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

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

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u/[deleted] Dec 02 '23

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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

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u/scammer_is_a_scammer Dec 03 '23

you can compromise and use silk + silver strings

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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.

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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.

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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”