You have saved a lot of guitarists a lot of money with the "What matters most with guitar tone" video. I don't see why anyone should complain. Thanks Glen.

I really get the "don't do an album" thing in heavy metal and/or other more mainstream genres. I play metal and in a oi!/punk/streetrock band, we got a deal with a german company who published and payed for a debut album. The money was ok and they took care of all the publishing and other bullshit. The album was limited to a few hundred copies and we got 100 to us. Now the record is sold out and we are planning on making a vinyl release, so luckily it still works in some genres! :)

Along with pickups, the pots make a difference as well. The Ohms, or resistance of a 250k is fairly different than a 500k, in fatness, and brightness on humbuckers. Even more difference on single coils.

Nothing more metal than bluegrass dude! This shirt is awesome man!

Glen is providing a value service for guitar players. I wish I knew many of these things when I was younger.

When people say "Tone is in the hands", they're not talking about frequency response IMO. They're not talking about some magical effect of the hands themselves. They're talking about differences in performance and choices. To give an extreme example, suppose you give the same rig to two guitarists to play the same song. The rig is a a Schecter C1 guitar and Mesa Dual Rectifier halfstack amp. The song is "Paranoid" by Black Sabbath. The two guitarists are James Hetfield of Metallica and Jimi Haha from Jimmie's Chicken Shack (kzfaq.info/get/bejne/rZ5yirZ-m5edpaM.html). Even with the same rig, playing the same simple song, Hetfield and Jimi Haha are going to sound different. Hetfield is going to play nothing but downstrokes on his bridge pickup with the volume and tone knobs on his guitar all the way up. Jimi Haha is a weirdo who only plays on the neck pickup, he might actually roll off his volume and tone knobs a bit, and he's probably going alternate pick. They're going to sound different, even if they're using the same amp dialed in the same way by an impartial engineer. If you give those two guitarists control over the amps, they're going to dial in different tones too, and sound even more different. In your experiment you gave 3 guitarists the same rig, dialed in the same way, and all three guitarists chugged the same riff with nearly identical technique. So of course it sounds the same, because you removed the variables of performance and choice from the players. But different players DO sound different when you allow them to make their own choices, perform in their own way. That's why most Slayer fans can tell a Kerry King solo from a Jeff Hanneman (or Gary Holt) solo. That's why most guitarists can almost immediately identify an unfamiliar track from Carlos Santana, David Gilmour, Slash, EVH, or Tom Morello. That's what most people mean when they say "tone is in the hands". That they'll never really sound like one of those guys, because of the thousands of little choices each guitarist makes when dialing in their tone and making their performances. That James Hetfield is going to sound like himself whether he plays a Gibson Explorer, an ESP or even a Fender Tele.

7:40 that's why I watch Glenn. I understand that I can't take everything he says to an exact science (because I play punk rock) but I have never felt mislead buying anything he recommends.

I know Ola got a Randall stack, full stack and he was talking about the cabinets have Jaguar speakers in it . He’s the guy as far as getting the Dime tones. I think it was a Randall RG something . Ola was very excited about the Jaguar speakers because they were what Dime had in his cabs .

Pickups affect the pick attack of notes under heavy distortion and can totally change the character and feel of playing.

I became an "It's the speakers that matter" guy in the early 70's; when my Twin Reverb's Power tubes went out during setup for a gig. So I borrowed a Super Reverb from a buddy for that show, Thinking that; same amp? Same settings, Yeah? The only difference between the amps were 2X12 VS. the 4X10's. But try as I may. That Super just sounded like "ASS" to me. Twisting the tone knobs couldn't get rid of the bright dirty nasties in it. "Lesson learned" I eventually ended offing the Twin, And using a Super Showman as my gig amp, Coupled it with with 2 cabs. One bassman style 2X12 Jensens and a Fender Rhodes 1X15 JBL signature. When I turned the tone knobs on that rig there wes a distinct tonal change. Always been "All about the Speakers Bro!" Just Say'in.

i love your videos. they made rethink a few things about my tone and now I'm loving playing again. keep up the great work.

This is my favorite series on KZfaq I love your tests!

The other good news for people like me who live in severe temperatures (desert) is that you can focus on guitar wood that doesn’t react as violently to the sudden heat and cold changes.

The way I've always looked at it is that the speaker and cabinet are the ONLY part of a guitar rig that actually *make a sound*. Sincerely, a drummer

Thank goodness that you still enjoy and love what you’re doing and you are not completely burned out, emotionally drained, or mentally exhausted. Thank you Glenn!

