After my ridiculously long post (and clarifying follow-up), I still have to point out that while all the little features that some people obsess upon do make a small difference, ultimately people just need to pick up their axe and play.

If a person can't play a well-set-up guitar with the type of pickups they like, and it stays in tune (no matter what the other features), they probably can't play. the neck radius and scale a player prefers has more to do with the playability (and ultimate sound satisfaction) of an axe than the finish or nut material or whatever people obsess over.

I have a MIM Telecaster that I love almost as much as my MIA Stratocaster, which I love almost as much as my MIA 1980 G&L F-100...they all have different body woods, different finishes, different neck materials (and radiuses/radii/whatever ), different fret sizes and different pickups/controls...and yes, they do sound different...brighter or warmer or richer or more/less sustain, more spank or more spark, they each have their own personality.

But ultimately, they all end up sounding like me, except when my drummer plays them...then they sound like him. And his guitar (an Epiphone Junior with a single P-90 and upgraded Grover tuners) sounds a bit different, too.

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Good Vibes To Y'all!



Screamin' Armadillos
Texas Roadhouse Music
Guitar/Slide Guitar/Harp/Vocals

Yes.

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Good Vibes To Y'all!



Screamin' Armadillos
Texas Roadhouse Music
Guitar/Slide Guitar/Harp/Vocals

Oh no...!
Not another post on wood/finish/pup/nut/strings/ferrules/tuners/tremlo blocks/ types making a difference in sound again...

I go with Martian's 'graphic' answer.

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-T

"You can't spend what you ain't got, you can't lose what you ain't never had" ~ McKinley Morganfield

Although all the changes are subtle, it all adds up to a difference. Although subtle, there is definitely a difference in tone between a heavy wood vs. a lighter wood with an electric guitar or bass. Isn't art, food, music, etc., about the small differences?

I would think that the different finishes keep the guitars interesting and fosters sales. So that if you hype the thin skins, for example, you get a bump in sales.
If we go out and buy 2 new identical synthetizers, of course the will sound the same.
I think that is what is so beautiful and mysterious about guitars! All these nuances keep us going.
My new Strat is finished in Nitro. I can tell right away that it will decay so much faster than my other Strat finishes. I will probably need to talk to Armadillo about some of that Old Maharishi guitar wax!
One thing we could really argue about is the differences in timbre and sustain when the strings don´t actually go through the Fender in question.
This friend was so excited, he was putting together the "ultimate sounding Strat". So when I saw it I was perplexed because amongst other modern appointments he had done without a vintage-style bridge and the strings were not going through the instrument.
To me, the fact that Fender came up with the idea of stringing the wires THROUGH a solid body is absolute genius and pivotal to the sound of Strats and Teles.
If you have a modern type bridge, please comment on the sound of your Strat as compared to the vintage-style bridge.
Cheers, mike

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FIGHT!

Alright then, that settles it. No more posts on the aforementioned are necessary nor should they be entertained. Let us now move on to infinitely more insightful symposiums such as (but not limited to) MIA Fenders being superior to MIM Fenders.

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You dig?

I may not be able to hear the difference between Poly and Nitro, but I can hear a difference between my Highway 1 and American Standard.

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RK

2007 Fender Highway 1
2012 American Deluxe
2015 MIM Dave Murray HHH
2010 Fender Blacktop
1987 Fender Avalon Acoustic
2012 Marshall DSL 15 watt head

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-T

"You can't spend what you ain't got, you can't lose what you ain't never had" ~ McKinley Morganfield

Only guitarists who worry too much about gear (in other words, all guitarists) can hear the difference between nitro and poly. I usually guess approximately 95-99% of the audience probably doesn't know what guitar you're playing, let alone the finish of said instrument >_>

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I traded my car in for a microphone.

The longer the night is,the better the audience gets in appreciating the music and telling you how great you sound...in other words they get drunker!
I can play the worst ever and feel embarrased and everybody enjoys it,so I just thank them and everybody is happy.

hey man I visited a state where all the women are beautiful.
the state of plastered.

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FIGHT!

That's true--from stage you can often tell who is a musician and who is not.

The non-musicians are listening to the songs or watching the performance itself.

The musicians are looking at/critiquing the gear on stage, or dissecting the individual guitar/bass/drum/whatever parts and often are missing the "performance."

Once the Lady Armadillo and I went to a small outdoor performance of a group of young guys (all were 17 years old or younger), and she was really groovin'...she asked what I thought, and I said, "They're pretty good, but this is really simple stuff they're playing."

She replied, "Who cares? It sounds good...listen to the song and the show, not the notes or guitar solos!" And she was right, once I quit dissecting the individual parts of the song, the show was great.

I still believe that the player himself (or herself) will have much more to do with how the axe sounds than poly vs. nitro or all that other crap. Buddy Whittington could pick up a cruddy copy of a Squier (not even a real Squier) and sound better than me when I'm playing my MIA Strat.

A guitar with every "perfect detail" feature will only sound as good as it's player.

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Good Vibes To Y'all!



Screamin' Armadillos
Texas Roadhouse Music
Guitar/Slide Guitar/Harp/Vocals

I've been able to spot musicians over the years at nearly every place I've played....you can just tell...lots of times they're near the back of the room also....then when a break rolls around they meander towards you to start up a conversation.

+1

In my case, most of them offer to buy my amp rig (whatever it happens to be that particular night). Sometimes they want my guitar too......



Arjay

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"Here's why reliability is job one: A great sounding amp that breaks down goes from being a favorite piece of gear to a useless piece of crap in less time than it takes to read this sentence." -- BRUCE ZINKY

If you walk by a guy and hear him say, "My guitar is all scratched up and I have only had it for six months."

The other guy says:

"That's funny, I have played mine everyday for years and it looks brand new".

Can you hear the difference?

J/K