When I was in recording school I had a professor critique one of my mixes about being "too compressed" I asked what he meant and he just said it sounded like I used to much compression. Flashback to the time he told me that before (just as unhelpful then) so I decided my next mix was going to use 0 compression. When I told him that, he just moved on to something else and I still didn't learn how to use compression from that. A bit later I look at some youtube videos and found out how to use compression. I'm not saying recording school is a waste... but know it is definitely not the only way to go.
Even though I may not be the biggest metal fan, the type of content that is consistently coming out of the channel is absolutely priceless, and a lot of the pointers and advise definitely work for a lot of different high-gain adjacent types of music. Keep up the awesome work Glen. One thing I would like to see would probably be a series where you would put an expensive speaker in a cheap amp and see the sound differences.
8:41 I used to have a Line6 Spider IV combo and the electronics fritzed out so I cut the head off and used the back to make a top for it essentially turning it into a 2x12 cab. I run an Orange Micro Terror into it nowadays to practice and it sounds really good. Don't know if the open back made the difference though?
As a bass player (insert joke here) and a home recorder, for what its worth, I really do like the content here. I will stay subscribed. Glenn, you do a great (unfiltered) job of getting your point across. I may not agree with everything you say, but non the less, still awesome content, advice, opinions, etc. You are SuperHuman when it comes to making interesting videos. Love it! Oh - and YES to the labcoat. Love the guitar stuff - any chance you'll go down the "low end" road?
You've touched this "try to sound unique" thing quite a few times during the years and I think it's very important as part of the identity of a band, but it's hardly every discussed. We hear musicians that made it big talk about "their sound" a lot but most smaller bands just go for that one tone that dominates their genre. It would be great if you could put out a video with some very well known song(s) for which you make 2-3 mixes with new reamped tones. That way we can get an idea of different tones that still work for the song that DON'T have to sound like everybody else's tone.
Yes to the lab coat. I do have a question about applying the "tone is in the speakers" lesson you've taught us. How would you apply that to bass? Bass is often run direct for recording and for live gigs. So, what would be the best 'bang for the buck' to get a great bass tone - pickups, amp head or something else?
Eden makes a compact amp head that has AWESOME sound, and is super loud. Paired up with a 2x12 it sounds amazing. A bit pricey....but totally worth it. Get a D.I. box for direct input recording.
Yeah it's always been a bit of a burn that the bass player spends a shit-ton of money on an SVT and then the band has to haul that 8x10 up a flight of stairs and then the sound guy takes a DI bypassing all of it. Luckily it's rare to play a venue large enough that the audience isn't going to hear that 8x10 clearly from the stage. Check out rig rundowns, seems like in big bands the bass player often splits the signal and has some kind of a preamp by SansAmp or Ampeg on the board to feed their own DI with a tone that somewhat replicates what is coming out of the cab.
Been following you for years. Even though I just sit in my room playing guitar, I feel like I keep learning something and change what I value in sound. Keep it up and thank you!
I've learned so many import aspects of recording guitar from you, Glenn. Thank you very much. Any chance you will do a deep dive with bass tone as well?
Saving people money, hurting butts and giving me something to watch while I drink coffee! Honestly though, thanks to you I'm done buying gear. I got the speaker cab I needed put together and went easy on the board gear. Considering I'm 44, I probably have everything I need until death. Still love the show!
A while ago, in light of "breaking out of the mold" thing you keep going on about I tried completely DIY-ing an entire amp chain with only reaper stock plugins as an experiment. No amp sim or cab IR or anything. Multiband compressor into distortion into EQ seems to work really well as an alternative and gives you basically complete control over shaping your guitar tone. Especially the multiband compressor on the way in is incredibly powerful for shaping the way the guitar's transients behave through the distortion. Lotta work to set up though. And with full control over everything you also have the complete freedom to fuck up everything on accident.
my favorite trick for all digital is to take GClip (free) and crank the gain on the recording before it goes into a digital distortion or IR. You can play with your softness and clip knob to change how intense the boost/pre-gain is going into something like Trash 2 by iZotope and it might as well be the real thing. Once you double each channel, it's there. I hardly eq until i have vocals and bass in the mix because that's where the MIXing part of the job becomes valuable
OH I also just remembered: Reaper has this wet/dry know for every one of your effects, so you could make a crazy chain and blend tons of different settings together. I might just skip on the amp entirely and play around with that instead.
I'm really interested in that Line 6 Spider comment. Like even if the manufacturer doesn't give you a jack for it, you might be able to team up with an electrician and get them to wire a jack in so you could test different speakers/cabs. Would love to see that video if you ever get another Line 6 Spider.
I'm going to double down on the left hand force applied to the string thing. The less effort the better. It's just a more efficient way to play. More efficient means, easier/faster/smoother etc. Great piece advice!
You put me 20 years ahead of the game. Its such that all of my friends shut up when I talk and take my word as gospel. You do not need to be catching so much flack still.
I’ll bet the “EMGs sounding compressed” is just that they’re higher output and people are clipping the signal on the way in removing any sort of dynamics
Have you used the Overloud TH-U? I've been really happy with the sounds I've gotten out of it, but I haven't used another amp sim in years. So, I'm curious how you think it might stack up. Also, I'm wondering how you deal with the hissy top end on your heavy guitars in the mix.
I’ll be honest, I used to think all solid state cabs were like my old Line 6; but because of your channel I decided to sell my Egnater (300 bucks) and bought a Boss Katana for only 200, and an additional cheapo guitar. Realizing how much I can do with solid state amps frees up my wallet so much, and next up will be speakers instead of a new amp to try and get the sound I’m going for. Going to get a dual cab with a 12” hempback and vintage G15V from Celestion to try and get the sludge god sound dialed in. Will save a lot not needing to buy a Muff and a 3,000 dollar amp
I have a line 6 Spyder 3 15w. I recently built a combo cabinet for it out of a pine bookshelf, sized approximately like a fender 1x12 combo. I dropped in a 12" speaker from an old Hammond organ that I had laying around, and suddenly that amp sounds better than my Marshall valvestate. Completely changed the character of the amp in every way. Might be worth making a patch cord and trying out. Thanks for the work, it's really helping us out! p.s. I did this because of you.
that episode is great ! big shoutout to the guy who talked about kiko loureiro, he is a gold mine of knoweldge and he shares it all, my favourite guitarist personally.
