WEBVTT - TechStuff Classic: TechStuff Shreds on the Electric Guitar 0:00:04.440 --> 0:00:12.280 Welcome to tech Stuff, a production from iHeartRadio. Be there 0:00:12.320 --> 0:00:15.640 and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host, Jonathan Strickland. 0:00:15.640 --> 0:00:19.159 I'm an executive producer with iHeart Podcasts and How the 0:00:19.239 --> 0:00:24.160 Tech are You? So I'm working on an episode about 0:00:24.760 --> 0:00:29.760 stage lighting systems, specifically systems designed to move lights around 0:00:29.760 --> 0:00:34.360 in specific ways, because I went to a rock and 0:00:34.720 --> 0:00:38.519 or Roll show last night and was thinking about that 0:00:38.600 --> 0:00:41.599 as I was watching the show. However, this is a 0:00:41.680 --> 0:00:45.680 topic that is fairly complicated and complex. It's got a 0:00:45.680 --> 0:00:48.879 lot of moving parts, as it turns out. So I 0:00:48.960 --> 0:00:52.240 am still working on that, and I hope to bring 0:00:52.280 --> 0:00:54.880 you that show on Wednesday, but I still owe you 0:00:54.920 --> 0:00:57.560 a show today, and I've been spending all my time 0:00:57.600 --> 0:01:00.480 working on this other show that's not ready. So instead 0:01:00.480 --> 0:01:04.000 we're gonna listen to a very much classic episode of 0:01:04.000 --> 0:01:08.639 tech Stuff. This episode originally came out September twenty first, 0:01:08.800 --> 0:01:12.160 two thousand and nine. It also relates to rock and 0:01:12.480 --> 0:01:15.520 or Roll because the title of the show is tech 0:01:15.600 --> 0:01:18.520 Stuff Shreds on the Electric Guitar. So you're gonna hear 0:01:18.560 --> 0:01:22.160 me and my co host at the time and my 0:01:22.400 --> 0:01:24.920 editor at the time over at house. Stuff works because 0:01:24.920 --> 0:01:27.880 that's back in the house. Stuff works days, Chris Pollette. 0:01:27.959 --> 0:01:30.720 So Chris Pollette and I sat down to talk about 0:01:31.040 --> 0:01:35.800 the history and the operation of electric guitars. I listened 0:01:35.800 --> 0:01:38.280 back to this episode and it was so nice to 0:01:38.319 --> 0:01:42.080 go down memory lane and to listen to the chemistry 0:01:42.080 --> 0:01:44.920 between me and Chris. I loved him as a co 0:01:44.959 --> 0:01:48.080 host and editor. As a person, I also loved him. 0:01:48.080 --> 0:01:49.960 He's a great guy. Like I wish I could really 0:01:50.000 --> 0:01:53.280 talk smack about Chris, but I can't because he's super cool. 0:01:53.560 --> 0:01:56.920 So anyway, I thought it'd be nice to bring back 0:01:57.000 --> 0:02:00.760 this blast from the past while we are waiting for 0:02:00.960 --> 0:02:05.000 my episode about stage lighting, which I know doesn't sound 0:02:05.040 --> 0:02:07.480 like it's super interesting, But if you go to one 0:02:07.520 --> 0:02:09.840 of these shows and you see like all these lights 0:02:10.240 --> 0:02:14.800 that end up really elevating the experience, you know it's 0:02:14.800 --> 0:02:18.960 more than just highlighting the performers themselves. Literally, it's all 0:02:19.000 --> 0:02:22.320 about evoking a mood. Right Like at a particular part 0:02:22.320 --> 0:02:25.960 of a song, there might suddenly be an incredible moment 0:02:26.000 --> 0:02:28.640 where all the lights sweep out over the audience just 0:02:28.680 --> 0:02:31.360 as the music is crescendoing. So how does that work? 0:02:31.560 --> 0:02:33.839 That's what I'm working on now and what I will 0:02:33.840 --> 0:02:36.359 bring to you on Wednesday, But for the moment, let's 0:02:36.400 --> 0:02:39.720 go back and listen to this very much classic episode 0:02:39.720 --> 0:02:44.400 of tech Stuff from two thousand and nine, and I 0:02:44.440 --> 0:02:50.120 hope you enjoy. The world lost a great inventor, Les Paul, 0:02:50.840 --> 0:02:54.760 who was one of the people instrumental to use a 0:02:54.760 --> 0:02:58.400 pun in creating the electric guitar. He was not the 0:02:58.400 --> 0:03:03.040 first person to combine electricity with guitars, but we'll get 0:03:03.040 --> 0:03:10.080 to his contribution shortly. So why would you want to 0:03:10.120 --> 0:03:11.760 create an electric guitar in the first place. 