I'll offer my reason for skipping these: As much as Glenn tries to deny it, some of his knowledge is useful outside the metal sphere. Since his "science" videos disregard all other genres, they aren't as helpful to me.
I'll throw in my two cents as to why I skip these as well. Bedroom djenty boi who uses IRs. None of this applies to me, and I have a feeling most others are in my position.
@@chaptermasterpedrokantor1623 that was my point, a lot of SMG's vids give tips that I can use as a ska and reggae guy. This one starts by saying it isn't for me, so I didn't watch it.
I don't know why more people don't watch these either. I love them. My insatiable curiosity makes me just want to know more and more! About almost everything.
I've also experimented intensively. What I've found is that your left ball hanging free while playing will give you a certain amount of high end reverb, but having your right ball hanging loose will result in a darker tone. Having both balls vibrating freely sounds like a good idea, but in practice, you'll run into phase issues when they clonk together.
LOL like that old one, "I find I need to go on stage with my member pointed up in my jeans, that way when it gets hard, its pointed in the right direction."
This video is amazing and eye opening. I heard no difference in the full mix, and the differences individually were so minimal, I won't even bother ranking them. I'd easily be happy with any of those tones. I get every artist wants to sound unique, but this video clearly proves that obsessing over the technological components of it will probably hinder overall creativity and output.
i think obsessing over technical aspects of tone is valid to an extent, but i absolutely follow science when it tells me this shit doesn’t make a difference.
When soloed, B and C sounded the same to me, and A sounded a tad bit "bassier". But in the full mix, the difference was so negligible that I didn't notice any change.
The only time I notice a major difference was from 12:20 when sustaining the last chord - when flipped from cab A to C and then to B there's a noticeable change in tone, more so in the bass - treble sounded close enough to my ears - but in a full mix, with the bass and kick drums blasting away, you'd never know!
I noticed that, but also noticed on one point, in the solo, when it swapped from A to C. From 11:55 to 12:05, you can head the difference. Other than that, I heard absolutely no other differences. Maybe some smaller ones I wasn't sure about, but that was it. I only noticed it *WITH* the labels, not without.
Chances are that those bass frequencies are going to be attenuated anyways to make room for the bass and kick in a full mix, so in the end, it won’t even matter.
I gotta say, the B amp had the best tone to my ears. It has a very full tone with each strong having value and not being muddied by the low string or ghosted by the mid and high strings. I like the precise feedback from each note. I liked the test and hope there is more cool ones down the road like this. Good Luck Glenn. Btw, you have opened my eyes up to a lot on both the financial side and recording side of being a musician. You have definitely helped me stay away from making poor choices as a musician with limited financial flexibility.
To me the A cab has a bit less clarity so my guess is particleboard, maybe B is plywood? I can’t tell the difference between B and C. They all sound near identical and in the mix, without labeling it, it’s effectively impossible to tell the difference. Edit: I was right about the particleboard, but B was actually mdf.
Very interesting! I honestly couldn't hear any difference between them! The tone sounded really cool either way, and I love how much the guitarist gets into while playing.
@@TheAntonio7102 to get s good clicky sound out of your Bass look no further then Steve Harris of Iron Maiden. He has the String action as low as possible so that he basically smashes them into the Threatboard when ever he plucks the strings. There are a few videosby Didier Gerome and Bass Buzz here that show how you get that signatur clicky sound
I am fuckin' LOVING the deconstruction of the tone wood myth! When I was learning to play as a teenager back in the 90's, I was SURROUNDED by old guys who SWORE by tone woods, tubes, and brands. These videos of yours are nothing short of VINDICATING for a guy like me who got overwhelmed by all these idealistic rants about how to make distortion sound good.
Wow, I was expecting a bigger difference than that, the differences were almost impercievable. I think the wood of the guitar body only sounds percievably different with microphonic pickups so I wonder if some speakers would just sound the same and others may bring out the tone of the cab wood more? I'd love to see you try this experiment a couple more times with wildly different speakers, maybe a 5 inch and a 15 inch speaker?