If a solid state combo amp doesn't have an output for a cabinet just put one in. If you use a shunted jack and install it properly as soon as you plug in a speaker cable it will break connection to the stock speaker. Just make sure the cabinet is the same ohms or higher than the stock speaker. Not sure if it's a good idea for a tube amp though but I'm sure it would work as long as the cabinet ohms matches the stock speaker.🤘
"Not so much the fault of the technology but the fault of the people" - SPOT ON! Computers do what they are told, all our computers / modellers are nothing more than fancy calculators
7:56 there is more of a difference clean between pickups that are the same kind, worth the money different though... not sure, but swappable setups are more 'I love this guitar but need different sounds' and swapping humbucker and single coils.
I'm a fingerstyle acoustic guitar player in my sixties who hasn't played with electrics and amps for over 20 years so much of what you talk about isn't relevant to me. However, your brutal honesty keeps me coming back and the fact is I've learned a thing or two from this channel. Having said that, let's be honest here... that Tom Hanks impression was fucking spot on!!
Hey Gleeennn!!! Question: Do you think “tonewood” matters in regards to durability. I ask because I have a lot of eucalyptus trees where I live. I got this idea to find someone to chop one down and see if I could find a company to make a guitar for me with it. Then I did more research about eucalyptus trees and found out that they suck for woodworking because it takes 100 year for a euck to reach a point where the oil will dry and they won’t warp. Eucks grow really fast so even a 200 ft tree is still much less then 100 years old. Maybe tone wood is good for durability not sound?
I agree with Mike Nash....recording one speaker to be played back on another set of speakers is filtering out the frequencies we truly love about our tube amps.
Hey, I’m one of those older guys always searching for great tone. However, I don’t have unlimited funds in the bank, I work 50-60 hours per week in the automotive industry (so I feel your pain,) and I appreciate the hell out of what you do. Keep up the great work and fuck the haters!
I have to say Glenn, THANK YOU! for mentioning a few weeks back to get an attenuator for XLR for the viewer who had a microphone that was a bit too hot on the input. I have an Orange Bass Butler that was going to hot on the XLR outputs with barely any volume. Bought 2x JTS MA-123 and set them to -30 dB and it made it so i could finally connect my Bass Butler to my interface and record properly. Again thank you!
Hi. Anyone remember which video Glen talked about musicians going to studios less and less in? I remember having seen it... but I can't find it. Made the mistake of going to uni instead of learning online and now am to deep and need a qoate to prove this statement on my essay... Sorry for the likely poor spelling.
I'm still blown away by Seismic Audio's actual speakers. $65 USD for 12" and 10" wide range woofer speakers. They're honestly meant for PA speakers to be paired with a tweeter or horn, but in bass or guitar cabs, they work like magic. 150 Watts RMS, they're a little dark (most high powered speakers are) but they sound so good.
Why do the current greenbacks sound so different from the 60s? Is the cone paper or materials used to composite the paper different or imported from a different place?
Hey Glenn, do you ever use tricks like running pink noise through your amp to get two mics on phase with another? If so, think you can show us how and what to look for? Other than that, how do you go about making sure you get the phase right on both mics.
Any combo amp can be sent out to a different cab by just taking the speaker leads off and running them to the other cab, as long as the speaker impedance is correct. There is a guy on the Katana groups that actually made a product to stick into the katanas to add the cab out jack for convenience. KatCab, check it out. Should be usable by any combo.
Man I gotta say something about the 10 pickups video. I’ve listened to the comparisons with two very good studio headphones, presonus eris monitors, some edifier bookshelf speakers and finally in my car. I’m my opinion, I heard a difference between the pickups. Maybe the differences aren’t so outrageously different… BUT the differences are there. Your argument on tubes I agree with, but idk, I heard a difference within the pickup video. I don’t think I have super human hearing or whatever, but the differences are there. Whether or not it’s worth to spend 2-300 on pickups is subjective. To most people, they’ll prolly be fine with what they have.. but where I do agree is the speaker. I always tell people change the speaker before pickups. Anyway, I said my piece. Keep rockin Glenn!
So I remember a while back when you did your videos on pickups I seen you do the comparisons. But I remembered when I was younger I believe it was Seymour Duncan I can't remember where there was a product where a single coil acting as a humbucker. I don't know if they sell them today as I don't see any more advertisement on them. Any chance you could get a hold of one of those types? Or were they obviously bad for a reason as to why I don't see them being advertised anymore
I still want to know if you'd get the same kind of difference by swapping out the speaker IN the 6505+ for a Vintage 30, rather than connecting it to an external cabinet.
Hi Glen. I'm a bass player and scored 2 real chap guitars, 1 acoustic & 1 electric and playing the electric has been fun, I'm looking at getting a half decent guitar. I appreciate the honesty in you vid's, and I've learnt a lot so my question is would a Pacifica 612 or a Sire S7 be a genuinely good purchase?? They both have great reviews and don't suffer from the Fender tax. Personally I think if you look at an instrument and don't smile, you've bought the one, and I like the look of the Pacifica's, and the S7's...I have a Sire bass and I love it, for what it's worth. Cheers mate.
For the guy asking the point of swappable pickups, Glenn, you answered yourself right after saying you don't know : for people using no or few gain, where pickups do shift in tone
So I bought a Chapman hollow body telecaster with their branded P90s a few years ago. I know this is a metal channel but I do play it in a Rock/metal way. the neck pickup in it is basically unusable as no matter where I put the virtual mic on my nolly plugin or on my two notes captor x the 75-250hz range takes over I have heard on “reliable forums” that the manufacturing of these pickups were not done correctly and that resulted in this issue. Contemplating grabbing a set of fralin hum cancelling p90s. Tell me in full of shit?
