Can you tell the guitar/amp?

Can you tell the guitar/amp used on a record/CD/tape?

My brother-in-law and I were talking the other day and we realized how 'anal' guitar players are about their instruments. You will hear long discussions about how '57 pickups are way better than '58 pickups, or maple necks sound so much better than rosewood slab necks, or how RCA black plate tubes have a smoother distortion than gray plate GE tubes. Yet how many of you can even identify the make of the guitar/amp on the recording?

i fyou evert tried a marshall a fender a mesa or any youcansurely tell who is who. is more complicated when a guitar player use lots of gain and not the power stage to 'make' his sound. the same is for a guitar... clean or crunchy is easy to tell.. covered by gain and effects is more difficult anyway some things are every time there (attack sparkling highs, nasal mids, powerful bass ). too easy on country blues classic rock and hard rock too.. Ciao, Paolo.

Honestly, the listener often doesn't care. If he hears a crunchy sound, that's all he hears. He doesn't hear single coils vs. humbuckers, nor can he figure out you played on a Marshall or a Boogie.

I've told this story before: A very good friend of mine played one night using an American Strat (1997) with DiMarzio Vintage Heavy Blues pickups through a Mesa Boogie Rectoverb combo. He also liked to color the tone of his distortion with a Boss Metal Zone just a little bit. He has a very experienced soundman, who plays several instruments, including guitar, and once played in one of the biggest bands around here. His soundman told him that he had the Les Paul/Marshall sound nailed. He couldn't be using equipment any more different than a Les Paul and a Marshall. That's how completely subjective the whole thing is.

Two part answer:

Part I: Yes, sometimes. A month or so ago, I was flipping channels and saw 'Los Lonely Boys' playing. I saw the guy playing a strat, and I told my wife 'sounds like a tubescreamer on a Super Reverb.' She kinda laughed and said 'how can you tell?' Now, I had no idea what this guy's amp/effects preferences were, but I was right. I even pointed out the seasick green pedal on the stage floor in one lucky camera shot. (He was using an entirely different setup, the next time I saw him).

Part II: IT DON'T MATTER. It doesn't matter if a guitarist can't tell you what tubes (p'ups, amp...) another guy is using. He *can* tell when he's plucking the strings, and that's what really counts.

Despite all the claims that people can tell all sorts of differences , I think most cant. You see a lot of the samething when they do double blind tests with audiophile equipment which is a lot harder to hear differences in, than guitars and guitar amps. Most tests seem to always end up showing people who claim they can tell , cant. And then the discussion degenerates into nitpicks about

It's pretty easy to tell the difference between say a Fender Strat/Tele and a Gibson Les Paul. Or the difference between single coil pickups and humbucker pickups.

I think the reason guitar players are so 'anal about their instruments' is that most of us are searching for the perfect tone. Searching for the 'Holy Grail' combination of guitar, amp, speakers, tubes, cables, effects, strings, and the list goes on and on. That's what G.A.S. is all about, right?

I don't think it matters if you can tell what guitar/amp was used on a given CD, all that matters is if it sounds good. If it does, we want to know what they were using so we can try to capture that tone.