Bare Knuckle Pickups Forum
At The Back => Time Out => Topic started by: JDC on July 30, 2014, 11:25:29 PM
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Just found Paul Reed Smith's TEDx talk, it's all about his approach to building guitars which I'm sure many of you know already but I found it interesting to watch, here's the link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sNzJjlV1TOA
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I started watching and thought uh oh, I'm not going to have the patience for 15 minutes of this.... but it was quite interesting.
What he's saying about minimising factors which subtract from the tone isn't really very surprising or difficult to understand, but you don't necessarily think in those terms unless someone points it out!
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I watched it in 10 minutes ;)
If you set youtube to play videos as html5 then you can change the play back speed with browser plugins
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Does that make Paul Reed Smith sound like Pinky & Perky?
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Unfortunately it doesn't change the pitch with the speed increase
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I started watching and thought uh oh, I'm not going to have the patience for 15 minutes of this.... but it was quite interesting.
What he's saying about minimising factors which subtract from the tone isn't really very surprising or difficult to understand, but you don't necessarily think in those terms unless someone points it out!
Pleased to say I had come to similar conclusions over the years
Some subtraction always happens due to the resonant characteristics of the wood which is why you can tell an ash guitar from an alder one or a mahogany one.
Bizarrely if you use something whose resonant frequency is outside our audible range (carbon fibre - like Steinberger used) the resultant tone often gets called sterile by some listeners as no frequencies are missing or notched out - they are all there to be heard. Other people aren't so bothered.
For these reasons of character I have known players double track record a part , but use a les Paul for the first track and a tele for the second as they have frequencies missing in different ranges and by layering both of them you get a fuller more "symphonic" sound.
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For these reasons of character I have known players double track record a part , but use a les Paul for the first track and a tele for the second as they have frequencies missing in different ranges and by layering both of them you get a fuller more "symphonic" sound.
Weren't Def Leppard doing something along those lines back in the Mutt Lange days, if I remember correctly?
(Along with weirdness like recording the individual notes of chords then adding them together)
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Yes Mutt LAnge did some silly stuff like that
I recall Tom Keifer of Cinderella did this on Night Songs and Long Cold Winter - probably because Jimmy Page did it first. (and Andy John's produced them)
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That was good. I love the TED concept.
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Slightly off topic....went to World Guitars PRS clinic at Stonehouse a few months ago. Mrs T came with me. After we had checked in the venue hotel room we went to reception to book breakfast and found ourselves standing behind Paul Reed Smith who was checking in. He turned around to us and said "I don't want to hold you guys up - do you want to go in front?". When I told him I had come to see him his face lit up and talked about what he was going to cover in the clinic.
The clinic was good - covered most of his 'rules of tone' and Simon McBride was excellent.
Impressions?..... Mrs T thinks he is a nice guy, he is definitely passionate about his guitars, despite the 'lawyers/bankers image' he does make some excellent guitars ... I always considered myself a Gibson (1st) Fender (2nd) player but if I had to choose one guitar to gig with it would be my PRS 408 or DGT.
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I enjoyed the video- his reasoning seems sound to me. I don't have a PRS but I've played a few and they always seem beautifully made and are extremely playable. I do like the look of their new semi hollow guitars too though I can't see me getting one- the Mrs would have kittens.
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The only thing i liked was when he played the usa anthem at the end, the rest i thought of as pseudo science. Not that what he says is wrong per say but irrelevent. Light guitars , heavy guitars, this wood that wood..... as someone said (suhr ?) practice cures most tonal issues.
Brave of him to play too, and had a good tone.
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The only thing i liked was when he played the usa anthem at the end, the rest i thought of as pseudo science. Not that what he says is wrong per say but irrelevent. Light guitars , heavy guitars, this wood that wood..... as someone said (suhr ?) practice cures most tonal issues.
In which case why bother buying (or building) a good guitar? If the quality of the parts is irrelevant, we might as well all get Squiers, they're perfectly playable and well made.
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An incredible amount of cruddy noise in his playing - I hate hearing this. Great tone but the hand movement noise was just horrible.
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Philly, i'm all for well made guitars & prs do make very nice ones with great QC. It's more his approach to energy in/energy out, conjuring up a fancy sales pitch if you like that turns me off, like it's all a bit esoteric . Squire's can sound great, cheap wood, bolt on necks which is exactly the point. Whether or not consistantly is another thing !