I took the advice, saved cash and got a Randall 412 with Celestion 70/80s for about $180. Gotta say, best thing ever. Better than saving for a new guitar or pickups.
I love inexpensive guitars. Fret jobs go a LONG way on making a cheap guitar a good player. I've built Partscaster around a Mighty Mite neck. Total cost: $130. I love it. I also just bought a PRS SE for $500 at a pawn shop. Why did I buy that? Because I like the way it looks and plays. Works for me. I'm practicing and getting noticable better. I love watching your progress. I've just gotten a couple of the small 5W/line level Hotone amps. They sound good running into a Quiltar cab mic'ed with an SM 57 as well as running line level with a cam IR (which I learned from you.) A buddy of mine just dropped $5K on a "relic" '59 LP reissue and a Magnatone amp. Sounds great in the room, but recorded? My Peavey Detonator ($150), Hotone amp ($89) and cab IR (free) sounds just as good as his stuff when recorded. Seriously, I just can't spend that kind of money. I dig your style and all your info.
Hey Glenn I'm a noob at recording but I've been experimenting with the bandlab app on my phone. I've recently gone from placing the phone about 2 feet away, just enough to avoid clipping, to placing it against the grill cloth and reducing the amp volume. I got a bit of amp hiss but a low pass filter cleans it right up, it really helped with my hi gain tones.
note that hiss can be shelfed out. it is the consequence of a tweeter, not a cone. another fun way to make your guitar sound better is to turn the guitar volume down, use the tone pot, and gain stage with your distortions as well.
On question "What compressed means" for me personally it means that pickups doesn't respond with much difference if you change strength of pick attack (and i don't see what is bad about that).
GGLLLLEEEEN! I would love to see a video where you re-record and remix the same song 5 times and experiment with drastically different tones. How experimental can you get? And just how drastically can changing the sonic landscape effect the the emotions being portrayed?
Hey Glen, since speakers are the key to better tone, would you willing to make a top 5 or top 10 best speakers for great prices? Thanks and cheers from Socal 🍸
I appreciate all your advice Glenn I'm not a kid I'm 33 but your videos have helped me a lot. I'm a husband and father of 3 sons so my money is tight and yes I do work very hard for it so thank you for directing my money to things that actually matter
About combo amps: If you're skilled enough with a screw driver, soldering iron and don't care about warranty, Add your own speaker output. Drill a hole in the back, add a 1/4" jack and solder the speaker leads off the speaker and to the jack. Done that to my fender frontman 15G (extremely cheap beginer 1x8 solid state combo) Even through my shitty DIY 2x12 with cheap thomann speakers, it sounds 15x better than stock
Anybody know if there is quality difference between pickups? My favorite Yamaha came with an Ibanez INF4 pickup which from my research was just a stock pickup that was loaded into the inexpensive Ibanez models a few years ago, but I’ve wondered for years what would happen if I swapped it? I used to think pickups mattered but now I’m wondering “is it worth changing anymore?”. For a little context, I dont player super high gain, more classic heavy metal like Priest, Maiden and Thrash. If someone has any tips, I’d love the help. Thanks!
😂 Love the Tom Hanks thing! Glenn I’m a recording engineer and voice director working mostly on animation projects. Will definitely keep you in mind for any future castings… 😂
I have some stock Jackson pickups that I'm willing to send you if you can make them sound good through your rig. Perhaps it's my stock 8" & 10" speakers but swapping out those particular pickups helped the tone.
I think the guy talking about "in the room" meant the guitar through the amp into the speaker in the room, vs multiple recorded rigs through a mic and your speakers/headphones.
active pickups "sounds compressed" just means that the volume is more leveled out, like it was run through a compressor. doesn't change the tone, just the volume level, so that light playing and heavy playing sound less dynamic ( soft verses loud ). i would guess the active circuitry is partial acting as an unajustable compressor. that's what it looks like in a wav file.
This past Christmas, my 7 year old son said “Dad, I don’t believe Santa exists”. I asked “ why do you think that?” He said “because there is no evidence”. We raised him never confirming or denying that Santa exists. Here’s a 7 year old who used the scientific method to determine for himself that he doesn’t exist.
Glenn, something occurs to me. Another guitarist once told me that he always remembers what his settings are. I was like, yeah, okay. But then I reconsidered the statement: Maybe he actually meant that remembers what he's looking for instead? That statement would surely ring true about myself: I have this certain idea of where I want my tone to go. I feel that I end up pursuing that same tone and coming back to it, no matter what the actual gear available is... fiddle away with the amp settings until it gives that same damn thing, every time. So while we take for granted that humbucker/single-coil and speaker make the most notable difference and therefore the most obvious factors to fiddle with if we want something different, do you think we'll still end up coming to the same place? Also, on the preset of your favorite player, okay, sure, but where's the fun in that when you can throw your hands in the dirt and experiment with your gear and see what produces similar flavors and textures? You'll end up learning a thing or two and finding that, hey, this tone works for me better than that guy's tone... and hey, probably save a buck or two!
Hey Glenn! I am loving the scientific route your videos have taken. Just goes to show that, even in art, a good knowledge of science really does give you the advantage.
I don't know if this is true, but I've heard that the EMG's are designed to work with 1 or 2 9V batteries, but if you run them off of 1 9V that they will soft clip which would be a type of compressive distortion. That said, the EMG 81s have the highs rolled off and sound asstastic for clean tone.
Okay another “theory” question. Cabinet construction… does it matter? Solid Pine, Void-free birch plywood, oversized, open back, chipboard… all these terms that get tossed around. Does any of that matter? I’ve like Jet City cabs as they are cheaper than most but seem to be well built. Not sure about the Harley Benton cab, but does it really matter as long as it doesn’t fall apart when dragging it around?
Almost 500k subs as of writing! Insane, you deserve every bit of the exposure you get and more. Your content is amazing and quality excellent, congrats and great work as always!