I swear I have learned more and have more of a confidence boost from watching Glens channel then I did when i went to school for Audio in Toronto in 2009. Beyond thrilled that I found a channel like this, and its even better hearing all this info from a fellow Canadian. Keep it up!!!

Your video about speakers finally laid my mind to rest. I literally spent years and years looking for the tone and sound that I wanted to get. Tried several amps, guitars... After a long time, I settled on a DiMarzio D-Sonic as my go-to pickup, but after having played through a Marshall cab for years, I was still missing something. Then I switched from a Crate Blue Voodoo to an Engl Fireball ànd discovered the Orange Jim Root signature cab and voila: found it. I just wish someone was around years earlier to tell me that speakers have this massive of an influence. It would have saved me an enormous amount of frustration (and probably money). Keep up the most excellent work!

That Jedi Priest shirt is amazing. May the force be screaming with vengeance!

I can't wait for a pickup test! You should not only do brand X vs brand Y but also: Different magnets (ceramics vs different numbers of Alnicos). Different levels of output (PAF vs underwound PAF vs overwound PAF vs 12-14K vs 15-17K vs 18-20K). Active vs Passive. Different actives (various EMGs vs Blackouts vs Fishman). True single coils vs coil split humbuckers True single coils vs noisless single coils Full size humbuckers vs mini humbuckers vs hot rails There's so much stuff it's probably gonna be a 2 hour video made in 2 years

It's funny, because 20 years or so ago(I'm 40) I had a guitarist friend who's thing was cabinets. He eventually built some "quick release panels" comprised of various speakers, in various combinations and patterns, set in various wood sheets. These sheets were wired in a way that they were ready to go, with snap connectors on the wiring. He'd get a new cab(or sometimes build one), remove the front panel, and router a perfect groove to slide a panel/sheet into. The groove was perfect and tight, so it was a nuisance to get one in/out, but it also prevented any variables such as wobble, ect. On semi permanent ones(combinations he liked a lot, so would use often) he would sometimes put some glue in the groove, or use some silicone. This enabled the ability to still rip the panel out with less effort than a full build, but was more solid than something he was still playing around with/undecided about. He always swore tone was predominantly in the pickups, amplifier, and cabinets - and I tended to agree.

You're releasing new IRs? Hell yeah! I've been using your set from Lancaster for a while now (damn those lewitt mics sound great) and would love some new additions. Hopefully that greenback/hempback combo you showed a few weeks ago will make it onto those.

Pickups make a huge difference! My Jackson had pickups that were made in house and I couldn’t get them to do Dimebag squeals. I upgraded to the exact pickups Dime used and voila!

NGL the editing is great. Good job Jack!

Yeah, the combination of the edge of EHV and the body of the Hempback really sounds unique and kinda refreshing! You really found a hidden gem in there! Can't wait to hear more experimentation on those bad boys haha Cheers!

You could try out a "solid state tube" like an AMT Warm Stone 12AX7 replacement. If those are even remotely comparable to a set of actual 12AX7s I'd replace all my tubes in a heartbeat!

You should try the G12H-75 creamback. Amazing speaker for metal. Some people like it in a blended cab with some V30s in there too

Changing Pickups,speakers,even guitar pick materials & gauges will yield noticeable changes in tone. BUT,the most drastic change in tone I've ever experienced is when I swapped out the Saskatchewan seal skin bindings on my pedal board to pristine vintage virgin Brazilian NOS velcro straps! They're quite rare and expensive AF...but worth every penny.

I’m so glad I’ve seen your videos about speakers. I’m a DIY’er and have been thinking of building myself a speaker cab to go with an amp I’ve had for years, your stuff has been far more informative than anything else I’ve seen! Admittedly I’m a classic rock guitarist and not so much metal anymore but I like your videos and have been able to learn a hell of a lot!

With your work on replacing the speaker and you posed a VERY convincing argument. In fact, after hearing the Celestion Hempback, now I’m looking to replace the Celestion speaker in my Marshall combo amp with one of those. I’m also looking to get a cheap Marshall 4X12 cab and replace those speakers with the Hempbacks.

Victor Hugo: "Nothing is more powerful than an idea whose time has come." Neil deGrasse Tyson added, "second most powerful is the idea whose time is about to pass." People get up in arms when shown proof of what actually affects tone, but they're only the 2nd most powerful voice out there.