For me, when solo'd A stood out a bit while B & C sounded very similar to my ears, but in a full mix I honestly didn't hear a difference. Looking forward to seeing the reveal. Thank you for doing these tests - awesome job as usual!
Same for me at the start. After that, it got REALLY hard to pinpoint the exact difference between specific cabs. However, it was absolutely jarring every time it switched.
Thanks for doing all of that work, Glenn! B & C sounded practically identical to me and A was brighter than those. My guess for which is which material is B & C have the same baffle made of plywood while A is MDF. I can't wait to find out how wrong I am!
I normally don't put a 'like' on videos, because I keep on forgetting to, or am typically am just listening to videos instead of watching. But because you worked so damn hard for this scientific experiment, and deserve the attention for all this hard work, I made sure to put a like, which I hope everyone else will, to help your algorithm.
That's where I landed as well. I think C was the most versatile, but it's impossible to tell until someone tells me what to think. All three sounded great for lead, and I'll die on that hill
Hey i really dig that disclaimer in the beginning. Sharing this with other musicans/producers in the future with that big "HEY THIS IS FOR METAL" really clears things up when your bass players watches the video
For me, on headphones, A sounded a bit "thinner" when compared soloed with B and C. In the full mix, I thought sometimes the guitars sounded thinner but I couldn't point out exactly when the change happened. So, I guess, in the end the only thing that is worth spending time and money on is finding the right speaker!
My thoughts on cabinet material has always been from a durability standpoint. I always thought the shape and size of the cabinet played more importance than materials. I'm at the 4:40 mark so I don't know the results of this test yet. Edit: I finished the video, and I don't have a favorite. Standing 15 feet away with my monitors cranked I couldn't tell any viable difference.
True but also notice that those in video have microphone up close direct at the speaker driver so you really only get the sound from the speaker / driver itself and not whole sound as if in the room a few feet away ( or longer ) . To hear the real difference you need to listen far from the cabinet and not just a microphone close up to the speaker . After all the cabinets resonate at different frequencies depending of materials . For metal I think it doesnt do so big impact because the signal is already heavily distorted . The form factor or construction type will be of a real difference here . Especially with open compared to closed box and size ect .
@@kennethsrensen7706 This was a test to hear it compared in a close mic recording situation specifically, as he stated at the start of the video. For this purpose it doesn't matter how it sounds in the room.
That's a very valid point. I notice way less of a difference than I was expecting since say a Mesa oversized cab will sound vastly different from a Marshall, but the amount of wood is definitely different between those 2
Thank you Glenn, for all of your time and effort, your videos are very much appreciated. The results of your research enable us to make informed decisions when buying gear, that we tend to hang onto. Before finding you, I made some bad choices, wasted my time and money, sold gear at a loss (because it was crap) - it's longer journey and nowhere near as much fun as the road I'm on now. It's great to have you as a go-to, trustworthy place to for answers. Have an awesome week. 🤘😎🤘 ❤
Interesting! To my ears, I really couldn't hear that much of a difference in the mix and, with the guitars soloed, there was a slight difference, but it sounded like with some simple eq'ing onc could get any of the 3 cabs to sound like one another. Like, if you really wanted the tone of Cab A but owned Cab C, you could get Cab C there.
Pretty much. An accidental nudge of a treble or presence button would easily make the difference between any of these and any other. Fascinating though.
We're you listening through your phone speakers?? Some times listening through head phones ( good ones), and or good studio speakers make a big difference with videos like this...
@@ericwilliams538 I have studio monitors. There is a difference in the tone of the three cabs that becomes less obvious in the mix. The three cabs are similar enough to where some basic eq'ing could have any one of these cabs sound like the other two. Are they different? Yes. But can they sound like one another? Also Yes.
I found cab B and C generating an equal sound when cab A had a different tone. For my taste I felt a lot more of treble on the cab A, which I didn't like that much after I listened to B and C that feels more balanced in the overall tone.
I agree. A sounded inferior, and I noticed it in two places in different parts of the music. But the difference was slight enough that I would not be surprised to be told that they were all 3 the same cab and we've been punk'd.