Back in the mid 80's when many of the first Boss pedals came out. Everybody bought them but had no idea how to use them. The Metal Zone comes to mind as one in particular, that ended up getting a bad reputation. I'd see all my friends struggling to get ANY useful tones out of them, and so they always sat around with dead batteries. I talked one of my closest friends into getting an adapter to power it and using an EQ pedal with it. Changed his whole outlook on it, and never heard him complain again. Having fancy gear is cool, but not knowing how to use it isn't. IMHO an EQ pedal will cover most of the weaknesses a cheap guitar with generic pickups have. Always buy the best gear you can afford, it will give you room to grow into. I see no sense in buying crappy entry level gear that won't last and nobody will buy.
run the metal zone into the return of an effects loop and plug the guitar into the pedal. makes the pedal into the preamp so you have to use the level on the pedal for your volume. makes the amp run at 100 percent volume otherwise. the angy bee sound disappears. even a cheap ss amp sounds insanely better. I was shocked as how much i liked it even running it through my 5150 2x12 combo.
@@smoothcannibal5371 no question, if you tryn run it all into the amp input, it will be basically unusable. By doing it like you said, the input won't be doulble boosted. Most pedals have buffers that attempt to recoup the lost signal with an automatic boost. This stacks up and creates a muddy mess.
EVERY luthier, I ever went to, to have work done on my guitars commented about my EMG equipped guitar, how the pickup would make every guitar sound identical, like it's a preamp. However, their hand wound passives would let the tone wood "breathe"... For a nice little upcharge of 400€... I went there to get the nut fixed... The guitars sounded fine, they just had tuning issues. Another highlight: Who built this guitar, you can't use ebony fingerboards on maple necks, that kills sustain. ESP built it and they built and sold hundreds, if not thousands, of it.
Thanks for looking out for us Glenn🤘On the matter of saving a few bucks, i recently found the neurontube amp sim. It's a pretty solid piece of software, given it's free to download. I can get some nice tones out of it with my analog synths and VST plug-ins but it would be nice to hear it in a proper mix and used as intended. Cheers and have a good one 🤙
I got an oversized Rectifier 4x12 in excellent condition for $500 from a dad on Facebook marketplace. Slant cab with straight top. He had a bunch of cabs and gear, idk why he let this one go so cheap but I jumped on that post immediately and took off work and drove 2 hours to get it. This was less than a year ago. I also got a Crate Red Voodoo Sammy Hagar signature birch 4x12 with European V30s for $200 from a guy off craigslist... it sounds fucking fantastic. Deals can still be found, local deals... Guitar center used gear is pretty fair priced also, and you get a 45 day return policy.
Hey Glenn. I can attest to the compressed (rather Limited) nature of the EMG actives running at 9v. I have DI screenshots for you if you want them. I think it's something you might want to explore on your channel because it's quite drastic how hard the signal is brickwalled on output. Send me a DM if you want the images. If it inspires you to test to confirm or disprove my findings, then I'm all for it.
hey glenn. love your vids. i was wondering if you would ever want to test drum tone wood to see if its as bs as the guitar tone wood theory. love from australia
I remember years ago when Scott Grove (Groovy Music Lessons) was blasted by other UA-camrs and commentors after he said that tonewood on electric guitars doesn't matter.... I watched a live stream of his a few months ago and mentioned how you and others were actually backing up his claims with experiments and data, and although he didn't really know who you were, he seemed quite happy about being vindicated. I think you two have a lot in common when it comes to certain things, would be awesome if you two collaborated on a video in the future!
Do you have any recomendations for the bass guitar speakers? :D I know it's bit unconventional and unusual for bass player to ask about these things... :D
“It’s Easier to Fool People Than It Is to Convince Them That They Have Been Fooled.” - Mark Twain people can't let go from their beliefs ! as someone i know says : "belief is the enemy of knowing and EGO is the protector of belief" .
If a guy in his late 40's with hair like yours tells me I'm doing something wrong with my mix, whatever it is, I'm going to listen.
Well, that's a first!
I think you are being too kind - I’m sure he’s looking at his late 40’s in the rear view mirror 😂
Absolutely
@@despoticmusic excuse me, your insecurity is showing, mister.
🤣 Love the logic!
When I was in recording school I had a professor critique one of my mixes about being "too compressed" I asked what he meant and he just said it sounded like I used to much compression. Flashback to the time he told me that before (just as unhelpful then) so I decided my next mix was going to use 0 compression. When I told him that, he just moved on to something else and I still didn't learn how to use compression from that. A bit later I look at some youtube videos and found out how to use compression. I'm not saying recording school is a waste... but know it is definitely not the only way to go.
My fossil professor didn't like compression either... but he also didn't like metal.
Dude, you completely nailed the Tom Hanks tone in your "There's no crying in baseball!" line!
Hell yes to the lab coat! However, you need to be wearing it with it recklessly thrown open
maybe one time a t-shirt beneath the coat with 'under this shirt i'm naked' in classical latin? yah, old joke, but it's usually in english.
Doctor Glenn.... :-)
Crom's chest hair ftw!
+1 Add a blue t shirt and brown pants. I know Glenn knows what I'm talking about.
Why am I thinking Brent Spiner in Independence Day Resurgence?! 🤣
Even though I may not be the biggest metal fan, the type of content that is consistently coming out of the channel is absolutely priceless, and a lot of the pointers and advise definitely work for a lot of different high-gain adjacent types of music. Keep up the awesome work Glen. One thing I would like to see would probably be a series where you would put an expensive speaker in a cheap amp and see the sound differences.
😂 the “yur just telling kids Santa doesn’t exist” guy was amazing. He knows… he just wants his illusion in tact.
There's a lot of that around. A little more than half the population is incapable of changing opinion on the basis of information.
100%
Isnt it better knowing and achieving rather than believing in myths?
@@cycomiles4225 Absolutely.
Local man is aware of reality he just doesn't want to confront it
8:41 I used to have a Line6 Spider IV combo and the electronics fritzed out so I cut the head off and used the back to make a top for it essentially turning it into a 2x12 cab. I run an Orange Micro Terror into it nowadays to practice and it sounds really good. Don't know if the open back made the difference though?
