The Vintage Guitar Tone Challenge!

Think you can tell a guitars apart, just by the tone? Well, here's your chance.. I've got 3 vintage guitars miked up with no visual cues. Prove you've got great hearing: tell me which is which guitar, just by using your ears!

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I'm Glenn Fricker, engineer here at Spectre Sound Studios. I love making records, and after doing it for sixteen years, I want to pass on what I've learned. On my channel you can find tutorials on how to record guitar, bass, real drums and vocals. There's reviews and demos of tube amps, amp sims, drums, mics, preamps, outboard gear, Electric Guitar, Bass Guitar, and plugin effects.
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[ericstearns]

As a drummer I'm going to with certainty all 6 were played on guitar. 👍

[stoyan]

Clean 1. PRS 2. Strat 3. ES-335
Crunch 1. Strat 2. PRS 3. ES-335

Once you put effects into it it's anyone's guess, could've been a Strat for all 3 of them, but I'm feeling hopeful for the cleans haha

[TheAmazingSnarf]

i think they're all the Harley Benton SG, which is a truly awesome example of a modern produced guitar. Much love from Oregon, Glen!

[artifex_electro]

I'm far from being really good at this, but my guess is:
Clean sound: First guitar: PRS. Second guitar: The Strat. Third guitar: The Gibson.
Crunch sound: First guitar: The strat. Second guitar: The Gibson. Third guitar: PRS.
Looking forward to the outcome of this! Greetings from Germany!

[hyram]

Excellent video! If my ears do not trick me, I would say that clean tone goes as follows: PRS, then Fender and Gibson is the 3rd. Same rotation for the distorted sounds. This video is useful for the masses of guitar players out there. Many guitarists complaining about which guitar sounds better than the other. I believe that as long as it fulfills the sound in your head for the song you're playing, it really doesn't matter if one guitar is better than the other. Keep rocking, Glenn! Thank you for the content you throw at us!

[Vercus]

I don't profess to be an expert, but to my ears it seemed like:

Clean: 335, Strat, PRS
Dirty: Strat, 335, PRS

Thanks for doing this video. It definitely makes you think when you don't have any visuals to go by.

[Riffsy]

Clean: 1. prs 2. strat 3. 335. Crunch: 1. strat 2. 335 3. prs
The crunch is really hard to tell. Like someone else said its truly a guessing game at that point. There's subtle differences but not enough for me to tell exactly what's what. I'm excited to see the results next week tho!

[colinmcguigan]

Can definitely hear the single coils. There's a definitely a difference between the other 2, but I obviously cant tell you which is which, without having any experience with those guitars.

[davorkapac]

for the cleans PRS, Fender, Gibson is what I would imagine the guitars to sound like. I'll stick to the same answer for the overdriven tones as well :) (P.S. I completely agree with the research from Jim Lill, I really don't care about magic tone wood, digital or analog as long as it sounds good)

[chipznmusic]

Clean: PRS, Fender, Gibson
Crunch: Fender, Gibson, PRS

It's "fairly easy" to tell a single coil and a humbucker apart cause single coils give you a thinner honky sound, but when it comes to humbucker v humbucker you really just have to listen to the brightness of the sound. There is a difference, but honestly if you're throwing distortion and effects on it no one if going to be able to tell in the end.

I'm only really going to be surprised if I didn't get the fender right lol.

[rinderpes]

I assume the difference mostly boils down to pickup type and possibly position as well. We associate a different kind of tone with single coils than with humbuckers and the difference becomes more pronounced if combined with a different pickup position as well.

[eliassimon]

It would have been nice for you to tell us which pickups (neck/middle/bridge) you were using on each guitar. I wouldn't be surprised if the ones I thought were the Strat were actually just the ones on which you used the bridge pickup. Please, at least let us know in the follow-up.

[giancarlomartinez]

While the difference is stark between the clean tones, they're all extremely usable and it doesn't matter which is which if you're listening to an actual song.

[zekethebox]

Clean - PRS : Strat : Gibson
Break up - Gibson : Strat : PRS

Best guess, love the channel either way

[ZetaFuzzMachine]

Damn those hummbuckers really sound alike. I guess pickups do matter more than tonewood :)
That said:
Clean: PRS, Fender, Gibson
Crunch: fender, PRS, Gibson

[E.T.musics]

Just because i see those 3 brands on your video my guess is following : For clean parts 1-Prs 2- Fender strat 3- Gibson crunchy part : 1-)Fender 2-Prs 3) Gibson.

[Thasolracx]

I think its all the strat set in different configurations . It sounded like on both clean and dirty examples it starts with bridge pickup, then go to the middle pickup, then the bridge pick up.
.

[alfredooneda]

Well.... assuming you did really play all 3 guitars, and that all had their controls on 10... my wild guess, just for the sake of trying to get a prize, is:
Clean: PRS - Strat - Gibson
Crunch: Strat - Gibson - PRS
Now, being really honest and considering you could change pick up position, tone and volume values on the guitars there is no possible way to know which one is which! Love this kind of videos!!!!

[maximumguitarage]

It's just the vibe of having something vintage and not the actual tone that compels one to get

[rogergarrett]

Great video!
Clean: 1) Gibson 2) Fender 3) PRS
Crunch 1) Fender 2) Gibson 3) PRS