My dad was a hifi enthusiast and he also happened to own a wood import and sawmill business. He knew wood, including particle board, shuttering board, mdf, chipboard etc etc and every soft and hardwood on the planet. He used marine grade plywood for speaker baffles and any old thing for the rest of the cabinet.
i did...it ends up looking like a kitchen cabinet...i redid it in black and it just looked like a giant shelf speaker...and if i didnt get the wood for free i wouldnt recommend it....stupid heavy & the sound difference was minor too
@@kazzTrismus My best friend's dad had to cabinets for his home stereo system that were made out of oak back in the 70s. He had 15s in them. They sounded pretty good but they were pretty much a permanent fixture I'm the living room. 🤣
Okay so here are my thoughts on this after multiple listens in: I was expecting there to be a more significant difference between the speakers given the densities of the three woods, but I'm very surprised that the differences are a bit more subtle than I thought. One thing that did stand out to me though is the resonant frequencies between the three cabinets. You can hear a whistling frequency around the 500 to 600 hz range for all three cabinets. In the guitars that have been soloed, this is much more obvious. For cabinet A, there is this resonant frequency at around 515 ± 3 hz while for cabinets B and C, the resonant frequency is around 585 ± 10 hz. Now this is just purely speculation on my end, but here's what I think which cab is which. I think Cabinet A is the MDF cabinet. This is because the the whistling frequency is quite prominent which suggests that the material around it is much denser, reflecting more sound energy into cavity of the cabinet and then creating some sort of resonant spot. For cabinets B and C, it is much harder to discern which is which because their differences are a bit subtler, but here are my guesses: Cabinet B is plywood and Cabinet C is particle board. I say this because cabinet B's resonant frequency is slightly more prominent than cabinet C's suggesting that cabinet B is made of a denser material than cabinet C which explains (or at least I think it does) the differences. Personally, I like all three of them, but cabinet C was my favorite because its resonant frequency, though still audible and prominent, is not as much compared to the other two, especially to cabinet A. That's my thoughts on this, can't wait for next week! Fuck you Glenn for all this effort!!
man, I really wish someone made videos like these for other styles of music, with well-thought out experiments controlling all the variables, can't say I've found a lot outside of this channel. Great video! I think I prefer tones C and A, but the differences are subtle between them and I only really heard them in the solo clips. Tone B was the most different and my least favourite, but I'm not a metalhead, so take that with a grain of salt. My theory is that people obsess way too much about tone (me included) and in the end it doesn't make enough of a difference to matter
@@thekramer1097 I tend to agree with you on that, but right now I can't say that for sure because of the lack of experiments, especially on the amp/cab/speaker side of things
First of all: Thank you very much for your time and effort!! I couldn't distinguish the cabs from another in the full mix. The most most noticeable changes were at the very end of the A/B/C comparison, where the note was held a little longer. But the changes are in the realm of overall random tone variation in one song. My personal conclusion: The wood of the cab does change something, but it doesn't matter.
First. I appreciate the hard work. I’ve been waiting for this one. I heard different nasal/mid qualities with each cab. B was a bit brighter so I preferred it. Probably more subtle than a speaker difference though. But a noticeable difference nonetheless. Much more of a difference than the guitar wood comparison.
Thanks for putting in the effort man! I've build a couple of small and odd cabinet my self and found that the (slight) difference in tone usually is not worth the extra expenses on the wood. A surprising candidate is "betonplex" (the stuff usually used for flight-cases). In my experience (as a hobbyist I must add) the size of the opening in the back (if any) and the angle of the front face, make a larger difference. Thanks again for showing the world how a A-B test is actually done and hope the video does well!
These vids are SOOO VALUEBLE!!! Thank you so much Glenn for taking the time and spending the bucks to help us and SLAM those myths to bits! Truely amazing...
There is a difference, but it not like night and day. To be honest: I only noticed a few cab changes in the full mix by paying attention to the high end. Sometimes the sound got a little bit muddier. However sometimes even the thickness of the pick and the angle how you hold it can make such differences, too.
C was definitely the best sounding with B being a close second, it just wasn't quite as tight. My money's on A is the particle board, B being MDF, adn C being plywood.