0:03:12.360 --> 0:03:15.640 There are a couple of reasons, the most I would say, 0:03:15.840 --> 0:03:18.680 in my opinion, obvious of which is that if you 0:03:18.720 --> 0:03:21.200 want your guitar to be heard by people more than 0:03:21.200 --> 0:03:23.680 a few feet away, you're going to need to find 0:03:23.680 --> 0:03:26.960 some way to amplify it. That's a good point, and 0:03:27.000 --> 0:03:29.000 so you would want to be able to plug it 0:03:29.000 --> 0:03:31.880 into an amplifier so that the amplifier would project the 0:03:31.919 --> 0:03:34.920 sound farther. That's a good point too, which is you 0:03:34.960 --> 0:03:37.320 know why you have those giant speaker cabinets on the 0:03:37.360 --> 0:03:39.760 side of rock stages. 0:03:39.520 --> 0:03:43.600 Right, because the only real alternative, if we're talking about 0:03:43.640 --> 0:03:47.120 the earlier stages, is to put a microphone directly in 0:03:47.200 --> 0:03:49.680 front of the guitar and hopefully pick up the sound 0:03:49.720 --> 0:03:52.960 and transmit it that way, which is not the best 0:03:53.040 --> 0:03:56.080 way to get a clean sound out of your guitar. 0:03:56.240 --> 0:04:00.600 It's inefficient, right to be honest, because the the sound 0:04:00.720 --> 0:04:03.920 is not the sound waves are traveling from the guitar 0:04:04.080 --> 0:04:07.360 to the microphone. And of course, anytime sound travels through 0:04:07.360 --> 0:04:10.600 the air, there is the possibility that will become distorted. 0:04:10.440 --> 0:04:13.400 Yes, which sometimes is something you want, but you want 0:04:13.400 --> 0:04:16.360 to be able to control it. You don't want uncontrolled distortion. 0:04:17.000 --> 0:04:20.479 Although uncontrolled distortion a would be an awesome name for 0:04:20.520 --> 0:04:23.120 a rock band, it probably is one already could be 0:04:23.480 --> 0:04:25.120 if not patent pending. 0:04:25.279 --> 0:04:29.520 Okay, so uh, let's file for these patents. Yeah, I guess, 0:04:29.720 --> 0:04:30.160 I guess we do. 0:04:30.279 --> 0:04:32.200 We have a whole bunch of them pending, now, don't 0:04:32.200 --> 0:04:37.400 we at least three? So the way sound works, you've 0:04:37.440 --> 0:04:42.800 got something vibrating, right, and then that causes other molecules 0:04:42.800 --> 0:04:47.360 to vibrate. Eventually, these vibrating molecules hit our ears, causing 0:04:47.360 --> 0:04:50.520 little hairs to vibrate, sends little vibrations down to our 0:04:50.880 --> 0:04:53.600 ear drums, and that's what we interpret as sound. 0:04:54.000 --> 0:04:55.240 Excellent. You've got to have. 0:04:55.279 --> 0:04:58.880 Some sort of molecules in the in the environment in 0:04:58.960 --> 0:05:00.680 order to be able to hear, which is why if 0:05:00.720 --> 0:05:03.600 you're in outer space, you're not likely to hear anything 0:05:03.640 --> 0:05:07.160 because the molecules are spread out so far apart that 0:05:07.240 --> 0:05:09.719 there's not much chance of one bumping into another. 0:05:10.440 --> 0:05:12.320 That would be the whole vacuum thing. 0:05:12.520 --> 0:05:15.760 That would be, yes, the vacuum thing. Yeah, yes, it's 0:05:15.800 --> 0:05:19.120 the hoover element of the equation. As I like to say. 0:05:19.320 --> 0:05:21.880 Yeah, I'm going to leave the science stuff to other folks. 