcardgames]

Do you think people are mistaking out put of different pick ups for tone? I have no test to back this, but I think that a lower out put pickup give us the perception that it’s a darker tone and vice versa for higher output pick ups. What are your thoughts?

[@dm8579]

No, a pickup can have high output and still sound dark. (for example overwound pickups)

[@ErickC]

Are you implying that most guitar players have no idea how critical gain staging is? Because I think you're on to something.

[@natrixxvision6997]

9:10 Why yes, guitars are generally paired with a certain amp. Check it out. If I have a Fender amp, then my guitars get paired with that. If I have a Vox amp, then they get paired with that.

[@Archimedes27000]

"You skewed the test results with EQ!!" So the tone snops are admitting that there's no point in spending thousands on new tubes, pickups and tonewood, when you can just put a EQ pedal for fiddy bucks into the effects loop? lol, talk about "it hurt itself in its confusion", lmao

[@MATCHLESS789]

So you're accepting that you're wrong and that it changes the tone? See, this discussion is worthless and it doesn't help anyone.

[@mattm1119]

I f*cking LOVE this channel!! Not only am I learning a bunch of stuff that I had never realized before (even as a non-metal dude, mind you) But the comments and your responses are hysterical. A+, keep 'em coming!

[@robbiebohn]

For the past year I’ve been going direct to the PA through a Joyo American Sound and not one person has yet to ask what amps we’re playing through!

[@MATCHLESS789]

Yeah.. I wonder why.. Maybe because eno one wants to sound like that? 😅

[@icebalm]

Hey Glenn, thanks for the videos. My only connection to the music industry is I like listening to it, but I always find your videos entertaining. Bass plugin sounds awesome. Keep it up man!🤘

[@mixa3]

Looks like Glenn finally found his golden cow to milk for another year lol

[@SpectreSoundStudios]

I’ll talk about something else when they stop giving me such great ammunition!

[@alrecks619]

the golden cow produces milk by itself without you feeding it, though.

[@johnpittman3756]

No need to worry about the cow: Make it idiot proof (as Glenn has), and someone will invent a better idiot!

[@mixa3]

@@SpectreSoundStudios I would really like you to continue stuff about what actually matters, cab episode where amazing

[@robertgwatts1858]

Hi, man. I stumbled across your videos just over a week ago. You're doing a great service to musicians. I'm a professional electronics tech. I was working as the main technician for a big music store in Seville Spain for years. You are 100% correct in pointing out the BS with regards to gear. The only thing that makes any major difference, as you correctly point out, is the speaker in your amp. If you even need an amp. I just use house PA's and modeling DSP's. Hell, the last jam I went to, I couldn't even be bothered to take pedals. I just used my Mac and the stock modelling plugins that come with Cubase 12. You should havecseen the face of those who asked, "Hey man, love your sound. What pedals are you using?" 😂😂😂 Keep up the good work, man.

[@TheKlaun9]

This show is like a soft blanket you can wrap around you and snuggle with. Nothing more satisfying and heart warming than all those dudes losing it that conviced my 16 year old self on those old internet forums that my gear just wasn't good enough. I actually wonder how many of them ever play live, ever record themselves or even go to shows regularly. In your bedroom, you can really tell the difference between your 5k LP and your 3k Strat - they look very different indeed, have completely different output levels and one of them is heavy as f*. I urge them to do a test: On your next gig, switch your LP for your Strat on a song that needs 100% a LP in your opinion. See how much of the audience notices that you're using the completely wrong guitar. And I'm sorry if an angry riot breaks out because because you were right all along, but I'm willing to take that bet and say nobody's gonna care. Unless you're a world megastar, nobody knows your songs, what you're supposed to sound like and you're certainly not getting that tone you want without a team of insanely good technicians and a venue with acoustics that supports your delicate taste. It's really worth spending the extra money on an entire guitar collection for that.

