WEBVTT - TechStuff Shreds on the Electric Guitar 0:00:00.320 --> 0:00:03.160 Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve cameray. 0:00:03.200 --> 0:00:08.959 It's ready. Are you get in touch with technologies? With 0:00:09.039 --> 0:00:17.720 tech Stuff from how stuff works dot com. Hello everybody, 0:00:17.720 --> 0:00:20.040 and welcome to tech Stuff. My name is Chris Poett. 0:00:20.239 --> 0:00:22.200 I'm an editor here at how stuff Works dot com 0:00:22.280 --> 0:00:25.520 and sitting across from me as usual as senior writer 0:00:25.600 --> 0:00:28.640 Jonathan Strickland Crispy. I would like to rock and roll 0:00:28.680 --> 0:00:34.400 all night and party every day, right, okay, And in 0:00:34.520 --> 0:00:36.879 order to do that, I need one of the greatest 0:00:36.920 --> 0:00:42.680 inventions of the twentieth century, the blender. No, that well, 0:00:42.760 --> 0:00:46.800 that could help the whole partying part. No, I'm talking 0:00:46.840 --> 0:00:53.239 about the electric guitar. Now, recently the world lost a 0:00:53.440 --> 0:00:58.000 great inventor, Les Paul, who was one of the people 0:00:58.040 --> 0:01:02.360 instrumental to use a pe in creating the electric guitar. 0:01:02.960 --> 0:01:06.840 He was not the first person to combine electricity with guitars, 0:01:06.920 --> 0:01:13.000 but we'll get to his contribution shortly. So why would 0:01:13.080 --> 0:01:16.880 you want to create an electric guitar in the first place. 0:01:17.440 --> 0:01:20.800 There are a couple of reasons, the most, I would say, 0:01:20.880 --> 0:01:23.760 in my opinion, obvious of which is that if you 0:01:23.800 --> 0:01:26.240 want your guitar to be heard by people more than 0:01:26.280 --> 0:01:28.720 a few feet away, you're going to need to find 0:01:28.760 --> 0:01:32.039 some way to amplify it. That's a good point. And 0:01:32.080 --> 0:01:34.039 so you would want to be able to plug it 0:01:34.080 --> 0:01:36.960 into an amplifier so that the amplifier would project the 0:01:37.000 --> 0:01:39.720 sound farther. That's a good point to which is, uh, 0:01:39.920 --> 0:01:42.280 you know why you have those giant speaker cabinets on 0:01:42.319 --> 0:01:46.680 the side of rock stages, right, because the only real alternative, 0:01:46.880 --> 0:01:50.600 at if we're talking about the earlier stages, is to 0:01:50.640 --> 0:01:53.440 put a microphone directly in front of the guitar and 0:01:53.480 --> 0:01:56.760 hopefully pick up the sound and and transmit it that way, 0:01:56.760 --> 0:01:59.760 which is not the best way to get a clean 0:02:00.080 --> 0:02:03.880 sound out of your guitar. It's it's inefficient, to be honest, 0:02:03.960 --> 0:02:08.240 because the sound is not the sound waves are traveling 0:02:08.320 --> 0:02:11.240 from the guitar to the microphone, and of course, anytime 0:02:11.320 --> 0:02:14.079 sound travels through the air, there is the possibility that 0:02:14.160 --> 0:02:17.960 will become distorted, yes, which sometimes is something you want, 0:02:18.000 --> 0:02:19.800 but you want to be able to control it. You 0:02:19.840 --> 0:02:24.720 don't want uncontrolled distortion. Although uncontrolled distortion would be an 0:02:24.760 --> 0:02:27.280 awesome name for a rock band, it probably is one 0:02:27.320 --> 0:02:34.359 already could be if not patent pending. Okay, so uh yeah, 0:02:34.360 --> 0:02:35.799 I guess we guess we do. We have a whole 0:02:35.840 --> 0:02:38.160 bunch of them pending, now, don't we at least three? 