0:05:21.960 --> 0:05:24.920 All right, Well, I of course wrote an article about 0:05:25.000 --> 0:05:29.480 can humans here in space? Spoiler alert they can't. So 0:05:31.640 --> 0:05:34.440 the idea behind a regular guitar, I mean, the reason 0:05:34.480 --> 0:05:37.440 why guitars have a hollow body, why many stringed instruments 0:05:37.520 --> 0:05:40.240 have a hollowed body, is so that creates a natural 0:05:40.279 --> 0:05:45.080 amplification chamber. Yeah, without it, you wouldn't hear very much. 0:05:45.800 --> 0:05:49.640 And the size and shape of that chamber, you know, 0:05:49.720 --> 0:05:52.320 has a lot of effect on the way a guitar sounds. Right, 0:05:52.400 --> 0:05:56.120 That's why some electric guitars maintain the hollow body while 0:05:56.120 --> 0:05:59.600 others go for a solid body. Right, So you know, 0:05:59.640 --> 0:06:02.800 they both have their own merits and yeah. 0:06:02.360 --> 0:06:09.680 And early on in the experiments in electrifying guitars, many 0:06:09.720 --> 0:06:14.200 of the innovators tried to alter existing guitars, like hollow 0:06:14.240 --> 0:06:17.000 body guitars, but there was a problem with that in 0:06:17.040 --> 0:06:20.880 that you would often get distortion based upon the natural 0:06:20.880 --> 0:06:24.120 amplification from the hollow body and the electrical implication you're 0:06:24.279 --> 0:06:25.799 getting from the electric guitar. 0:06:26.720 --> 0:06:32.200 What also depends on how you are trying to electrify 0:06:32.240 --> 0:06:34.320 your guitar too, because. 0:06:34.279 --> 0:06:36.760 If you're just hugging up a couple of jumper cables 0:06:36.760 --> 0:06:38.640 to your guitar, that's probably not the best way. 0:06:39.640 --> 0:06:41.919 Not quite what I meant. Oh, okay, because I know 0:06:41.960 --> 0:06:47.320 that in early, early electric guitars, they didn't always plug 0:06:47.360 --> 0:06:49.440 in in the same place, and they didn't always try 0:06:49.440 --> 0:06:51.440 to pick up the sound from the same place. 0:06:51.680 --> 0:06:54.880 Wait, you used a word there, pick up. Oh. 0:06:54.920 --> 0:06:57.640 Yes, it's not just a truck. 0:06:57.880 --> 0:07:00.599 No, it's not. It's an important part of the electric guitar. 0:07:01.480 --> 0:07:04.520 Yes, because in early guitars they tried to pick up 0:07:04.560 --> 0:07:09.480 the vibrations, the the sound vibrations up of you know, upwards, 0:07:09.680 --> 0:07:12.200 away from the guitar body and toward the neck right 0:07:12.280 --> 0:07:13.520 and even at the end of the guitar. 0:07:13.640 --> 0:07:16.559 Yes, and now it's at the other end, the bass 0:07:16.560 --> 0:07:18.920 of the guitar. That's where you're gonna find the pickups. 0:07:18.960 --> 0:07:22.960 Now a pickup here, we've better explain, I guess the 0:07:23.000 --> 0:07:25.960 basis of an electric guitar, Like, what makes the electric 0:07:25.960 --> 0:07:26.960 guitar work? 0:07:27.440 --> 0:07:30.239 I'd like to point out that electric guitars aren't, well, 0:07:30.360 --> 0:07:33.040 at least not in most cases themselves electric. 0:07:33.400 --> 0:07:38.440 They're passive exactly. We're getting back to our old friend, 0:07:38.520 --> 0:07:39.840 the electro magnet here. 0:07:40.320 --> 0:07:43.680 Yes, I remember our old friend, the electromagnet Yese it 0:07:43.760 --> 0:07:45.680 got up and left the other day? Does I had 0:07:45.680 --> 0:07:48.760 to pay for lunch? Never rights, I know what a jerk. 0:07:49.400 --> 0:07:53.280 But electromagnets. You may recall from our previous episodes that 0:07:53.520 --> 0:07:56.880 if you have a if you run an electric current 0:07:57.080 --> 0:08:01.800 through a coiled copper wire usually coiled around an iron core. 0:08:02.040 --> 0:08:05.000 Not necessarily, but it can be, that can create a 0:08:05.000 --> 0:08:09.040 magnetic field. So electricity congenerate a magnetic field, and if 0:08:09.080 --> 0:08:13.960 you alter a magnetic field, you can induce electricity. Chris 0:08:14.000 --> 0:08:16.680 and I will be back to talk more about electric 0:08:16.720 --> 0:08:31.880 guitars after this quick break. So, with an electric guitar, 0:08:32.040 --> 0:08:35.480 you have a pickup at the base usually of the guitar, 0:08:36.440 --> 0:08:39.960 that is a magnet that has a coil around the magnet, 0:08:40.160 --> 0:08:43.720 and that means there's a magnetic field magnet. That's what 0:08:43.800 --> 0:08:47.880 magnets produce, right, So when you strum a string, the 0:08:47.960 --> 0:08:52.960 frequency the vibration of that