Why you should take guitar comparisons with a grain of salt... mine included.

[@IanNorsworthy]

Fantastically honest and informative video as per and important to keep in mind when watching comparisons for sure. It almost brings me back to the conversation we once had in the discord as a community where we talked about a comfortable guitar that speaks to/inspires the player + knowledge of EQ + great amp/sound source tends to lead to better sounding results than just having an expensive guitar without the knowledge or as much focus on the sound source (sounds obvious now but always an interesting debate - plus the 'what speaks to the player' bit is what many of us are chasing/finding/enjoying/looking for when we watch YT and comparisons :) have a great day and hope you're well mate!

[@AudiomoMusic]

that last part is the hardest thing to gauge for every single guitarist... what feels great to me might feel awful to someone else and vice versa. Comfort is paramount for the playing experience as a baseline starting point 100%

[@joea9608]

I've been appreciating your approach to the comparisons. Thank you for your efforts.

[@AudiomoMusic]

Cheers, appreciate the kind words!

[@Markleford]

Preach it! Yup, I always say that if two guitars are in the same ballpark and you're listening REALLY HARD for the differences, it's likely a tiny knob tweak or two on the amp or EQ plug-in will be able to make them sound exactly the same in your chosen context.

[@AudiomoMusic]

bingo

[@philh27]

Agreed. A good clear comparison and explanation. It’s the same issue with pedals- less so about the ‘raw’ tone I guess, but how you may set it and use it might be entirely different from me. And that’s before you think about the guitar and amp and combination with other pedals you may use. That said, I do find KZbin reviews to be an invaluable aid to selecting gear I may be interested in. Viewing a selection of reviews I can quickly eliminate those that are definitely not right for me and focus on those that have a better chance. Doesn’t always result in the correct choice, but it certainly helps.

[@AudiomoMusic]

Yeah they are certainly helpful but I know I need to a better job showing exactly what I'm doing to get the sounds so it will be more helpful to people

[@Mark254-TX]

As an amp tech let me also say this... 'parts tolerance' ... for guitars I say that especially!! I've measured 500k pots and seen everything from 430k to 540k .... Recently I was at a friends house and he was showing/playing his guitar to me and then he tapped his coils and said how much he didn't like it tapped/split.... I asked really? And leaned over and turned his tone pot down 1/2 way... I said, try it now... and it was night and day difference; now his single coil sounds sounded VERY close to a Strat! His mind was blown... I explained that single coil guitars usually use 250k pots and buckers usually have 500k pots ... and both the tone and volume is vastly different once backed off... you're probably even thinking right now why would you drop your guitars volume even more when split?? That's crazy cuz I already lost too much volume!?!?! lol ... to which I always tell my friends/clients to get a nice clean boost pedal and set it such that when you do split the coils you can normalize and/or recover your lost volume that way... then your amp doesn't need messed with .... or better yet... use an eq pedal that also has a gain control on it ... and voila you have a perfectly useable feature on your guitar now... 🌞🌞🌞 great video!! Thank you for pointing out what should be obvious to us all!! Keep the content coming 😊😊😊

[@AudiomoMusic]

the clean boost on split coil trick is something i love and have mentioned in the past on here, it makes the biggest difference to get a much more usable sound.

[@robbolandsvids]

Nice one Jim. I've always approached my demo videos in terms of just showing a general vibe and versatility of a guitar. When watching demos, I usually get more info from watching the body language of the person playing the instrument, how comfortable and happy they seem. I find that the best way of getting an idea of how a guitar might react, is to watch a bunch of demos from different channels, and try to 'average out' the sound in my head. Ultimately though, the biggest influence on the sound, is the person playing them ! Cheers, hope you're all keeping well, Robbo.

[@jamesmgreen15]

Good vid. I think it can be a bit like someone describing running shoes.....Size, weight, surface, temperature and so on and all without the variables in guitars.......Intriguing 😊...

[@AudiomoMusic]

too much to consider to take it as concrete data but still fun to do!

[@jwilder2251]

Good vid. For me it comes down to never making a conclusion from a single video. Usually across several good reviewers, it smooths out the variables

[@AudiomoMusic]

that's a solid way to go about it

[@MiguelMakesMusic]

nice vid Jim! do you think the sound between different output pickups really matter? I'm starting to think they can be EQed to get pretty close nowadays.

[@AudiomoMusic]

That's one instance where I do think it really does matter but it really depends on the individual player whether that is important or not. I'm someone who lives on clean tones and just a tiny edge of breakup. Transparent low output pickups are noticeably better for this style of playing than higher output options. You can always pump more gain into any pickup, but there's no way to make a higher output pickup start at a lower baseline if that makes any sense

[@fzgn]

An idea for another video... Talking about how much adjusting pickup height/angle can affect sound. Like if you have a two pickup guitar, you can get wildly different sound based on how you adjust those pickups relative to each other. A guitar could go from smooth to punchy, or from thick to thin. Its wild how different Mustangs can sound based on a few mm's of adjustment to the pickups. There are of course already natural small differences between guitars, between their pickups, add on the pickup adjustments and you can make the same guitar sound pretty wildly different.

[@AudiomoMusic]

Yep, this is another huge one. I did a video about this years ago but it'd be fun to do another one to really show how much of an impact it can make. Between heights and EQ you can do a lot to change the sounds of any given guitar before you even start thinking about swapping things around.

[@johnwright6983]

I always set mine to 9 pm. The tone is darker

[@mr.k905]

No difference to speak of. But I totally agree that KZbin gear reviews etc. are a massive waste of time and for entertainment only. Mostly not for working musicians but for bedroom rockers and gear collectors …some of which don’t even play shit.

[@AudiomoMusic]

Yeah the whole ecosystem here kind of sucks in general. People say they want original music or stuff that isn’t a gear review but when you release an album or post other stuff nobody clicks it to even see if they like it. Meanwhile “THIS IS THE BEST AMP/GUITAR EVER” sponsored vids kill with views and most don’t think twice about clicking those they just do it.

[@AnnoyingCritic-is7rp]

I never find much use to the comparison guitar videos. I can't hear much difference. When I get my own guitar and my EQ pedal I can hear a difference on every slider. And that sort of tells me even what to play on that guitar. I choose that guitar because it plays better at particular things that particular settings. And I never hear that on any comparison video. The worst are the metalheads. Sounds the same on everything they play and everything to do.

[@AudiomoMusic]

I actually laughed at the metalheads part, because it's too true.

[@Scott.9]

Jim, you forgot the hidden tone controls…. Your hands. No two people sound the same on the same guitar or amp.

[@AudiomoMusic]

Yep, see I'll always forget something normally I mention that haha

[@Scott.9]

@@AudiomoMusic… unfortunately or fortunately everyone has their own touch and sound. Hands can change the midrange focus from dark to bright on any guitar. It will always be an anomaly. This is why Les Paul Jr.’s and Esquires are awesome guitars. One pickup and the player is the tone control. Those guitars make you a better player.

[@AudiomoMusic]

yep, even just a regular old tele teaches you more about your technique or flaws than most other things ever will. You either have it, or you don't.

[@Izthewright]

I stopped watching comparisons for this exact reason. Once I understood how much it can be completely controlled by the reviewer and then realized how little is actually said or done about it, I just stopped. I go to guitar stores now and play guitars for my self.

[@AudiomoMusic]

nothing beats going to the store, period

[@SxSxG666]

Really, if you turn your amp knobs you get a different sound? Thanks for the insight and for stealing my time.

[@AudiomoMusic]

“Stealing your time” brother you clicked on this free video on your own. If you’re worried about wasting time on KZbin maybe I don’t know… play guitar.