For those of you who appreciate all tones Mastodon, you now have new piece of gear to covet. Guitarist/theguywhodoesn’tsing Bill Kelliher has teamed up with Lace Pickups to release a signature pickup set, the Dissonant Aggressors.
I’ve been critical of the fidelity of demo videos in the past because our ears inevitably compare the tones to albums, which usually have more love slaved on the tracking and mixing. But anyway, the guitars sound great in this video. Out of curiosity, how do you guys feel about layered guitars like this in a demo video (the rhythm guitars are quad-tracked). I know some people are purists and want one guitar track, mic’ed with just an SM57 and no EQ. I can see the argument, but personally I want to hear a guitar recorded how I’d actually track it for a more apples to apples comparison.
Oh, right, the Dissonant Aggressors. They’re out now, and you can pick them up directly from Lace Pickups if you want to blaze the trail with these things, or at least co-blaze it right behind Bill.
Update: I made a mistake in the original post and stated that the design was based off of the Dirty Heshers pickups, but in fact the design is an original one developed by Lace with Bill’s input.
charles bronson / December 31, 2013 2:29 pm
I think that these demo videos with record-quality production values are useless. Most players don’t spend the majority of their time recording in studios, why would I care what these pickups sound like tripled, quintupled, etc? Of course they’re going to sound great, someone mixed them for optimal audio quality. I want to have an accurate idea of what these will sound like when I get them home and play them in my bedroom because that’s what I’ll actually be hearing if I buy these things.
/
Chris Alfano / December 31, 2013 5:03 pm
I can see that argument, but I wouldn’t go so far to say that any guitar quad tracked sounds good. The way I see it, it’s not going to sound like when you play in your bedroom either way. It’s always going to be colored by the mic. The way it sounds mic’ed by a single 57 is very different than your ear hearing the guitar tone bouncing around your room (not to mention that you likely have a totally different amp anyway). So when you hear it mic’ed up, the best comparison is other mic’ed guitars. So why not mic and track it like other guitars are mic’ed and tracked.
/
Jared / January 2, 2014 6:55 pm
They are not based off the Dirty Heshers. That is completely false. They are completely unique and wound to Bill’s specifications. In the demo Ryan compared them to the Dirty Heshers but never said they were designed off them.
/
I Shot J.R / January 6, 2014 12:12 am
Judas Priest reference/10
/