[@Brkprsn]

I’m interested in this because I’m like obsessed with the concept of p90 tone. One of our 12 year old students with a spark and an eq scoop on his app was like “ooh I like the lower sound” and then I upped his mids on a squier - immediately I was so mad when I realized it was nearly identical. Your pickup episodes were confirmation of that, and I am enjoying this series even though I want to push back on it 😂

[@Aseptic_Technique]

I hear proper use of theory/hypothesis -- I upvote the hell outta' it.

[@onuryuksekol]

Hi Glenn! Can you do a pick sound testing as well! I have plenty of different picks at home and I kinda feel like they also have a good impact on the tone. Great content as always! Thank you for being there for us!

[@sabershenanigans]

Yes, would love to see this. I personally think changing the pick makes more difference to the sound of an electric guitar than changing the pickups or even the entire guitar! Also going forward, would love to see advice on how to mix non-standard instruments in heavy music - I'm thinking keyboards (and keytars!), violin (especially electric ones), saxophone, etc. Lots of advice is available on guitar recording but those of us looking at including other instruments (unless I'm missing some obvious stuff already available online) are basically fumbling in the dark.

[@robwoodring9437]

The pick will make a marginal change in the sound of the attack portion of every note. But so will changing the angle/grip/direction of the same pick. No need for a pick shootout so long as a human is holding it. Buy a bunch of different picks and decide what you like. And likely your favorite will be based on feel and not tone - again it'll only change the sound of the attack (the first 10mS or so), and then only slightly.

[@jasondorsey7110]

​@@robwoodring9437I exclusively use picks made of felt these days, they don't do the clicky crap that plastics do

[@ephebos1319]

I'm sorry, I must leave this channel. I was hopeful that it might be a refreshing alternative to infomercial "reviews", but the focus is always on negative comments, which only encourages them, and the constant angry tone is exhausting. Best wishes.

[@zamoratech]

Yeah I posted a positive comment to that regard, but wish I hadn't now.

[@jwgammon1241]

I was sucked into tone snobbery fairly early into learning guitar. Spent too many hours pouring over posts to find the sound I wanted. Instead, I should've just played the damn instrument and learned to dial in my amp. A lot of the experiences I've had with the tonewood and premium tube obsessed players though has boiled down to one camp. Many of the players I know that still chase these magical tone fairies in the wood and tubes are my classically trained friends. Those who learned all their understanding of instruments from a classical and jazz space. To them, the build material is the end all, be all to the sound. It became pretty clear when talking to them. "It has to be this wood, from this tree, in this valley while the moon is waning". But of course all my knowledge is invalid because I never learned to read sheet music. Doesnt stop them from paying me to string change and tune their guitars though.

[@Joey_Tatts_Palmer]

Ok, you won me over finally with your “Make up your minds Fuckers!” I laughed so hard that I forgot that I’m one of those Fuckers! 🤣🤘🏻😎🤘🏻

[@SpectreSoundStudios]

Glad I could make you laugh!!

[@Joey_Tatts_Palmer]

@@SpectreSoundStudios it happens often during your content. You are my fucking hero for SPECTACULARLY speaking your truth with zero regard for the backlash! I wish I could be as thick skinned as you. Keep it brutal brother 🤘🏻😎🤘🏻

[@VincentPeer]

I recently got some Chibsons (on purpose) just to give them a chance. Now, real Gibsons are definitely better quality. The pots worked, but it was super tough to turn the knobs. The pickups work, but kinda low output. They say they’re vintage spec, so that’s probably what they’re supposed to be. I might replace them…. probably not though. I can absolutely just turn up the gain and not notice that. The fingerboards were all dry as the Sahara. Some lemon oil (okay a LOT of lemon oil) fixed that up. The plastic nuts were all cut oddly and glued on too high. Replaced those with graphite. The machine heads are pretty bad. They technically work, but a set of auto trim locking tuners is like $70, so those got replaced too. So, the results, I’ve got a nice pair of late 60’s Les Pauls (one black, one white) and a gold top, that all sound as good and play as well as any of the dozens of real Gibsons I’ve played over the years. Would’ve been around $20k to get the real thing. All for about $1500. So, along with my very long winded description, I’m sending a huge thanks. You want to save us some money? You made it possible for me to have my dream guitars without saving money for a decade, AND saved me a good $18k. Thank you Glenn!

