Can you distiguish instruments by sound?

[Budweiser]

If you listen to song where you don't know what's being used, can you tell if it's a Strat or an LP or if it's being played through a Marshall or a Fender Twin etc?

[lpmarshall]

I may not be exact, but I can usually get in the ballpark. The only caveat is when something has a lot of distortion, it makes it harder to guess.

[tone4days]

i can tell guitars (generally) better than amps (almost never)

but sometimes i even get the instruments (let alone brand/model) mixed up


i was on a plane with my mp3 player last week listening to a robben ford tune from 'talk to your daughter' ... there was one tune 'got over it' (?) and i still cant be sure if there was a harmonica solo on it or if it was ford on guitar ...

then agian, i am old and stupid

whatcha gonna do
t4d

[Gearjoneser]

I think the more you listen to a lot of gear, the more finely tuned your ears get to things like that. Besides listening to music for enjoyment, I tend to subconsciously take notes...all the tones and what they might be, snare sound, arrangement, harmonies they use or could use.

I think my ear is good enough to identify classic gear, all the way down to amps, FX, bridges, and sometimes pickup magnet. Like LPmarshall said, it's harder when there's more distortion or too many tracks in the mix. But I can usually pick out a Strat, Tele, LP, Duncan, Dimarzio, stamped vs cast saddles etc. I can usually get a good ballpark guess on tube type or modeling.

I watched producer Andy and Glynn Johns mix some tracks before, and those are 2 guys who have ears that hear everything. They notice things in a mix like a microphone cable that's longer than another one!

[jeremy]

im pretty good at picking it out, sometimes its really hard. studio recordings or lots of distortion can make it alot harder

[TimmyPage]

Basically between Strat, Les Paul, PRS style and 'other' (every other guitar that doesn't quite fit.. shred guitars etc), yes. Not in the metal genre though, as alot of it tends to be so distorted it loses that unique sound quality, but in a blues or lighter rock recording.

Amps.. well.. I can hear the difference between an old Fender and a Marshall.. but that's really about it.. everything else I would have to look at to know (and sometimes with boutique amps and stuff I get confused.. think it's a Marshall but it's Soldano etc)

[lex666]

I can usually pick out the easy differences like LP vs Strat or Tele and Marshall vs Mesa vs Fender amps. But like others said, studio "magic" can blur the lines very easily... Sometimes, I like to figure out the effects...

I wish I could pick out what key they're playing in sometimes...

[vinterland]

It's so easy to pick out a true strat. I don't know why but I've just sorta tuned in that sound I suppose.

I can typically hear the marshall sound and the mesa sound pretty easily as well.

[SpiderVenom]

Of course I can differentiate instruments by sound.

I guarantee I'll pick the difference between drums and guitar every time

[Gr8Scott]

I can do a pretty fair job of it with strats vs LP's etc and with amps. I can even pick a plexi from a JTM-45, but only because I own the Edana. I can also tell when someone is using a fender usually also. Distortion makes guessing a bit harder and some of those vintage LP's do sound a bit stratty at times and throw me off.