that string create distorts the 0:08:53.000 --> 0:08:57.120 magnetic field by destroying the magnetic field, oscillating it. Essentially, 0:08:57.440 --> 0:09:00.960 you create an electric current. The electric current runs through 0:09:01.000 --> 0:09:04.880 the little coil that's around the magnet. And then if 0:09:04.880 --> 0:09:07.160 you don't have your guitar plugged into anything, it doesn't 0:09:07.160 --> 0:09:11.120 go anywhere, right, and you won't really hear anything if 0:09:11.160 --> 0:09:14.800 it's a solid body electric guitar anyway, but. 0:09:14.920 --> 0:09:17.160 You will, but you'd have to be very very close 0:09:17.200 --> 0:09:18.360 to it. You won't hear much. 0:09:18.440 --> 0:09:22.080 Yeah, it'll sound pretty weak, and because there's nothing to 0:09:22.360 --> 0:09:25.160 really amplify the sound. Now, if you have it plugged 0:09:25.160 --> 0:09:28.840 into an amp, that little electric signal will go to 0:09:28.920 --> 0:09:31.720 the amp which has a couple of different elements to 0:09:31.800 --> 0:09:34.400 it that can boost the signal and then convert it 0:09:34.480 --> 0:09:37.559 back into sound. And that's the sound you hear when 0:09:37.600 --> 0:09:39.400 you strum the strings on electric guitar. 0:09:40.880 --> 0:09:44.600 Now, for an electric guitar too, I mean assuming that 0:09:44.640 --> 0:09:48.840 we're not talking about an acoustic electric guitar in which 0:09:48.880 --> 0:09:52.480 you're basically attempting to amplify the sound from the electric guitar. 0:09:52.480 --> 0:09:55.600 If you're talking about an electric guitar like, for example, 0:09:56.080 --> 0:10:01.400 a Lass Paul, then the pick are directly underneath the 0:10:01.440 --> 0:10:04.600 strings where you actually play, where you actually strum or 0:10:04.640 --> 0:10:09.080 pick the strings, and that enables them to be very 0:10:09.080 --> 0:10:12.839 close to the original vibration. And in some cases the 0:10:12.880 --> 0:10:17.319 pickups are designed to move closer to or farther away 0:10:17.360 --> 0:10:20.440 from the string as you need to adjust them so 0:10:20.480 --> 0:10:24.760 that you can, pardon the pun for once fine tune 0:10:25.120 --> 0:10:28.920 your sound, you can sort of modify things to as 0:10:28.960 --> 0:10:30.559 you need to to get the sound you're trying to 0:10:30.600 --> 0:10:32.760 get right. No, that's not always the case. I mean, 0:10:32.760 --> 0:10:34.599 some of them are very very simple, where there is 0:10:34.640 --> 0:10:39.000 a single bar magnet that is used as a pickup. 0:10:39.559 --> 0:10:42.160 But you'll notice too that some guitars use one set 0:10:42.200 --> 0:10:46.640 of pickups while other guitars use several different sets of pickups. 0:10:46.640 --> 0:10:49.000 And you can actually you'll see switches on the guitar 0:10:49.040 --> 0:10:52.760 body that you know enables you to turn one set 0:10:52.840 --> 0:10:55.680 on or one set off, or modify the sound to 0:10:55.679 --> 0:10:58.640 to you know, make changes to your sound without having 0:10:58.679 --> 0:11:01.840 to sit there and you know, rewire the whole darn thing. 0:11:02.200 --> 0:11:05.120 Yeah. Essentially, you have controls that allow you to filter 0:11:05.200 --> 0:11:09.120 out certain frequencies, and so by choosing which frequencies you 0:11:09.160 --> 0:11:11.760 want and which ones you don't want, you can have 0:11:11.840 --> 0:11:14.920 your guitar sound in you know, many different ways. You 0:11:14.960 --> 0:11:18.120 can have that really you know, kind of crunchy rock 0:11:18.280 --> 0:11:21.440 sound that you hear from alternative rock bands, or you 0:11:21.440 --> 0:11:24.920 can have that more sort of twangy sound from you know, 0:11:24.960 --> 0:11:27.320 a country western or even like the sort of the 0:11:27.480 --> 0:11:30.320 surf rock sound of a guitar. A lot of that 0:11:30.520 --> 0:11:34.280 is just through filtering out which frequencies you want to 0:11:34.960 --> 0:11:37.600 go to the app and which ones you don't. So 0:11:37.960 --> 0:11:40.480 it's kind of cool that with one instrument you can 0:11:40.520 --> 0:11:43.160 get so many different sounds out of, you know, just 0:11:43.200 --> 0:11:44.920 by tweaking a knob or two. 0:11:45.559 --> 0:11:49.880 Yeah. And one of the really cool things about an 0:11:49.960 --> 0:11:52.640 electric guitar, as far as I mean just from a 0:11:52.679 --> 0:11:55.560 scientific standpoint, although apparently I'm not leaving the science to 0:11:55.600 --> 0:11:59.280 other people, is that you can make so many modifications. 