[@TimothyHuffGuitar]

Absolutely love your videos bro! Don't worry about the haters and the ignorant comments, you have far more fans that very much appreciate the content and reviews that you provide!

[@plecogod]

It's definitely a great time to be playing through amp sims. The captures are getting better all the time and most come with a full suite of effects and 3D cab simulation and the ability to add your own IR's. Having some good IR's in your tool kit is the difference between a tone that sounds like everyone else's tone who uses the plugin and one that sounds unique.

[@orlock20]

It's also the worse time to find a decent song writer. Even the big names are having troubles with that.

[@williamking1392]

On the polarity flip bit,the way you described the process and what it does,I couldn’t help but remember that one of my friends had a signal jammer.Someone asked him how it worked and,if I’m not mistaken,he said basically what you said minus the audio jargon.You flip the peaks and valleys and if they’re the same they cancel each other out.Not the same thing I know but it made me think.I love this channel and I absolutely enjoy your energy and disposition Glenn!🤘🏼🤘🏼🤘🏼

[@chronicbackpain5934]

I honestly just think there is variety in the range of tones of the guitars. There is just a lot of common ground in tone between guitars. Absolutely adore this series man, love the action.

[@slayabouts]

I'd like to a see a video with more Jensen speakers. The Jet line that the Raptor's a part of all sound pretty killer

[@mhelm01]

I got two of the Gibsons correct and one of the strats. I’m an audio pro, but it might have been luck. I don’t think so though. I play heavy guitars with les pauls, teles, strats, whatever without concern for what it should be. It’s more about what inspires me for certain tunes. Good work, Glenn.

[@coldacre]

there was only one Gibson (the Les Paul) and only one Strat. the other two was a Harley Benton SG and a PRS. what was your guess in order? I'm genuinely curious

[@InVacuo]

Okay to the D Mac person (comment at 15:38) if the video you started watching was "The TRUTH about Glenn Fricker Exposed!" by Clack Colburn GO BACK AND WATCH THE DAMN VIDEO TO THE END! (If not sorry I waste your time. 😅)

[@nzsteve]

On the pickups feeding back issue - a guitarist in my band has an Epiphone LP with an EMG 81/85 pickup set in it. He went through a small/cheap valve amp then into the PA in our practice room and was constantly having excessive (and highly annoying) feedback issues. He used his amp to get his distorted sound but had to flick a switch on it to get clean sounds, so there was never a good transition between the two. In the end I brought him a distortion pedal and told him to leave his amp at home. Pedal is plugged directly into the PA - no more feedback and fast transitions between clean/distorted. Now, if only the other guitarist would buy some machine heads that actually keep his guitar in tune...

[@IntheDAW]

Something I can say about Glenn is if he thinks something is bs or sucks he will call it out or not support it. For years I was a product specialist for a plugin company and worked AES and namm every year. We sent his team a copy of our amp sim that to be honest sucks for metal and when my boss asked why he never did a video for it. We where told by a member of his team that he didn't like it. I had a little chuckle but It also made me respect the fact that he didn't back a product he didn't like. And come on people this is a metal channel I watch this for the brutal honest rants and dope metal tones. For everything else I go to other channels.

[@RJ_Groot]

everyone complaining that the cheap guitars can't sound as good and in the same breath saying you just have to adjust EQ to make them sound the same. Even if Glen did adjust the EQ we are at the same place where the pickups don't make any concernable difference. I'm just going to go ahead and take Glen's word for it.

[@jukkamurto2411]

It was a fair and fun blindtest. I've played a Gibson les Paul for 25 years and had no trouble finding it on both clips. The rest was much much harder and I got it totally wrong.

