Do Guitars Really sound That Different? 

Never let that p90 strat go, everything you'd want in a bright Tele and everything you'd want in a dark les Paul, yet holding its own voice. Magic

One of the reasons I love your videos is you don’t inundate your audience with noise and useless information. So many you-tubers feel they must post every day with ridiculous topics. Keep up the good work.

The intonation on that Esquire/Tele was absolutely perfect. Sounded incredible on every test.

I have felt this way for a long time. I once saw Eddie Van Halen play Panama on a Les Paul, and it sounded exactly like his famous Frankenstrat to me. And then I saw Jimmy Page play Whole Lotta Love on a Tele, and it sounded like his Les Paul. That made me realize the sound is mostly in the amp, speaker, pedals, and fingers, and not as much in the guitar itself. For me the guitar difference comes down to the pickups, not the wood, as some amps and pedals react slightly differently to different pickup outputs. The guitar obviously does make a difference, but it’s a much smaller difference than the amp, pedals, and speaker in my opinion.

I’m reminded how awesome P90s can be. Awesome as always! Keep it up.

The Les Paul with the P90’s is AWESOME! Almost Fender clarity and quack but still retains some grind.

One of the best produced comparisons on youtube. Thank you so much !!!

Fantastic video. Great to hear them all back to back like this. I found myself being drawn to the ‘57 Strat in almost every instances.

Never seen any of your previous videos but really loved this. So to the point and each section short enough to remember each of the previous sounds..

If I had the possibility I would own both a telecaster and a les paul , their tones are the ones that fascinated me the most.

That Tele esquire is one beautiful sounding guitar! The rest were nice also but that Tele really did it for me.

I love these comparison videos and yours is great for so many reasons- lots of guitars, great narration and terrific playing and sound. Hope you decide to keep them all. Every guitar has a distinctive soul.

That Brian Setzer Gretsch is one of the most gorgeous guitars I’ve ever seen. Amazing finish.

This is not excessively nerdy, and I love it. You showcase in a video the voice that every guitar player has inside their heads

Great video! Man, I regularly get shivers of joy when I hear slightly overdriven or high gain distorted P90s. I really started to like them over the last year!

Great Paul. Great tone, great playing and an very interesting test. More of this content please.

That green tele is something special. Awesome tone and playing. Love your channel!

All your guitars sound awesome - and your playing is absolutely outstanding. Although I'm a Les Paul guy, my favorite is your green Tele

Excellent video, well shown and explained, and finally someone who does not talk & blabber between the examples, but consistently plays them back to back. Well done! 👍👍

That is the best tone comparison demo I have seen / heard. I would keep all the guitars because you can never have too many guitars… keep up the great work. Superb Channel…

For those about to rock, with Paul, we salute you! Thanks for bringing the goods with this one.

What an outstanding video - absolutely loved this! Green ‘tron Tele and 57 Strat both joint winners for me, but agreed on the Goldtop at the end - that was mega.

One of the most useful videos I have seen. Thank you.

Best comparison vid ive ever seen..shared it immediately..great job!

Thanks for the demo! Can’t help steal your low gain neck pickup riff, sounds really great!!

wicked comparison & playing. will definitely reference this when it comes time to add a guitar to the arsenal!

Personally I loved the 57 CS Strat followed by the Ron Thorn Tele. All subtley different yet equally wonderful, great video as always Paul 👌👏👏👏

Amazing demonstration Paul! Great work was made to catch "The Thing" of each guitar. And yep, "Until I Heard This Clip" and the end is really true :)

Great video. The Tele my favourite too. Shines even more in mixes. Thanks for sharing.

Thanks for the comparison! I love it! I kinda like the 1st tele the best overall but that strat neck pickup is something special. I think they all have a purpose for a different sound. Definitely keep them all 😃

Wonderful video as always, I so much enjoy them, great playing, wonderful sound, great music, and so much useful information. Thank you so much for doing this!