0:02:38.960 --> 0:02:44.840 So the way sound works, you've got something vibrating, right, 0:02:45.440 --> 0:02:49.240 and then that causes other molecules to vibrate. Eventually, these 0:02:49.280 --> 0:02:53.440 vibrating molecules hit our ears, causing little hairs to vibrate, 0:02:53.720 --> 0:02:56.919 sends little vibrations down to our ear drums, and that's 0:02:56.960 --> 0:03:00.240 what we interpret as sound excellent. You've got to have 0:03:00.400 --> 0:03:03.920 some sort of molecules in the in the environment in 0:03:04.040 --> 0:03:05.760 order to be able to hear, which is why if 0:03:05.760 --> 0:03:08.680 you're in outer space, you're not likely to hear anything 0:03:08.720 --> 0:03:12.240 because the molecules are spread out so far apart that 0:03:12.320 --> 0:03:15.600 there's not much chance of one bumping into another. That 0:03:15.639 --> 0:03:18.600 would be the whole vacuum thing. That would be, yes, 0:03:18.680 --> 0:03:22.080 the vacuum thing. Yeah, yes, it's the hoover element of 0:03:22.400 --> 0:03:25.000 say equation as I like to say. Yeah, I'm going 0:03:25.040 --> 0:03:28.040 to leave the science stuff to other folks, all right, Well, 0:03:28.280 --> 0:03:30.880 I of course wrote an article about can humans here 0:03:30.880 --> 0:03:37.320 in space? Spoiler alert they can't. Um. So, the the 0:03:37.400 --> 0:03:39.760 idea behind a regular guitar I mean, the reason why 0:03:39.840 --> 0:03:42.640 guitars have a hollow body, why many stringed instruments have 0:03:42.680 --> 0:03:45.320 a hollowed body body is so that creates a natural 0:03:45.360 --> 0:03:50.160 amplification chamber. Yeah, without it, you wouldn't hear very much. 0:03:50.840 --> 0:03:54.720 And the the size and shape of that chamber, you know, 0:03:54.800 --> 0:03:56.920 has a lot of effect on the way a guitar sounds. 0:03:57.480 --> 0:04:01.160 That's why some electric guitars maintain the hollow body while 0:04:01.200 --> 0:04:04.760 others go for a solid body, right, So you know, 0:04:04.800 --> 0:04:07.960 they both have their own merits and yeah, and early 0:04:08.040 --> 0:04:14.760 on in the the experiments in electrifying guitars, um many 0:04:14.800 --> 0:04:18.960 of the innovators tried to to alter existing guitars like 0:04:19.000 --> 0:04:21.800 hollow body guitars, but there was a problem with that 0:04:21.920 --> 0:04:25.480 and that you would often get distortion based upon the 0:04:25.600 --> 0:04:28.960 natural amplification from the hollow body and the electrical implication 0:04:29.000 --> 0:04:33.120 you're getting from the electric guitar. Well, also depends on 0:04:33.320 --> 0:04:38.880 how you are trying to electrify your guitar too, because 0:04:39.360 --> 0:04:41.800 if you're just hunking up a couple of jumper cables 0:04:41.839 --> 0:04:44.800 to your guitar, that's probably not the best way. Not 0:04:44.880 --> 0:04:47.839 quite what I meant, okay, because I know that in 0:04:48.000 --> 0:04:52.640 early early electric guitars. They didn't always plug in in 0:04:52.680 --> 0:04:54.800 the same place, and they didn't always try to pick 0:04:54.880 --> 0:04:57.640 up the sound from the same place. Wait, you used 0:04:57.640 --> 0:05:02.160 a word there, pick up. Oh. Yes, it's not just 0:05:02.240 --> 0:05:04.880 a truck. No, it's not. It's an important part of 0:05:04.920 --> 0:05:08.640 an electric guitar. Yes, because in in early guitars they 0:05:08.640 --> 0:05:12.880 tried to pick up the vibrations, the the sound vibrations 0:05:13.040 --> 0:05:15.960 up of you know, upwards, away from the guitar body 0:05:15.960 --> 0:05:18.200 and toward the neck and even at the end of 0:05:18.200 --> 0:05:21.040 the guitar. Yes, and now it's at the other end, 0:05:21.279 --> 0:05:23.520 the base of the guitar. That's where you're gonna find 0:05:23.520 --> 0:05:27.440 the pickups. Now a pickup. Uh, here, we've better explain, 0:05:27.520 --> 0:05:30.039 I guess the basis of an electric guitar, Like, what 0:05:30.240 --> 0:05:33.360 makes the electric guitar work? I'd like to point out 0:05:33.400 --> 0:05:36.360 that electric guitars aren't, well, at least not in most 0:05:36.360 --> 0:05:42.200 cases themselves. Electric their passward, their passive exactly. Um, we're 0:05:42.200 --> 0:05:45.640 getting back to our old friend, the electro magnet here. Yes, 0:05:45.760 --> 0:05:48.960 I remember our old friend, the electromagnet. Yes, they got 0:05:49.040 --> 0:05:50.839 up and left the other day. Does I had to 0:05:50.839 --> 0:05:55.960 pay for lunch? What a jerk? But electro magnets. Uh. 0:05:56.080 --> 0:05:58.880 You may recall from our previous episodes that if you 0:05:59.040 --> 0:06:02.360 