Don't Trust Tone Demos 

In this edition of KDH makes everyone in the guitar world angry....... again.

I listened to this on phone speakers so as to get the full effect.

That's why I prefer boring technical demos, that show me how turning a knob impacts the overall behavior of the amp. Watch several and you can extrapolate whether you'd like it or not.

I love guitar reviews where they review budget guitars and plug them into a 5000 dollar amp with 1000 dollars worth of pedals and talk about how amazing the guitar sounds.

Yeah I usually skip the tone sections of reviews. I want the reviewers opinion.

This is basically a tone demo of tone demos.... Should I trust this or not??!! Great video and really good points made! Really enjoyed it

Let's not forget many paid reviewers have the signal passing through dozens of plug-ins and various shit in order to make everything sound good (even though that stuff often sounds digital and all the same).

Great video! Nice with someone who isnt affraid to speak the truth, keep it going 🤘

I see Chappers downvoted this with all 12 of his sock accounts.

Under those points, Henning Pauly might be one of the best reviewers out there. He tells you what amp, cab, cables, pedals, pick and guitars he uses and he'll tell you his opinion and complaints about any product he's reviewing.

Thanks for not talking between sound comparisons. I can’t stand when people do that and you forget what the last one sounded like because of the time that elapsed between the comparisons. Hope your channel grows!!!

$60 capacitor for a tone pot? Someone's laughing every time an order is placed. Laughing all the way to the bank.

Something people in the guitar world often forget: Any piece of gear can be made to sound good or bad dependent on the user. A good guitarist could walk into a music store, pick out the worst guitar + amp in the place and find a way to make it sound decent. A bad guitarist could walk into the same store, pick up the best guitar + amp in the place and make them sound horrendous. And I'm not just talking about player skill, as tone is an entirely different monster than skill.

This is why i like to watch Ola Englund do his demos he is very good.

Nice honesty & integrity once again from KD Hayche.

I’m pretty sure the vintage 30 is made in China. Some say only the Mesa V30s are made in the UK but I’m not sure. Only the heritage series and the Gold/Blue speakers are made in the UK. They stopped making the basic models in the UK like 10-15 if not more years ago.

KDH destroys Gear radicals with facts and logic.

Yeah, I use a combination of demos and commentary, and listen to a bunch of demos in order to weed out which ones just have bad sound quality. Even then, I have to remind myself that it might sound different when I put it in my setup, so it's important to hear commentary from experts to find out if it's at least a quality product. Even then, sometimes I try it, and end up having to sell it and try something else. But I'm trying to build my own sound, so there's more to it than just sounding good.

This is perfect and something I’ve said before. Demos are not thing to go by. Trying gear out and seeing for yourself is 100% better. Thank you for making this!

The V30s you can buy as aftermarket replacements are Chinese. The exact same ones that are in the HB cab. Granted, there have been many different version of the V30 (whole nother story), but there are only 2 consumer version: 8 and 16 ohm, both Chinese. And yes, ohmage makes a noticeable difference in sound. Also, the center of a speaker is called the cap, not the cone. Otherwise, great video!

I definitely agree on this topic. I'm confused by the $1 battery comment though. Don't cheaper batteries just die more quickly. The quality of power should be the same.

This is the most honest and informative music channel on RU-vid , finally someone who isn’t afraid to speak the truth

I totally agree with you, in fact my favorite review channel is BY FAR Austin from they Trogly's Guitar Show, who spends most of the time speaking about the feel and the specs of the guitar (size of the neck, fretwork, neck dive) and makes short demos with dry tones. Other youtubers talk for 30 seconds about the guitar and just play, and I just really that

Thank you! I've been saying for years that you can't tell shit from listening to RU-vid videos. I absolutely loathe "reviews" where they just play the guitar and then say: "Well there you have it! Let me know what you think in the comments!" I don't watch review videos to tell you what *I* think. I came here to find out what YOU think! Because all I can tell from the video is that it sounds like a GUITAR.

Totally agree. Great video!