As a bass player (insert joke here) and a home recorder, for what its worth, I really do like the content here. I will stay subscribed. Glenn, you do a great (unfiltered) job of getting your point across. I may not agree with everything you say, but non the less, still awesome content, advice, opinions, etc. You are SuperHuman when it comes to making interesting videos. Love it! Oh - and YES to the labcoat. Love the guitar stuff - any chance you'll go down the "low end" road?
I gotchu homie
(i'm having my mommy type this out for me)
There's your joke insert
You've touched this "try to sound unique" thing quite a few times during the years and I think it's very important as part of the identity of a band, but it's hardly every discussed. We hear musicians that made it big talk about "their sound" a lot but most smaller bands just go for that one tone that dominates their genre. It would be great if you could put out a video with some very well known song(s) for which you make 2-3 mixes with new reamped tones. That way we can get an idea of different tones that still work for the song that DON'T have to sound like everybody else's tone.
Please, yes on the scientist's lab coat. I would love to see the mad experiments of Dr. Frickenstein.
+1
Bahahaha "Frickenstein" I love it
Thank you sir. People will take the science more serious if they can see you are a real scientist.
Yes to the lab coat.
I do have a question about applying the "tone is in the speakers" lesson you've taught us. How would you apply that to bass?
Bass is often run direct for recording and for live gigs. So, what would be the best 'bang for the buck' to get a great bass tone - pickups, amp head or something else?
Eden makes a compact amp head that has AWESOME sound, and is super loud. Paired up with a 2x12 it sounds amazing. A bit pricey....but totally worth it. Get a D.I. box for direct input recording.
Yeah it's always been a bit of a burn that the bass player spends a shit-ton of money on an SVT and then the band has to haul that 8x10 up a flight of stairs and then the sound guy takes a DI bypassing all of it. Luckily it's rare to play a venue large enough that the audience isn't going to hear that 8x10 clearly from the stage. Check out rig rundowns, seems like in big bands the bass player often splits the signal and has some kind of a preamp by SansAmp or Ampeg on the board to feed their own DI with a tone that somewhat replicates what is coming out of the cab.
You have risen to the top of my favorite music production/recording channel list. 💯
Been following you for years. Even though I just sit in my room playing guitar, I feel like I keep learning something and change what I value in sound.
Keep it up and thank you!
I've learned so many import aspects of recording guitar from you, Glenn. Thank you very much. Any chance you will do a deep dive with bass tone as well?
Saving people money, hurting butts and giving me something to watch while I drink coffee! Honestly though, thanks to you I'm done buying gear. I got the speaker cab I needed put together and went easy on the board gear. Considering I'm 44, I probably have everything I need until death. Still love the show!
A while ago, in light of "breaking out of the mold" thing you keep going on about I tried completely DIY-ing an entire amp chain with only reaper stock plugins as an experiment. No amp sim or cab IR or anything.
Multiband compressor into distortion into EQ seems to work really well as an alternative and gives you basically complete control over shaping your guitar tone.
Especially the multiband compressor on the way in is incredibly powerful for shaping the way the guitar's transients behave through the distortion.
Lotta work to set up though. And with full control over everything you also have the complete freedom to fuck up everything on accident.
my favorite trick for all digital is to take GClip (free) and crank the gain on the recording before it goes into a digital distortion or IR. You can play with your softness and clip knob to change how intense the boost/pre-gain is going into something like Trash 2 by iZotope and it might as well be the real thing. Once you double each channel, it's there. I hardly eq until i have vocals and bass in the mix because that's where the MIXing part of the job becomes valuable
OH I also just remembered: Reaper has this wet/dry know for every one of your effects, so you could make a crazy chain and blend tons of different settings together.
I might just skip on the amp entirely and play around with that instead.
14:50 its like as guitar players we've been looking at the wrong things for tone this whole time. I can't wait for that video.
At 11:00 I wonder if an assortment of piezo pickups could make a difference with tone wood coming through to the mix 🤔
I'm really interested in that Line 6 Spider comment. Like even if the manufacturer doesn't give you a jack for it, you might be able to team up with an electrician and get them to wire a jack in so you could test different speakers/cabs. Would love to see that video if you ever get another Line 6 Spider.
Commenting for the algorithm, sending you good vibes on this day my guy! Thank you Glenn🙏🤘🏼
I'm going to double down on the left hand force applied to the string thing. The less effort the better. It's just a more efficient way to play. More efficient means, easier/faster/smoother etc.
Great piece advice!
Thanks for looking out for us Glenn. Just got off a 12 hour shift myself. Keep up the good work.
You put me 20 years ahead of the game. Its such that all of my friends shut up when I talk and take my word as gospel. You do not need to be catching so much flack still.
I’ll bet the “EMGs sounding compressed” is just that they’re higher output and people are clipping the signal on the way in removing any sort of dynamics
Have you used the Overloud TH-U? I've been really happy with the sounds I've gotten out of it, but I haven't used another amp sim in years. So, I'm curious how you think it might stack up.
Also, I'm wondering how you deal with the hissy top end on your heavy guitars in the mix.
I fuckin love the show and I love the social commentary that you sprinkle in. Good man Glenn, thanks for doing what you do ✊
I’ll be honest, I used to think all solid state cabs were like my old Line 6; but because of your channel I decided to sell my Egnater (300 bucks) and bought a Boss Katana for only 200, and an additional cheapo guitar.
Realizing how much I can do with solid state amps frees up my wallet so much, and next up will be speakers instead of a new amp to try and get the sound I’m going for. Going to get a dual cab with a 12” hempback and vintage G15V from Celestion to try and get the sludge god sound dialed in. Will save a lot not needing to buy a Muff and a 3,000 dollar amp
I have a line 6 Spyder 3 15w. I recently built a combo cabinet for it out of a pine bookshelf, sized approximately like a fender 1x12 combo. I dropped in a 12" speaker from an old Hammond organ that I had laying around, and suddenly that amp sounds better than my Marshall valvestate. Completely changed the character of the amp in every way. Might be worth making a patch cord and trying out. Thanks for the work, it's really helping us out!
p.s. I did this because of you.
