Most affect on the guitar recording chain?

[ahjteam]

We all know the answer to this question already: The fingers, settings and mad skillz make the most affection on the tone.

But if you have to choose only one gear related things that affects most to the guitar tone, what would you say it is? Meaning, if you take one piece of gear and change it into a different one (say you take a Les Paul and then switch it onto a Stratocaster or you use an Avalon preamp instead of the built-in preamps on the Fast Track Pro), which one makes the biggest change?

 

[P-E]

Pickups.

 

[FloridaRolf]

Easy choice: DAW - Nuendo for the BOOM

 

[Timelesseer]

^ Most amusing video ever.

 

[ahjteam]

Pickups.

I have a hard time deciding between guitar (including new strings and pickups), guitar preamp, guitar cabinet and microphone. They all have a very big tonal variation effect

 

[Machinated]

guitar (properly set up, with good pickups, new strings and played by someone who is good at playing what they are supposed to)

 

[Machinated]

and do you really expect anyone to say cables etc?

 

[colonel kurtz]

amplification

 

[xFkx]

I'd say guitar cabs

 

[-Loco-]

Cabinet.

 

[Trevoire520]

Pre amp I reckon.

 

[Jaymz]

Cab, by far

 

[P-E]

To back what I said, IMO tone comes more importantly from the source. If by any means the guitar's pickups is awful (talk about low-end BC Rich guitars... bleh), no good sound will be obtained in any way from the guitar.

Edit : this is when speaking about affecting sound negatively. Different cabs however, can offer a really wide tonal palette. Depends on how you interpret the question.

 

[MarcusGHedwig]

I would say amp/cab (amp just barely edging out cab, but close), then pickups, then guitar; obviously any one of those things sucking will make the tone suck, but given the choice I'd much rather record a crap guitar through an amazing amp/cab than the other way around! Mic is kind of a different category IMO, since it doesn't affect the quality of the source

 

[Charles J]

For me, it's a combination of PLAYER, pups, amp/cab and WHERE the cab is positioned in the room/the type of room.

IDK. Just me.

 

[MarcusGHedwig]

Don't suppose you read the first sentence of the OP Charlie?

 

[slashvanyoung]

Tough one. We heard quite some amp shoot-outs on here done with the same DIs which have shown how close to each other some amps actually sound. That would almost make me go with the cab...

But: Some cheapish SS head will make more of a difference to a great tube head than choosing between different cabs for a great tube amp.

Even the cheapest mics will usually yield better results than great ones micing a shitty source.

I have a hard-time answering this... if you take everything into account, one really - reeaaally - shitty cable might fuck everything up.

Considering everything works fine, I'd say:

Amp > Cab > Pick-Ups > Mic > Guitar > Preamp > Room > Cables > A/D > DAW

There are so many unknown variables that it's basically impossible to judge this.

 

[professorlamp]

Cab I reckon , is there an actual answer to this? or just a survey?

 

[Charles J]

Don't suppose you read the first sentence of the OP Charlie?

lol. Sure didn't, but STILL, I can't pick just one. It totalllllly depends.

 

[AudioPhile777]

Seriously?

Why more people aren't saying the GUITAR is the most important part of the GUITAR TONE is beyond me...