Great series Glenn!! Very informative

Thanks Glen, amazing video as always 👍🎶🎙️🎸🥁🎹

Seeing a theme of "transducers are filters". I'm on board with that.

I can speak from experience that while an eq before the pre absolutely amazing, it is more choppy than if you just had good pickups to begin with that did most of what you wanted and then used an eq to change just a few things.

This channel is amazing. The tests are so helpful and should be shown to every guitarist that gives a damn about anything

I never realized how much the tone of an electric guitar depends on the speaker(s) in your amp or cabinet. My fender needed work so I bought a cheap practice amp to fill in. Everything sounded shitty , but I had nothing else. Then I bought a pair of practice amps. One was a 20 watt Typhoon, with a 10 inch Celestion speaker, and an Orange Crush 12 watt, with the Ears of the World speaker. Holy shit. I fell in love all over again with the tones I was getting from these two little amps.

I gotta say at first when I watched your videos I was turned off by the language, but now after many vids I have to agree with your opinions...you just speak absolute truth of mind on exacting science of Metal Audio Recording! Thanks for speaking the truth on all aspects! (JampacJ)

Might be worthwhile looking into Relish guitars for the pickup test. You can hot swap the pickups with no soldering, so that would save a ton of time

Always entertaining and full of good advice!

I've been a singer most of my life and recently picked up guitar and bass along with all the sound/recording and so on stuff that goes with it IMO. Thru my experience I suspected the speaker factor as I also used to work with bands as a roadie back in the 80s and just seemed to notice it when a guitar player would fry a speaker and replace it you could tell his cab sounded different even if it was an identical speaker or when they changed cabs at all even more so obviously. Some of us who don't get distracted by "the shiny" actually learned a lot of this long ago without realizing it sometimes LOL. You rock bro. Keep up the great work and thank you.

Hey Glenn, you’re my new dad. Thanks.

I have two Jet City amps and they sound great and are designed for easy modding. Some models were designed by Soldano and some were designed by the creator of Victory Amps. I believe they are now owned by Epic Amplification and are only custom builds done in the USA now.

The speaker thing makes loads of sense. This is why we test mixes on different speakers. Didn't think about applying it to guitar tone til you explained this. Cheers from a few hours to the east!

Been on a Specter binge as of late and I enjoy your no nonsense FOCK YOUR FEELINGS approach to presenting information. Plenty of people just wanna hear their own opinions echoed back to them instead of hearing what they need to hear. Keep it up and f you!

from friends who tended to buy pickups like madmen, i had a couple of their "leftovers" gifted to me, besides some pickups i bought myself. had a cheap JS- series jackson guitar where i went through some of the pickups i have (SD TB6, SD TB4, SD Thrashfactor, SD Dimebucker, DiMarzio D-Activator, DiMarzio FRED) . not really scientifically, but from what i can tell, it's that with my peavey 6505+ it changed the sound only so far as to how high the pickups output was, i could mostly tell ba the gain, sustain of single notes and "chunkyness" or "chuggyness" of the chords i played that something changed. with my Laney GH100R the differences seemed to be a little more nuanced.

Great video as usual Glenn! Have you ever though of making video about music production and audio engineering on Linux? There's a great channel about it called Unfa. I recently found ~10 years old laptop in a trash and I decided to install Linux on it and use it for recording live shows and "studio" tracks when there's no PC available.

Hey Glenn, your channel is my go-to for honesty when it comes to buying gear. I've bought a lot of the stuff you've recommended over the years and none if it has ever let me down. I got a harley benton fusion 2, joyo zombie, harley benton v30 2x12, a legator 7-string and a cockblocker. Thank you so much for your 'No bullshit' approach to gear and other music equipment, you're saving us no-nothing dumbshits thousands of dollars.

This is why I love this channel.

See, this is why I like Lace Sensors. They’re basically a really clean, clear, even platform which you can then use your amp settings & such to build the tone you want

Your guitar tone myth videos have certainly been eye-opening and interesting - great job on those! But I gotta say, even though I know very well that this is a metal channel, your conclusions definitely make it sound like these are absolute conclusions to be taken across the board. I know this is a tall order, but it would be really interesting to see all these tests done on the "less distorted" end of things where we might actually hear some differences, especially these days where metal is incorporating more and more non-metal elements. Anyway, keep the science coming!