Thanks for your huge effort in pursuit of da troof of where the tone comes from. Those cream backs sounded really great at the beginning of this vid. Do you have to know physics in order to make your own cabinet? Your experiments make me wonder why, since everything sounds the same, is gear so damn expensive?
That bass tone was killer. I was listening on a loudspeaker with my back turned and eyes closed. I heard zero difference. It all sounded like 1 seamless track.
Glenn mate, this is killer. At the point that someone wants to argue with a test that is this evidence based, methodical and empirical, it’s on the peanut gallery to prove you wrong, not just piss their opinion into a RU-vid comment. As Chris Hitchens said “what can be asserted without evidence, can be dismissed without evidence.” Rock on brother.
thanks for all the work you put into this Glenn. Its something that plenty of us would like to test, but most of us don't have the stuff/ time/ ability to do so. :)
I played the video through an iphone 11 and i had trouble noticing the cabinet swaps. Only a few times did i notice the cabinet change without looking at the video screen and paying extra attention. The differences were super minimal all of them sounded stellar
First off, thank you Glenn. I know it’s took a ton of work and the views won’t reflect that. I’ll post on that in a min. As for the results, I have to say I actually didn’t care for the tones (which is unusual here). However, cabinet A sounded the most unique but not in a pleasing way (thinner?). I couldn’t hear changes in the lead tone nor anywhere in the mix. Only during Isolated guitar was I able to hear any changes. However, none were very significant and again, in the mix I had no clue. Thanks again!
I’d love to also hear the roomtone, if there’s a difference. I know it’s all about recording, but i’m about to build a new cabinet for myself, so it would be wonderfull to hear if i need to consider the matererial and if so, how much, because playing at small venues means that most of the sound is coming straight from the cabinet, not PA so much. Cheers from Finland!
From the most favorite to the least favorite: B, C, A. Cabinet B sounds the fullest. C is very close to B, up to a point that the difference might be negligible. A sounds thinner, but in the context of a mix it might actually help cut through. The differences from A to B aren't that big and I bet you could easily compensate by using an eq. I'm thinking that the wood of the cabinet might actually make a bigger difference if I'm listening to the cabinet directly with my own ears, but when using a mic, as it is so close to the speaker, the tone differences might be less pronounced. Glenn, could you please address this matter in the next video? Cheers.
I like this assessment. I had a similar experience with B C and A. I want to guess that B is MDF and they C is plywood and that A is particle board but I suspect A is probably plywood even tho emotionally I want the stronger material to sound better.
@@enemyandy when Glenn knocked on the wood, I think plywood was the brightest one, which makes sense as it's the harder one. In this case, I think plywood would be A. But my memory could be playing tricks on me or I can simply be wrong. Anyway, I'm curious about the final results. I've been waiting for these videos since he announced the tests.
The science nerds in us (and those of us looking to not feed pre-existing biases) LIVE for these videos. Thank you so much for putting in the time and attention you do into these. You are part of the reason my 4x12" was rebuilt with Warehouse Veteran 30s (and I LOVE it!!!)
I only really heard a difference when soloed, especially between B and C rhythm playing, C had a more "nasal" quality to my ear. In a full mix i couldn't hear the difference, so the overall effect isn't that strong. Maybe listening back i might hear something different, but only if i know what to look for, so I'd say its negligible
Glennnn. I pretty much did this test unintentionally over several years. Being a woodworker and guitar player, I had to build my own cabinet. First one was MDF and sounded great but MDF isn’t really resilient and I wanted an ornate and unique so I made the exact same cabinet a few years later out of Walnut, Hickory and some Purple Heart. I noticed a pronounced punch in the low mid range but like you said, that’s really only in the context of playing it in a medium sized room. If you mix them, they pretty much are exact. I think what I really learned from this video is that it is possible to play interesting stuff on more than the first few frets of a seven-string guitar. Whoever that guy was is awesome.
In the full mix it was really subtle most of the time, there were about 3 times where I thought I heard a difference and one where I was 100% sure (10:55) With the guitars only, I can say that personally C was my favorite, followed by B and then A (being worst by a fairly large margin).
