Thread: Audio samples of builds?

Gday Guys,

I seem to strongly hold a different view on this, if we buy a car we want to drive around immediately we test drive it first--right?

If we buy a musical instrument it is imperative we hear it first or otherwise we are not going to buy what we require. Buying a Guitar Unheard is just like buying anything else unseen, we take a chance.

If the people you are dealing with are honest the sound samples will not be edited in any way shape or form.
If they are this is bad business as the prospective owner will not be able to recreate the sounds he she or they have heard from the sound samples.
One thing for certain is they will certainly spread a bad name, so for any Luthier it is in there best interest to not only supply sound samples but back them up when required.

It is good business to not only supply a good product & samples of such but to put your money where your mouth is so to speak & back things up if & when questioned.

The best way to hear an instrument is to play it Clean, leave out all effects, any good Muso can hear what they need from this & they will make a decision.

If they want to add effects then, well it's up to them.

I don't know any Musicians that would buy an instrument without hearing it at the very least, looks are one thing but if she sounds like Sh*t when they get it then your out of business.

If you have a good product, supply a Clean sample totally un edited to back up your claims, the customers will be happy & many more will return.
Many sounds can be made & styles can be played Clean if the guitars are any good so don't be afraid to show people what you have--stand by it!

If you buy a guitar for looks only then i guess you deserve what you get, the sound is the most important thing to a Musician. It's a hard pill to swallow but if people don't like your Clean Audio samples then they don't like your guitars, all it means is that there is plenty of work to be done creating something better.

The final result of the craft is the sound that the instrument makes so to show this you must have sound samples, especially if people are not close enough to play them for themselves.

You may have the worst looking but best sounding guitar on the planet, i bet it sells itself due to the unique sound.

There is an old saying that no one will like
It says that if you can't play a guitar then what the hell are you making them for as you don't know what your building?????
If you can't play, then it's time you learn to be able to progress your building skills.

WayneW
Linguist Guitars

Wayne.
I will agree with some of what you are saying and then on the other hand disagree.
This is what you call double dutch.
Now to me if you have picked good quality tone wood and then you the luthier knows how to build correctly using the right good quality components, pick ups Etc.
Well I would say you are going to have a good sounding guitar.
Correct me if I am wrong.
Cheers,Bob

Mandolin buyers might be different, but I had a two year waiting list before I had a single sound byte on the website for any of my guitars.

Same here, although more like a 3 year waiting list. However, recently I am finding more and more prospective customers are asking for sound clips. I was saying no I don't have any, but probably lost some sales becasue of that so made the effort so they don't bother me asking. It is a bit tricky because the sound does depend on what the speakers on the PC are, and more than likely they are fairly crappy little speakers, but at least on my PC I can clearly hear differences and can tell a poor madolin from a good one. Guitars might be different becasue there is a lot more low frequency content so small speakers are a long way from ideal. Anyway we shall see, the USA market has collapsed after all the financial troubles so I need all the help I can get.

Wayne, I couldnt find your website. Would love to see it.

I let my clients sell my guitars. If someone wants a sound byte, then go listen to one of the bands playing my gear (live or cd), or, i'll direct them to a myspace page where they can hear one with any number of recording techniques (and contact the owner for a comment). Maybe they are local? One of the existing owners will gladly pop in and show off his guitars. Do they ask how they sound? Nope, they ask "How do they FEEL?"

I make custom guitars. Client specs it out however they like. How would I provide sound samples for everything on offer?

Here is my favourite soundbyte featuring some of my gear. What, where and when though? How much of the tone came from the players touch and finese?

http://www.monaro.com.au/guitars/ima...MixMP3%201.mp3

(for the record, Seinnheiser mic, no eq, no mastering. No effects. Nothing. Amp eq was 5/5/6 Recording was done in two takes. Improvised)

I prefer one on one contact with prospective clients, which is why we travel to the USA and east coast of Oz every year. Deliver last years orders, let clients meet each other, and sign on the new guys. Much more fun, and personal, than some sound byte. Like I said, my clients pretty much sell my gear. I guess they are my sound bytes.

Simple fact is, I might have had SIX people ask for sound bytes (of guitars) in seven years. Im not kidding. Maybe because these days, people have heard my guitars before they've heard of me? Sure, Ive got some old stuff in the website, but how many people download them? I can tell you that. The most downloaded soundbyte on my website was played 16 times last month. 1253 unique visitors looked at that same page in the same period. Demand?

Pickups are a different story. We have recorded samples of all the pickups we do, through identical rigs (except the amp head, which we used four different ones for every pickup in every position, but kept all settings the same... even the riff!). You wont find the pickup sound samples on the website, but they are there hidden away (we send a direct link to them if we need to). Why is that? We cant keep up. Clients are selling them... we cant make them fast enough. More than 75% of the people we are selling pickups to have got a friend using them, or they spoke to someone at a gig.

If there was demand for it, I'd do it. We simply dont get asked. We get asked more often for stickers, posters, calendars and clothing merchandise than we do for sound samples. Not what I expected when I started out, but the reality is people are not demanding them. Wish we could get some more shirts though, we've run out.