Despite his reputation as a luthier & the prs brand i'm surprised how few well known players use them.
Disclosure, i own a nice piece of prs 'furniture', beautifully made but no better sounding than my standard fenders or tokai's.(oh but it's nicer to play :laugh:)
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Despite his reputation as a luthier & the prs brand i'm surprised how few well known players use them.
Disclosure, i own a nice piece of prs 'furniture', beautifully made but no better sounding than my standard fenders or tokai's.(oh but it's nicer to play :laugh:)
There do seem to be a reasonable number of well known PRS users, especially in the US, but I agree, no absolute household name guitar icon that I can think of.
PRS will always have that hurdle - which I don't think they'll ever overcome - that most people think "electric guitar = Gibson or Fender" (of course there's a whole different school of players who use Ibanez or whatever, but PRS isn't competing in that market either).
I've owned probably 10 or 12 PRS guitars now. All have been well made, some have been excellent (but certainly not all of them). A couple were definitely too "furniture" for my tastes! The ones I still have are cheaper, less blingy models, apart from my McCarty which I think is a really good one - but I don't love it like I love my Gibsons.
Plus at the moment I'm very much in a phase of only being into slightly battered, relic guitars - I don't really want anything shiny and perfect. So probably no more upscale PRS purchases in my immediate future. :laugh:
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Despite his reputation as a luthier & the prs brand i'm surprised how few well known players use them.
Disclosure, i own a nice piece of prs 'furniture', beautifully made but no better sounding than my standard fenders or tokai's.(oh but it's nicer to play :laugh:)
There do seem to be a reasonable number of well known PRS users, especially in the US, but I agree, no absolute household name guitar icon that I can think of.
PRS will always have that hurdle - which I don't think they'll ever overcome - that most people think "electric guitar = Gibson or Fender" (of course there's a whole different school of players who use Ibanez or whatever, but PRS isn't competing in that market either).
I've owned probably 10 or 12 PRS guitars now. All have been well made, some have been excellent (but certainly not all of them). A couple were definitely too "furniture" for my tastes! The ones I still have are cheaper, less blingy models, apart from my McCarty which I think is a really good one - but I don't love it like I love my Gibsons.
Plus at the moment I'm very much in a phase of only being into slightly battered, relic guitars - I don't really want anything shiny and perfect. So probably no more upscale PRS purchases in my immediate future. :laugh:
Santana?
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Santana?
D'oh! :embarrassed:
I feel a proper fool now.
I'm even a bit of a Santana fan, although every time he brings out a new album it drives me further back to his/their early stuff. At this point I just wish he'd retire.
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Plus at the moment I'm very much in a phase of only being into slightly battered, relic guitars - I don't really want anything shiny and perfect. So probably no more upscale PRS purchases in my immediate future. :laugh:
Here you go Philly:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Paul-Reed-Smith-PRS-Aged-408-Standard-in-Antique-White-with-Pattern-Neck-/111428964965?pt=Guitar&hash=item19f1af1265
http://www.peachguitars.com/guitars/electric-guitars/prs-peach-guitars-5th-anniversary-aged-gold-top-dgt-model-5-5.htm
I'm a PRS nut. I think the guitars gets too compared to a Gibson or a Strat. I feel that PRS have their own thing going, they sound very unique to me. I think you either are going to like the PRS sound or you don't. If you judge a PRS against a Les Paul or try to make a Custom sound like one you should get a Gibson instead.
A Custom 24 sounds like a spankier Les Paul, brighter and more separated. It's got a very different feel to it and I love how it reacts with the volume pot. PRS guitars just have that "thing" for me. Both my US built ones (Custom 24 and Mira) have several spots on the neck where the harmonic overtones just pop out.
And I also want to add that I not a PRS exclusive guy. I love all guitars and have several different kinds. If I need a Tele sound, I'm going to play a Tele. If I need a Les Paul sound I'm going to play a Les Paul. Same goes with the PRS sound, I need a PRS for that.
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Plus at the moment I'm very much in a phase of only being into slightly battered, relic guitars - I don't really want anything shiny and perfect. So probably no more upscale PRS purchases in my immediate future. :laugh:
Here you go Philly:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Paul-Reed-Smith-PRS-Aged-408-Standard-in-Antique-White-with-Pattern-Neck-/111428964965?pt=Guitar&hash=item19f1af1265
http://www.peachguitars.com/guitars/electric-guitars/prs-peach-guitars-5th-anniversary-aged-gold-top-dgt-model-5-5.htm
:grin: Thanks for those! Very interesting.
