So in the years since I've been delving into audio production as a hobby (but one I'm very passionate about), I've come to recognize a great dividing factor between guitarists and their opinions of tones/gear - those who have experience with (and knowledge of) tweaking tones for recording (whether it be mic'ing up an amp or tweaking a modeller to sound good, though moreso mic'ing up an amp), and those who have only heard their gear while standing in front of it in various rooms at various volumes and angles.
Why do I mention this? Because in my humble (haha, right
) opinion, the latter absolutely cannot be trusted to give advice to the former. Take my JSX: I had it for awhile, and liked how it sounded in the room, cuz it brought the gain and the volume without anything too annoying. But under a mic, I realized that it just wasn't cutting it for me, and honestly, I've heard a lot of people praise it on this forum, but the ONLY one who has provided clips that impressed me is Lasse (and then only through his extremely dark-sounding Engl cab).
The same could go for my own experiences with my Stiletto cab - I tried for awhile to work with it, but thanks to the feedback (mostly from Ermz, with his unflinching candor) on all the clips I posted here, I realized it too wasn't doing it for me, so I ate my humble pie, am admitting I was wrong to preach about it, and am now going for a Recto Standard cab. HOWEVER, I can easily see someone who owned a Stiletto cab and never tried recording it getting really aggressive about it being so much better than "that scooped Recto cab for nu-metal n00bs" (and this would probably be at Harmony Central )
And someone could make the argument that one amp/cab could sound better than another in the room but not recorded, and while I don't have enough experience with a variety of gear to deny this, I definitely have my doubts. To me, recording an amp/cab (close mic'ing, mind, not with some camera mic) just puts it under the ultimate microscope, and drags all the worst aspects into the light. So in short, never trust a guitarist to give tone advice, unless he/she can provide recorded clips of the stuff he/she is using! (either made by him/her or someone else using the same or a similar setup)
AND, thanks a ton to everyone (Ermz especially) for the honest feedback on my Stiletto cab tones; I've really been gaining an increasing understanding of the concept of a tone that will work in a mix, and as such I know I'll be much happier with a Recto cab! (for an explanation of the specifics of what I don't like about my Stiletto that I feel the Recto cab will address, see this thread)
Why do I mention this? Because in my humble (haha, right
) opinion, the latter absolutely cannot be trusted to give advice to the former. Take my JSX: I had it for awhile, and liked how it sounded in the room, cuz it brought the gain and the volume without anything too annoying. But under a mic, I realized that it just wasn't cutting it for me, and honestly, I've heard a lot of people praise it on this forum, but the ONLY one who has provided clips that impressed me is Lasse (and then only through his extremely dark-sounding Engl cab). The same could go for my own experiences with my Stiletto cab - I tried for awhile to work with it, but thanks to the feedback (mostly from Ermz, with his unflinching candor
) on all the clips I posted here, I realized it too wasn't doing it for me, so I ate my humble pie, am admitting I was wrong to preach about it, and am now going for a Recto Standard cab. HOWEVER, I can easily see someone who owned a Stiletto cab and never tried recording it getting really aggressive about it being so much better than "that scooped Recto cab for nu-metal n00bs" (and this would probably be at Harmony Central )And someone could make the argument that one amp/cab could sound better than another in the room but not recorded, and while I don't have enough experience with a variety of gear to deny this, I definitely have my doubts. To me, recording an amp/cab (close mic'ing, mind, not with some camera mic) just puts it under the ultimate microscope, and drags all the worst aspects into the light. So in short, never trust a guitarist to give tone advice, unless he/she can provide recorded clips of the stuff he/she is using! (either made by him/her or someone else using the same or a similar setup)
AND, thanks a ton to everyone (Ermz especially) for the honest feedback on my Stiletto cab tones; I've really been gaining an increasing understanding of the concept of a tone that will work in a mix, and as such I know I'll be much happier with a Recto cab! (for an explanation of the specifics of what I don't like about my Stiletto that I feel the Recto cab will address, see this thread)
