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I came across a couple John Stowell vids that have two distinct ES-175 tones. The 1971 seems full and vibrant.
The 1958 seems darker and less dynamic.
Do you think that these two tones have to do with differences in the instruments, or do they have more to do with differences in recording, strings, amps, settings, etc.?
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11-11-2014 05:19 PM
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The 1971 has what appears to be a Fender "wide range" humbucker in the neck position. These have individual pole magnets more like a single coil and as a result are brighter than Gibson PAFs with the magnet slung under the poles. This may account for a lot of the tone difference. Also can't see what he has the tone controls set at for each pickup.
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Clearly the pickup, as stated above.
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I'd say all of the above. I would bet the only thing in common is John Stowell himself.
Originally Posted by Encinitastubes
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John is a friend and a genius. If he told me to buy one or both of those guitars, I would probably jump. Thankfully, he is smarter than that.
His earlier work from the 80's and a bit later was done on his old ES-295. I can't remember when he started branching out, but he always sounds amazing to me, and never gets a characteristic sound out of any guitar I've heard him play. If I didn't know these were 175s in the clips, I would assume they were a couple of his solid bodies. It just doesn't make much difference with John, his playing and touch shine through.
Buy his records and his lessons, support one of the nicest, most adept musicians I know!
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that wide range pickup sounds great. maybe its a Fralin or other booteek pickup.
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It looks like a Fralin P92 or Twangbucker from here.
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That would explain the difference in brightness. Originally Posted by entresz
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175 Tones
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The type of guitar is what makes most of the sound and tone characteristics (IMO). A ES-175 is a 16" laminated maple archtop guitar, with mahogany neck. That basic construction + pickups are IMO what makes most of the specific sound on the ES-175. Far more then the guitar brand, the lacquer or the price!
Laminated = cross grain damping, maple compensates that by being a bright sounding wood. Mahogany necks give a mellow 'plop' to the tone.
Acoustics: A ES-175 type guitar with one humbucker in neck position sounds different to a 175 with two humbuckers built in. The bridge position is where most of the resonance is made on any acoustic guitar top. So the hole for the 2nd humbucker very much reduces the acoustic quality of a ES-175 (or any other guitar).
Some sound samples of my 2009 Epiphone ES-175
Compare to Pat Metheny's sound on At Last You're Here (Album: Day Trip)
and at 1:18 to Jonathan Kreisberg's sound on Autumn In New York (Album: Night Songs)
Gibson PAF vs Epiphone Alnico Classic:
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Wow, I have never heard him - very into his sound! I definitely need to check him out more - thanks for the two videos.
So, it looks like he is switching from a pick to fingerstyle, but he opens his thumb and index often and if there were a pick it would fall out of his fingers...what is he doing?
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I dig that playing a lot, John is da man! And the '71 model, even though I'm not a big fan, I really like the tone of that ES- 175, the first time I ever really did! Pretty close to the old Guild tone.
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Guys, I would have to say that the tone of the two guitars is essentially the same. The difference is that the '71 is close mic'd to the amplifier, whereas the '58 is being mic'd farther away--farther and off axis (probably from the camera mic). You aren't hearing the bass hump and the high end dynamics that the microphone produce from the proximity effect when close mic'ing the amp in the second video. That's a PAF in that '58 and it has _plenty_ of complexity to its sound...it's just not being picked up from the six-foot location of the microphone, IMO.
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Why does it always sound like he's found a million different ways to play 'Stellar By Starlight'?
For me in all these examples, it really goes to show how the Es-175 under performs acoustically and plugged in. Its a good Be-bop guitar in a band setting but for this type of stuff it sounds pretty bad.
Neither of them sound good in John's hands imo.Last edited by Archie; 06-08-2015 at 03:55 PM.
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I've got a different opinion about his playing and his tone on these vids. I really like both, especially the blonde 175.
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Archie, what a surprise! You don't like 175's. Who would have thought it.
Different year 175's, different pickups, different amps make for different sounds....Last edited by Stringswinger; 06-09-2015 at 02:59 AM.
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Neither of them sound good to me either sorry.
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i'm not mad about the sound or the playing -
sound is flat - playing is too clever by half (it seems to me)
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