I think another component is the viewers responsibility to make a relative assessment. I think where demos can be useful is if you watch many from different people, or one demo walks through many different settings, you can mentally approximate what the gear is capable of even without knowing exactly how it will sound for you. I think this even touches on a much bigger subject, that the maturing guitar player needs to switch from chasing a specific sound to finding a tool with the range and ability to help them find their own sound. This could be where the reviewer‘s opinion comes in too.

KDH: "When you're changing one thing and hearing how those changes differ, that's totally valid." Toby's Guitar Gear Demos: *relief*

"Hey guys, [redacted] here! Today we're gonna be demoing the Poopshit Fartosonic, a beginner-friendly budget guitar that only costs $299!" *plugs into a $2500 Orange/Mesa with a custom cabinet* "Wow this thing sounds amazing! It plays okay, and the quality control is "less than perfect," but I think it's definitely a good mod platform!" Basically every review for any of those newer budget guitars

I think the most useless type of gear demo is the one where they record how studio monitors sound. Sigh....

I usually get my bass reviews from Nate Navarro, he uses the same recording gear almost every video, which he describes in depth before demoing various EQ settings, and then runs it through with many variants of the tone

this video was awesome I felt like I had hours worth of information in such a short time Keep up the good work!!!

Dude...... this was incredibly eye opening. I've been playing for sometime, and yet, always take what..... certain youtubers say as gospel. Thank you for this. Seriously. I truly was.... completely ignorant when it came to this subject. I will..... be more cautious I guess...... because, a lot of who I watch and listen to are paid to say what they say. Thank you again.

Yeah, when it comes to pedals, I learned the hard way, a couple of thousands hard ways!

Thank you! It’s nice to still find some truth on RU-vid! Ever notice how these people who make these claims always have walls full or expensive guitars behind them? Sure they’ll say that the cheap guitar is amazing but you’ll sure never see them giving up their expensive American or Japanese made guitars either.

This video should be a ‘sticky’ to be viewed before any gear sound review. 🤘🤘🤘

Room mic is the only way for an accurate tone test for an average person playing something outside a band setting.

Thank you soooooooo much! This is wrapping up my thoughts from the last years.

2:10 TRUE . I still remember the first time I bought a decent expensive cable (first gig with a band) I needed a long cable so the 2m (6ft) one i had used for years wasnt enough ( it came with the guitar).It was like the difference from a tiny radio sound vs un compressed sound

Excellent public service message!! I’ve down the rabbit demo whole way too much and spent a lot too. Always prefer to buy from trusted reviewers which is problematic but most times can get the sound I want on my rig and reselling the gear I don’t like. Thanks

Couldn't agree more on Demos vs Reviews. There are some channels that I know class themselves as doing Demos only, and all I do is just fast forward to the point where they briefly touch on what they thought about the item, how it feels or how it sounds in the room. If they don't even do that, then I might as well just be watching a sales demo from a guitar store.

Variables...someone finally said it. Link in the chain. 100 dollar pickups and 2 dollar cables. Man i thought it was just me. You got a new subscriber my friend.

I watched tons of PGS Andy video's. Partially for the pedals since i used to built my own diy's... But mostly for his tasteful playing

I've aligned with this sentiment for a while. The only time I ever look up gear demos is to see whether or not a pedal does a crazy certain thing that I'm after, be it specific types of oscillation in different analog delay pedals or maybe a specific type of crazy reverb that I'm looking for that will perform that function in any setup NO MATTER WHAT. The main types of gear demos that you are addressing here have always rubbed me the wrong way so thank you for making that point strong and clear. Keep up the good work my dude

not gonna lie, i preferred the 57 dead center as opposed to offcenter. thats on its own though, i might feel differently hearing it in a full mix.

Finally some sense! It always amazes me when people talk about the difference between say maple and rosewood but completely ignore all the other variables, it’s just mad.

great video, now I know why the random broken singer mic that I got from somewhere doesn't work for my recordings...

I loved the zoom on those bends, that's how I know it sounded good

This reminds me of a wine tasting I saw where most ppl chose the middle wine because that was the taste they were familiar with. The "expensive" wine was an unfamiliar taste and they thought it wasn't the best. Shows how an opinion is also not the best option also. I think you should look at all the data you can, and then take a punt.

This was an excellent video. It's great to hear how much tone is affected by the speaker or the mic placement. Well done, dude.

