[ljguitar]

Originally Posted by lkingston

…Is it just me, or do a person's ears eventually learn to hear through the trickery? I really, really liked it at first, and it bothers me to the point where I'd rather leave off the effect now.

Hi lk

Manufacturers keep building equipment which perform this 'service' for players, which means you are not alone in liking it (sometimes).

Given the fact you describe a history of liking…then liking-it-less…then being bothered by the effect…for a while and then LIKING etc all over again, it seems you are never settled on what you like.

I saw the pattern you described beginning to creep into my own guitar-life, and decided I had to get it under control. So I set out about 15 years ago on a quest to develop a live pickup rig I could 'live with' (usually the best amplified sound in any room I'm playing in) and then living with it even when new gear emerges.

I decided it's ok for me to like the tone of my guitars at home in the living room way better than the tone through the PA/amp, and then assemble a live-play-pickup-system which sounds very guitar-like through PA systems and acoustic amps which I take into public even though it's not an exact representation of my guitar.

The audience doesn't care…

Part of that process was based on the truth that audiences-don't-care about our pickup sound (unless it's making their ears bleed, and feeding back). Once I start a gig, I have 30 seconds to grab their attention, and if I don't have their attention, it doesn't matter what kind of guitar, pickup, PA I'm using.

And even if I do grab their attention in that first 30 seconds…it doesn't matter what kind of guitar, pickup, PA I'm using. People just want to hear good music and playing.

I shoot portraits for $$$ and in over 40 years of making some serious $$$ doing it, I've never had a client obsess over my camera/lens or retouching software. Clients don't care about cameras, just pictures.

Same with music.