Great video Paul !!!! 👍🏻👍🏻

Great video - really enjoyed it. People I’m sure will lean towards the guitar that they own or hits their style best. But the single coils to me were fantastic in every setting where the heavier pickups (LP with HB especially) sounded like a blanket over the amp with clean tones and neck pickups. That’s why I say the Strat is the most versatile guitar ever, especially with a HB in the bridge - it can literally play anything well. Nice collection of guitars and to me this demo shows why you really need one of everything. Cheers!

Killer comparison🔥

Fantastic video. Fun to watch the tonal differences. Especially because you are such a consistent player. For me, my favorites were the 57 Strat and your LP with humbuckers. Both guitars sounded glorious. My least favorite was the Tele with gold foils. Everyone has different tastes. 😊

Thanks a lot spending your time on making this great video … very educational

Superb video. Love this.

Great comparison, Paul! The differences were quite clear. I really like the P90s, especially in the strat, but I agree with you on the Esquire - it just sounds magnificent. The others were not far behind, though, and I think this video proves once again that the single most important thing in the sound of a guitar is the player. Someone with your skills can probably make anything sound good!

Wonderful playing and touch and tone. Miss your DGT I have the gold top with the moons. It’s an incredible guitar

Great collection, me like the P90 sound.. in all of the test's :) Thank you sir. Greatings from Belgium.

That was one of the best comparisons I've ever seen. My favorite of all was the Tele, it just seems to hit the sweet spot of all those tests overall. Thanks and happy new year!

This is one of the best and most informative comparisons that I've ever seen. I thought I knew how they would sound, and for the most part, I was right, but the Gretsch was a surprise. I've been a big P90 fan since playing with a bandmate in church who played them a lot.

Very good presentation! Keep it up!

You have the greatest guitar tone on RU-vid. What a great taste!

The Esquire is my favorite. Thank you for the comparison !

Top notch vid! I was surprised how much I liked the tele bridge. I haven’t owned a Tele since I was 18. My favorite passive pickups are the P coil of a PRail in the neck and a Warman GRail in the bridge. My absolute favorites are Fluence P90s. They smoke everything!

BEST VIDEO EVER!! THANK YOU SO MUCH, I LOVE YOUR JOB MAN!!

Absolutely love your videos. Hard decision when you have to let go of some of your instruments. I’ve recently had to limit myself. Four electrics- G&L asat Fullerton Bluesboy, 2015 ASAT Deluxe P90, Gibson Les Paul and Prs se custom with Seymour Duncan Hot Rodded. Your choices were extremely nice and the voices came over very nice. As usually very much enjoyed your video and really like your contribution to the Boss Katana fans. Thank you!

Thanks for confirming my purchases of 7 guitars ;). With the idea that each has different sounding pickups as well as body shapes .

Wow! I love the sound of those Filtetrons on the Telecaster

Great job .. loved the gold foil Tele 💛

Thanks! This again confirms my preference towards single-coils (incl. P90s), even for higher gain sounds.

I loved the sound of your CS 57 Strat!

Now, this, is how you do pickup/guitar comparisons. Basically everything we know gets reinforced except the few surprises. Even on a cell phone I'd imagine the average guitar goon could hear some fairly drastic differences. The funny part is that MAYBE, with the exception one of the goldtop LPs, all of them must be retained. The Gretch sounded crushing on the last run through. For me, the little Frusciante shuffle part was where the biggest differences could really be heard. Great stuff man, bravo!

Excellent demo. The different tones of the different pickups is easy to hear - and as expected. The Gretch sounds the best to me, with the Tele a close second.

This video just sold me on Filtertron pickups. Damnit!!!! More stuff I need to buy.

Those Filtertrons/Powertrons are awesome. It's crazy how different they all sound clean, and how similar they all sound with the gain cranked up. `Tron pickups just sound so good in the bridge. They're really highly underrated in high gain applications.

The Gold Foil Tele is my fave. Looks and sounds great !! Cheers Paul.

Love the P90 paisley strat and the green tele with trons, but you cannot go wrong with your esquire tele. It does it all!

Been a Les Paul player for 18 years. I love the tele sound the most on every clips!