RU-vid compression makes it hard to tell the difference between some of these comparisons, not to mention there is a lot of personal preference involved, so again, it's important to listen to review commentary.

I love THIS truth in your videos. Many thanks and greetings from Germany :)

Superlux centered sounded good, on my technics speakers, but also keep in mind youtube compresses the quality of audio so it can also be between what you're listening on and personal tase

This reminds me of when a channel demoed an amp sim plugin while their USB interface was clipping the entire time.

100% true. That's why when buying the best thing to do is to try it. Oh....Not to mention, a V30 in a Mesa Cab is again different (it's made just for Mesa Boogie following their specs). Then you're gonna have 3 different tones coming from "the same speaker" in 3 different cabs :))))

This is why I only trust Rob Chapman’s reviews...he’s the only honest one on RU-vid. Bahah jk! Efff that dude

Good points, lots of sound difference in every bit of those demos.

I think I've only seen one thing that's recognizable in almost any setting, and that's only because it's such a specific sound that it's somewhat unique to the pedal. The Boss HM-II with everything maxed. And even then, it changes from pedal to pedal and setup to setup, even if only slightly. Some good points brought up here, great video!

Now I totally agree with your point. Ideally a piece of gear should be evaluated based on how it sounds in your environment and in your music. It's a pity that this is mostly impossible unless you buy that piece of gear. Which then defeats the whole point of watching/listening demos. Also you showed how sound can be made quite shitty (except for the last example with that tiny Orange amp), but it is quite hard to make it good. Now that is where the paid demoers truly shine - that's actually what they are paid for. If nothing else, but that can be appreciated. So while I do agree that youtube demos should be taken with a quite large pinch of salt, still there is nothing better. Written reviews are even less reliable, because the reviewers use all sorts of gear, many of them are not even documented in the reviews. And there is no standard way of describing tone. It's in a way similar to tasting wine: you don't really know how it tastes until you try it yourself, especially if the one trying to describe the taste isn't even a professional in wine tasting. Of course there are still many things that can be learnt from reviews: how reliable the peace of gear is? How is the manufacturing quality? How is the customer service should that be needed? It is also a learning curve. The more gear demos you watch and the more stuff you try out at the same time yourself, the better you will understand what to look for in demos and in music stores. It still isn't foolproof, but helps you to avoid stuff that are absolutely unuseable for you (be it its sound or its features). So my course of action is following: I listen to demos, I read reviews, I try it as much as possible before buying, and then hope that when I use it with my band it's going to work out as I planned. Even so it mostly doesn't, and there is nothing I can do against it. It is just something you have to live with. And a good reason to either buy new, but then try it out within the timeframe in which you can possibly send the gear back or to buy second hand and sell it if it turns out not to be the best piece for you. But yes: anyone who thinks that watching a youtube demo or two will help him getting the Holy Grail For Tone is a fool and deserves what he gets :D

Excellent job. This is why I am a massive fan of try before you buy and buy local when possible. A good audio engineer can make a toaster sound good on youtube, doesn't mean you'll get the same results with the rest of your set up. Always try to demo with gear as close to yours as possible. Side note, massive frustration point with Guitar Center is they only have one station set up to demo pedals through some cheap combo like a fender mustang or line 6 spider, neither of which respond anything like a good tube amp when you throw an overdrive in front.

Buffer (n): an active electronic circuit that keeps your guitar signal strong and preserves the frequencies of your guitar sound. ... But if you have long patch cords or a bunch of effects pedals, or a pedal with a weak output, a buffer can help get your sound back to the pure tone you are looking for.

The bit at the end with the mini amp was brilliant I'm sure you got a lot of people with that one!

This is so relatable. I bought the Spark amp based on the tones I heard from the reviewers, when it arrived it sounded nothing like those reviews. In the end I had to buy an MXR 10 band EQ pedal to get rid of those low frequencies to make is sound decent. This made me realize that there are so many factors that contribute to the tone and it is almost impossible for another person to get the same tone if you focus on just one piece of equipment.

The points you make here are really important.

