Tone Comparison Guessing Game!

[Kenji20022]

Did this for a friend of mine and I figured I'd let you guys have a go at it as well.

https://soundcloud.com/kenji20022/musicman-jpxi-vs-ibanez-rgt220h-vs-musicman-jp6-rosewood

Just a little riff I came up with, guitars panned 50% Left and Right. The last take is pretty sloppy, so please excuse the playing. Here's the guitars' specs and tone woods so you guys can take a gander. I'll post the answer tomorrow in the afternoon I guess!

EBMM JP6
- Basswood Body
- Rosewood Neck
- Crunchlab Liquifire Pickups

EBMM JPXI
- Alder Body
- Mahogany Tone Block
- Maple Top
- Mahogany Neck
- Ebony Fret Board
- Crunchlab Liquifire Pickups

Ibanez RGT220h
- Mahogany Body Wings
- 5 Piece Maple/Wenge Neck
- Neck Through Construction
- Rosewood Headstock Veneer
- Rosewood Fret Board
- Stock Dimarzio/IBZ Pickups

Randomized of course, but take you guess!

Here's the answers once you're ready to see them!

Comparison Answers

 

[t_rod]

Hmm if I were to guess, I'd say 1.)JPXI, 2.)JP6, 3.)ibanez. Hard to tell much difference between the first two in my opinion, but the last one definitely seems to lack some of the low end and separation the others had. Could all just be in my head though

 

[MrJJoncas]

1.JP6
2.Ibanez
3.JPXI

 

[QuietSpike]

JPXI, Ibanez, JP6.

 

[PaoloGilberto]

JPXI, JP6, Ibanez

 

[Benji Peterson]

My guess is JP6, JPXI, and Ibanez.

 

[Kenji20022]

Interesting! I'll put the answer in a linked picture so people who still want to guess can give it a go!

Comparison Answers

Hmm if I were to guess, I'd say 1.)JPXI, 2.)JP6, 3.)ibanez. Hard to tell much difference between the first two in my opinion, but the last one definitely seems to lack some of the low end and separation the others had. Could all just be in my head though

I can hear that, I've honestly come to the mindset that denser woods simply make the top end shimmer a bit more without affecting the low end too much. The Rosewood Necks on my Mystic Dream and Koa are very dense sounding and have that shimmer without getting drowned by the low end. I'm going to do a demo soon that's a bit more in depth of all the ones I currently have, Clean/Crunch/Distorted/Lead comparisons!

 

[t_rod]

Would love to hear some more tone comparisons of your JP's!
Do you think the Koa JP w/RW is a little more well rounded than the JP6 w/RW in terms of balance across the tonal spectrum?

 

[Kenji20022]

Would love to hear some more tone comparisons of your JP's!
Do you think the Koa JP w/RW is a little more well rounded than the JP6 w/RW in terms of balance across the tonal spectrum?

Well put! The Koa is definitely well rounded, I don't really LOVE the tone of a regular Koa JP6 just because the Ebony Board adds some really bright top end frequencies while the whole guitar has really smooth lows from the entire thing being Mahogany. It always felt like it was missing something inbetween if that makes sense, the Rosewood Neck remedies this for me. The Rosewood Neck I got on mine is particularly dense so it is bright in it's own way, but it fills up the entire spectrum EQ wise and rounds off the bright top end.

The JP6 is far brighter to me, having an even denser neck than the Koa Top definitely helps this. It pops in the mix a bit better and is more present if that makes sense. Basswood has always been a neutral spectrum for me, it never had a part of the spectrum that was more pronounced but it really allows the neckwood and pickups to shine the most.

 

[dwells]

Jpxi, jp6 , ibanez

 

[JasonT]

I love these! I'm usually pretty good, but only got 1 out of 3 this time. Rats.

 

[Siddius]

Not to be the troll, but it sounded like Axe-Fx.
It may be a more effective quiz if you did a clean setting, rhythm setting, and lead line per guitar.

BTW, I got none of them right. As soon as I heard the second example, I knew it would just be a guessing game. This would be a great source for anyone trying to make the argument that tone woods don't matter (Although I disagree with that idea)

 

[Kenji20022]

Not to be the troll, but it sounded like Axe-Fx.
It may be a more effective quiz if you did a clean setting, rhythm setting, and lead line per guitar.

BTW, I got none of them right. As soon as I heard the second example, I knew it would just be a guessing game. This would be a great source for anyone trying to make the argument that tone woods don't matter (Although I disagree with that idea)

Well I am already working on something like that, it should ready relatively soon. And as far as sounding like an Axe FX, how did you come to that assumption? I mean I tagged the sound clip with the words Axe FX so I'm assuming that, if you gave me 2 identical sound clips I wouldn't be able to tell which one was real and which one was the Axe FX.

And as far as this being a guessing game, that's exactly what it is lol. I put up the specs of each guitar so you could guess using your notion of what those tonewoods would sound like. The first sample is very bright and present, but lacks a bit of low end clarity, the second sample is noticeably darker and fuller sounding which is something I've always associated with the BFR's, and the last clip is essentially my favorite it is bright and doesn't lack low end definition. I was also partially interested in what people thought of the stock Ibanez pickups, they certainly surprised me for how much flack they get.

Either way, I'm recording Clean/Crunch/Rhythm/Lead samples right now of every guitar. I still have to wire my JPX up with the new Illuminators I got for it so that might take a bit longer but it's coming!

 

[Siddius]

Don't take what I said too seriously. I thought that it was a rather neat game, and the tone sounded cool. I also happen to think that the Axe-Fx is awesome, but there are certain sonic traits that I have noticed from them (admittedly, since I don't have one, whatever I have noticed is probably rather shallow). It wasn't necessarily to say that the individual tones sounded like the Axe-Fx, but more that I have found with some high-gain modelers, swapping guitars makes less of a difference than it would with an actual amp. My rosewood necked silhouette sounds pretty similar to my strat when going through my high-gain profiles on the kemper, but they sound completely different on the low-gain profiles.

This is the internet, so a grain of salt of b.s. should be taken with all comments. Please don't let mine put a damper on what you're doing, I think it is pretty cool.

 

[Siddius]

Honestly, the first two sounded like you could punch in from one to the other and no one would ever notice (assuming the punch was clean). The third one has something different going on, but you said your takes were sloppier, so there is the possibility of that being some sonic phlegm between the stereo takes