Harley Benton Les Paul Copy

[bruno]

Well guitar 1 has a slightly darker thicker tone than guitar 2 - I prefer the sound of guitar 1 - but they are very close. That could be down to eq though! To be honest, I still think its down to playability and individual choice. Interesting experiment.
B

[chip]

As Bruno said. The first a little darker, the second a little brighter, but still none the wiser.
Ok I will guess. No 1= Epiphone  No2= Harley Benton. That is due mainly to. I reckon the pick ups on the HB are  brighter. I have owned and played Wikinson guitars before with humbuckers and they did seem brighter, but I'm still in the dark, anyway that's my guess.

[Pete C]

Difficult one ! I think I'd say guitar 1 is the Harley Benton and guitar 2 is the Epiphone?

[Oldrottenhead]

i found it very hard to distinguish any major difference, maybe no2 had the slight edge, but if i played both and one was £120 and the other was £300 i would buy the cheaper of the two.

[AndyR]

On these recordings, guitar 2 seems as if it's putting out more "oink" than guitar 1, I would prefer that myself. Also, the playing sounds more confident and relaxed on 2, which is the effect a "preferred" sound could have on me while playing.

What I'm describing as more oink kind of suggests I think it's better, but it's not really, I just prefer it and would find more use for it myself.

And it could be any number of things causing it:

* Electrics - Different pickups, different pots, different capacitors.
* Electrics adjustment - Different height adjustments of pickups from strings (and screw polepieces in the pickups).
* Different age strings (and different gauges).
* Different actions.
* Different resonance of the unamplified instrument - I find the louder the thing is acoustically (strings and action affect that too), the more oink it delivers through a guitar patch.

It could even be (but I don't think it is) that the guitar 2 example is recorded hotter - I've found you can make a recording of a "weedier" guitar sound bigger than a guitar with more oink, just by turning it up in the mix(!)... so er... who knows?

Interestingly - just been thinking about this - one of my LP types actually "felt" like guitar 1 when I played it in the shop. A few years earlier I would have passed on it, slightly disappointed. But I bought it because it was gorgeous to look at, it was the only one they had, and I knew I could make it sound more like I wanted (like guitar 2) with just a screwdriver and my preferred strings.

Out of these two recordings here, though, I definitely prefer 2, but no real idea which is which.

If you twisted my arm, I'd say 2 is the Harley Benton. But that's a guess based more on your description and the story - I suspect you were happier as a guitarist playing 2 (that could be because it's your guitar, or it could be because you had more time and less pressure). It's also based on my experience of Epiphones, but I've only owned 3 or 4 of them (all in the loft because I have other guitars that do it better), so maybe that's a little unfair/biaised against the Epi! The ones I own have done some excellent work - two were main gigging guitars for several years - and I wouldn't part with them. But, in general, I've found them less vibrant and lively sounding guitars than some of their friends (one of mine IS as vibrant etc, but it suffers from lifting frets and is therefore unplayable without some serious attention).

I'd recommend an Epi to anyone starting out. I'd also recommend Harley Benton - everything I've heard about them has been good.

In fact, I'd recommend any guitar to anyone. Just don't spend more than you can afford. Try a load and buy the best one for you for the cheapest you can. If you want the name, buy it. Some people are just after an instrument (a tool) to do the job. Some people are buying into a dream ("rock and roll", or whatever type of music floats their boat). It's all good.

[bruno]

Good advice Andy.

Would add - the one thing I hate is instruments that don't get used. If you buy an expensive instrument, it should be used in anger - don't buy it if you are too afraid to take it out of the case - gig it, record with it, whatever. If it simply sits in the case, then you shouldn't have bought it. All my instruments cheap, and expensive have been gigged and recorded with. I was a nervous wreck bring the Brook's to open mikes, but I'm glad I did. Although if I every do open mikes again, I'll buy a cheaper acoustic to bring - pissed people and expensive instruments are not a great mix!

B

[Bluesberry]

I came for the guitar playing section of the video....and didn't disappoint.  Man that sounds lovely, sweet, buttery, with a lovely snarl.  What a great sounding guitar Johnny.  It doesn't hurt that you can play like a son-of-a-gun.  I love watching people's fretting hand when playing guitar.....you get a hell of a lot of movement out of those three fingers....I am astonished to see that your pinky only comes into play ever so slightly, very fluid and economical positioning.  It looks too damn easy watching this, fantastic stuff.  I really enjoyed this.

[alfstone]

1 = Epi
2 = Harley Benton

Alfredo

[Johnny Robbo]

Thanks again, chaps. I'm blown away by the response to this post

And, here are the answers...

Guitar 1 is the Harley Benton

Guitar 2 is the Epiphone

The Epi certainly has a hotter output & gives (to my ears) a more trebly sound. This would make it excellent for metal & styles with more "attitude", which suits the needs of the guy who's getting it for Xmas... he's into bands like MCR and Black Veil Brides. I think I still prefer the HB (then of course I would say that wouldn't I?) as it's more of a classic rock/blues guitar. I'm having a fun time with it at the moment doing a sort of Gary Moore meets Pat Travers tune... watch this space.

Bluesberry, mate... thanks for the comments on my playing. As for the 3 fingered approach - I guess that's the Gary Moore fan in me coming out. I tend to use 3 fingers for blues scale/pentatonic type stuff (a la Gary) & then when I can't go any faster I switch to a more "Satriani" legato 4 fingered approach and get the modes out of their wrapper. Between those two methods I manage to bluff my way through most things. But I'm a cack handed eejit when it comes to speed picking & sweeping to be honest 

Thanks again chaps!

[Hook]

I'm gonna say....
1 is my ibanez  gio
2 is my dean acoustic flying v

Did I loan them to you or is that me playing?
Rock on!