mr dave

actually it was a tele and ES-335 and i still can't tell what the point i'm missing is.

that first led zep album was pretty much all done on a tele but it doesn't exactly scream 'country twang' like the traditional tele sound right? sounds mean and meaty like the les paul page is normally photographed with no?

as for the difference in sounds between single coil and humbuckers. it's still absurd and there's actually a technical reason for that.... a single coil running on its own creates significant buzz. in 1957 a gibson employee discovered a way to get rid of the hum, bucking it if you will, by wiring two single coil pickups together.

by the time the 60s rolled around guitar players were sticking matchsticks in their fenders to jam the toggle switch between two pickup settings to emulate the reduced buzz that humbuckers offered. to the point that fender redesigned their electronics to offer 5 way switches on strats.

like GB said, tone comes from the fingers.

while i don't doubt that you can pinpoint your favourite guitar players from their tone i really don't think anyone can pick out the gear they're using without seeing it.

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