0:11:59.320 --> 0:12:01.640 I mean, the having it wired like that gives you 0:12:01.920 --> 0:12:04.880 a lot of control over the sound, and it actually 0:12:05.240 --> 0:12:09.079 enables you to share the sound and control of your 0:12:09.120 --> 0:12:13.480 sound with another piece of your instrument puzzle, which is 0:12:13.520 --> 0:12:16.880 the amplifier, because once you plug it in, the amplifier 0:12:16.880 --> 0:12:20.440 becomes part of the electric guitar as the entire instrument. 0:12:21.200 --> 0:12:24.200 In some cases, you're it's just simply going to amplify, 0:12:24.280 --> 0:12:27.199 But in a lot of cases, especially for rock musicians, 0:12:28.000 --> 0:12:31.520 there are amplifiers you can buy that have a lot 0:12:31.520 --> 0:12:33.960 of the equipment built in that allows you to modify 0:12:33.960 --> 0:12:39.120 the sound. You can add reverberation, for example, or distortion, 0:12:39.440 --> 0:12:41.319 which is very very popular depending on the kind of 0:12:41.400 --> 0:12:45.240 music you're playing. And then of course there are effects pedals, 0:12:45.920 --> 0:12:49.760 some of which actually I know some people who have 0:12:49.920 --> 0:12:53.319 quite a few effects pedals, and basically what these are 0:12:53.360 --> 0:12:57.840 doing enables they enable you to make slight changes to 0:12:58.000 --> 0:13:03.720 the way those vibrations are are distributed across the electrical 0:13:04.320 --> 0:13:08.240 current from between the guitar and the amplifier, and then 0:13:08.400 --> 0:13:11.240 you know, from there to whatever else I guess technically 0:13:11.280 --> 0:13:14.440 the speaker, but if you are in some cases playing 0:13:14.600 --> 0:13:17.760 say an arena show, you might have a microphone stuck 0:13:17.840 --> 0:13:20.079 up next to your actual guitar amp and then from 0:13:20.120 --> 0:13:22.520 there it just going through the PA system out to 0:13:22.559 --> 0:13:26.319 the crowd. So there's a lot of wiring and. 0:13:26.600 --> 0:13:29.400 You rockstars live lives I can only dream of. 0:13:29.960 --> 0:13:31.560 Yeah, I've had to haul around a lot of that 0:13:31.600 --> 0:13:34.439 gear so thankfully not usually the PA, but. 0:13:34.679 --> 0:13:37.680 I've just looked at that gear. Yeah, it's heavy, a 0:13:37.679 --> 0:13:39.600 lot of it. What I think is cool about electric 0:13:39.640 --> 0:13:41.760 guitars is it does allow you to do things like 0:13:41.840 --> 0:13:44.800 have a guitar that has a solid body. I mean again, 0:13:44.880 --> 0:13:48.040 if it weren't for the electrical amplification, then a solid 0:13:48.040 --> 0:13:50.760 body guitar would be pretty much useless because you would 0:13:50.800 --> 0:13:52.720 have to be sitting just a couple inches away to 0:13:52.720 --> 0:13:54.360 be able to hear anything that was coming out of 0:13:54.360 --> 0:13:59.320 it in the first place. And Les Paul's is widely 0:13:59.320 --> 0:14:03.400 credited with creating the first real solid body electric guitar, 0:14:04.120 --> 0:14:08.959 which he called the log It was It is it is. 0:14:09.040 --> 0:14:13.000 It was made by made out of a slab of wood, 0:14:13.000 --> 0:14:18.400 a solid block, and it actually could come apart in pieces. 