But, dont let what Ive said stop you. Go forth and record. Show the world what we are missing. We'll just knuckle down and try and get through some more orders.

Bob, my experience when observing musicians sampling my mandolins is that they will always pick up and play the prettiest instrument first. So, you are correct in that the first reaction is to pick the instrument with the fancy wood. However, what do they buy? They buy the instrument that sounds the best. If the fancy wood instrument does not sound quite as good as the plain one next to it they will put the fancy one down and buy the better sounding instrument that is not so pretty. Sound always comes first.

As a guitarist, not a guitar builder If I am going to order a custom electric, I will select pickups first and foremost. I have in the back of my head a number of my favourites which I like and then when specifying all other elements of the guitar, what will be in the front of my mind is how will this play? So, I would not be at all interested in sound clips unless they had the SAME specs as what I was ordering, specifically the SAME pickups

As a guitar builder, the few that I have built for other people, when I handed the guitar over, they had a bigger smile on their face when thay saw it for the first time, than when they played it for the first time. Their initial reaction on the tone was not estatic because it is different to all their other guitars, however when I ring them 1 week, 2 weeks down the track, their comments on the tone are better and better until they are estatic, which I assume is because the tone is growing on them, and they are growing attached to the guitar.

How is a sound clip going to give you an idea of how a one off custome guitar is going to sound? As far as I can see, all it is going to do is demonstrate the instruments you have built, not what you are going to build.

I don't know any Musicians that would buy an instrument without hearing it at the very least

Wayne, how can you try a custom build before you buy it? I know of alot of musicians who would love a custom, and it is just not possible to try before you buy.

Cheers,

Peter

Gday Guy's,

Bob
The old double dutch hey
Your question is more complex than at first site, let me think how to answer this one correctly.

I'll try to answer a few things at once, if i can.

Audio samples are important even for custom built guitars as it is a record of what you have built in the past.
Some may like what they hear & want one simillar, it's good business to let people know what you can & have done.
You are never going to be able to recreate exactly the same timbre from an instrument but you can come extremely close to the mark if you have records of your work.

The technology is there to be used these days so use it, if they only had these things in days gone by.

If people hear the quality of the instruments built previously through the Audio samples it will have a marked affect on there decisions.

Not only that customers can use this as a baseline & if your listening to the same Audio sample as a reference point & they say for instance they would like more mids than the No2 sample you know exactly what your doing & what they want.

Audio samples for a signature series or the base models is a must also, the only thing that can distinguish the tone of your particular guitars compared to the other 100 million of them from a distance is an Audio sample.

If people don't listen to the audio samples on sites then there not really considering buying a guitar i would think & maybe they have seen enough & go somewhere else.

I know if i was going to buy a guitar from a distance i would like to hear the product as it may not suit what i do.

As mentioned the SOUND is the end product of the craft but to a musician it's the beginning of there's so it's the biggest determining factor.

Peter,

I will start another thread about the neck subject we were discussing a while back.

rhoads56

I don't have a website, never required one but after you mentioning it, it is time i move into the 21st century & get one. I have looked into it today & registered a Domain name--whatever that is haha!!
The site will be at:
linguistguitars.com when it's done.
My site will have Audio Samples that's for sure.

However, i will post a couple of pictures of my guitars in the thread i mentioned to Peter, if i can use the new fang dangled camera that is, can't even turn the bloody thing on at the moment.

WayneW
Linguist Guitars

Well Wayne if nothing else we now have many different views and thats what forums are all about.
My own view each guitar is going to sound different it all depends on who is playing it.
Cheers Bob

Perry makes excellent points regarding instrument samples.

You can sit in a shop, using the available gear to test 3 different types of basses and each will sound different using the same rig, settings and player using a pick and/or fingers. Take the same basses out of the shop and use your own rig and it will sound different. The basses at home, rehearsals, at gigs, recording sessions will sound different using the same rig. Different rooms, different sound, different rig, extreme weather changes and it's a lottery. How can anyone make an accurate design change based on a sample - it's impossible LOL.

Agree, I do not see how having Audio samples on your website is going to help you to sell guitars unless you can get Jeff Beck to play every guitar you build and then use that as your sound sample.
Cheers, Bob

Originally Posted by woodturner777

Agree, I do not see how having Audio samples on your website is going to help you to sell guitars unless you can get Jeff Beck to play every guitar you build and then use that as your sound sample.
Cheers, Bob

that wouldnt impress everyone... only the people who are impressed by Jeff Beck's playing

Originally Posted by rhoads56

that wouldnt impress everyone... only the people who are impressed by Jeff Beck's playing

...so to validate the tests, we need "everyone" to play each guitar through the same setup... Crikey, might as well pack it in now...LOL.

Gday Guy's

I'll start another thread to answer some of this in more detail.

I'll answer one thing here though.

mkat

You wrote

"How can anyone make an accurate design change based on a sample - it's impossible LOL."

Answer:

By having a full understanding of your craft & what your working with.

WayneW
Linguist Guitars

G'Day Wayne, I note a Kevin Rudd answer.
Cheers, Bob