have a UM, if you run an electric current through 0:06:02.440 --> 0:06:06.719 a coiled copper wire usually coiled around an iron core, 0:06:07.120 --> 0:06:09.960 not necessarily, but it can be UM, that can create 0:06:10.000 --> 0:06:14.120 a magnetic field. So electricity congeneraing magnetic field, and if 0:06:14.160 --> 0:06:18.919 you alter a magnetic field, you can induce electricity. So 0:06:19.360 --> 0:06:22.760 with a an electric guitar, you have a pickup at 0:06:22.760 --> 0:06:26.440 the base usually of the guitar that is a magnet 0:06:27.000 --> 0:06:31.040 that has a coil around the magnet. And uh, that 0:06:31.080 --> 0:06:34.919 means there's a magnetic field magnet. That's what magnets produce. Right, 0:06:35.000 --> 0:06:38.480 So when you strum a string, the frequency the vibration 0:06:38.560 --> 0:06:43.040 of that that string um created distorts the magnetic field 0:06:43.560 --> 0:06:47.160 by destroying the magnetic field, oscillating it. Essentially, you create 0:06:47.240 --> 0:06:50.520 an electric current. The electric current runs through the little 0:06:50.520 --> 0:06:54.120 coil that's around the magnet. And then, Uh, if you 0:06:54.160 --> 0:06:56.400 don't have your guitar plugged into anything, it doesn't go 0:06:56.440 --> 0:07:00.560 anywhere and all you won't really hear anything. If it's 0:07:00.560 --> 0:07:04.560 a solid body electric guitar anyway, UM, well you will, 0:07:04.560 --> 0:07:06.599 but you'd have to be very very close to it. 0:07:06.680 --> 0:07:08.880 You won't hear much. Yeah, it will sound pretty weak 0:07:09.240 --> 0:07:13.520 and uh, because there's nothing to really amplify the sound. Now, 0:07:13.560 --> 0:07:16.960 if you haven't plugged into an amp, that little electric 0:07:17.040 --> 0:07:19.960 signal will go to the amp which has a couple 0:07:20.000 --> 0:07:22.760 of different elements to it that can boost the signal 0:07:22.840 --> 0:07:25.720 and then convert it back into sound. And that's the 0:07:25.760 --> 0:07:30.280 sound you hear when you strum the strings on electric guitar. Now, 0:07:30.360 --> 0:07:32.960 UM for an electric guitar to uh what I mean, 0:07:33.160 --> 0:07:37.320 assuming that we're not talking about an acoustic electric guitar 0:07:37.680 --> 0:07:41.040 in which you're basically attempting to amplify the sound from 0:07:41.040 --> 0:07:43.520 the electric guitar. If you're talking about UM an electric 0:07:43.560 --> 0:07:48.120 guitar like, for example, a less paul Um, then the 0:07:48.960 --> 0:07:52.559 pickups are directly underneath the strings where you actually play, 0:07:52.800 --> 0:07:55.960 where actually strong or pick the strings UM, and that 0:07:56.080 --> 0:08:00.640 enables them to be very close to the origin vibration. 0:08:00.840 --> 0:08:04.360 And in some cases the pickups are designed to um 0:08:04.600 --> 0:08:07.640 move closer to or farther away from the string as 0:08:07.680 --> 0:08:10.920 you need to adjust them so that you can pardon 0:08:10.960 --> 0:08:15.080 the pun for once uh fine tune your sound. You 0:08:15.080 --> 0:08:18.640 can sort of modify things too, as you need to 0:08:18.640 --> 0:08:21.040 to get the sound you're trying to get. That's not 0:08:21.080 --> 0:08:22.680 always the case. I mean, some of them are very 0:08:22.800 --> 0:08:26.720 very simple, where there is a single bar magnet that 0:08:27.160 --> 0:08:29.400 as you used as a pick up. But you'll notice 0:08:29.440 --> 0:08:32.520 too that some guitars use one set of pickups while 0:08:32.800 --> 0:08:36.000 other guitars use several different sets of pickups. And you 0:08:36.000 --> 0:08:39.559 can actually you'll see switches on the guitar body that uh, 0:08:39.640 --> 0:08:42.320 you know, enables you to turn one set on or 0:08:42.320 --> 0:08:45.640 one set off, or modify the sound to to uh, 0:08:45.720 --> 0:08:48.360 you know, make changes to your sound without having to 0:08:48.400 --> 0:08:52.000 sit there and you know, rewire the whole darn thing. Yeah. Essentially, 0:08:52.040 --> 0:08:55.680 you have controls that allow you to