0:14:18.679 --> 0:14:22.160 I've seen pictures of it. It was pretty impressive. And 0:14:22.640 --> 0:14:26.040 granted he refined that design slightly, that was not the 0:14:26.080 --> 0:14:29.240 design that Gibson picked up when they started to market 0:14:29.280 --> 0:14:34.080 the guitars. Later on. Yeah, and the electric guitar has 0:14:34.160 --> 0:14:39.240 really revolutionized music. I mean that's not an exaggeration by 0:14:39.240 --> 0:14:42.360 any stretch of the imagination. By pairing an electric guitar 0:14:42.440 --> 0:14:46.320 with an amp and playing a note, it's possible for 0:14:46.400 --> 0:14:51.040 you to get a vibration off the speaker that continues 0:14:51.080 --> 0:14:53.880 to vibrate the string, and you get a perpetual note, 0:14:54.440 --> 0:14:58.440 a note that will last forever, or until the power 0:14:58.480 --> 0:15:00.360 runs out, or until the power runs out, until your 0:15:00.400 --> 0:15:02.760 audience decides they've had enough of this and they're gonna 0:15:02.800 --> 0:15:03.120 go home. 0:15:03.280 --> 0:15:05.600 He just gonna play that one note right time. 0:15:05.840 --> 0:15:08.560 This is like the most boring, grateful dead concert ever. 0:15:08.960 --> 0:15:11.840 He's jamming on one note and that's it. 0:15:13.040 --> 0:15:15.200 Well, you know whatever, float trippoot. Yeah, I think I 0:15:15.200 --> 0:15:18.200 could have managed that. I bet there's a one. 0:15:18.160 --> 0:15:21.080 Performance artist out there somewhere who's done this, and oh 0:15:21.080 --> 0:15:22.640 sure that. I'm sure there's more than one. 0:15:22.720 --> 0:15:24.680 But yes, yes, I'm pretty sure. 0:15:26.240 --> 0:15:28.520 You know. More power to you if that brings the 0:15:28.560 --> 0:15:30.960 grant money in good luck. 0:15:32.240 --> 0:15:35.840 But if you've wondered, if you've watched a rock band 0:15:35.920 --> 0:15:38.280 play and then watched another rock band right after them, 0:15:38.320 --> 0:15:40.880 you go, why, you know, why does it matter? What? 0:15:41.280 --> 0:15:44.200 Guitars they're using, you know, other than maybe a six 0:15:44.280 --> 0:15:47.560 swing string versus a twelve string, or you know, a 0:15:49.400 --> 0:15:55.040 regular guitar versus saan alto or a bass guitar I'm sorry, 0:15:55.160 --> 0:15:57.440 tenor versus a bass guitar. You might go, okay, well, 0:15:57.440 --> 0:15:58.800 I get it. One's a little bigger than the other. 0:15:58.880 --> 0:16:01.400 One has a couple more strings, So you know, why 0:16:01.480 --> 0:16:03.680 are there you know, what's the difference in a stratocaster 0:16:03.880 --> 0:16:06.400 versus a last Paul? Well, it all, it sort of 0:16:06.480 --> 0:16:09.360 all comes down to the things we were talking about before, 0:16:09.400 --> 0:16:11.520 the number of pickups, what kinds of pickups there are 0:16:11.560 --> 0:16:14.320 on it, whether or not it's a hollow or solid body, 0:16:14.360 --> 0:16:16.040 the kind of wood it's made out of, or other 0:16:16.120 --> 0:16:18.960 material that it may be made out of. And you know, 0:16:19.040 --> 0:16:21.360 even Gibson changed things a couple of years ago when 0:16:21.400 --> 0:16:25.160 it offered an Ethernet guitar because suddenly the connection is 0:16:25.200 --> 0:16:28.040 no longer analog, which is basically it's a you know, 0:16:28.120 --> 0:16:31.640 one quarter inch phono plug on either end. You plug 0:16:31.760 --> 0:16:33.840 one side in your guitar, one side in your end. Well, 0:16:34.600 --> 0:16:38.280 Gibson changed that by incorporating an Ethernet connection. Well, that 0:16:38.400 --> 0:16:41.480 changes the sound even more, it gives you an opportunity 0:16:41.520 --> 0:16:44.880 to play a really clean digital signal, which a lot 0:16:44.880 --> 0:16:48.560 of purists really don't like the idea of, you know, 0:16:48.640 --> 0:16:52.000 everything adds a little bit of change to it. So 0:16:52.520 --> 0:16:55.120 and that's why some people prefer vintage guitars over brand 0:16:55.160 --> 0:16:57.200 new guitars. They say, well, you know, that was made 0:16:57.200 --> 0:16:59.640 out of this kind of wood back in sixty five. 0:17:00.000 --> 0:17:01.760 It's made out this kind of would. Now it's just 0:17:01.760 --> 0:17:04.000 not the same. And they may look the same to 0:17:04.160 --> 0:17:06.080 you or me, but that's not the same. 0:17:06.119 --> 0:17:08.800 And you saw one of those digital guitars over at 0:17:08.800 --> 0:17:09.919 CES one year, didn't you. 0:17:10.040 --> 0:17:14.400 Yes, I did. I thought it was a little weird, 0:17:14.560 --> 0:17:17.200 not because there's anything necessarily wrong with it, but I thought, well, 0:17:17.240 --> 0:17:18.600 you know, I wonder if this is the kind of 0:17:18.600 --> 0:17:23.159 thing that's going to change the way people play guitar. 