Excellent video ! As someone who dose gear demos (granted they're pretty mediocre ones..) I completely agree ! I keep getting comments where people say stuff like "you talk to much, I just want to hear the demo.... " which I always find so frustrating and bizarre, because when ever I watch reviews on RU-vid I know the most important part is the reviewers opinion the gear in hand... sounds

Straight facts. Buy, try it, and then keep it or list it.

Smart, humble, honest, hard-working. Also showed me that I can get 29 frets at a decent price.

Absolutely loved this video man. Particular peeve of my own is microphones for gear demos. I know, when has a cab in an albums recording not been mic'd.... well maybe now with IR's but anyway; you get it. "Combos", combo demos especially, they simply will not sound the same in real life. There's a Marshall MG10 (I think that model) demo on RU-vid with the lefty dude playing great guitar. Nothing wrong with that amp in real life but for myself that video is a PERFECT example of how a microphone and its placement can be used to the benefit of well, Marshall selling and users recording. I think where I find myself lucky (not that I do any sort of demos or anything professionally) is I have this one IR that actually sounds like my cab in the room (loud and at a lower volume) and for myself and anyone who listens on social that gives a level of continuity. Yet there you were painting the perfect picture on what I deal with daily with people. Stick a board and any length of cable between your guitars electronics and an amp and it is always absolutely going to have an impact. In that realm and not touched on in your video which is fine, is folk believing looper pedals such as the Gig-rig are a definitive solution there. In my experience that is not enough, in fact, sometimes using a looper switcher can remove a tremendously well buffered bypass pedal from your chain. This happened to me when I picked up a Deep Oggin. I wanted to put it in a loop but immediately changed my board to keep it out and free, it brought back something I didn't even know had gone missing.... Perhaps a video that would be a great idea following on from this would you be producing a "base sound" with a full rig and making every effort to maintain. Here's what I mean - Guitar > Cable > Amp - record that audio with the same riff / a looper playing whatever. Then, Guitar > Cable > Board > Cable > Amp. Can the difference be made up for deploying certain buffered bypass pedals or buffers etc etc until you turn that length between guitar and amp into something offering equal high end retention to just the single cable or even more as a result of decent buffering. For me, I think that despite all the variables that could be present is you could perhaps finally be the one to truly communicate the truth that it is individuals responsibility to trust their own ear. Aye, you would need to deliver on RU-vid and use mic's and not the same amp as the viewer etc etc However they would be provided with A and with B and if B can be made to match A at the end result on a RU-vid presentation. Then maybe that will be a perfect way for this platform to benefit someone long term. Right, I've gone on enough! Keep up the content please, its refreshing!

After just reading the title of this and only watching the first minute or so where you already addressed my only disclaimer, I can say I already agree 100%. Comparison videos are fair game and if you know what to listen for can be useful, but let's say I'm listening to someone's demo of say a guitar pickup. Well that's great, sounds killer and in some cases I know I can get it to sound like that even if I had the right gear. But when I play it through my rig, it's not going to sound like that, and that's not even the tone I'm even going for half the time.

Love this guy’s channel.

You can mic a cab straight at the centre of the cone. Tone of a guitar or a piece of gear is best demoed in context of a full band. A guitar can sound bad on its own, but in context of a full mix it can sound great, and vice versa. So when it comes to demos, no demo will ever sound like your own rig. But demos can really be fun! The best thing is if you can try gear yourself on your own rig.

Great video as always! I like your short riffs. Usually players noodle around for like 30 seconds before they change a setting/guitar/amp/pickup etc. By the time the next one starts, my ears don't remember what the previous one (or ones) sounded like.

Both times I reviewed a microphone, my instinct was to compare them to known entities. I reviewed an MP 440 DM, which is basically Lewitt's version of an SM57. So my review was mostly focused on how the two mics compared. Everyone knows what an SM57 sounds like. I also reviewed the DTP 640 Rex- a bass drum mic. So I compared it with a Beta 52. I tend to skip talking in reviews to get to what it sounds like, but I put what I have to offer at the very end anyway. I still think sound is most important when it comes to production tools.

Gear demos are useless because: 1. Amp recorded through SM57 and then compressed on YT 2. No idea how it feels / dynamics 3. No room sound 4. Sad repetitive pentatonic shredding

Ill watch a gear demo to get me interested in something but very rarely do I buy a product without testing it in person based on a video alone. Like you said theres just so many variables even including how you play the guitar!

