DIY Recording Guys · Vadim Kharaz and Benjamin Hull

60: The Sound of Different Guitar Brands

March 8, 2021·38 min·3 clips

Ben catches a key flaw: John's guitar shootout isn't apples-to-apples due to varying output levels driving the amp differently.

The listener controlled the obvious variables. Every guitar kept its stock passive pickups, the volume and tone controls were wide open, and the interface preamp gain stayed put for the whole test. Vadim is into that setup. Passive electronics can only take signal away through the knobs, since there is no powered circuit adding output or changing the EQ. That is the lesson hiding inside the gear talk. If one guitar hits the input harder than another, that louder hit is not a mistake in the comparison. It is one of the things being compared. Still, there is another perfectly useful version of the test. A second pass could level match every take to the lowest output guitar, which would ask a slightly different studio question. Both versions make sense. One shows what each guitar naturally sends into the chain. The other shows how the tones compare after output differences are pulled out of the way. The timing helps too. Because the takes happened within an hour, the usual excuses about temperature and humidity mostly lose their power. The conversation stays grounded in actual sessions. When a track needs a specific guitar tone, the host talks about using a gain plugin after an amp sim to deal with uneven plugin levels. That is where the test becomes practical instead of just nerdy. Guitar choice, pickup output, interface gain, and amp sim behavior can all push the decision around. Careful constraints help a DIY engineer hear what is really changing. Nerdy, yes. Useful, also yes. The cold open also reminds listeners that the show lives inside a DIY recording community, with free basics material and working engineers helping people through real project questions.

As heard by us

A practical guitar-tone comparison becomes a sharp lesson in output, gain staging, and hearing honestly.

DIY Recording Guys turns a guitar-brand shootout into a more useful question: what are you really hearing when every guitar keeps its stock passive pickups, all volume and tone controls sit wide open, and the interface preamp gain stays fixed?

Read the full review in PlayNext →

Why you'd press play

You want to compare guitar tones without letting louder output talk you into the wrong choice.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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