Great video! I love the Les Paul with the P90s. That guitar sounds incredible! Really makes me want to get a guitar with P90s. All of them sound great. Keep them all and buy more guitars 🎸 😉

Great video.

Tele/Esquire for the win! Such a great video!

First of , you are a great player. I loved your CS '57 Strat. I especially liked the p90's in all of your guitars. Great video.

Wow your Strat with P90 sounds so good to me. My own no.1 axe is an HSS AM standard, which I will not part until I die. Thank you so much for the comparison video.

That green tele is the one. The others have all been totally heated and played out. That green tele is amazing. I would just use it and what it gives you. And it looks the best.

Thanks for the review Drew. I heard a shootout on the same amp settings between a Gibson Les Paul with P90s, Humbuckers and Mini Humbuckers. The Mini Humbuckers won out on top with all pickup tests. It was surprising and I wasn't alone in this conclusion. I now have a guitar with a Mini Humbucker. Great review. Cheers

Great video and I’m glad - for now- it seems like you’re going to keep all but maybe the LP Humbucker. All beautiful sounding and looking and as you said distinct differences, particularly at lower gain settings. That paisley strat with P90’s is interesting and not something I’ve seen much of elsewhere. Cheers.

Hi Paul, my order oddly enough was the same as yours with one exception. I chose the green tele third and the CS Strat 4th. Great video new subscriber! hello from the USA

Thanks for letting me get a good objective reconfirmation of the basic impressions of the general characteristics of all these pups. It further strengthens my choices of why I grab for each guitar when I get a tonal craving ( mmmmm, p90's with pickles and ice cream). Also, I'll guess I'll have to live with filtertrons in a hollowbody sounding too thick through some amps when cranked.

your gold top with P90's sounds immense, beautiful tone.

This confirmed something I've felt for a while, and it's that I want to swap out the humbuckers in my LP for P90s.

Crazy that the dude from Mr. Inbetween has a guitar channel... Great video my man!

Fave: Regular Tele, followed by P90 LP. Least Fave: Filtertron Tele. Great vid!

I really love that paisley strat, and that green Tele. But I really like the sound of the 57 strat the most.

Nice video 👍👍🎸🎸

I'd rather have the high-end end clarity of the single coil pickups since it's a lot easier to just turn the guitar tone down a little to warm things up than it is to try to scrape that clarity out of humbuckers. But I was surprised that I liked the P90s a lot. They're right in the middle so to speak. I coil tap the Tom Holmes humbuckers in my Les Paul and that makes it a more flexible instrument. I do like the way the Les Paul feels too.

Fantastic breakdown, thank you. I am leaning towards the Tele or the Strat with the P90’s. I love them all though.

For all the clean (cleanish/low drive) loved the p90 (especially the strat neck p90) and for high gain the les paul bride (p90 and humbucker) Great video!!

That was a neat little edit at the beginning. Been a Les Paul guy for decades, I think it is the best for over driven tones, and splitting the neck get me by for cleans.

The Tele Esquire sounds absolutely great on all passes, full yet with clarity. For the cleaner sounds you'd have to brighten the amp up for the humbuckers/P90's to get close? Even the Gretsch sounded a little dark on cleaner sounds which was surprising on those settings but it really sounded great when overdriven. Pete Townsend used a Gretsch for driven stuff in the 70's and he sounded epic.

EXCELLENT video. I've always said that as you turn up the gain, the sound of the amp dominates over the sound of the guitar. I tend to play with moderate to high gain (similar to your two tests) and all my guitars pretty much sound similar (once you account for pickup output differences). The one difference is my PRS Studio which has clarity/articulation that is head and shoulder above my others.

I loved that CS 57 Strat!

