Guitars that cut through the mix

Voxman

Cutting through merely means that your guitar can be heard clearly in the mix. Teles do cut through well in certain mixes but  I think its more about the mid range frequencies which our ears like, rather than overdoing the treble frequencies. 

Lestratcaster

Tele bridge pickups cut through well, and lower gain with more mids help with amp settings. If you EQ right in the band mix you will all occupy your own frequency spots.

simonhpieman

Listen to the first Strokes record (as it's the best one, but they do it on all the others, too).

Absolute kings of fitting two guitars together perfectly in a mix through clever part writing and excellent tone.

impmann

stickyfiddle said:

thebreeze said:

stickyfiddle said:

I always think ACDC is a great example of this. It wouldn't have worked as well if either of them had played a Les Paul, as it would have taken too much bandwidth in the mix. 

Do you think they deliberately chose those guitars for that reason then?

No, I think those were the guitars they had when they started - I don't imagine they had a huge amount of choice in the late 60's in rural-ish Australia. Equally, they're both little dudes, so probably didn't mind having small lightweight guitars (save for Malcolm's stint with a White Falcon)

Actually Malcolm's guitar was a gift from his elder brother, George. He'd used it with the Easybeats.

Angus' SG came from a secondhand shop.

StefB

impmann said:

stickyfiddle said:

thebreeze said:

stickyfiddle said:

I always think ACDC is a great example of this. It wouldn't have worked as well if either of them had played a Les Paul, as it would have taken too much bandwidth in the mix. 

Do you think they deliberately chose those guitars for that reason then?

No, I think those were the guitars they had when they started - I don't imagine they had a huge amount of choice in the late 60's in rural-ish Australia. Equally, they're both little dudes, so probably didn't mind having small lightweight guitars (save for Malcolm's stint with a White Falcon)

Actually Malcolm's guitar was a gift from his elder brother, George. He'd used it with the Easybeats.

Angus' SG came from a secondhand shop.

I think Angus is also on record as saying he found Strats and Les Pauls physically too large & unwieldy, the happy byproduct of that being the sleeker shape, size and weight of the all mahogany SG helping create one of the all time great rock guitar tone partnerships with his brother.

OilCityPickups

ICBM said:

thebreeze said:

Very interesting.  I hadn't considered the amps but that makes total sense, particularly about the differences in character/tonal ranges of the different guitarists and musicians.

Mixing by EQ and dynamics is far more effective than by volume - if you have two similar sounds, the slightly louder one completely dominates, and it can only take a small difference, so it’s difficult to get a balance where you can hear both equally. It’s especially bad if the sounds are very compressed since the quieter one cannot peak above the louder one and just ends up inaudible - as skullfunkerry found.

But if they’re different EQ, especially if the ranges don’t overlap much - eg one is scooped, and the other is all midrange - then you will hear both clearly almost irrespective of their relative volumes. The more similar the EQ - and all guitars are mostly mids, up to a point - the more useful dynamics are, so it’s a combination of the two. Using less gain will give more dynamics.

Absolutely this ...

impmann

StefB said:

impmann said:

stickyfiddle said:

thebreeze said:

stickyfiddle said:

I always think ACDC is a great example of this. It wouldn't have worked as well if either of them had played a Les Paul, as it would have taken too much bandwidth in the mix. 

Do you think they deliberately chose those guitars for that reason then?

No, I think those were the guitars they had when they started - I don't imagine they had a huge amount of choice in the late 60's in rural-ish Australia. Equally, they're both little dudes, so probably didn't mind having small lightweight guitars (save for Malcolm's stint with a White Falcon)

Actually Malcolm's guitar was a gift from his elder brother, George. He'd used it with the Easybeats.

Angus' SG came from a secondhand shop.

I think Angus is also on record as saying he found Strats and Les Pauls physically too large & unwieldy, the happy byproduct of that being the sleeker shape, size and weight of the all mahogany SG helping create one of the all time great rock guitar tone partnerships with his brother.

Ever seen Angus with another guitar...? Well here's the reason he never plays 335s... he is a bit on the small side:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CiRvFUoHgTM

thebreeze

^ that's good for seeing who cuts through 

Rocker

Sometimes in a band situation, it is amazing what works well!  In the 1970s I played with a country and country rock pub band, a Les Paul through a Marshall 50 watt head and 4 * 12 cab.  Not your typical country setup but it worked.

I was asked to join a Rock n Roll group at that time and invited to a practice session.  My Marshall rig was in the trailer and unavailable so I took with me the only amp and speakers I had to hand.  Which was an Orange PA (valve) amp and two 2 * 12 PA cabs.  To beef things up a bit, I used my MXR distortion pedal.  The other guitarists was using a Traynor amp and the bassist said my amp suited the band sound perfectly as it was different and fitted in very nicely.  So for a year or so that was what I used when playing with that band.  

Sometimes unexpected things happen when you play guitar......