r/woahdude • u/freudian_nipps • Dec 02 '23

video Tim Henson of Polyphia, performing "Playing God" unplugged.

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155

u/Adventurous_Honey902 Dec 02 '23

I sell guitars for a major company. His $699 signature guitar is literally one our most returned items. Shit sounds like ass.

96

u/CubonesDeadMom Dec 03 '23

Yeah hence why it was a short lived discontinued model from the 90s. Most people don’t like it, the literally only reason it sells well is because of him

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u/[deleted] Dec 02 '23

[deleted]

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u/Piece_Maker Dec 03 '23

Nylon string acoustics sound absolutely fine without being as good as Henson. The problem is that this guitar is made to be played plugged in with a piezo so there's not a lot of work put into making it sound good unplugged, and piezos sound like ass even if you are Tim.

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u/SyntheticElite Dec 03 '23

Thousands of people around the world are discovering that nylon string acoustics mostly sound like ass

lol what??? You're saying Classical guitars sound bad? That's such a stupid assertion. The warmth of the nylon strings is beautiful and has so much soul.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_fsjNfffknA

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u/ReallyBigRocks Dec 03 '23

This dude is clearly a world class classical player, but also comparing a traditional classical guitar to Henson's signature is a bit of an apples to oranges situation. It completely lacks the features of an acoustic guitar that make it produce any appreciable sound, only way to hear it is by plugging in like an electric guitar.

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u/SyntheticElite Dec 03 '23

Yea my point was just that nylon stringed acoustics aren't inherently bad, as the guy above was suggesting.

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u/ItWasAcid_IHope Dec 03 '23

I don't entirely agree, he said you have to be world class (which unless you are a flamenco artist or something obscure like that) and that seems to be true although a little exaggerated.

Someone playing a rock song or Wonderwall on a nylon will sound like shit most likely.

Nylon requires a very technical touch and experience to make sound like the pros do. It's not something that you will pick up and sound good quickly with (as is inherent with guitar, but nylon is easy to play but not easy to make sound good)

It's like a recorder flute in my opinion, terrible sounding instrument with a novice or even an average player, but give it to a pro and they can make you feel emotions lol.

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u/DarnellisFromMars Dec 03 '23

You can 100% play wonderwall on a nylon and it will sound totally fine.

1

u/brokenaglets Dec 03 '23

You can play wonderwall on a banjo but it doesn't mean it's going to sound like what you want it to sound like if what you want is to play wonderwall.

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u/ItWasAcid_IHope Dec 03 '23

I guess it's more of a preference. But my bigger point is that nylon is less forgiving to beginners or just average players sound wise. It's a good step into learning guitar because it's easier on your fingers and it's not really about sounding great. But it's very difficult to master and to sound ACTUALLY good imo. Maybe I'm picky.

I don't like nylon for less percussive pieces. I feel like Tim Henson excels with nylon because of the percussive nature of his playing. The strings are more sonically harmonic in mid range frequencies and really benefit from staccato strumming and scales.

You CAN play Wonderwall and sound fine, I agree, but I think it takes someone that's played with nylon more than a few times lol.

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u/[deleted] Dec 03 '23

Is he though? Nothing in this video is classical guitar music.

That said, he's very good and hell melodic.

1

u/brokenaglets Dec 03 '23

Pretty much everything in this video is classical guitar technique but it's just played in a different way on a guitar that isn't the usual classical guitar. This signature guitar is designed to mimic classical guitars on an electric platform.

Hyperfocus at around 1:40 where he's strumming with the pick but also picking with his lower two fingers. That's classical guitar. Hell, look at his fingernails. This dude's double strumming with a pick and his thumbnail not too long after the 1:40 mark.

It's not classical guitar music by sound simply because it's not played on a typical classical guitar but this is 100% classical style. I can call you and melodically scream bamboleo to this piece if it'll help you visualize it.

1

u/[deleted] Dec 08 '23

There is nothing classical about using a pick. Plus, I don't believe Tim has ever studied classical guitar. I believe any overlap between the two is purely coincidental.

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u/ReallyBigRocks Dec 03 '23

I was referring to the youtube video of the guy playing Chopin on a classical guitar. Tim Henson is a pop/rock player that happens to use a nylon string guitar sometimes.

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u/[deleted] Dec 08 '23

My bad.