I just subscribed to your channel a few days ago and Holy crap dude. You put out a video every day? I can't even crap every day.
that episode is great ! big shoutout to the guy who talked about kiko loureiro, he is a gold mine of knoweldge and he shares it all, my favourite guitarist personally.
If a solid state combo amp doesn't have an output for a cabinet just put one in. If you use a shunted jack and install it properly as soon as you plug in a speaker cable it will break connection to the stock speaker. Just make sure the cabinet is the same ohms or higher than the stock speaker. Not sure if it's a good idea for a tube amp though but I'm sure it would work as long as the cabinet ohms matches the stock speaker.🤘
"Not so much the fault of the technology but the fault of the people" - SPOT ON! Computers do what they are told, all our computers / modellers are nothing more than fancy calculators
7:56 there is more of a difference clean between pickups that are the same kind, worth the money different though... not sure, but swappable setups are more 'I love this guitar but need different sounds' and swapping humbucker and single coils.
“BUZZ LOOK AN ALIEN” would be hilarious to hear. First line that came to my mind when you mentioned Tom Hanks.
I'm a fingerstyle acoustic guitar player in my sixties who hasn't played with electrics and amps for over 20 years so much of what you talk about isn't relevant to me. However, your brutal honesty keeps me coming back and the fact is I've learned a thing or two from this channel. Having said that, let's be honest here... that Tom Hanks impression was fucking spot on!!
One of my colleagues once said:
You can have all the right information, but if you don't have the right approach, being right doesn't matter.
Hey Gleeennn!!! Question: Do you think “tonewood” matters in regards to durability. I ask because I have a lot of eucalyptus trees where I live. I got this idea to find someone to chop one down and see if I could find a company to make a guitar for me with it. Then I did more research about eucalyptus trees and found out that they suck for woodworking because it takes 100 year for a euck to reach a point where the oil will dry and they won’t warp. Eucks grow really fast so even a 200 ft tree is still much less then 100 years old. Maybe tone wood is good for durability not sound?
You're a life saver Glenn. Thanks for letting me know about that killer of a deal! Definitely getting that Harley Benton 2x12.
I agree with Mike Nash....recording one speaker to be played back on another set of speakers is filtering out the frequencies we truly love about our tube amps.
Thanks for featuring my comment!
Yes. Make those videos of the factory tours.
Can we get a Glen overdrive vid!!!! What approach you take to build your best gain structure.
Hey, I’m one of those older guys always searching for great tone. However, I don’t have unlimited funds in the bank, I work 50-60 hours per week in the automotive industry (so I feel your pain,) and I appreciate the hell out of what you do. Keep up the great work and fuck the haters!
@12:10, Thanks man, that's a good advice there about generating guitar tone. I will try to keep that in my mind all the time.
You could probably do some voiceover work for Tom Hanks.
Thanks for another great video!
I have to say Glenn, THANK YOU! for mentioning a few weeks back to get an attenuator for XLR for the viewer who had a microphone that was a bit too hot on the input. I have an Orange Bass Butler that was going to hot on the XLR outputs with barely any volume. Bought 2x JTS MA-123 and set them to -30 dB and it made it so i could finally connect my Bass Butler to my interface and record properly. Again thank you!
Hi. Anyone remember which video Glen talked about musicians going to studios less and less in?
I remember having seen it... but I can't find it. Made the mistake of going to uni instead of learning online and now am to deep and need a qoate to prove this statement on my essay...
Sorry for the likely poor spelling.
GLEN! Do you still recommend the T Bone 75 as a budget alternative to the Shure SM 57?
Glenn, What's your thoughts on using pedals with a clean channel for heavy guitar tone versus Amp only for tone? Cabs being a major factor, for sure.
I'm still blown away by Seismic Audio's actual speakers. $65 USD for 12" and 10" wide range woofer speakers. They're honestly meant for PA speakers to be paired with a tweeter or horn, but in bass or guitar cabs, they work like magic. 150 Watts RMS, they're a little dark (most high powered speakers are) but they sound so good.
Why do the current greenbacks sound so different from the 60s? Is the cone paper or materials used to composite the paper different or imported from a different place?
Hey Glenn, do you ever use tricks like running pink noise through your amp to get two mics on phase with another? If so, think you can show us how and what to look for?
Other than that, how do you go about making sure you get the phase right on both mics.
Any combo amp can be sent out to a different cab by just taking the speaker leads off and running them to the other cab, as long as the speaker impedance is correct. There is a guy on the Katana groups that actually made a product to stick into the katanas to add the cab out jack for convenience. KatCab, check it out. Should be usable by any combo.
Man I gotta say something about the 10 pickups video. I’ve listened to the comparisons with two very good studio headphones, presonus eris monitors, some edifier bookshelf speakers and finally in my car. I’m my opinion, I heard a difference between the pickups. Maybe the differences aren’t so outrageously different… BUT the differences are there. Your argument on tubes I agree with, but idk, I heard a difference within the pickup video. I don’t think I have super human hearing or whatever, but the differences are there. Whether or not it’s worth to spend 2-300 on pickups is subjective. To most people, they’ll prolly be fine with what they have.. but where I do agree is the speaker. I always tell people change the speaker before pickups. Anyway, I said my piece. Keep rockin Glenn!
Sure, there is a difference! I never said otherwise! It’s my opinion that the difference isn’t even close to what the marketing would have us believe.
So I remember a while back when you did your videos on pickups I seen you do the comparisons. But I remembered when I was younger I believe it was Seymour Duncan I can't remember where there was a product where a single coil acting as a humbucker. I don't know if they sell them today as I don't see any more advertisement on them. Any chance you could get a hold of one of those types? Or were they obviously bad for a reason as to why I don't see them being advertised anymore
I still want to know if you'd get the same kind of difference by swapping out the speaker IN the 6505+ for a Vintage 30, rather than connecting it to an external cabinet.
Hi Glen.
I'm a bass player and scored 2 real chap guitars, 1 acoustic & 1 electric and playing the electric has been fun, I'm looking at getting a half decent guitar. I appreciate the honesty in you vid's, and I've learnt a lot so my question is would a Pacifica 612 or a Sire S7 be a genuinely good purchase?? They both have great reviews and don't suffer from the Fender tax.