0:17:23.480 --> 0:17:26.240 And I don't know that it has significantly. I haven't 0:17:26.240 --> 0:17:27.959 seen a lot of people with them. As a matter 0:17:28.000 --> 0:17:31.840 of fact, I've seen nobody in person with them. But 0:17:32.160 --> 0:17:33.720 it was sort of the same kind of thing that 0:17:33.800 --> 0:17:36.560 you saw in the nineteen eighties with electronic drums. They 0:17:36.560 --> 0:17:38.359 were all the rage back in the day because you 0:17:38.359 --> 0:17:40.800 could play all kinds of sounds on them. And now 0:17:41.160 --> 0:17:44.120 the purists I think have sort of maybe not one 0:17:44.160 --> 0:17:47.399 out because they still make electronic drums, but they have 0:17:47.840 --> 0:17:52.760 certainly taken the electronic drum market back. And I think 0:17:52.840 --> 0:17:58.800 that acoustic are not acoustic, but analog guitars. Electric guitars 0:17:59.040 --> 0:18:01.800 are still predominantly the most popular. 0:18:02.119 --> 0:18:04.960 Yeah, I'm just waiting for the key tar to really 0:18:05.119 --> 0:18:09.119 really make an impact, right, Chris Pollett and I have 0:18:09.160 --> 0:18:11.040 a little bit more to say about electric guitars, but 0:18:11.080 --> 0:18:14.040 before we can continue shredding, let's take a quick break 0:18:14.080 --> 0:18:15.719 to thank our sponsors. 0:18:25.400 --> 0:18:30.679 There was a guitar website called guitar geek dot com 0:18:31.119 --> 0:18:35.040 and basically it hasn't been updated in a while, but 0:18:35.160 --> 0:18:37.399 it allows you to look at the rigs that everybody 0:18:37.480 --> 0:18:39.280 has set ups. You can see what kind of guitar 0:18:39.520 --> 0:18:42.679 that famous artist plays, along with the effects pedals they 0:18:42.760 --> 0:18:47.160 might use and what kind of amplifier they might use. 0:18:47.240 --> 0:18:49.760 And it's really kind of cool because you learn things 0:18:49.800 --> 0:18:53.480 about certain guitar players like Dave Davies of The Kinks, 0:18:53.480 --> 0:18:59.439 who liked to slit his speaker in his amplifier cabinet 0:18:59.480 --> 0:19:01.840 so that it provide just the right distortion sound and 0:19:01.960 --> 0:19:05.960 suddenly it's no longer about the guitar or the effects pedals, 0:19:05.960 --> 0:19:09.199 but whether or not the speaker as a hole in it. 0:19:10.040 --> 0:19:13.320 Nice. Yeah, I'd like to see how how Queen got 0:19:13.320 --> 0:19:16.600 that amazing sound at the end with the guitar solo 0:19:16.680 --> 0:19:20.359 of We Will Rock You, because that's still, to this 0:19:20.480 --> 0:19:23.600 day my favorite guitar solo ever. Oh really, yeah, no serious, 0:19:23.640 --> 0:19:26.440 it really is. So here's a little trivia for you guys. 0:19:26.960 --> 0:19:30.280 We were talking about the oscillations of the string causing 0:19:30.320 --> 0:19:33.040 a change in the magnetic field, and that is what 0:19:33.160 --> 0:19:40.800 creates the electrical current that is based off of Faraday's law. Oh, 0:19:40.840 --> 0:19:43.919 so there you go. If you ever are watching a 0:19:44.040 --> 0:19:48.000 musician rock out on stage, you can turn to the 0:19:48.000 --> 0:19:50.680 person next to you and say, this is an excellent 0:19:50.920 --> 0:19:54.960 demonstration of Faraday's law, which is guaranteed to get you 0:19:55.040 --> 0:19:55.640 the ladies. 0:19:57.320 --> 0:20:03.920 Yeah. Yeah, not actually guaranteed. Your may some restrictions apply. 