It’s been interesting to experience it, I’m pretty sure the frequencies that are held back slightly are in the 800-1k hz range. It’s partially because the guitar itself is inherently that way acoustically, and I’m sure the rest is the pickups. It’s almost in exactly the range where so many of us SRV freaks will boost with a tube screamer. Yet when you do boost it with a pedal, it feels a whole lot different than having it inherently come from the guitar. I’ve spent a lot of time listening to playbacks and I really do enjoy the tone of it as is. It’s definitely the least boxy sounding guitar I have. I might leave it this way for awhile just to work on my ear a little. It’s really fun to move outside the comfort zone just a little bit to see what happens, and see what can be learned from it. The experience makes me want to collect at least one more maple board strat with huge frets to continue down this road a little further and very slightly broaden my horizons, listening vs playing, and trying a little harder to understand why things are the way they are. But it seems everything becomes an excuse to collect more gear, so maybe not 😅
Oh I’m getting another strat I’m putting a bunch thought into it right now😁 I dig both guitars the clarity of the special and the plan string thickness of the Japan fender. I want both in the same guitar 😆
Listening to this comparison, to me the Amer Spec sounds more 'lively'...it's the best way I can describe what I'm hearing. It could be mistaken for a volume mismatch (slightly hotter wind?), but more likely it's just an emphasis on different frequencis that are apparent in your demo, as you'd suggested. Either way, sounds like fun to me! The tone quest continues!
Definitely agree. The strings are weeks newer on the American special, which has a pretty profound effect on the general feeling of liveliness, and attack and decay, but maybe less on on the overall EQ profile or shape. I’ll probably give myself some time to acclimate and train my ear before throwing any cash at it. I do like it the way it is. It plays fantastic. The show where I’d tried the Special out was in a big room that is inherently on the bright side, from past experience. I might possibly prefer that American special guitar in a darker or more bass heavy room. Watched Quite a few recordings on UA-cam of it, all the playbacks sound great and I may just force myself to deal with it…..also may download the UA-cam vids, edit out the parts where the guitar isn’t featured, and post up a larger live tone sample video with effects and such. It’s a cool guitar and who knows, maybe it’s best left alone….I do like how different it is from my others…but sometimes it’s educational to experiment and go too far before reeling it back in :)
Particularly on the unwound strings
It’s been interesting to experience it, I’m pretty sure the frequencies that are held back slightly are in the 800-1k hz range. It’s partially because the guitar itself is inherently that way acoustically, and I’m sure the rest is the pickups.
It’s almost in exactly the range where so many of us SRV freaks will boost with a tube screamer.
Yet when you do boost it with a pedal, it feels a whole lot different than having it inherently come from the guitar.
I’ve spent a lot of time listening to playbacks and I really do enjoy the tone of it as is. It’s definitely the least boxy sounding guitar I have.
I might leave it this way for awhile just to work on my ear a little.
It’s really fun to move outside the comfort zone just a little bit to see what happens, and see what can be learned from it.
The experience makes me want to collect at least one more maple board strat with huge frets to continue down this road a little further and very slightly broaden my horizons, listening vs playing, and trying a little harder to understand why things are the way they are. But it seems everything becomes an excuse to collect more gear, so maybe not 😅
Oh I’m getting another strat I’m putting a bunch thought into it right now😁 I dig both guitars the clarity of the special and the plan string thickness of the Japan fender. I want both in the same guitar 😆
I can definitely hear the difference
Listening to this comparison, to me the Amer Spec sounds more 'lively'...it's the best way I can describe what I'm hearing. It could be mistaken for a volume mismatch (slightly hotter wind?), but more likely it's just an emphasis on different frequencis that are apparent in your demo, as you'd suggested.
Either way, sounds like fun to me! The tone quest continues!
Definitely agree. The strings are weeks newer on the American special, which has a pretty profound effect on the general feeling of liveliness, and attack and decay, but maybe less on on the overall EQ profile or shape.
I’ll probably give myself some time to acclimate and train my ear before throwing any cash at it. I do like it the way it is. It plays fantastic.
The show where I’d tried the Special out was in a big room that is inherently on the bright side, from past experience. I might possibly prefer that American special guitar in a darker or more bass heavy room.
Watched Quite a few recordings on UA-cam of it, all the playbacks sound great and I may just force myself to deal with it…..also may download the UA-cam vids, edit out the parts where the guitar isn’t featured, and post up a larger live tone sample video with effects and such.
It’s a cool guitar and who knows, maybe it’s best left alone….I do like how different it is from my others…but sometimes it’s educational to experiment and go too far before reeling it back in :)