Personally I think if you look at an instrument and don't smile, you've bought the one, and I like the look of the Pacifica's, and the S7's...I have a Sire bass and I love it, for what it's worth.
Cheers mate.
The Line6 question here made me think, what would happen if you put a vintage 30 speaker in a line6? Would it still stuck or sound decent?
For the guy asking the point of swappable pickups, Glenn, you answered yourself right after saying you don't know : for people using no or few gain, where pickups do shift in tone
So I bought a Chapman hollow body telecaster with their branded P90s a few years ago. I know this is a metal channel but I do play it in a Rock/metal way. the neck pickup in it is basically unusable as no matter where I put the virtual mic on my nolly plugin or on my two notes captor x the 75-250hz range takes over I have heard on “reliable forums” that the manufacturing of these pickups were not done correctly and that resulted in this issue. Contemplating grabbing a set of fralin hum cancelling p90s. Tell me in full of shit?
I took the advice, saved cash and got a Randall 412 with Celestion 70/80s for about $180. Gotta say, best thing ever. Better than saving for a new guitar or pickups.
That EMG thing... I have a GIO Ibanez 7 string with passive EMGs and the 1st generation RGA7 with active 707s. Couldn't tell the diff in a blind test.
I love inexpensive guitars. Fret jobs go a LONG way on making a cheap guitar a good player. I've built Partscaster around a Mighty Mite neck. Total cost: $130. I love it. I also just bought a PRS SE for $500 at a pawn shop. Why did I buy that? Because I like the way it looks and plays. Works for me. I'm practicing and getting noticable better. I love watching your progress.
I've just gotten a couple of the small 5W/line level Hotone amps. They sound good running into a Quiltar cab mic'ed with an SM 57 as well as running line level with a cam IR (which I learned from you.)
A buddy of mine just dropped $5K on a "relic" '59 LP reissue and a Magnatone amp. Sounds great in the room, but recorded? My Peavey Detonator ($150), Hotone amp ($89) and cab IR (free) sounds just as good as his stuff when recorded. Seriously, I just can't spend that kind of money.
I dig your style and all your info.
Hey Glenn I'm a noob at recording but I've been experimenting with the bandlab app on my phone. I've recently gone from placing the phone about 2 feet away, just enough to avoid clipping, to placing it against the grill cloth and reducing the amp volume. I got a bit of amp hiss but a low pass filter cleans it right up, it really helped with my hi gain tones.
note that hiss can be shelfed out. it is the consequence of a tweeter, not a cone. another fun way to make your guitar sound better is to turn the guitar volume down, use the tone pot, and gain stage with your distortions as well.
@@mouthfulacoque3580 Yes I used a low pass filter, I think the hiss was from the distortion pedal
On question "What compressed means" for me personally it means that pickups doesn't respond with much difference if you change strength of pick attack (and i don't see what is bad about that).
Hey Glenn I just bought a new guitar and hated how it sounded and all I had to do to get it sounding the way I like was to adjust the pickup hight.
GGLLLLEEEEN!
I would love to see a video where you re-record and remix the same song 5 times and experiment with drastically different tones.
How experimental can you get? And just how drastically can changing the sonic landscape effect the the emotions being portrayed?
I know it’s mostly a bass thing, but what’s your take on hartke’s half neural half paper cone speakers? Is it like the tone wood thing all over again?
Hey Glen, since speakers are the key to better tone, would you willing to make a top 5 or top 10 best speakers for great prices? Thanks and cheers from Socal 🍸
I appreciate all your advice Glenn I'm not a kid I'm 33 but your videos have helped me a lot. I'm a husband and father of 3 sons so my money is tight and yes I do work very hard for it so thank you for directing my money to things that actually matter
About combo amps:
If you're skilled enough with a screw driver, soldering iron and don't care about warranty,
Add your own speaker output.
Drill a hole in the back, add a 1/4" jack and solder the speaker leads off the speaker and to the jack.
Done that to my fender frontman 15G (extremely cheap beginer 1x8 solid state combo)
Even through my shitty DIY 2x12 with cheap thomann speakers, it sounds 15x better than stock
Anybody know if there is quality difference between pickups? My favorite Yamaha came with an Ibanez INF4 pickup which from my research was just a stock pickup that was loaded into the inexpensive Ibanez models a few years ago, but I’ve wondered for years what would happen if I swapped it? I used to think pickups mattered but now I’m wondering “is it worth changing anymore?”. For a little context, I dont player super high gain, more classic heavy metal like Priest, Maiden and Thrash. If someone has any tips, I’d love the help. Thanks!
😂 Love the Tom Hanks thing! Glenn I’m a recording engineer and voice director working mostly on animation projects. Will definitely keep you in mind for any future castings… 😂
I have some stock Jackson pickups that I'm willing to send you if you can make them sound good through your rig. Perhaps it's my stock 8" & 10" speakers but swapping out those particular pickups helped the tone.
Hey Glenn!
It's not really metal but do you have any advice to minimize pick/plectrum noises when recording acoustic guitars? Cheers from London, UK
I think the guy talking about "in the room" meant the guitar through the amp into the speaker in the room, vs multiple recorded rigs through a mic and your speakers/headphones.
active pickups "sounds compressed" just means that the volume is more leveled out, like it was run through a compressor. doesn't change the tone, just the volume level, so that light playing and heavy playing sound less dynamic ( soft verses loud ). i would guess the active circuitry is partial acting as an unajustable compressor. that's what it looks like in a wav file.
This past Christmas, my 7 year old son said “Dad, I don’t believe Santa exists”. I asked “ why do you think that?” He said “because there is no evidence”. We raised him never confirming or denying that Santa exists. Here’s a 7 year old who used the scientific method to determine for himself that he doesn’t exist.
Glenn, something occurs to me.
Another guitarist once told me that he always remembers what his settings are. I was like, yeah, okay. But then I reconsidered the statement: Maybe he actually meant that remembers what he's looking for instead?
