Ever hear someone play your rig. And it sounds better??

[Mailman1971]

Just was thinking I had a buddy come from out of state. Haven’t seen him since high school.
He’s a super guitarist. I was playing. My EVH EL34 stealth. He said ‘god damn that sounds amazing!’
So I handed him my guitar. I stepped back about 5 feet. He hit basic chords.
And shit
It sounded huge!!
Can one get deaf to their own gear while playing?
It was just a strange moment.
Like looking in from the outside.

Just sorta talking. No complaints at all. Just wondering if anyone else experienced this?

 

[John4021]

Absolutely
Crazy how that works huh..

 

[Mailman1971]

Ya it wasn’t like he was ripping crazy leads.
Just basic stuff I just played!’

 

[stephen sawall]

Something about playing alters your awareness. A separate reality.

 

[errrrrl]

So I handed him my guitar. I stepped back about 5 feet.

Maybe when you stepped back it altered your blood flow thus causing your beer and other substance levels in your body to circulate at a higher rate thus altering your perception

 

[Mailman1971]

So I handed him my guitar. I stepped back about 5 feet.

Maybe when you stepped back it altered your blood flow thus causing your beer and other substance levels in your body to circulate at a higher rate thus altering your perception

Go on...
Your on to something...

 

[Mailman1971]

Something about playing alters your awareness. A separate reality.

Your right my friend.
Sorta like walking off stage.
To grab a beer at the bar.
Same music. Different perception.

 

[stephen sawall]

There is nothing wrong with your amplifier. Do not attempt to adjust the picture. We are now in control of the transmission. We control the horizontal and the vertical. We can deluge you with a thousands channels, or expand one single image to crystal clarity and beyond. We can shape your vision to anything our imagination can conceive. For the next hour, we will control all that you see and hear.

 

[Monkey Man]

Whilst playing, one's attention is focussed on physical actions and the necessary coordination in response to what one hears.
Whilst listening, your attention is focussed solely on sound / music.

Big difference. That energy that was "wasted" on the physical challenges of playing is thus diverted and added to the appreciation-of-detail side of things when one switches to listening.

It's no different from the differences you notice during conversation - fidgeting or allowing one's self to become distracted as opposed to paying full attention to what's being said by another.

All that said, when anyone else has played any of my rigs through the years, he or she has always sounded better than I, but that's got nothing to do with this perceptual phenomenon and everything to do with the fact that I can't play for shit.

 

[jsp]

Ever record yourself playing, and notice a lot of subtleties when you listen back that you didn't notice while playing? Same thing, you don't listen as well while you're actively playing, because your attention is divided. This also has to do with why some people think they're better players than they are (I'm 100% guilty of this) and why recording yourself is so key to improving.

 

[LP Freak]

Exactly why nobody touches my shit.

 

[Monkey Man]

 

[indespise]

I think it's the "you are your own worst critic" phenomenon. I get into bad writing ruts, and many times I have noticed that a lot of my favorite songs and albums have riffs that I wouldn't have been satisfied with using myself, yet fit the big picture. This realization doesn't really help me out of those ruts though.

 

[SoooRad]

I heard somebody play my rig the other day, and decided I wouldn't be unhappy to move it along.

 

[panhead]

Yeah when Audley Freed played through my rig in the early 90`s. Very humbling to say the least. Believe me it`s the player not the rig.

 

[guitarnerdswe]

This is the reason why I often dial tones and effects using a looper. Much easier to take the role of engineer tweaking sounds, than trying to do it whilst playing.

 

[Mailman1971]

Whilst playing, one's attention is focussed on physical actions and the necessary coordination in response to what one hears.
Whilst listening, your attention is focussed solely on sound / music.

Big difference. That energy that was "wasted" on the physical challenges of playing is thus diverted and added to the appreciation-of-detail side of things when one switches to listening.

It's no different from the differences you notice during conversation - fidgeting or allowing one's self to become distracted as opposed to paying full attention to what's being said by another.

All that said, when anyone else has played any of my rigs through the years, he or she has always sounded better than I, but that's got nothing to do with this perceptual phenomenon and everything to do with the fact that I can't play for shit.

I believe this is the case. More focused on my hands and chord changes I ‘hear’ the song. But more focused on playing it.
Also when my bud played it. We had a drummer and it was kinda nice to hear the rig from a stand by point of view.

And yes. I play like shit as well.

 

[cardinal]

There are some amps and pedals that I hear other people using and it sounds awesome, but I can walk up and plug in and just am not happy with it. The Mesa Mark is like that. I swear some guy can be ripping on one and I just love it. I can plug in and change nothing but I don't like it now. Probably because I'm a terrible player.

 

[Racerxrated]

So I handed him my guitar. I stepped back about 5 feet.

Maybe when you stepped back it altered your blood flow thus causing your beer and other substance levels in your body to circulate at a higher rate thus altering your perception

Go on...
Your on to something...

Or, maybe ON something...

Yup I agree, your perception changes when you aren't paying attention to your own playing, and just listening instead.

 

[nightflameauto]

I had a guitar and amp that I just was not vibing with at all at one point years back. The guy that I sold it to, when he was trying it out? If I could have gotten that shit to sound that good it wouldn't have gotten sold. That was, by far, the best it ever sounded to me. Since then I've spent a lot more time recording and playing back before swapping anything in the chain. If it sounds good recorded and played back while I'm sitting there listening, then it probably sounded good when I was playing it. If not, then there may be bigger problems.