filter out certain frequencies, 0:08:56.320 --> 0:08:59.000 and so by choosing which frequencies you want and which 0:08:59.040 --> 0:09:02.000 ones you don't want, you can have your guitar sound 0:09:02.160 --> 0:09:04.560 in you know, many different ways. You can have that 0:09:04.640 --> 0:09:08.040 really you know kind of crunchy rock sound that you 0:09:08.120 --> 0:09:11.080 hear from alternative rock bands, where you can have that 0:09:11.120 --> 0:09:14.240 more sort of twangy sound from uh, you know, a 0:09:14.240 --> 0:09:16.960 country western or even like the sort of the surf 0:09:17.040 --> 0:09:19.800 rock sound of a guitar. A lot of that is 0:09:19.840 --> 0:09:24.000 just through filtering out which frequencies you want to to 0:09:24.080 --> 0:09:26.840 go to the app and which ones you don't. So 0:09:27.160 --> 0:09:29.680 it's kind of cool that with one instrument you can 0:09:29.720 --> 0:09:32.360 get so many different sounds out of you know, just 0:09:32.400 --> 0:09:36.400 by tweaking a knob or two. Yeah. And the one 0:09:36.440 --> 0:09:40.600 of the really cool things about an electric guitar as 0:09:40.600 --> 0:09:43.200 far as I mean just from a scientific standpoint, although 0:09:43.240 --> 0:09:46.240 apparently I'm not leaving the science to other people, UM, 0:09:46.440 --> 0:09:48.760 is that you can make so many modifications. I mean 0:09:48.840 --> 0:09:51.440 that having it wired like that gives you a lot 0:09:51.480 --> 0:09:54.880 of control over the sound, and it actually enables you 0:09:55.000 --> 0:09:58.559 to uh share the sound and control of your sound 0:09:58.600 --> 0:10:03.439 with another p of your instrument puzzle, which is the amplifier, 0:10:04.360 --> 0:10:06.640 because once you plug it in, the amplifier becomes part 0:10:06.679 --> 0:10:10.520 of the electric guitar as the entire instrument. UM. In 0:10:10.559 --> 0:10:13.560 some cases you're it's just simply going to amplify. But 0:10:13.840 --> 0:10:17.120 in a lot of cases, especially for rock musicians, UM, 0:10:17.160 --> 0:10:20.480 there are amplifier amplifiers you can buy that have a 0:10:20.520 --> 0:10:22.640 lot of the equipment built in that allows you to 0:10:22.679 --> 0:10:27.480 modify the sound. You can add reverberation for example, UM 0:10:27.600 --> 0:10:30.240 or distortion, which is very very popular depending on the 0:10:30.280 --> 0:10:33.160 kind of music you're playing. UM. And then of course 0:10:33.200 --> 0:10:37.600 there are effects pedals um, some of which actually I 0:10:37.720 --> 0:10:40.760 know some people who have quite a few effects pedals 0:10:41.160 --> 0:10:44.760 UM and basically what these are doing enables they enable 0:10:44.800 --> 0:10:48.600 you to make slight changes to the way those vibrations 0:10:48.640 --> 0:10:54.040 are are distributed across the um, the electrical current from 0:10:54.080 --> 0:10:57.840 between the guitar and the amplifier, and then you know, 0:10:58.080 --> 0:11:01.000 from there to whatever else I guess technically the speaker, 0:11:01.080 --> 0:11:04.720 but if you are in some cases playing saying arena show, 0:11:05.000 --> 0:11:07.880 you might have a microphone stuck up next to your 0:11:07.920 --> 0:11:10.160 actual guitar amp and then from there just going through 0:11:10.160 --> 0:11:13.840 the p A system out to the crowd. So there's 0:11:13.880 --> 0:11:17.160 a there's a lot of wiring and rock stars live 0:11:17.240 --> 0:11:19.760 lives I can only dream of. Yeah, I've had to 0:11:19.800 --> 0:11:22.440 haul around a lot of that gear so thankfully not 0:11:22.520 --> 0:11:25.920 usually the p A, but I just looked at that gear. Yeah, 0:11:26.120 --> 0:11:27.920 it's heavy, a lot of it. What I think is 0:11:27.960 --> 0:11:30.200 cool about electric guitars as it does allow you to 0:11:30.280 --> 0:11:32.920 do things like have a guitar that has a solid body. 0:11:33.120 --> 0:11:36.240 I mean again, if if it weren't for the electrical amplification, 0:11:36.320 --> 0:11:39.120 then a solid body guitar would be pretty much useless 0:11:39.160 --> 0:11:41.200 because you would have to be sitting just a couple 0:11:41.280 --> 0:11:43.040 inches away to be able to hear anything that was 0:11:43.080 --> 0:11:45.679 coming out of it in the first place. Um and 0:11:46.040 --> 0:11:50.200 uh Les Paul's is widely credited with creating the first 0:11:50.360 --> 0:11:55.560 real solid body electric guitar, which he called the log Um. 0:11:55.679 --> 0:11:58.920 It would it is it is. It was made by 0:11:59.559 --> 0:12:02.959 made out of a slab of wood, a solid block, 0:12:03.280 --> 0:12:07.600 and and uh, it actually could come apart in pieces. 