[@peter-0200]

Hi Glen, so pleased I found your channel. Your efforts to debunk the marketing BS and show people where to concentrate their time and money to achieve a substantial tone difference is awesome. Pickup changes can reduce compression when going for a PAF low output compared to a high ceramic to clean up better and as you say, if you have uncontrollable feedback issues. But speaker cab and speaker has a huge impact on tone. A quilted maple cap on your $5k Les Paul does not. I build my own guitars and ensure they are setup and will stay in tune. That’s the important part. Buy a cheaper instrument, ensure its setup correctly to play well and remain in tune and spend your money elsewhere. BTW, I purchased the MLC S_Zero 100 after your demo and loving the sound. That’s my first go at IR’s and sims. A word of advice for anyone looking at IR’s is to ensure your computer and interface can do the job with minimal latency. Otherwise you can’t play live due to the delay. Split your signal into your amp and interface, hit record and listen to what you’re playing through your rig with no latency. Then play back your recording.

[@alexanderbryant7666]

I wonder if he just gets an immediate email after posting that says „demonetized“ I’d have even more respect for him

[@module79l28]

Hey Glenn! I once was one of those guitarists who was searching for the right tone in the wrong gear. Throughout the years I've used several distortion pedals, a solid state head's distortion and even a tube head's distortion, two different 4x12" cabs (one loaded with Celestion G-12T 75 speakers and one loaded with vintage 50W Jensens) and since 2015 I'm using a Palmer 2x12" cab but loaded with the same Celestions. My overall sound and tone was okay but has never been great. After 9 years of use, my tube head's power valves gave up the ghost, so I decided to go back to the good old SS head instead of buying new valves, saving me space, weight and money. I had never used this amp with the 2x12" and I was surprised that the sound with the amp's distortion out of this combo was quite decent, something I was never able to get with the 4x12" with the same speakers. However, the issues I had before regarding the tone were still present. Fast forward to 2022, when an impedance discrepancy between the other guitarist's new amp and his Palmer 2x12" cab created a good opportunity to put your "the tone is in the speaker" theory in practice. The amp needed an 8 Ohm cab, which was impossible to get with two 8 Ohm Celestions, so I took the 4 Ohm vintage Jensens out of my 4x12" cab and put two in each of our Palmer 2x12" cabs. The difference was VERY evident, even without changing anything in the rest of the setup, but the poor tone that had been plaguing my experiments all these years was still there. One day I accidentally stumbled upon a distortion preset in my pedalboard that was way better than the amp's distortion and it improved the overall distortion sound but not the "thing". A couple of months ago, the cable I was using to connect the guitar to the pedalboard developed a bad connection and occasionally cut the sound, so I borrowed one from the other guitarist until I repaired mine and then everything changed: the "thing" was gone and my guitar sounded like never before, both the cleans and the distortion! I repaired the cable, tried it again but turns out it had nothing to do with the bad connection, the problem was the cable itself because the "thing" returned. I then realised that the only constant during this "quest" was that cable, that's why the problem was always present regardless of any changes I made to the gear. Sufice to say I never used that cable again. My rig now consists of a 27 year old Zoom 3030 Multi-Effects pedal, a 20+ year old Crate GX1200H solid state head and two 15 year old vintage Jensen speakers, gear that I stopped using because I thought I couldn't get a decent sound off of, when all I needed was a different cable. But in any case, I believe I'm better off with the Jensens than with the Celestions.🙂

[@cederickforsberg5840]

Is there actually any end to this uphill battle against the tonewood fanatics within most of our lifetimes? No matter how much evidence we put out, they will be furiously determined to ignore them.