I could definitely hear a difference. The difference between cab A and cab C was slight, but noticeable. Cab B sounded a bit warmer and had a bigger low end. But it sounded “looser” in the low end. Sounded really good, but maybe not tight enough for modern metal. It seemed to muddy the low end a bit. To me, cab C would be my preference. A bit deeper on the low end than cab A but still tight. The mids and highs on all 3 cabs didn’t have enough of a difference to make a difference. Just my 2 cents and opinion. Cool video and appreciate all the work that went into making it!
As a man who just bought a cab made of MDF, I’m hoping the answer is “no” Cab A sounds the murkiest to me, B sounds very standard, and C has a very nice crisp top end. I think B and C sound similar, so I’m betting A is the MDF…
I was able to pick up on when the changes in the mix happened but couldn’t really tell which I preferred in the context of the mix. I was only able to detect a slight tonal shift. I preferred the cabinet B isolated. Seemed the most balanced to me. A sounded a little thin and C was a little darker. I’d guess cab A - particle board, cab B - plywood, cab C - MDF
Glenn, it is so sad to hear, these videos don't get the views, due to the fact they give so much information! I did not hear much difference, from cab to cab. The isolated guitar track, you gave us, people were saying that cab A had a little more bass, but that was the first part of that track. The cabs got a different part of the track. Hence, the human playing variable has come into the equation. This would mean playing a few bars, switch cab, replay the same few bars... I don't know if you had done so, if yes, then Dang, you are spot on, in your editing and Great job. If no, could you just do a short doing the same few short bars repeated? Thanks again and keep doing this great work!!! 🤘
Holy crap that's a nice tone! As for the cabs I think the cab B sounded the best but the difference was way smaller than I expected. It would also be very interesting to see how the tone changes with cab dimensions.
To me, A and C were very similar, whereas B was slightly brighter than the other two. But, I think the difference is still extremely negligible, and any of the options would be more than fine in the mix.
As soon as you mentoined tonewood, I imediately thought of Jim Lill's extensive tests, and got all the more hyped, once you mentioned it. That guy is a legend!
I feel like cabinet A sounded slightly more resonant or almost like there was a touch of reverb, it was extremely slight though. I couldn't much of a difference at all between B and C
Funny, i had the opposite observation :p As if B and C had some slight resonance to them, which made me believe A may be MDF. There's definitely a small change but not big enough to worry about IMO
I'm with both of these comments, and add there shouldn't be any difference anyway unless you're using a ported cab with an extra mic to pick up that resonance. I shall also note many cabs in the '70s - that sought after VINTAGE tone (hmmmm) - were made of particle board, the reason they took a wheel cart and a horse to move. Also some of the home stereo 12's were mounted in solid pine with a front port, something I'd like to play with for a guitar amp.
I feel like A gets lost in the mix... So I'm assuming MDF one. The other two sounds great, so I'll say B is Plywood and C is particle with plywood baffle. I think the baffle is vibrating with the speaker, so I think this is the most important part of a cabinet, a bit like the top of an acoustic guitar
I minimized the video and was listening on good headphones without any visual clues. I didn't notice any major difference at all. So, now I know that most important shift in the tone is made by speaker, mic and mic position, and that was my hypothesis that you proved to be right. Thank you Glenn for the scientific approach. You just debunked ALL heavy guitar recording myths over the years. That's quite an important input for all recording engineers in the world!!
Glen maistro you amaze me! I was going to buy a 1500 euro(dutchie here) guitar because the wood was beter they said, that night in the bus to work you video of tonewood shootout came out while listening on my rolfstone neo I didnt hear any fudging difference. So now I saved myself a wopping 1000 euros by just buying the guitar with the same shape and pickups but it wasn’t a gibson and now this. I love these videos keep up the work tou deserve more love for these! And I could hear some difference between A and B/C, A was somewhat thinner in my case. Thankss again!!