0:12:07.880 --> 0:12:11.319 I've seen pictures of it. It was pretty impressive. And 0:12:11.800 --> 0:12:15.240 granted he refined that design lightly, that was not the 0:12:15.240 --> 0:12:18.440 design that Gibson picked up when they started to market 0:12:18.440 --> 0:12:22.760 the guitars later on. Um. Yeah, and and the electric 0:12:22.760 --> 0:12:26.920 guitar has really revolutionized music. I mean there, it's that's 0:12:26.920 --> 0:12:30.160 not a exaggeration by any stretch of the imagination. By 0:12:30.480 --> 0:12:34.600 pairing an electric guitar with an app and playing a note, uh, 0:12:34.679 --> 0:12:38.600 it's possible for you to get a vibration off the 0:12:38.040 --> 0:12:41.840 the speaker that continues to vibrate the string, and you 0:12:41.880 --> 0:12:45.280 get a perpetual note, a note that will last forever, 0:12:46.920 --> 0:12:48.640 or until the power runs out, or until the power 0:12:48.679 --> 0:12:51.000 runs out, or until your audience decides they've had enough 0:12:51.000 --> 0:12:53.160 of this and they're gonna go home. He just kind 0:12:53.160 --> 0:12:56.200 of play that one note. This is like the most boring, 0:12:56.200 --> 0:13:00.480 grateful dead concert ever. He's jamming on one note and 0:13:00.559 --> 0:13:04.240 that's it. Well, you know whatever floats. Yeah, I think 0:13:04.280 --> 0:13:06.640 I could have manage managed that. You know, I bet 0:13:06.720 --> 0:13:09.640 there's a performance artists out there somewhere who's done this, 0:13:09.800 --> 0:13:11.840 and sure that I'm sure there are more than one. 0:13:11.920 --> 0:13:15.880 But yes, yes, I'm pretty sure. Um. You know, more 0:13:15.920 --> 0:13:18.320 power to you if that brings the grant money in 0:13:19.640 --> 0:13:23.640 good luck. But um, if you've wondered, if you've watched 0:13:23.920 --> 0:13:26.880 a rock band play and then watched another rock band 0:13:26.960 --> 0:13:28.880 right after them, you go, why, you know, why does 0:13:28.920 --> 0:13:32.439 it matter what guitars they're using? You know, other than 0:13:32.840 --> 0:13:35.680 maybe a six swing string versus a twelve string or 0:13:36.160 --> 0:13:41.120 you know, uh, a regular guitar versus say, an alto 0:13:41.320 --> 0:13:44.920 or a bass guitar. Um, I'm sorry, a tenor versus 0:13:44.920 --> 0:13:46.960 a bass guitar. You might go, Okay, well, I get it. 0:13:47.000 --> 0:13:48.480 Once a little bigger than the other one has a 0:13:48.520 --> 0:13:51.520 couple more strings, So you know, why are there? You know, 0:13:51.520 --> 0:13:54.560 what's the difference in a stratocaster versus the last Paul? Well, 0:13:54.559 --> 0:13:57.320 it all it's sort of all comes down to the 0:13:57.400 --> 0:13:59.480 things we were talking about before, the number of pickups, 0:13:59.480 --> 0:14:01.560 what kinds of pickups there are on it, whether or 0:14:01.559 --> 0:14:03.960 not it's a hollow or solid body, the kind of 0:14:03.960 --> 0:14:06.000 wood it's made out of, or other material that it 0:14:06.040 --> 0:14:08.440 may be made out of, and um. You know, even 0:14:08.600 --> 0:14:10.640 Gibson changed things a couple of years ago when they 0:14:10.760 --> 0:14:14.440 offered an ethernet guitar because suddenly the connection is no 0:14:14.520 --> 0:14:17.480 longer analog, which is basically it's a you know, one 0:14:17.559 --> 0:14:21.120 quarter inch phono plug on either end. You plug one 0:14:21.120 --> 0:14:23.040 side in your guitar, one side and your amp. Well, 