Listening with your eyes, not your eyes

I’m guilty of it and so are you most likely.  We look at an instrument and immediately assign a tone to it without hearing it.  In many cases, if you have experience with many styles of instruments, you may be right.  But, you also may not be and that would be a shame.  I’ve looked at a guitar with a certain shape or certain pickups and made the assumption that it would sound like this or that.  However, I’ve been fooled too.

I remember a legendary Telecaster we had pass through here years ago.  Now this Tele was legendary because of its weight, it weighed a TON.  We joked that the body must have been concrete.  Now, to look at the guitar, well, it looked like every other Tele and you would expect the same classic tone.  It seemed though, that because of the incredibly dense body that the warmth had been vacuumed out of the guitar, it was thin and biting.

Other times I’ve looked at a new style of pickup design and decided, without hearing it, what it sounded like.  Well, that’s just dumb.  For instance, I got to play some of the Lace Alumitone pickups and was amazed at how great they sounded.  Totally new, unusual design, you’d think they’d have some weird, experimental tone but no, they sounded full and warm and very clear.  I’ve seen this with the G&L ASAT Special pickups – fat with twang, very full yet to look at them you’d think they’d be more midrangey.

In any case, next time you see something different, sit down, listen to it with open ears and an open mind.  You just might find that what didn’t look like the sound you were looking for is actually the sound you’ve been listening for.