Quote:
Originally Posted by General Tsao
Gonso,
Do you think there's any value to that video?
"Listen to how amazing my Les Paul sounds with pounds of effects on it"
You can't hear one bit of what that guitar actually sounds like. A Squier Telecaster would sound the same with the effects he's putting on it.
Would really need to hear it clean, playing some jazz chords maybe, to get an idea of how the Epiphone compares.
I couldn't disagree more. Effects or no, that's your garden-variety big fat LP sound to a T. Even through some POS Line 6 amp and all the YouTube compression on top of it I can hear it clear as day. You'd never confuse that with a Squier Tele or some thin SC guitar, ever. Given the common use of an LP, having a distorted type sound is probably more rep of it's sound than without as you can hear the sustain a lot better. Hit a big chord on a tele and it's out of gas pretty quickly.
A clean sound would break it down more but you'd still have YouTube sound working against you. YT is good for a general comparison but if you want to dig in to the finer points of tonal differences between maple caps vs solid mahogany, or detailed pickup comparisons between Alnico this or that, you have to play them in person or get a really good recording.
Anyway the video was more a general vid comparing the two guitars overall beyond just sound. I think it's pretty fair to say that it takes a very discerning ear to tell a well equipped Epi from a Gibson in practice. I can see obvious differences in build quality and cosmetics, no question about that. And there's a little more bite that comes off the brighter cap on your typical GLP standard (usually), or the Studios that have one. Same with the case of ebony fretboards. That's harder to catch without a high quality sample.
But these guitars - people have told me for years that poly finishes vs nitro is a big deal, how much tuners affect tone, how Indian mahogany sounds nothing like African mahogany, etc. When I started with Warmoths I heard all that too, how a 25.5" scale LP wouldn't sound right. 95%+ of the sound is in the body shape, neck thickness, core wood, fretboard wood, pickup choice, and amp (besides the player himself). Most of the rest is way blown out of proportion.