0:14:23.800 --> 0:14:27.440 Gibson changed that by incorporating an Ethernet connection. Well, that 0:14:27.600 --> 0:14:30.760 changes the sound even more, gives you an opportunity to 0:14:30.880 --> 0:14:34.160 play a really clean digital signal, which a lot of 0:14:34.160 --> 0:14:37.720 purists really don't like the idea of. Um. You know, 0:14:37.840 --> 0:14:41.680 everything adds a little bit of change to it, so um. 0:14:41.720 --> 0:14:44.320 And that's why some people prefer vintage guitars over brand 0:14:44.320 --> 0:14:46.360 new guitars. They say, well, you know, it was made 0:14:46.360 --> 0:14:48.840 out of this kind of wood back in six five. 0:14:49.080 --> 0:14:50.760 It's made out of this kind of wood now is 0:14:50.800 --> 0:14:53.080 just not the same. And they may look the same 0:14:53.080 --> 0:14:55.440 to you or me, but that's not the same. And 0:14:55.560 --> 0:14:58.400 you saw one of those digital guitars over sea, Yes, 0:14:58.760 --> 0:15:01.920 didn't you? Yes, I did. I thought it was a 0:15:01.920 --> 0:15:05.400 little weird. Um. Not not because there's anything necessarily wrong 0:15:05.440 --> 0:15:07.000 with it, but I thought, well, you know, I wonder 0:15:07.040 --> 0:15:10.480 if this is the kind of thing that's going to change, um, 0:15:10.680 --> 0:15:14.000 the way people play guitar. And I don't know that 0:15:14.040 --> 0:15:16.320 it has significantly. I haven't seen a lot of people 0:15:16.480 --> 0:15:18.120 with them. As a matter of fact, I've seen nobody 0:15:18.120 --> 0:15:21.800 in person with them. Um. But it was sort of 0:15:21.840 --> 0:15:23.600 the same kind of thing that you saw in the 0:15:23.680 --> 0:15:26.720 nineteen eighties with electronic drums. They were all the rage 0:15:26.720 --> 0:15:28.280 back in the day because you could play all kinds 0:15:28.280 --> 0:15:31.360 of sounds on them. And now the purists I think 0:15:31.400 --> 0:15:34.160 have sort of maybe not one out because they still 0:15:34.160 --> 0:15:39.560 make electronic drums, but they have certainly taken the the 0:15:39.600 --> 0:15:44.120 electronic drum market back. And I think that acoustic or 0:15:44.320 --> 0:15:48.360 not acoustic, but uh, analog guitars, electric guitars are are 0:15:48.640 --> 0:15:52.520 still predominantly the most popular. Yeah, I'm just waiting for 0:15:52.560 --> 0:15:56.080 the key tar to really really make an impact, right. 0:15:56.920 --> 0:15:59.440 And you know it's funny because I'm just gonna skip 0:15:59.440 --> 0:16:03.480 that um because it's there's a there's a website. I'm 0:16:03.560 --> 0:16:05.600 assuming it's still there. I can check real quick while 0:16:05.600 --> 0:16:09.880 we're talking. But um, there was a guitar website called 0:16:09.920 --> 0:16:15.280 guitar geek dot com um and basically, uh, it hasn't 0:16:15.480 --> 0:16:17.680 been updated in a while, but it allows you to 0:16:17.840 --> 0:16:19.920 look at the rigs that everybody has set ups. You 0:16:19.960 --> 0:16:22.560 can see what kind of guitar that they that famous 0:16:22.640 --> 0:16:24.960 artist plays, along with the effects pedals they might use, 0:16:25.360 --> 0:16:29.200 and what kind of amplifier UM they might use. And 0:16:29.240 --> 0:16:31.920 it's really kind of cool because you learn things about 0:16:32.200 --> 0:16:35.280 certain guitar players like um Dave Davies of The Kinks, 0:16:35.320 --> 0:16:40.880 who liked to slit his um speaker and his amplifier 0:16:40.920 --> 0:16:43.560 cabinet so that it would provide just the right distortion sound. 