Super clever comparison ! The thing that gave out the Ibanez as guitar A was the low cut during the rock demoing Also a comment on the usefulness of such odd comparisons: back when I was doing sessions, one day the producer liked my ideas but preferred a tele tone. Armed with a 2009 PRS Mira I simply split the bridge humbucker, readjusted the eq on my board and voila ! The tele had arrived 😉
Aha, there we go - proof from the real world too ;) I always come back to the Producer Switch Lee Sklar has on his basses when it comes to things like this, but there are clear differences between these two for certain sounds, as you say. Lots of PRSs, of courses - the Mira included - are also capable of doing every tone under the sun. Cheers for the comment, and glad you enjoyed this one! :)
The Ibanez (A) was my favorite. Both are really good guitars. But my choice would be the Ibanez, especially for the heavy and more aggressive sounds. I would use the Vintage for blues and rock. Nice comparison!
It's surprising how similar they are for many styles, but I do agree that the Ibanez just has an edge in tightness and aggression for the higher gain stuff, while the Vintage has a larger, woollier sound. I guess the best answer is to have both ;)
I've become such a huge Vintage simp since I got my V65. Since then they released some crazy proshops and new series, and I wish I could get my hands on a Revo series Integra. If you somehow do please review it. They're really doing some crazy stuff and I'd love to see a good review of it if I don't get to try one myself!
Brilliant comparison! At first I thought that A might be the Vintage, but then gradually started making my mind up and guessing the opposite - and correctly, as it eventually turned out. At first I thought maybe the thinner tone of A vs B was Vintage's lower output and more "vintage" (pun not intended) voiced pickups vs. possibly beefed-up lows of Ibanez's more modern PUs, but then again on later clips I noticed that the output of B pickups was probably actually a little weaker, and the whole tone somewhat more muddy (or "warm" if you will ;D ). I personally preferred sound A, being mostly a rock and metal-head myself, while tone B seemed to have more "soul" and "guts" to it, which could be much sought after by jazz or rootsy-blues players. That said, at times when I closed my eyes, I couldn't quite tell the moment when the A/B change occured, which again shows how little a difference the pickups (and other specs of a guitar) can make in the overall outcome - in most cases nothing that a couple EQ tweaks could not minimize even further. And proves that guys in the like of Glenn Fricker from @SpectreSoundStudios are so right with their experiments and statements about what matters most in guitar tone. Made me seriously question the "urgent need" to swap the stock pickups of my Vintage VS6M (which probably has similar or very much the same Wilkinson PUs as your VSA500B) but for distorted rock and metal tones I really preferred the bite and clarity of "A", so... who knows ;D Cheers!
Nice work! And yes, it's amazing how - when you only have your ears to guide you - guitars start to sound much more similar. Very interesting that you started to pick up on the little subtleties, though, and got it right in the end! I happen to agree with all of the points you've made here: overall, the Vintage is a fuller, warmer, woolier sounding guitar, while the Ibanez has more bite and aggression. Although, as you again stated, with a bit of creative EQing and both guitars can do either. It still doesn't make me not want to buy more guitars, of course 😉 But it's good to know that you can basically do anything with any guitar, should you want to! Thanks for watching and the great comment, and rock on 😊
That was fun, my guess was right because of the usually rounder sound of 335-alikes. It's hard to tell if it's the body shape making that difference, or is it the choice of pickups?
Yeah, it's an interesting one. For me, I feel like the body shape plays a part, because the VSA500 sounds bigger and fatter to me! And the Ibanez sounds smaller, thinner, more aggressive. Would be really interesting to have the pickups swapped and see how that sounded though!
I wanna say A is the headless but its tough. I keep listening for the tell tale warbles of the trem but alas I couldn’t so I’m going with A headless and B big body. Im probably wrong 😂
