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Blindfold amp test.


knotty

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that mustang sounds like sh....

 

The roland was very nice but the hot rod was easily better to my ear. I bet in the room it was even more obvious.

 

I've played some awful tube amps and recorded, amp sims can sound every bit as good as a tube amp...but in the end....an amp in the room....I see no reason to buy a SS or modeling amp. I think that tubes still do something that the others can't match. And I in my uneducated opinion I think that it's a barrier that is fundamental. I don't think SS and modeling will ever be able to play like tubes. I still think that comment by Dumble makes the most sense, when he said the more fragile harmonics survive longer in a tube than in a transistor.

 

These days there are SO many nice and cheap tube amps being made I see no reason to buy a SS or modeling amp.

 

 

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that mustang sounds like sh....

 

The roland was very nice but the hot rod was easily better to my ear. I bet in the room it was even more obvious.

 

I've played some awful tube amps and recorded, amp sims can sound every bit as good as a tube amp...but in the end....an amp in the room....I see no reason to buy a SS or modeling amp. I think that tubes still do something that the others can't match. And I in my uneducated opinion I think that it's a barrier that is fundamental. I don't think SS and modeling will ever be able to play like tubes. I still think that comment by Dumble makes the most sense, when he said the more fragile harmonics survive longer in a tube than in a transistor.

 

These days there are SO many nice and cheap tube amps being made I see no reason to buy a SS or modeling amp.

 

 

Liked and agree with a few points to add / make.

 

* "fragile harmonics" ... I'm often amazed by otherwise adept people who simply don't hear with much subtlety. A few years ago, there was a thread around here where some were talking about chord positions and several people said things like "an A chord is an A chord, no matter where you play it on the neck - it's the same combination of notes" .... WRONG! Harmonics are, in fact, some of the most important aspects of musicality, especially with a guitar. (See: Jazzmaster, Fender, string length behind bridge)

 

* My intellectual side says you can replicate any sound - after all, we enjoy recordings of tube driven guitars. Shouldn't that mean we can replicate them in real time? And sometimes, yes, you can. But what I find I lose is not the ability to duplicate a very specific sound, but instead the sort of random extra sounds that tubes create. In fact, I guess I am describing the 'fragile harmonics.' Random harmonics? Either way, tubes make more.

 

* And then: counterpoint. Sometimes, I feel that the entirety of the above is just insanely overly specific. Yes, the harmonics and wildness of tube amps are sometimes delicious, but when you consider the entire spectrum of sound, it's a very narrow and culturally specific sound. Bluntly, I think a lot of western guitarists are very artistically conservative, and are far more interested in visiting the idea of Jimmy Page in 1971 then they are in exploring thoughts and ideas. I find that disappointing.

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Liked and agree with a few points to add / make.

 

* "fragile harmonics" ... I'm often amazed by otherwise adept people who simply don't hear with much subtlety. A few years ago, there was a thread around here where some were talking about chord positions and several people said things like "an A chord is an A chord, no matter where you play it on the neck - it's the same combination of notes" .... WRONG! Harmonics are, in fact, some of the most important aspects of musicality, especially with a guitar. (See: Jazzmaster, Fender, string length behind bridge)

 

* My intellectual side says you can replicate any sound - after all, we enjoy recordings of tube driven guitars. Shouldn't that mean we can replicate them in real time? And sometimes, yes, you can. But what I find I lose is not the ability to duplicate a very specific sound, but instead the sort of random extra sounds that tubes create. In fact, I guess I am describing the 'fragile harmonics.' Random harmonics? Either way, tubes make more.

 

* And then: counterpoint. Sometimes, I feel that the entirety of the above is just insanely overly specific. Yes, the harmonics and wildness of tube amps are sometimes delicious, but when you consider the entire spectrum of sound, it's a very narrow and culturally specific sound. Bluntly, I think a lot of western guitarists are very artistically conservative, and are far more interested in visiting the idea of Jimmy Page in 1971 then they are in exploring thoughts and ideas. I find that disappointing.

 

 

It's a learned thing. I don't have the best ears, but they're pretty good judging by how I do on those ear tests with intervals. And I think I distinguish tones pretty well. But I think that you're right, there are a lot of people out there with average ears. Many of them are players of instruments. I think it can be learned though. My GF has a WAAAY better ear than I do and she taught me how to hear bigger range of frequency that I heard before I met her.

 

One thing I know for sure is many people on message boards totally underestimate the ability of the human ear to distinguish, quite clearly, VERY minute differences in frequency. A good example of this is the old tone wood debate where people have posted a frequency graph of the two woods and people will say "they're the same" because they almost follow the same path. But you look at the graphs and there are slight differences in the peaks and valley's. I think those slight differences are EASILY discerned by the human ear.

 

Same thing caries over to tube amps. Every time I've played a modeling amp or one of the amp sims or whatever...it always sounds like I'm playing a recording of an amp. Something is lost. As you say....tubes make more.

 

You're right...it is overly specific. NOBODY outside of players, gives a rats azz, and they couldn't tell the difference. As I said before....I can't tell a recorded difference from a great amp SIM with a impulse response, and a real tube amp. But then I also think that those SIM's are at a higher level than SS or modeling amps.

 

Still I doesn't matter though. For playing in a room with an amp next to me I want tubes and nothing less.

 

As for the conservative nature of electric guitarists, that's just music. It evolves and moves on. And it's moved PAST the electric guitar and most of the people who play it. Myself included. Computers make music now and any possible tone is available at the touch of a key. Electric guitars are now a "classical" instrument. We shouldn't be surprised. It's been over 50 years. Rock is now an "old" form of music that people play cause that's "their thing" to be into. Like some are into classical, or jazz, or blues, or bluegrass or whatever.

 

Because it's only 50 years old though....there is still this mentality that the guitar should "evolve" or that rock should still be the "cutting edge" of music. Why? It's entirely possible...and I think it's already true...that the guitar is now what it is. Forever more. You don't here violinists saying "where will the violin be in 50 years...lol. It is what it is. Same with rock. New things will be created, but they will be in a framework of what already has been built. Just like classical. Nothing wrong with that. But it's hard thing for people into rock to accept. That basically they are no longer relevant to pushing music forward. That of course causes snobbery and insulting of more modern forms of music from rock fans......as they turn into the modern day equivalent of jazz snobs. Inventing all kinds of wonderfully arrogant arguments as to why the music they like is "superior" to any other.

 

Nostalgia is a powerful thing. Most rock fans are happiest in 1971.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Other than Keyboards, Guitars are the only popular polyphonic instruments. And it's also a touch sensitive it connects with your emotions and soul and that can touch other in the same way. Only Vocal are more in tune with emotions and touching other people..

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