0:16:43.640 --> 0:16:46.040 And suddenly it's no longer about the guitar or the 0:16:47.000 --> 0:16:50.520 effects pedals, but um whether or not the speaker as 0:16:50.560 --> 0:16:53.680 a hole in it? Nice. Uh. Yeah, I'd like to 0:16:53.720 --> 0:16:56.440 see how how Queen got that amazing sound at the 0:16:56.560 --> 0:16:59.080 end of the with the guitar solo of UM we 0:16:59.120 --> 0:17:02.640 Will Rock You, because that's still to this day my 0:17:02.680 --> 0:17:05.919 favorite guitar solo ever. Yeah, no serious, it really is. 0:17:06.400 --> 0:17:08.639 UM so here's a little trivia for you guys. Uh. 0:17:08.800 --> 0:17:12.080 We were talking about the oscillations of the string causing 0:17:12.119 --> 0:17:14.800 a change in the magnetic field, and that is what 0:17:15.000 --> 0:17:20.040 creates the electrical current. Um. That is based off of 0:17:20.119 --> 0:17:24.640 Faraday's law. So there you go. If you ever are 0:17:24.720 --> 0:17:29.400 watching a musician rock out uh on stage, you can 0:17:29.400 --> 0:17:31.600 turn to the person next to you and say, this 0:17:31.680 --> 0:17:36.240 is an excellent demonstration of Faraday's law, which is guaranteed 0:17:36.320 --> 0:17:43.719 to get you the ladies. Yeah, not actually guaranteed, your 0:17:44.200 --> 0:17:48.679 ma y, some restrictions apply it. It worked on my wife, 0:17:48.800 --> 0:17:53.960 but she's taken So okay. Then, well are you Are 0:17:54.000 --> 0:17:56.080 you all rocked out? Yeah? I'm kind of rocked out 0:17:56.080 --> 0:17:57.920 for the moment. Well then I guess that takes us 0:17:58.000 --> 0:18:06.640 straight to a listener. Yeah, rock on this listener. Mail 0:18:06.680 --> 0:18:10.320 comes from Louis and or Louis Louis or Lewis. I 0:18:10.320 --> 0:18:13.119 don't know. You can write me and let me go 0:18:14.920 --> 0:18:17.199 hey me again. So you think I know how to 0:18:17.200 --> 0:18:20.440 pronounce his name? Bry Now finally got my modem working again, 0:18:20.480 --> 0:18:23.280 so time to email you. In the video game podcast 0:18:23.400 --> 0:18:25.600 The New One, you said that the p S three 0:18:25.680 --> 0:18:28.800 had a cell based processor. What does this mean. Also, 0:18:28.880 --> 0:18:30.480 from what you were saying, it seemed that in the 0:18:30.600 --> 0:18:33.200 US Xbox three sixties are more expensive than the we. 0:18:33.840 --> 0:18:36.520 Is this true here? In New Zealand, a twenty gigabyte 0:18:36.640 --> 0:18:39.600 Xbox three sixties three hundred dollars, whereas a WE cost 0:18:39.640 --> 0:18:44.280 almost four fifty And I'm a bit confused. Well, Louie, Um, 0:18:44.400 --> 0:18:48.080 let's talk a little bit about the cell based processor. Uh. 0:18:48.160 --> 0:18:52.160 It's a specific kind of microprocessor architecture, right, It's based 0:18:52.200 --> 0:18:56.080 off of the cell broadband engine architecture. It's just sell 0:18:56.200 --> 0:18:59.280 for short UM. And the idea here is that each 0:18:59.320 --> 0:19:05.240 cell and handle a certain amount of um of of 0:19:05.320 --> 0:19:09.160 calculations per second. UH. And the p S three has 0:19:09.240 --> 0:19:13.320 I believe, seven of these cells, So each cell is 0:19:13.359 --> 0:19:17.040 capable of handling a massive amount of information. The problem 0:19:17.119 --> 0:19:19.359 is you have to be able to design games that 0:19:19.440 --> 0:19:23.639 take advantage of this. They're very good at handling parallel problems. 0:19:23.960 --> 0:19:27.000 So in other words, you've got a you know, one 0:19:27.080 --> 0:19:29.920 of them's handling graphics, another might be handling physics engine, 0:19:29.960 --> 0:19:33.879 another might be handling sound something like that, as opposed 0:19:33.920 --> 0:19:38.560 to all of them working together on one big problem. 0:19:38.600 --> 0:19:40.359 So so if you can divide it up if you 0:19:40.359 --> 0:19:44.400 can divide up duties for each cell. Uh, it really 0:19:44.400 --> 0:19:47.680 takes advantage of the hardware. Um, otherwise you've just got 0:19:47.720 --> 0:19:50.840 a massively powerful machine that that you can't really take 0:19:50.880 --> 0:19:54.280 advantage of. But uh, you know, if you design the 0:19:54.280 --> 0:19:57.560 game the right way, that makes that system one in 0:19:57.600 --> 0:20:00.360 the most powerful system on the market right now or none. 0:20:00.400 --> 0:20:03.879 PS three would be the most powerful. But again you 0:20:03.960 --> 0:20:08.120 have to design the software to match the hardware's capabilities. Now, 0:20:08.160 --> 0:20:12.720 as for the pricing, well back when the game consoles 0:20:12.800 --> 0:20:14.840 first came out and they didn't all come out at 0:20:14.880 --> 0:20:17.560 the same time, we should we should make that point. 