[@2550marshall]

A vid idea for you, Glen. Prove the null test! I have done some on my own and have found that if I add even less than 1 db of the thinnest Q to a track it is now not nulled. Also, even the smallest amount of volume difference will change the null. Also, time alignment, even very very little will completely throw the null test off. So, when doing null tests, how accurate is it really? These smallest amounts of EQ and volume wouldn't be noticeable to the ears in any way, so can the null test even be a viable thing to use? So, to do the test: duplicate a track and flip the phase on one. Now, start seeing how little of EQ /volume and/or time alignment you can add to one of the tracks to make it not Null. ..... my experience not much.

[@ErickC]

I think that makes the null test and even stronger test though. If the signals nearly or completely null, then you know that they meet a very high (nearly impossible) standard in terms of how closely they match.

[@Dave-Rough-Diamond-Dunn]

If I recall, it was the Podcastage channel ran the tests on the quality of the sound on KZbin videos. If you create the video in the KZbin Studio, the sound is crap, but if you upload a completed video to KZbin, it stays good quality. I'll find the video and link it here later.

[@ofnir123]

Ah, the classic "I'll misunderstand the question on purpose just so I justify how pissed off I am"... Is there a difference? A slight one, yes! The point isn't that they sound 100% the same, but that they all sound good, they're all perfectly usable tones and you can't tell which is which from sound alone!

[@CHHuey]

While re-watching the video comparing the 4 different guitars, I couldn’t help but notice that through such a clean setup, the incredibly good guitarist was making small adjustments to his playing for each guitar. Good tone is in your head first, and your fingers/pick get it out of an instrument. Due to scale length differences, to get the same intended sound, a good guitarist will make adjustments including where to pick - further back on a longer scale Strat, but more over the neck pickup on a shorter scale length guitar, as well as vibrato, touch, etc. The lesson seems that one of the biggest ways to change your tone is to change pick types, or change how/where you pick, left hand technique, all to get the tone you want in your head to come out of the speaker… and stop blaming the gear. And that guitarist is REALLY good.

[@DaisyHollowBooks]

Glen! Keep the tears coming! How about a contest? Most Metal Tone on the cheapest guitar! Bring in players to play their heaviest on their cheapest! Love your tests and information. I reckon your approach is objective and certainly testable. The cornerstone of science is repeatability. All the tone snobs have to do is run the same test and show us the results.

[@ericctheartofnoise8613]

I have said this before. You make the videos, the comments will come. I have to give the commenters some credit for their creativity. On a different note. Love the Element Bass you came out with. I have bought all kinds of software for Amplitube 5, and still haven't had the same results like I have with Element. THANK YOU GLENN!!!!!!!

[@sgt.grinch3299]

I love all the experts on your channel. I know nothing so I’m always learning.

[@pstudio4096]

Hi Glenn, great to see another episode of vc. Keep up the great content .🤘 15:37 in response to Dmac's comment. I'm pretty sure I saw the same video as him. I first got the same impressions on the video as Dmac and almost stopped watching too, but I remembered the guy said to watch the video in it's entirety, so I did. It turns out that the guy explained that the anecdote he talked about in the beginning of the vid was not relevant data. That he use to believe, for years, that the tone was in the hands, because of this anecdote. But now that he watched Glenn's videos , he realized that it was not. That there was too much info he did not know and that it was based on his memory from decades ago. Dmac should really go watch the entire video. Just sayin' 😀

[@mxkguitar]

I'm three and a half minutes in and my favorite thing so far...."Make up your minds fuckers!" I know that there are those that do not appreciate your brashness Glenn, but as for me I love it! Straight to the point, take it or leave it, just as it should be. So in a gentlemanly way let me say that you are as true to your craft as you are to being honest. Bravo to you! Now...back to the video for me!

[@carlosclaptrix]

I really love your serenity hidden behind a peel of loudness. You'd be a great Buddhist teacher...

