Originally Posted by Doug Young
Thanks for all the thoughts, some interesting observations. I was hoping for a few different ears to point things out, as I'd gotten a bit numb to it. It is a futile exercise :-) with so many variables. My guess is that fingerstyle vs pick is the biggest one. I thought about using a pick, but that's not really what I'd be interested in anyway, and since it's something I rarely use these days, I'd be at a serious disadvantage right off the bat!
The resonance/reverberation of the Greenfield is part of what grabbed me. I didn't consider all the guitars on the wall in that room, I wonder if that's playing a role. He probably is in a more lively room, seems like TNAG's showroom, and it may not be as dead as my studio space. Likely also bigger - I definitely don't have room for 20 guitars on my wall. This problem often hits even in person. When you stop at Eric Schoenbergs and play a guitar, you never know how many vintage guitars you're really hearing, since you're surrounded by them in a wooden room. You go, wow, this budget guitar sounds just like a pre-war martin! Oh wait, I am hearing 10 pre-war martins all ringing along...
I also had a hard time seeing how far away his mics were, he may have been back further than me. Tho I suspect that alone wouldn't make a huge difference given different rooms.
One thing I noticed as I posted it and listened one last time, is what I often learn in these exercises. I think the little sparse arpeggios are what grabbed me in this, where you really hear the Greenfield ringing. Carl is milking those notes, and after me playing this thing 20 times, I think I was getting impatient, and am not letting those notes bloom the way he is. So performance and phrasing differences come into play.
I was surprised by the Lowden, it sounds much better on the recording thanit sounds to me in person. I haven't recorded much (maybe not anything) with that guitar. It really needs 10 years of hard playing on it, but it comes across pretty competitively on the recording, I think.
Overall, I'm feeling like I didn't hit the mark on sounding exactly like Carl, but I'm not unhappy with the sound of these 3 on this example, even if they're a bit different.
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