That statement would surely ring true about myself: I have this certain idea of where I want my tone to go. I feel that I end up pursuing that same tone and coming back to it, no matter what the actual gear available is... fiddle away with the amp settings until it gives that same damn thing, every time.
So while we take for granted that humbucker/single-coil and speaker make the most notable difference and therefore the most obvious factors to fiddle with if we want something different, do you think we'll still end up coming to the same place?
Also, on the preset of your favorite player, okay, sure, but where's the fun in that when you can throw your hands in the dirt and experiment with your gear and see what produces similar flavors and textures? You'll end up learning a thing or two and finding that, hey, this tone works for me better than that guy's tone... and hey, probably save a buck or two!
Hey Glenn! I am loving the scientific route your videos have taken. Just goes to show that, even in art, a good knowledge of science really does give you the advantage.
I don't know if this is true, but I've heard that the EMG's are designed to work with 1 or 2 9V batteries, but if you run them off of 1 9V that they will soft clip which would be a type of compressive distortion. That said, the EMG 81s have the highs rolled off and sound asstastic for clean tone.
Hey! In what episode did Glenn talked about refinancing his house??? I DEFINITELY must hear him explaining the process with his distinctive style!
Okay another “theory” question. Cabinet construction… does it matter? Solid Pine, Void-free birch plywood, oversized, open back, chipboard… all these terms that get tossed around. Does any of that matter? I’ve like Jet City cabs as they are cheaper than most but seem to be well built. Not sure about the Harley Benton cab, but does it really matter as long as it doesn’t fall apart when dragging it around?
He did a video about this.
look up jim lill he did a whole lot of testing with some interesting results
Almost 500k subs as of writing! Insane, you deserve every bit of the exposure you get and more. Your content is amazing and quality excellent, congrats and great work as always!
Back in the mid 80's when many of the first Boss pedals came out. Everybody bought them but had no idea how to use them. The Metal Zone comes to mind as one in particular, that ended up getting a bad reputation. I'd see all my friends struggling to get ANY useful tones out of them, and so they always sat around with dead batteries. I talked one of my closest friends into getting an adapter to power it and using an EQ pedal with it. Changed his whole outlook on it, and never heard him complain again. Having fancy gear is cool, but not knowing how to use it isn't. IMHO an EQ pedal will cover most of the weaknesses a cheap guitar with generic pickups have. Always buy the best gear you can afford, it will give you room to grow into. I see no sense in buying crappy entry level gear that won't last and nobody will buy.
run the metal zone into the return of an effects loop and plug the guitar into the pedal. makes the pedal into the preamp so you have to use the level on the pedal for your volume. makes the amp run at 100 percent volume otherwise. the angy bee sound disappears. even a cheap ss amp sounds insanely better. I was shocked as how much i liked it even running it through my 5150 2x12 combo.
@@smoothcannibal5371 no question, if you tryn run it all into the amp input, it will be basically unusable. By doing it like you said, the input won't be doulble boosted. Most pedals have buffers that attempt to recoup the lost signal with an automatic boost. This stacks up and creates a muddy mess.
Hey Glenn for guitar tips, have you ever heard of Bernth? he has fantastic tips!
EVERY luthier, I ever went to, to have work done on my guitars commented about my EMG equipped guitar, how the pickup would make every guitar sound identical, like it's a preamp. However, their hand wound passives would let the tone wood "breathe"... For a nice little upcharge of 400€...
I went there to get the nut fixed... The guitars sounded fine, they just had tuning issues.
Another highlight: Who built this guitar, you can't use ebony fingerboards on maple necks, that kills sustain.
ESP built it and they built and sold hundreds, if not thousands, of it.
I have a made in Italy Jensen in an old amp and the tones I get out of it is amazing.
Thanks for looking out for us Glenn🤘On the matter of saving a few bucks, i recently found the neurontube amp sim.
It's a pretty solid piece of software, given it's free to download.
I can get some nice tones out of it with my analog synths and VST plug-ins but it would be nice to hear it in a proper mix and used as intended.
Cheers and have a good one 🤙
I got an oversized Rectifier 4x12 in excellent condition for $500 from a dad on Facebook marketplace. Slant cab with straight top. He had a bunch of cabs and gear, idk why he let this one go so cheap but I jumped on that post immediately and took off work and drove 2 hours to get it. This was less than a year ago.
I also got a Crate Red Voodoo Sammy Hagar signature birch 4x12 with European V30s for $200 from a guy off craigslist... it sounds fucking fantastic.
Deals can still be found, local deals... Guitar center used gear is pretty fair priced also, and you get a 45 day return policy.
Hey Glenn. I can attest to the compressed (rather Limited) nature of the EMG actives running at 9v. I have DI screenshots for you if you want them. I think it's something you might want to explore on your channel because it's quite drastic how hard the signal is brickwalled on output. Send me a DM if you want the images. If it inspires you to test to confirm or disprove my findings, then I'm all for it.
What gets me is the people who get butt hurt instead of actually learning something! Such a dumb approach to life!
Lab Coat, and The Glenn Fricker Album needs to happen.
hey glenn. love your vids. i was wondering if you would ever want to test drum tone wood to see if its as bs as the guitar tone wood theory. love from australia
Love the opener. Truth.
I remember years ago when Scott Grove (Groovy Music Lessons) was blasted by other UA-camrs and commentors after he said that tonewood on electric guitars doesn't matter.... I watched a live stream of his a few months ago and mentioned how you and others were actually backing up his claims with experiments and data, and although he didn't really know who you were, he seemed quite happy about being vindicated. I think you two have a lot in common when it comes to certain things, would be awesome if you two collaborated on a video in the future!
Been helping me alot lately. What are your thoughts on melda plug ins. Thanks man
Do you have any recomendations for the bass guitar speakers? :D I know it's bit unconventional and unusual for bass player to ask about these things... :D
Lab coat turned battle vest with patches!
Sounds like Tom Hanks!! Wow, now I won’t be able to unhear this
“It’s Easier to Fool People Than It Is to Convince Them That They Have Been Fooled.” - Mark Twain
people can't let go from their beliefs ! as someone i know says :
"belief is the enemy of knowing and EGO is the protector of belief" .