GUITAR MYTH-BUSTING | Tonewood vs Pickups

#tonewood #gibsonlespaul #pickups

PLEASE USE GOOD QUALITY HEADPHONES OR MONITORS. You won't hear those sweet details through tablet and phone speakers. :)

I feel like I'm on a mission here. Haha! I'm trying to prove the obvious: each and every component on a guitar matters and influences its amplified tone.

How much of the differences come through, depends on the rig and the gain settings.
Guitar into a good clean / low gain amp: the difference will be huge;
Guitar into a high gain amp: the differences will become smaller;
Guitar into 10 pedals and an amp with crazy filters in the preamp stage: barely any difference anymore.

NOTE to tonewood deniars: no one "tries to sell their expensive crap" to you. If you don't hear a difference, buy the more affordable guitar. That's the obvious and right call then.

Timestamps:
00:00 - intro JAM
00:36 - introduction
01:03 - what kind of guitars are these?
01:57 - I'm actually saying the forbidden word: tonewood :)
02:16 - unplugged sound of the Les Pauls
02:32 - ROUND 1 | unplugged COMPARISON
03:15 - conclusions
03:47 - ROUND 2 | COMPARISON | both guitars with their own pickups
05:31 - conclusions
05:52 - it's time to swap pickups, hardware and electronics :)
06:52 - ROUND 3 | COMPARISON | Andy's guitar original VS new pickups
07:58 - ROUND 4 | COMPARISON | Both guitars played with the same pickups, bridge and electronics
08:45 - Lick 2
09:31 - Lick 3
10:13 - Lick 4
10:49 - Lick 5
11:07 - Lick 6 (bridge pickup)
11:25 - Lick 6 (neck pickup)
11:44 - the PICKUPS I've been using are:
12:00 - did someone say TONEWOOD?? Here's what I think of it
13:49 - do wood species "sound" different?

Gear used in this video:

(this is the current version; same sound, smaller housing)

Other gear I use in my videos:

-Harley Benton Fusion-II Roasted SSP
-Fender Telecaster Custom Shop '53 reissue
-Gibson ES-335 Traditional
-Barocsi "Frankenstrat" (2000 Fender American Standard body + Warmoth neck)
-Barocsi Exploder - with a Gibson 498T in the bridge and a Gibson 57 Classic in the neck position
-Gibson Les Paul CM 2015 - heavily modified (thin nitro refin; Lollar Dog Ear P90; Emerson electronics)
-Barocsi Troublecaster - Custom built T-style guitar with Gretsch Filtertrons

The mic:

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Cheers,
Kris Barocsi

[haylyam]

Hey Kris. I think this not only proves that woods, or maybe the construction of an individual instrument absolutely make a difference, but also the important of getting the 'right' pickups to match the character of a particular guitar.

I thought that your pickups in Andy's guitar actually killed some of its character and magic, but they obviously compliment your guitar amazingly well.

[matthias]

I think John Suhr said it best, "everything effects everything "

[cemylgn]

these videos and your comments in videos are definitely the best of its kind on youtube. thanks a lot

[jeffreyeagen]

This proves that you should try the guitars before you buy, because each will sound and play differently!

[peinmilan]

The test the whole youtube was waiting for! Wow! This video is epic. Thanks for all the work!

[is_what_it_is]

Excellent comparison. As an old guitar tech I can say that took quite a bit of patience to remove and replace all the electronics, strings, etc. Tonewood DOES make a difference, no matter how small, even though it's the pickups doing all the transferring of string vibration to the amp. String vibration is not one vibrating shape, the shape of vibration is itself effected by the body, the neck, and components, and it's that final 'shape' if you will, that the pickup is "picking up". Bravo my good man, bravo.

[lukapeternel]

Without a doubt one of the best (if not the best) videos on "tonewood" out there. Very informative

[patfix]

Madman, switching all those things on those expensive guitars. But I’m glad you did it! Super interesting and really cool to see the guitars keep their ‘character’ although it obviously changed the sound.

[akuakumc]

Finally!!! This is the best video on the topic on YouTube. Fantastic. It confirms what I found out in many years. Tone woods is not how mahogany sounds compared to whatever, it is how that one piece of mahogany sounds compared to that one other piece of whatever. I have never found two identical guitars sound exactly the same, nor in the lower range nor in the upper one. Yes we can tweak our sound (by the way, not enough said on eq pedals that can do miracles) but the way the guitar resonate is also important. Apart from tone, there are two things that differentiate guitars and cannot be fixed later: attack and sustain. Thanks for the video, great quality, great idea and .... great playing !!! One question: do these differences between examples of the same product apply also to tube amps?

[trainaction]

Fantastic job Kris! It's amazing the pickups and stuff didn't change the basic sound at all really. Both guitars characters came shining through. Thanks and I will be sharing this video

[andreasarneth]

Killer Video my friend! Finally my Les Paul been played by a great guitarist after years of abuse🤗

[tomdameek]

Fascinating and BRAVE Kris. Sometimes I think we hear what we want to hear personally on my monitors I don’t hear a huge difference over all. From personal experience the biggest difference comes when you change from really cheap electrics and pups to better quality ones. The body, neck, the pup positions and the quality of hardware help shape it and give it a slightly unique character. But please bear in mind I have only one ear 😂😂 -cheers

[dyingsuneffects]

This was extremely well done, thank you! I fully agree with your conclusions and sentiment.

[lotusmark]

Job done! NO doubting the difference the wood/construction make

[starrguitarworks]

Best comparison video ever! Nice work, Kris!

[lifebreath]

Excellent video, isolating and eliminating all confounding factors for a true valid comparison! Over the past months, I’ve been really experimenting with swapping pickups in a few Les Pauls. My conclusions align with your video: 1) tone wood matters, or more exactly, the specific wood and construction of a particular guitar matters most and is apparent in the acoustic properties of the instrument 2) pickups matter, but more with regards to how they marry with a particular guitar to achieve a desired result. 3) Not covered in your video, unpotted pickups, because of their enhanced microphonism, amplify and are more sensitive to the fundamental acoustics of the guitar.

[samuelcf]

This is great content. The way the guitars kept their sound even with different pickups and hardware is pretty impressive.

[MusicHyde]

Awesome video! Thank you for all the hard work you put into it!

[RogerSullivanNOLA]

I've always been on the right side of the guitar forum tonewood wars, but it's good to see it verified this way.

[thedisciple]

Thanks for taking the time to do all you had to do to make this video. I enjoyed it and agree with your assessment. Andy must be a true friend. I don't think I could let anyone do what you did to my guitar. It would make me too nervous.