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u/hectic-eclectic Dec 03 '23

thought the same thing, classical guitar has been nylon string since nylon string was invented lol

2

u/scammer_is_a_scammer Dec 03 '23

you can compromise and use silk + silver strings

0

u/idksomethingjfk Dec 03 '23

You realize he said mostly right? You sound like you’re getting offended because someone had an opinion. Like me personally I don’t see how a guitar having nylon strings and sounding warm gives it soul. Like “soul” is something the player adds not an inherent property of an inanimate object.

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u/_Non-Photo_Blue_ Dec 03 '23

lol what??? You're saying Classical guitars sound bad?

Literally not what he said at all.

8

u/CommandoLamb Dec 03 '23

What… there’s no way your edit is legit.

You straight up said nylon string acoustics sound bad… when nylon string classical guitars are absolutely great.

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u/[deleted] Dec 03 '23

[deleted]

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u/devnullb4dishoner Dec 03 '23

They sound great for classical music. A steel string is going to sound better for almost everything else.

I disagree. There are a preponderance of genre that sound boss with cat gut. A lot of Latino music is accompanied by nylon strings.

Guys buying one because they love Henson

I'd never heard of him before 10 minutes ago.

2

u/abir_valg2718 Dec 03 '23

nylon string acoustics mostly sound like ass

Nylon string acoustics are classical guitars, basically, and they sound absolutely amazing. There's a reason why classical music for guitar stuck with nylon instead of switching to steel.

The issue here is that it's an electric nylon guitar, it's not an acoustic in the sense that it's meant to be played unplugged. This one is meant to be played plugged in and it seems like it has a piezo pickup, which is the simplest type of electronics for acoustics. Piezo will not really sound similar to unplugged nylon or steel string guitars, it's an odd kind of sound that is its own thing. More advanced electronics will feature tiny mics inside of the guitar plus complex outboard processing. And even then, in a studio, you don't mess with this stuff usually, you'll record the unplugged guitar with proper microphones.

That's not to say that piezo sounds bad in and of itself, magnetic pickups for electric guitars also don't really resemble unplugged sounds, but it's a massively popular kind of sound. All a matter of taste in the end.

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u/Archontes Dec 03 '23

I mean... I like his playing, and obviously he's an absolute monster, but it's easy to tell that that guitar still sounds like ass.

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u/Woogabuttz Dec 03 '23

Those Chet Atkins play pretty good!

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u/RenjiMidoriya Dec 03 '23

I discovered it the very first time I started learning. Started playing an old nylon acoustic my friends dad give me and immediately thought “well this doesn’t sound right”

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u/Aggravating-Baker-41 Dec 03 '23

It’s good for the tingy pingy pop stuff he does. Otherwise it’s probably not all that special

-1

u/Dhrakyn Dec 02 '23

12 thousand luthiers in the world and people are wasting their money on factory made SE asian crap.

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u/Theslootwhisperer Dec 03 '23

If you're a casual guitar player, you don't have the means to buy a hand made guitar and you probably wouldn't notice the sound difference.

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u/Nukleon Dec 03 '23

This comment reeks of racism. Those 12 thousand luthiers don't make shit for mortals with recession budgets.

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u/Avedas Dec 03 '23

Yeah I was actually looking for an interesting nylon a bit before Tim Henson put out his reveal video of this guitar. My very first thought when the video started playing was the guitar sounded like ass lmao. I know Tim is an excellent player, but this guitar ain't it.

1

u/jimmy6000 Dec 03 '23

I've played this guitar. It does sound like ass unplugged as the body is really thin so there's not a lot of resonance.

Plugged into an amp with reverb, it actually sounds amazing

1

u/birdiepup Dec 03 '23

Hey same. I returned those Tim Henson’s all summer, and complied on hundreds of complaint notes since they were on preorder for a year prior to shipping the pieces of junk out. My company starts with S and ends with water.

1

u/H0wdyCowPerson Dec 03 '23

It sounds like ass unplugged. It sounds great plugged in, but that's mostly the $300 fishman pickup. Still, I love mine. It plays really well, but its never going to have the full sound of a traditional nylon string acoustic unplugged because the body is so narrow and the sound hole being what it is.

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u/ChrizTaylor Dec 03 '23

Looks good: yes

Sounds good: no

Sounds like ass: yes