Love these back to back videos! There’s nothing I nerd out about more than the subtle differences between tones. My favorite clean neck pup tones were the tele with goldfoils and the Strat. The Gretsch is the most unique sounding out of all your guitars. My most used guitar is my PRS Core Starla with its stock pups, which is a great unique tone. Perfect for rock/metal or the church worship environment where it does “the sound”. However my favorite overall lead tone is my US tele with Duncan Vintage Stacks. Something about the nasally yet powerful bridge pup tone is impossible to get out of any other instrument. Every wife needs to see this video 😂

Yes Paul ... you do have a lot of amazing guitars . They all sound great& very different

LOVED LOVED This video. Such a thorough side-by-side-by-side-by-side comparison of multiple guitars with amp and all else being equal is rarely found on RU-vid and it's very helpful. Much appreciating this video, hopefully you'll make similar comparisons again. The tele and strat cs 57 have the best open sound. I actually did like the humbucker les paul but I agree with you that the p90 les paul sounded better. The p90 start was okay/good but not too great. I actually didn't like the Gretsch or the PowerTron. Thanks for the video. In general, I love this channel.

I discovered this chanel searching for some info about the boss gt-1 that i bought like two weeks ago, and now i have to say im impressed. All of your videos go to the point, dont have nonsense talk and have a lot of playing. And thats what i like. I wanna hear guitars.. not a guy talking for 20 minutes xD. Sorry for the shi*** inglish. Greetings from argentina, you got a new suscriber!!!!

Loved the P90s on the Strat! I didn't know that was a thing.

This was so useful - many thanks. Short pieces played on your lovely guitars. Keep them all! One problem it doesn't solve though is the ' amazingly cheap for a lovely tone' purchases. Heard the SubZero semi hollow Tele. shape with two P90s for £200 from Gear4Music? I bought one on Dave Simpson's recommendation - it's brilliant. So, the collection still proliferates at those prices.

Hi Paul. Great video as always. It’s a real no nonsense channel this, I really enjoy your videos. The most shocking thing overall about this video is (IMHO) the only time I heard a real noticeable meaningful difference was clean tones on the neck pickup. They were pretty wildly different. The rest of the time I could hear the differences but they were WAY more subtle than I thought they would be. P90s are very interesting pickups they sounded the most surprising to me. Even the difference between the P90 strat and P90 les Paul was very surprising. Lastly the tele was the only guitar that literally sounded great in every section. Did you set the amp up with the tele maybe? It just worked every time. They are an unbeatable guitar.

I think overall the Gretsch beats them all, but the P90s strat sounded awesome clean on the neck pickup, definitely one of the best sounds you got. The filtertron tele with gain also sounded really badass.

Nice comparison. Funny how our preferences can differ so much. For me, that LP with the humbuckers was tops. It just had a thick hot sound, and a LOT of presence. I like the resonance of the Gretsch when you would let it ring out a bit. All were good, though.

great video, really useful, 57 Strat for me!!

great video

That was the most clearly unbiased comparison I’ve ever seen… I have a fair number of those guitars (or guitars that approximate them).. You confirmed my bias towards my ‘56 P-90 Les Paul and my Tele partscaster with the Seymour Duncan vintage Broadcaster pickups.. I think they call this confirmation bias..ha!!!

Wow what way to enjoy my Sunday morning 🌄 🙂 coffee ☕️ I just realized that 2 cream, two sugar and 8 guitars makes it taste perfect!!!!! You're lucky to have all the guitars you have keep them all you deserve it Paul. Btw the 57 strat, esquire and paisley are my favorites. Thanks

I confess. I really LOVED the sound of that Gretch. I thing that one is my favourite. 🙂

they all sound great to me. I just play at home as a hobby and I love my PRS S2 singlecut with humbuckers. Not sure why, but I like the warm sound of the humbuckers and the easy playability of the PRS. It would be hard for me to let go of the LP with the humbuckers.

Great video. Really really liked the Tele Esq and the Gold Top P90 :-) And true, the last clip with the LP… wow. Try to boost a EP booster into a Barber Shop and use your Gold Top p90 in bridge. Its the most magical tone. Thing you will like it…

Great demonstration of different guitar sounds. I use ep lespaul with Zoom multi effects processor,I just bought a stratocaster hss when I switched guitar in strat it change the sound on my presets,I need to udjust the e.q and make another patch for stratocaster guitar,thanks for the video