I couldn't tell any differences in the mix but when only hearing solo guitar tracks I could hear slight differences. Honestly makes me think that I shouldn't pay any mind to what wood is in my cabinets or my electric guitars because in a mix there's no perceivable difference in tone. As an aside, I love these types of videos from you. Thanks for another awesome video and I hope it does extremely well 🤘
Couldn't hear a difference on my end. I've always been fascinated with these types of experiments and appreciate all the work you put in and share with us.
I LOVE turning our notions of tone and where it comes from on it's head. That was astounding. I was doing house chores with my back turned to get a genuine measure of where the changes occurred and tbh no one would know there were 3 different cabinets there if you did not tell them there were. MAYBE A had a slight variance but it was barely there. Anyone who claims they could tell all 3 is not being honest. I think they were convincing themselves there was a noticeable change when it was likely just the music itself. All 3 sounded great and imho cabinet wood does not matter. But if I had to guess in order, particle board/ MDF/ plywood . What we are learning here is this: 1. Buy an inexpensive guitar and have it set up well and keep your strings changed. 2. Buy good speakers, put them in a no brand cabinet so no one wants to steal them. 4. Buy some good mics, learn placement.
First off, thanks a ton for making this, this is a question I've been curious about for a long time. People who don't watch this are not interested in educating themselves and challenging themselves. My guess is A = plywood, more midrange and throatyness B = MDF, sounds stuff and compressed C = Particle board, more open from top to bottom, definitely the most low end. Looking forward to the big reveal! It's also interesting that high end speaker makers always use mdf, because the density reduces speaker vibration (coloration). Bet that MDF cabinet was heavy!
While these videos may be geared towards metal music, I don’t see why anybody could take these techniques and apply them to other genres. I personally don’t play metal but I always learn great information by watching these videos. Thanks for sharing the knowledge!
I've been planning to build a cab once the snow is gone, and have been waiting for this video since you announced it. My first two listen throughs were completely blind. No differences I could ID in the full mix. Solo'd there are maybe only the slightest variations, and they were small enough that on a third pass watching the visual queues, I found out I was mistaken about where one of the cab changes happened, and even doing a pass on the "good" headphones, it was hard to detect.
This could literally be a Glen Fricker fake out! Watch him come out and say, in a loud excited voice “Actually A,B, and C never changed! I told you the sound changed, sounds like the placebo effect, and Ya fell for it!” Don’t listen with your eyes! 😱 (Cheers Glen!🥃 great video!)
Thumbs from me just purely for the effort you put in the to making this. I couldn't really tell there was a difference. If you would have said that it was really the same cab in all clips I would have believed you. I guess the next video should be does cab size make a difference. Good shit Glenn.
Well glen, I watched this. Happy to help your viewership Also, after watching the video, Cabs B and C were very similar to me while A sounded thinner in the midrange. C had the most grind up top and B was pretty even across. Both B and C were better to me, but I couldn't find any differences in a mix.
I'm watching, Glenn. Its nice to see you getting some daylight on your friendly face, in the video. Totally vouch for the speaker/cab theory. Great speakers in good cabinets can make average or worse guitar rigs sound crisp. Professional. Rich. Grinding. Dare I say, fu**ing amazing! Bless you Glenn.☺
I heard only minimal differences in the full mix, not sure I spotted every switch. With the guitars soloed, I preferred C. A sounded brittle, B sounded a tad thin but C had that top-end grind and low end rumble which I love. But none of these are bad tones (considering how much I had to strain to hear the differences in the full mix) and all three cabs sound good enough for studio use. I couldn't begin to guess which cab is which. Thanks for another awesome mythbusting test, Glenn!
Great video Glenn! The guys playing were badass. For me B had a little something extra (something in the Lower mids) than A or C but only slightly. Definitely not enough to worry about when recording and that’s why we close mic guitar speakers. It gets it right at the source. NOW the next test you MUST do is to test putting batting/insulation in a cab to see if absorbing standing waves in the cabinet improves or ruins the tone.
In the past we bought a product made of wood, (speakers, guitars, furniture, etc) based on how beautiful it looked. Never in my wildest dreams did I think somebody would make it all about the audio prduced by wood, which I always thought came from the speaker. I guess I was wrong all these years.