I think your experiments provide a very good place to kinda bring people down to earth. I do think there can be subtle differences, but those differences… really go into the hobby area for fun more than practicality.

another reason for me to try new amps and love my guitars. much love glenn.

I had the same experience with my Marshall JVM, it was sounding really weird and crappy and I decided to swap all the tubes and re-bias it with Tung-Sol tubes, originally I thought it sounded amazing with the new tubes, but I really only chose the brand after experience told me Russian made lasted longer than the Chinese Marshall ones that died with little use in 2 years. Your video just proved I fell in love with the amps sound and the tubes had nothing to do with it. Glad I didn't fall into the trap of buying the "special" tubes the seller kept trying to sell me... 🤣

I recently bought a roland kit and am triggering the GGD metal kit for screwing around at home. My band has a dedicated practice spot with the acoustic kit fully miced. It depressing how good the GGD kit sounds versus my efforts to record and mix my Bison kit. ...... I get why people use these software "solutions" now. Kind of defeating.

Glenn... i love your show and i love your honesty... Best regards from Germany

Glenn I’ve been watching your videos for a few weeks and I just wanna say thank you for 2 things. 1. You fucking put your foot down on this channel and what you do being a dedicated METAL production channel when people say well if you played “blues” or this genre etc etc fuck that this is metal don’t like it get the fuck out!!! 2. Been really depressed and I’ve been on and off of music and wanting to record it but felt really lost on it your vids have helped me on just getting started I’ve learned a lot of approaches to sound due to your videos and once I get a small set up to start learning and tinkering around with recording. Thank you for doing you and for making these videos it’s nice to see a channel like this dedicated to metal! Hope the year is treating you well. Thank you for all you do.! 🙏🏾👍🏾🤘🏾

Another great video!

As a guitarist I really appreciate this! Thanks for getting down to brass with this. I’ll definitely keep it in mind.

Thank you for the FREE work shop on The Basics. You put in a lot of time and effort and to give it away, well that tells me you really want to make a difference in the Metal music world Mike Glarry Music Canada

Putting an EQ in front of an amp is great. You can take a thin sounding single coil and give it a little more low end, and if you boost the signal you can use it to overdrive the signal going into the amp which has some interesting sounds. Tom Morello uses a basic Boss 7 band EQ in his rig before the amp, as a boost pedal for solos. So, he just cranks everything up to the maximum and let’s it rip, and going straight into the amp will give a nice gain boost and some pleasant distortion if you’re using a tube amp. I know this is a metal channel and Tom Morello might not be everyone’s thing, but it’s mine and I bought a Boss EQ pedal to try it out, and I love it. The hard part is deciding where I want it in the signal chain, because you can use it to shape the sound going into and out of distortion pedals and get very different sounds-like a wah pedal, which is also a filter. I usually make it the last stop before the amp, which can shape or boost things as needed. I’m sure there are better EQ pedals out there, but the Boss 7 band EQ is simple, and has frequency bands that are going to make the dramatic changes to the tone of a guitar.

"Louder generally sounds better" Fletcher Munson. ;-) Something you are overlooking is that speakers are an electromechanical device hence they "break in" and also wear out. The surrounds, no matter what they are made of, change compliance over time and how hard they are pushed. I once tried to explain what a compressor did to a guitarist I was working with, I got half way through and he looked like a deer in the headlights. He said "I didn't understand anything you just said but chrome plate it and I'll buy it."

I've taken some of your suggestions on mics speaker and mic placement and finally got the tone i was looking for thank you very much Glenn you da man love the show Scott from kc

You have the most rocking name you Frickin monster! Love your work brother!

Oh man, you could do an entire series just on studio construction. The guy who commented on the room being soundproof and having a lack of reverb needs a lesson. Sound proofing and acoustical treatments are two completely different things. The former is a measure of how much sound can escape (or get into) a room. The latter is a measure of how well a room is treated, or constructed, for the purposes of acoustics. Also, I used to work with John Sayers at the home recording forums about 20 years ago! He let me mod it for a while with him. He's such a great guy.

You must be doing well if you're adding people, that's awesome, you deserve it.

I read the title and that alone made me chuckle and hit play. This should be a good one. Lol.

Great vid!!

I have changed my speakers and I got a drastic change for the better sound thanks to you!!!

That last one was funny as hell!!!!! I've experienced that exact thing a number of times.....lmao!

Broooooo you awesome guy thank you so much for the info 🤘🏼💀🤘🏼

I just got my pod go based on your recommendation and after a few hours of tweaking I finally have some good tones!

