I've been meaning to do some gear comparisons for a long time just to hear the tonal differences of different gear that we have at our rehearsal room, so I finally got something done.
Didn't try to go for "the ultimate tone", so I just quickly dialed something and started changing some settings & guitars to hear how they differ from each other. Some of you might be interested, so I decided to post these here. Try to ignore my sloppy playing
and don't take these too scientifically either. There's some drums & bass underneath from an old recording.
Chain: Gibson SG w/ duncan custom -> 5150 -> Mesa 4x12(oversized) -> sm57 -> Api A2D
1. I first had a bit muddy/dark tone, so I wondered if I should raise the treble or the presence in the amp. Here's the result:
more presence
more treble
Which one do you prefer?
2. Different elements (top). I tried to match the mic position as closely as possible, but It's naturally not going to exactly be same.
left element
right element
Which one sounds better to you?
3. Tried different guitars that happened to be there and that had the same tuning as my SG. All had different brand string sets, but I guess they were all 11-54 or 11-52 (daddario or ernie ball). I just came to the conclusion after this that the EMG81 is a bit bright pickup.
gibson_sgspecial
esp_mh1000
esp_sc200
4. Just for shits and giggles I tried my old Marshall Mosfet (with ts9):
Mosfet
Same mic position as "5150_leftelement". This I had to eq a bit more in the "mix".
5. Here's Marshall jcm800 with ts-9 which I recorded last week just for a quick test. Mic position should be about the same as in "5150_rightelement".
marshall_2010
Here's a couple of photos:
btw. Not all this is mine
, but the guys in other bands are kind enough to let me borrow their gear for recording purposes. My plan is to get a reamp box and a new interface to replace my Mbox2 (which cannot be used for re-amping, because it doesn't have line outs, only spdif & monitor out) or get a DA converter, so I can start recording @ home & re-amping here.
-Antti
Didn't try to go for "the ultimate tone", so I just quickly dialed something and started changing some settings & guitars to hear how they differ from each other. Some of you might be interested, so I decided to post these here. Try to ignore my sloppy playing

Chain: Gibson SG w/ duncan custom -> 5150 -> Mesa 4x12(oversized) -> sm57 -> Api A2D
1. I first had a bit muddy/dark tone, so I wondered if I should raise the treble or the presence in the amp. Here's the result:
more presence
more treble
Which one do you prefer?
2. Different elements (top). I tried to match the mic position as closely as possible, but It's naturally not going to exactly be same.
left element
right element
Which one sounds better to you?
3. Tried different guitars that happened to be there and that had the same tuning as my SG. All had different brand string sets, but I guess they were all 11-54 or 11-52 (daddario or ernie ball). I just came to the conclusion after this that the EMG81 is a bit bright pickup.
gibson_sgspecial
esp_mh1000
esp_sc200
4. Just for shits and giggles I tried my old Marshall Mosfet (with ts9):
Mosfet
Same mic position as "5150_leftelement". This I had to eq a bit more in the "mix".
5. Here's Marshall jcm800 with ts-9 which I recorded last week just for a quick test. Mic position should be about the same as in "5150_rightelement".
marshall_2010
Here's a couple of photos:


btw. Not all this is mine
-Antti