Thanks for the shoutout for guitarbros. Subbed to them before but totally oblivious to what happened to their channel

Very solid points here, this is why I usually go to musictubers like Kristian Kohlekeller because he will properly demo stuff unprocessed, and tell you what mic's he's using etc

I fucking love guitar bro’s demos! Excellent shout out!

I must say I find this contribution to be on the more reflected side. Well made - thanks for this.

Similar experience, I saw Ola review the revv g3 pedal and it sounded fantastic. The only problem is he was running the pedal through his Randall Satan and I ran the pedal through a small bass amp. Very different sound than what I heard in the video

Finger tone and pick choices can affect this stuff as well. Good video.

I bought a pedal which I liked in demos, but my guitar had a lower output, and it sounded completely different. I got the tone I was after by turning my amp gain up, but the point is, I agree completely. Great video.

makes sense, you explained what I was feeling internally about gear tone reviews.

Ya the mic, the DAW, my PC speakers will all change the actual "tone" of any piece of gear you look at. That's why I stopped using Ola Englund videos to judge gear. Everything sounds good when recorded through his set up.

i normally just treat tone demos as a : here is what this can do under ideal conditions, just giving a basic vibe of what the gear is cabale of, and not a comprenssive be all end all

This is why I have the room mic as well as the close separate of cause . But definitely agree there are always variables that's why it's good to watch a few demo/reviews and I will say what I like and dislike about a piece of gear or vst

2 notes, unlike other mics, the Royer R121 sounds amazing center of cone & I chose my mics, Vintage 30s & Blue Alnico's based on RU-vid "shootouts" To this day I still prefer them over every other mic & speaker... So the caveat is that "shootout" videos are valid... especially when you explain the variables well as you did here. For those who can not afford a R121 Try a Cascade Fathead. The "no frills" model is under $200 & and is super close to the R121 for 1/6 the cost. Pair them with a SM57 to blend in a bit of that nasty crunch when needed.

I'm late to the party in finding your channel but I really enjoy your videos. Well done sir!

I never listen to tone demos. Take someone like Pete Thorn, I'm 99% sure that he's using a lot of production techniques to polish the overall sound of what he recorded.

All excellent points. Also, room acoustics effect it as well. Probably not a ton of the mic is close to the cab, but the further from it you get, the more natural reverb that mic is gonna catch.

Great points regarding utube videos and making a purchase based on them. Keep them coming. Thanks!

on this topic I agree. Between signal chain and processing on the demo end to the compression on RU-vid and the headphones/speaker quality on the viewers end, its impossible to get a true idea of the sound of a product. IMO anyway.

Great video man! I always take reviews videos as a ball park. Great to see some simple strumming instead of shredding which is useless for reviews in my opinion.

Well done, sir! This deserves WAY more views.

Ive been using an $80 acoustic guitar and was planning on getting an electric (finally) and getting some stuff with it, so thanks for the heads up lol

(I'm commenting early on so don't know whether you'll include this aspect) Room structure and composition (what it's made of and shape) can greatly affect a mic'd room's perceived sound, and whether dampening has been used to aid or diminish specific frequencies and tonal characteristics, and none of that matters if the recording's done through an interface or has the slightest compression. If they're trying to present unadulterated tone, it's close to impossible without multiple mics with different tone capturing qualities all blended together as best as the engineer's ear can replicate, and that's subjective as well lol.

I remember seeing someone else years ago make the same point except they were using the honeytone amp micd up

as usual - great stuff mate. It's always great to listen to a demo/review of an product, were it takes longer to explain, what kind of rig the reviewer is using than reviewing the product itself.

I used to record preposterously good audio with a smartphone right next to the smallest Marshall battery amp, with the tones generated by a Boss micro BR 4 track.

The reviews can use a widely used modeller something like the helix to demo guitars or pedals. And to demo amps they can compare it with the helix models of that amp running into the same custom IR. We always need a reference to understand a gear when we don’t have physical access to it. Specially in India high end or even mid range gear is far from reach! Thanks for such an educational video!

The 57 clone sounds so much better, even when on-center.