Testing, testing 1-2-3...

[Gromit]

It's the same with electric guitars. I know what a Tele or a Ricky or a Les Paul sounds like...through my amp, with my effects pedals. Play them through an amp I've never used with a set of pedals I've never owned and I might not have a clue which was which.

And what's my point? It's that you're right. Most of the time we have to decide whether different is better, or just different.

Great points re the electric guitars - they're something which really interests me (not just because I always wish I'd learnt to play one!) about these. The differences wrought through the use of differing amps/valves etc to tailor the sound to the player's taste and technique fascinates me - how a valve 'breaks up' etc etc. The same could of course be put for most instruments which rely on other factors for their sound quality - I use a French Clarinet (Buffet RC Prestige), chosen because it has a slightly bigger bore and tone than the R13 version. I much prefer it to British Clarinets (not that there are any left new now) and their presentation which is a bit soft and 'woofly' for my tastes.

This is all talking about production (what goes into the mic/mixing desk etc) though rather than reproduction which is what comes out of our domestic speakers. This is one reason why, much as I enjoy them in isolation, I find valve amps difficult to put up with for too long. They're affecting the sound after production and colouring the reproduction.

By all means use them to colour the production ie give the guitarist the absolute freedom in sound colour that he or she wants. However, once that sound gets onto the mastertape, its sound should be set in stone and we should bugger about with it as little as possible.

[Dr Bunsen Honeydew]

I was working for PA:CE (Parmee Acoustic : Collins Electromagnetics) late 70's when they were working on the Redmere http://www.backfromthesixties.co.uk/Pag ... loist.aspx which was a fascinating attempt to emulate the sounds of other amps. Throw a switch and you have Marshall or Vox AC30 or etc. Very good approximations apart from it was solid state so as soon as it itself was overdriven then forget it, but when not overdriven it used distortion circuits to emulate the sound of a valve amp being overdriven :?

[slinger]

I was working for PA:CE (Parmee Acoustic : Collins Electromagnetics) late 70's when they were working on the Redmere http://www.backfromthesixties.co.uk/Pag ... loist.aspx which was a fascinating attempt to emulate the sounds of other amps. Throw a switch and you have Marshall or Vox AC30 or etc. Very good approximations apart from it was solid state so as soon as it itself was overdriven then forget it, but when not overdriven it used distortion circuits to emulate the sound of a valve amp being overdriven :?

Very interesting, I'd love to have tried one of those. My current solution, is a little more compact though.

http://line6.com/podstudioux2/

If you click on the "Pod Farm" tab on that page you can see precisely what pieces of kit are reproduced. Line 6 also produces a series of amps that do the same job, and guitars that are not only rather tasty in their own right but have the ability to "mimic" another 28 well known guitars. I should stress I have nothing to do with the company, which is a bloody shame as far as I'm concerned.

[Dr Bunsen Honeydew]

Its all far easier in the digital domain. The engineer / guitarist who was working on the development was a real hippy who spent most of his time joint in one hand guitar in the other (plugged into the prototype circuit) and he occassionaly put one or the other down to pick up the soldering iron. It took an age to put into production by which time the company was about bust.

[jammy395]

Yep the Digital World would probably move a lot faster than an Old Hippy's World....Unless he was on Speed of course....................