Grey whistle test: legend vs vintage

[Rambler]

Video showcasing a 42 Legend and a reallio truelio 43 banner. Mostly strums, but you can hear they are pretty close.

 

[diogo]

this is interesting...but i don't get people's fixation with new strings, it's something i'll never understand. makes both guitars sound like absolute crap. of course they sound the same, i bet a 2005 J-45 with new strings would sound the same too, you cant make out anything with all those crappy overtones from the new strings, other than the dimension and body of the sound, which many modern guitars also have. the complexity and sweetness of the gibson tone is all lost with this approach, in my very humble opinion.

 

end of rant (i really hate new strings)

[Thermionik]

If'n I had to pick one over the other, that old '43 with no truss rod sounded just a little nicer to my ear. It seemed to have a tad more clarity or articulation at both the real low end and the ringing harmonic end. The newer guitar was actually probably the better one to record, certainly the easier to do justice to with its more balanced and focused sound, but that old girl from 9 years afore I wuz even born, that's the one I'd be taking home..... I wish.

[Thermionik]

Confirm that - took a download of the audio and ran it through my 'listening' amps (two H||H 100w PA, one for left, one for right, into big old Tannoy concentrics).

 

Even with the crippling constraints of MP3 or whatever compression algorithm You-Tube uses, and whatever loss I incurred burning it to CD, the difference is stunning. That old 1943 sings, the reissue is good, very good even, but the original, that is great sounding.