0:20:18.359 --> 0:20:21.280 But the core system, the Xbox three sixty core system 0:20:21.400 --> 0:20:26.320 was two dollars and the Xbox three sixty the main system. 0:20:26.400 --> 0:20:29.199 Because the core system was the no frills version, the 0:20:29.240 --> 0:20:32.920 main system was three. P S three came out with 0:20:32.960 --> 0:20:35.000 two different models as well. At that time. There was 0:20:35.040 --> 0:20:37.920 a twenty gigabyte version and that was four hundred and 0:20:38.000 --> 0:20:41.320 ninety nine dollars, But then there was the sixty gigabyte 0:20:41.400 --> 0:20:46.480 version that was five hundred and ninety nine dollars, pretty 0:20:46.480 --> 0:20:49.360 expensive states right in the US and the WE when 0:20:49.359 --> 0:20:52.000 it came out two nine dollars, So it was cheaper 0:20:52.040 --> 0:20:57.960 by fifty bucks than the next least expensive console. I 0:20:57.960 --> 0:21:00.600 should also add many people have written in to point 0:21:00.640 --> 0:21:02.160 this out, and I think we mentioned it in an 0:21:02.160 --> 0:21:06.200 earlier podcast as well, but the those first PS three 0:21:06.240 --> 0:21:09.879 models were backwards compatible. You could play PS two games 0:21:09.920 --> 0:21:12.480 on them. It was only after they moved to the 0:21:12.520 --> 0:21:16.000 PS three eighty gigabyte version, and even some of the 0:21:16.040 --> 0:21:19.560 early ones of those were backwards compatible, but eventually they 0:21:19.640 --> 0:21:23.119 took that compatibility out of the p S three and 0:21:23.240 --> 0:21:26.199 since then it has not been there. Yeah, and some 0:21:26.280 --> 0:21:31.280 of those older models are are much more um prized 0:21:31.840 --> 0:21:34.680 by PS three fans than the newer models because of 0:21:34.880 --> 0:21:37.399 backwards compatibility. Yeah, because it means one less machine that 0:21:37.480 --> 0:21:39.280 you have to have hooked up to your your system 0:21:39.320 --> 0:21:42.240 if you want to play all your games. Uh. And 0:21:42.840 --> 0:21:45.840 when we were recording that podcast, we were really concentrating 0:21:45.880 --> 0:21:48.400 on the systems that were available on the market as 0:21:48.960 --> 0:21:52.360 of the recording of that podcast. And while you can 0:21:52.440 --> 0:21:55.280 find the sixty gigabyte p S three's, and you know, 0:21:55.359 --> 0:21:59.080 things like Craigslist or eBay or whatever, in general, your 0:21:59.560 --> 0:22:03.520 local game store, unless they're selling used consoles, they're not 0:22:03.560 --> 0:22:06.600 going to have one of those um in stock because 0:22:06.640 --> 0:22:09.960 they've been out for a while. Um, So that's really 0:22:09.960 --> 0:22:12.280 why we weren't talking about those and why we said 0:22:12.320 --> 0:22:14.399 that the p S three was not backwards compatible. It 0:22:14.400 --> 0:22:16.760 wasn't because we didn't know about these earlier models, because 0:22:16.760 --> 0:22:21.679 you can't really get those in your average store. Yeah. Um, 0:22:21.720 --> 0:22:24.679 today the pricing is a little different. Uh. The Xbox 0:22:24.760 --> 0:22:29.000 three sixty Elite just got knocked down to two dollars. 0:22:29.040 --> 0:22:32.640 The Xbox three sixty Arcade is to forty nine. They 0:22:32.640 --> 0:22:37.840 are completely eliminating the core Xbox three sixty that's gonna 0:22:37.880 --> 0:22:41.120 go away once they sell out. That they're gone. Uh, 0:22:41.160 --> 0:22:44.359 then you've got the p S three Gigabyte Slim. That 0:22:44.400 --> 0:22:48.879 one is the and the Wei is still sitting there 0:22:48.880 --> 0:22:51.920 at to forty nine hasn't changed, which is uh. If 0:22:52.000 --> 0:22:53.879 those for those of you who are listening in on 0:22:53.920 --> 0:22:57.840 our conversation with our single listener who lives in New Zealand, 0:22:57.960 --> 0:23:02.199 that's as of right now, recording a podcast three and 0:23:02.280 --> 0:23:06.040