0:20:04.040 --> 0:20:08.360 Yeah, it worked on my wife, but she's taken so. 0:20:09.840 --> 0:20:13.360 Okay, then, well are you are you all rocked out? Yeah? 0:20:13.359 --> 0:20:14.560 I'm kind of rocked out for the moment. 0:20:14.640 --> 0:20:17.560 Well, then I guess that takes us straight to a 0:20:17.680 --> 0:20:25.040 listener mail. Oh yeah, rock on this listener. Mail comes 0:20:25.040 --> 0:20:28.720 from Louis and or Lewis. Louis or Lewis, I don't 0:20:28.760 --> 0:20:31.360 know an email. You can write me and let me know. 0:20:31.760 --> 0:20:35.320 Tell hey me again? So you think I know how 0:20:35.320 --> 0:20:38.040 to pronounce his name by now finally got my modem 0:20:38.080 --> 0:20:40.680 working again, so time to email you. In the video 0:20:40.720 --> 0:20:43.520 game podcast The New One, you said that the PS 0:20:43.600 --> 0:20:46.240 three had a cell based processor. What does this mean? 0:20:46.640 --> 0:20:48.560 Also from what you were saying, it seemed that in 0:20:48.600 --> 0:20:51.520 the US Xbox three sixties are more expensive than the Wii. 0:20:52.000 --> 0:20:52.600 Is this true? 0:20:52.840 --> 0:20:53.000 Here? 0:20:53.000 --> 0:20:55.960 In New Zealand, a twenty gigabyte Xbox three sixties three 0:20:56.000 --> 0:20:59.119 hundred dollars, whereas a Wii costs almost four hundred and fifty. 0:20:59.400 --> 0:21:03.040 And I'm a bit confused. Well, Louis, let's talk a 0:21:03.040 --> 0:21:07.200 little bit about the cell based processor. It's a specific 0:21:07.280 --> 0:21:10.800 kind of microprocessor architecture, right, It's based off of the 0:21:10.920 --> 0:21:16.080 cell broadband engine architecture. It's just SELL for short. And 0:21:16.160 --> 0:21:20.119 the idea here is that each cell can handle a 0:21:20.160 --> 0:21:26.960 certain amount of calculations per second, and the PS three 0:21:27.080 --> 0:21:31.240 has I believe seven of these cells, so each cell 0:21:31.400 --> 0:21:34.840 is capable of handling a massive amount of information. The 0:21:34.880 --> 0:21:37.440 problem is you have to be able to design games 0:21:37.440 --> 0:21:40.639 that take advantage of this. They're very good at handling 0:21:40.720 --> 0:21:44.960 parallel problems. So in other words, you've got a you know, 0:21:45.040 --> 0:21:48.120 one of them's handling graphics, another might be handling physics engine, 0:21:48.119 --> 0:21:52.080 another might be handling sound something like that, as opposed 0:21:52.119 --> 0:21:56.320 to all of them working together on one big problem. 0:21:56.760 --> 0:21:58.760 So if you can divide it up, if you can 0:21:58.840 --> 0:22:03.280 divide up duties for each cell, it really takes advantage 0:22:03.280 --> 0:22:07.080 of the hardware. Otherwise you've just got a massively powerful 0:22:07.119 --> 0:22:11.679 machine that you can't really take advantage of. But you know, 0:22:11.760 --> 0:22:14.160 if you designed the game the right way, that makes 0:22:14.240 --> 0:22:17.280 that system one the most powerful system on the market 0:22:17.320 --> 0:22:20.360 right now, bar none, PS three would be the most powerful. 0:22:21.040 --> 0:22:24.200 But again you have to design the software to match 0:22:24.280 --> 0:22:29.640 the hardware's capabilities. Now, as for the pricing, well back 0:22:29.680 --> 0:22:32.160 when the game consoles first came out and they didn't 0:22:32.200 --> 0:22:34.520 all come out at the same time, we should we 0:22:34.560 --> 0:22:38.240 should make that point. But the core system, the Xbox 0:22:38.280 --> 0:22:41.160 three sixty core system was two hundred ninety nine dollars 0:22:41.440 --> 0:22:44.919 and the Xbox three sixty the main system. Because the 0:22:44.920 --> 0:22:47.879 core system was the no frills version the main system 0:22:48.000 --> 0:22:51.280 was three ninety nine. PS three came out with two 0:22:51.280 --> 0:22:53.320 different models as well. At that time, there was a 0:22:53.320 --> 0:22:56.400 twenty gigabyte version and that was four hundred and ninety 0:22:56.440 --> 0:22:59.879