But it does demonstrate another thing about PRS guitars - that I'm not at all sure the relic look actually suits them! It might work on the plainest or most vintage-looking models like the McCarty, Starla or Mira.
Thinking about it, I guess that's because there are no 50- or 60-year old PRS guitars around to give us a preconceived notion of what a "vintage PRS" would actually look like.
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Hah! Priced to clear @ £4k...
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Don't know if there was ever an endorsement, but this is one of my favourite Gary pics.
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Plus at the moment I'm very much in a phase of only being into slightly battered, relic guitars - I don't really want anything shiny and perfect. So probably no more upscale PRS purchases in my immediate future. :laugh:
Here you go Philly:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Paul-Reed-Smith-PRS-Aged-408-Standard-in-Antique-White-with-Pattern-Neck-/111428964965?pt=Guitar&hash=item19f1af1265
http://www.peachguitars.com/guitars/electric-guitars/prs-peach-guitars-5th-anniversary-aged-gold-top-dgt-model-5-5.htm
:grin: Thanks for those! Very interesting.
But it does demonstrate another thing about PRS guitars - that I'm not at all sure the relic look actually suits them! It might work on the plainest or most vintage-looking models like the McCarty, Starla or Mira.
Thinking about it, I guess that's because there are no 50- or 60-year old PRS guitars around to give us a preconceived notion of what a "vintage PRS" would actually look like.
Good point. Some old CEs and CUs are getting there though. Hopefully time will be kind to the pristine PRS and hopefully they will age well. I hope my CU24 will look great in the future after it will aquired its share of battle scars.
The Mira will look great with dings! I'm working on them :cool:
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:grin: Thanks for those! Very interesting.
But it does demonstrate another thing about PRS guitars - that I'm not at all sure the relic look actually suits them! It might work on the plainest or most vintage-looking models like the McCarty, Starla or Mira.
Thinking about it, I guess that's because there are no 50- or 60-year old PRS guitars around to give us a preconceived notion of what a "vintage PRS" would actually look like.
The gold-top DGT works well I think, but that's because it has enough of a Gibson look that it ticks the subconscious familiarity boxes. The DGT is one of the more vintage looking PRSs anyway, especially with dot markers. That said, much as I like a relic, I'm not about to take a screwdriver and sand paper to my DGT.
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Hah! Priced to clear @ £4k...
Peach is right near you isn't it Mark? Get round there quick! :grin:
Thinking about it, I guess that's because there are no 50- or 60-year old PRS guitars around to give us a preconceived notion of what a "vintage PRS" would actually look like.
Good point. Some old CEs and CUs are getting there though. Hopefully time will be kind to the pristine PRS and hopefully they will age well. I hope my CU24 will look great in the future after it will aquired its share of battle scars.
The Mira will look great with dings! I'm working on them :cool:
The most "naturally" beaten up PRS I've seen was many years ago, when I bought a PRS EG from a guy in North London. He had a Cu24 with a big patch of worn-off paint in the "pickguard area". It didn't look good. The guitar can't have been more than about 10 years old at that point, he must've had acid sweat like Rory Gallagher.....
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Hah! Priced to clear @ £4k...
Peach is right near you isn't it Mark? Get round there quick! :grin:
Thinking about it, I guess that's because there are no 50- or 60-year old PRS guitars around to give us a preconceived notion of what a "vintage PRS" would actually look like.
Good point. Some old CEs and CUs are getting there though. Hopefully time will be kind to the pristine PRS and hopefully they will age well. I hope my CU24 will look great in the future after it will aquired its share of battle scars.
The Mira will look great with dings! I'm working on them :cool:
The most "naturally" beaten up PRS I've seen was many years ago, when I bought a PRS EG from a guy in North London. He had a Cu24 with a big patch of worn-off paint in the "pickguard area". It didn't look good. The guitar can't have been more than about 10 years old at that point, he must've had acid sweat like Rory Gallagher.....
Here is a CE from a PRS forum. It's naturally reliced:
(http://skallerud.com/gitarer/PRS/CE24_3.jpg)