Just watched how vital speakers are to tone last night and I was wondering all along if I’d somehow missed the section on pickups, which was my answer in the the survey So glad to see this

Cant wait for the IR pack! Gonna be fun going through bias Fx2 with some of your cabs

Great very informative video, and that last comment at the end, God that's funny Lol!!!!! I've said something very like that once in the studio, once upon a time....

Pickups can definitely have a huge impact on tone. The speakers are still the most important, but how the vibration is picked up and translated…very particular. I personally think the best method is to get a full sounding pickup with a balanced eq, or slightly warmer. You can always add brightness and gain through the amp/pedals.

I think the “big statement” video coming before the VC videos is a smart move. Good idea

18:57 hilarious :) expecting it to be somewhat reverberant or distant sounding and it was totally clear and no reverb hahaha. That's a great room.

When you do the pickup test, you could use loaded pick guards, so you're only wiring up at the output jack. Have a single volume and single bridge pick up, and just swap those pickguards on a strat

Hey Glen just an idea about the switching pickups vid you are thinking of doing. GFS makes a system called QuickPlug which literally lets you unplug a pickup, plug into another one, screw it in and your done. No soldering, no muss, no fuss. You can easily swap out pickups in less than 5 minutes. Surely you know somebody that has a guitar like this. It would make your video so much easier to film. Just a suggestion. Thanks for what you do. Ive learned so much and still have tons more to go. YOU ROCK!!!

Another addition to these "filters" and tone is the cabinet design. -Front vs rear loaded speakers on the baffle -Lined vs un-lined -Chambered vs un-chambered -braced vs un-braced 👍

That mxr 10 band pedal is amazing! Has 2 outputs to use a d.i. track with as well. I use it as my first pedal just to clean out muddiness and harsh highs but theres so many options with it

I love your channel because I have no real preconceived notion on what effects your tone and I'm an evidence based person so I'm glad to know what's real.

Love the shirt! Do the pickup comparison please.

love your videos

The Rane single space parametric EQ in the fx loop is a game changer if you want to sound like everything!!

Got 2 2x12s with V30s and Greenbacks. With 4 Sm57 with Wilkinsons clips and a Behringer crappy console before my preamps... All thanks to you Glenn!!! With my Triple Rectifier, let's say I have a monstrous tone that sounds amazing and versatile inside Reaper :)

GLEEEENNN! Hi. There are guitars out there with a pickup quick change option. Bonus fearless gear review!

I really like the fender humbuckers ATM. Never used them before. Very clear

I'd love to see that pickup video when you're able to do it. I use a tilt EQ at the beginning of my signal chain to adjust the tonal balance of my pickups.

Your point on speakers & cabinets is well made. People don't talk that much about them compared to various revered and heads. And yet those same people will rabbit on and on about various IRs...

Ah, Gate automation, interesting concept. Never thought about that. THANK YOU MAN!!!!!!

I'm not even a metal guy but I keep tuning in every week for tips

this man is a prophet. he saves many lives with his honesty.

Would be fun to see one of those tone shift videos with bass stuff, like strings and bass cabs!

On the tube changing subject, I think the most change you'll get is changing out a pre amp tube to a lower gain one. Example would be 12ax7 to 12AU7, I did this with my EVH 5150III LBX and found it more useful.

I honestly am enjoying your videos. They make a lot of sense. Especially the one about speakers in.speaker cabinets making a difference in sound/tone. I showed it to so people and it really pissed them off. That was my intention to do so. Yes, these friends play in some awesome bands, and they have some amazing material....BUT, they are the types if you don't have the guitars, amps, and or gear that they do, you are not going to have a good guitar tone/sound. I could go on, I'll stop there though...

Hey Glenn! I i do something i like to call 3 EQ technique one eq in front of the amp, one in the fx loop one after the cab sim/after the mic... and this changed everything

Please start releasing vc on Saturdays, this is great

Awesome channel! In case this hasn't already been mentioned for swapping out pickups: Relish guitar company has the magnetic connections to change out pickups without soldering or anything. May also lower variables as far connection soldering quality, grounding issues, etc. Cheers from California!

Points for the change. Having more immediate feedback and discussion is, in my opinion, a better choice. Then the topic is fresh and still in everyones minds, and the conversation can be even continued to the following week. Or perhaps some new tests or discussions pop out from that feedback. And mainly it is best for a modern person like me who has an attention span and a memory of a goldfish.