FUQ (eff -yu - cue) - FAQ's with an EDGE

Tagged As: Jackson Electric Guitar

Question:
IMO no instrument suffers more under digital recording than the electric guitar. The digital medium may do an excellent job of reproducing the human voice, as well as acoustic intruments like violins and particularly brass. But when it comes to electric guitar, every recording I've ever heard in digital format is missing something. It's like the electic guitar has lost its cutting edge. The raunch that existed in analog recordings is gone. Instead a blah sound is projected in its place. Why is this? Is there any way in which this problem can be remedied, otherb than by replacing guitar amps with guitar synths? Any opinions?

Answer:
Not a slam against Dean guitars... they made some interesting looking models in the 70's and 80's... but when I think of tone, my first thought is not a Dean. Nor is it Dimarzio, which many of those Deans were fitted with. Oh well... this is just plain silly. You can indeed get a pretty good guitar tone captured to digital... I've done it and it wasn't that darmned hard, but you start with a good basic setup. For me getting a decent tone do digital was as easy as putting a 414 in front of a Marshall cab with Vintage 30s... driven by a 70's MkII Master lead 100 watt head (6550 tubes)... and my guitar which is a rather pedestrian neck-thur Jackson soloist loaded with a Seymour Duncan Distortion pickup. (note that the JB would probably have better tone but less drive). say MIDI guitar is the solution is just plain silly.