[@740325318]

I think if you were actually making a valid point with this 1 you wouldn’t need primarily Rythm chord strummers backing you up 2 you wouldn’t need all the swearing 3 you wouldn’t need all the high pitch clips Lead playing on a tele strat or Les Paul all sound different No guitar is only used for one style of music Bands play more than one song per set sometimes 3 hours worth of music maybe 6 not just one song. Over that time period high action hum squier will make you work Strats have a single coil hum unless you upgrade the pickups this isn’t tone snob it’s science Harley Benton why? Why would I buy a Harley Benton ?

[@Levibetz]

16:23 on the topic of pickups feeding back, before you swap those pickups! Make sure there are not pickup springs that are rattling, those can feed back too, as can strat trem springs. Damp those with foam or replace the springs with surgical tubing.

[@raezzordaze8021]

LMAO, that "Sent from an IPhone" burn was too good!

[@GuillaumeLortie]

Hi Glenn 👋 Regarding your guitar tests I only have one question : did you level match the guitar outputs? I mean using a DI and Reamp box, adjusting the gain or was it recorded with a guitar straight into the amp?

[@SpectreSoundStudios]

We were straight into the amp!

[@georgewilliams2511]

Great video. Totally agree. 90% of an expensive guitar is what the player feels. Not necessarily how it sounds in the mix. Idk how people confuse the two.

[@Artymofo13]

Man, you got the Rick and Rhett fart sniffer types all riled up! 😅 Good work!

[@kueller917]

I'm actually amazed how much anger there is over the video. I've been playing guitar since I was 14 and my main takeaway from the video was "all those guitars sounds nice, even the cheap one, cool to know". Also most of my music listening is not done in 96khz lossless on my good headphones, it's done on cheaper headphones while at work streamed online either through deezer's flac or youtube with compression. If you need the best equipment to hear the difference then maybe that's not the difference I should be putting the most money towards.

[@MatthewKalovsky]

Hey Glenn! Your channel is awesome! As for pickups, I've always felt my stock pickups have been very credible.I have 18 guitars from different brands & they have always sounded good. Thank you for being scientific & conducting tests that have backed my 30 year notion. And, thanks to you, I now understand that speakers really are the game changer. I never knew! Keep up the great work! Let this show, some of us can in fact, be taught!

[@revivedfears]

I definitely notice the difference between the stock ibanez pickups in my RG over a similar guitar with an EMG81. Definitely an angrier tone with the EMG through same combo amp on same settings.

[@TheFlacidFlamingo]

The moon landing footage has me in stitches.

[@Defekcija]

Hi Glen, here' a suggestion: When making these tests, make the sections the same. For example, if you want us to listen to 4 different speakers, play the same fukin riff 4 times back to back instead of having the intro on one speaker, main riff on another and the solo on the last two speakers. Love the videos and fu very much!

[@SpectreSoundStudios]

Watch Wednesday’s video where I solo up the tracks

[@Defekcija]

@@SpectreSoundStudios I never miss a video, cheers!

[@MarioV689]

Hey Glen, can you clarify what you mean when you say pickups don't make much of a difference? Is there some qualifying threshold? I adk because I have a budget gtr and the stock pups were horrible. I swapped them out for decent, but not expensive ones, and the difference was night and day. Cheers, buddy.

[@NicoPezzotti712]

A:"Your instrument can be replaced with Plugins and we can get same results" Bass and drum players: "yeah" ----- A: "Buy this guitar instead of this one and you can save money while getting almost the same (if not the same) quality performance" Guitar players: "Nooo you don't understand wood, you are sabotaging Gibson, liiaaarrrr"

[@riccardocossu9141]

People are just hating at this point. They're not even angry because they dropped big bucks on expensive guitars. It's really the other way around, they're happy and feel better than others just because of the name on the headstock. Like Plato famously said: " Don't waste your time giving someone advice if he isn't even listening to you". If they want to throw money into the dumpster, let them do. The ones intelligent enough to listen to you will pick up your precious advice.

[@kenny_dc3]

"Guitars are generally paired with a certain amp" Yeah....and Hendrix didn't made his name while plugging Fender guitars in Marshalls....oh wait...That's exactly what he did!