Would a good Guitar VST sound better than a cheap guitar?

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ls2013

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Is it possible that a high end Guitar plugin could sound better than a cheap guitar or will the real thing always sound better?
 
Hell no!! Been there. Ample guitar is probably the best and that dont come close. Scarbee funk doesnt either. Buy a cheap guitar and learn it.
 
I actually play guitar and I have a pretty good one, however I have a cheap Yamaha Bass guitar which is why I was thinking of getting a VST like Ample Bass P. Would my real bass still sound better?
 
I say get a cheap guitar. I just picked up a $90 Epiphone SP-1 from Guitar Center. I have better guitars, but just wanted something new to play with. I'm actually quite impressed by the sound and feel of it so far. I could definitely record with it, and I just might.

As for bass, it depends on the style of music. Real bass is going to take more attention to tone. From the bass, to the amp, to the DAW, you could find pops and things that you'll have to edit. For my rock band, I've got presets in my DAW that correspond to the tone of my p-bass and Markbass amp, which I set through trial and error. But for EDM and beats, it's usually a VST for bass.
 
Everything, from a synth sounds artificial. The guitar is an instrument, where every parasite sound sounds good. synths make basic sounds, no mather how much you develop them and add effects and modulations, they will never sound natural. With a cheap guitar, you can't play a lot of sounds, it's not versatile. And the pickups are important. But with the guitar it is important to have dynamics :). The right hand makes all the difference :). How you pick the note :).

At the end of the day, what will sound good is your prefference.
And if you are a newbie, know that you'll be a pretty bad player during the first two years. I once made a serenade to a cute girl on my six months experience and she said "you s*ck" :). Then one year after that I could make another girl wet her eyes. But with at least 2 hours a day of practice :). So this is what you'll be facing with the guitar.

After that I got a full tube amp, but I don't use it, cos I play at mu bedroom and plan not to become mute :D. 40 W of tube power A class amp can tear your face off in a small room.

And another thing. Don't play at 2 a.m. in a park near an apartment building. You'll be surprised what poeple may throw at you. And I'm not talking just about eggs, but also jam jars, flower pots and other stuff.
 
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some of my best bass bass work (that without errors or parasitic sounds) is done using the scarbee j-bass, after I work out what I want to play on a real bass - i.e. I spend hours crafting a bass line then spend even more hours making the scarbee patch sound exactly like what I am looking (slides, bends, hammers, pulls, harmonics, ghosting, snaps, pops, etc)

that said I think the real thing should be played in preference to a vst unless you have an intimate knowledge of what to play and how to replicate it in your target vst
 
To put my own spin on this and give you more broad of a range i'll give you some other advice.

I have a Schecter C-1+ solid neck. I bought it used for 300 dollars US. (I recommend used from guitarcenter.com). So I bought it for 300 US. But I had some cool humbucker dual-single coil pick ups put on. To put them on it cost me 100 US and he hooked me up with new knobs too and put on my strings and tuned and adjusted it the way I asked.

My Dimarzio (which I love for metal) ran about 75 each and I have 2. That's 150 US. Altogther whats's that, about 500 plus then I bought the best cable Mogami for about 40-50. So altogether it ran me up to about 600 US for everything. Now this is a sweet ol setup. Really nice stuff. It's a great brand that offers good stuff more inexpensive. I recomend Schecter.

Like I said Dimarzio is good for metal and rock IMO mostly. But Seymour Duncan seems great for hip/hop smooth jazz and stuff like that. more along the side of soft and coffe shop. but with a program like Waves.com GTR3 you can really crank them and dotort them just with amps too if need be. GtR3 is not to be confused with Guitar Rig which I despise and hate. But Guitar Rig is popular so glad to hear you like it folks.

GTR3 sometimes goes on sale for just 99 dollars and a Solo runs 19 US at Musiciansfriend.com It's incredibaly realistic and they have really (cool!) awesome, amps, and all the mainstave pedals of the normal brands is what they appear to be by the looks and sounds. Phenomanal. Also many Mics and cabinets. My favorite piece of Software is my GTR3 by Waves.com. Couldn't live without it.

I suggest buying a cheap guitar you like and upgrading the pickups of your choice. They make a big difference but they are only about half of the guitar sound. For instance the amps you use can really crank and make them whale and distort no matter what. So choose wisely. Any pick up can get distorted. But rather on the other hand, a noisy pickup can't get as mellow and soft because they have a lot of noise and hiss to begin with. A high gain Pickup will really help you scream and chug it dirty style. While a Seymour Duncan pickup can still do that they will do it in a cleaner way. Softer tones. Mellower.

Thee last and final suggestion is Dimension Pro for something different. Digital Sound Factory Volume 8: Dimension Pro and LE - Guitars & Basses Expansion
I have some pretty cool guitars on it stock but the link above is to other extra guiars. I don't know how good it is, but my guitars on Dimension Pro that I already have are pretty radical in a way. Kinda pretty cool. If you want I can make you a demo. PM me if so.

Dimension Pro can be found at Pluginboutique from time to time for about 19 US. Which it was 15 just a couple weeks ago, so it might be a month or two or more again, I'm not sure maybe 6 months. Dimension pro usually costs 99 dollars US.

The difference is, you might have to play the guitar and learn it and get results you like with flavor you like. Or you are at the mercy of a VST.

One final idea is using a guitar VST through GTR3. Really smart idea if it has dry Electric modeling to it from and electric guitar. But in Ableton Live you can just get one of their guitar sounds and play it through GTR3 or you can use "Sampler" and record a guitar sound from a studio and play it on all the keys as well and through GTR3 that way as well.

Cheers hope you come to a great conclusion.

Rock on,

Anthony Lowery Faith Fox
 
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Depends on the sound your going for.
Most people love the authentic sound of a real guitar,piano,drum, whatever.
What sound are you trying to create, digital or acoustic?
As long as the music makes since musically and artistically, it dont matter
 
bandcoach said:
some of my best bass bass work (that without errors or parasitic sounds) is done using the scarbee j-bass, after I work out what I want to play on a real bass - i.e. I spend hours crafting a bass line then spend even more hours making the scarbee patch sound exactly like what I am looking (slides, bends, hammers, pulls, harmonics, ghosting, snaps, pops, etc)

that said I think the real thing should be played in preference to a vst unless you have an intimate knowledge of what to play and how to replicate it in your target vst
Click to expand...

Why would you not just record yourself playing the live bass and save those extra hours programming it in Scarbee? cleaner/deeper sound from Scarbee?
 
MadAnthony81 said:
I suggest buying a cheap guitar you like and upgrading the pickups of your choice. They make a big difference but they are only about half of the guitar sound.
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Ask anyone who works in a guitar shop (Guitar Center, Music Go Round) and they will tell you to BEWARE spending money on switching pickups - I've heard horror stories of people spending hundreds of dollars to create a certain sound and never getting it, so they continue to spend even more money.

It's kind of like building your dream car from a beater - you have to really do your research and know what you're doing or else you will just waste your time and money.
 
wildinout8 said:
Why would you not just record yourself playing the live bass and save those extra hours programming it in Scarbee? cleaner/deeper sound from Scarbee?
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more to do with having two frozen shoulders - also known as adhesive capsulitis - I have a range of motion that is about 40% of what it should be, meaning that my ability to play for extended periods of time is minimal - I can however, sit at a computer for hours on end with little impact on my pain levels

wildinout8 said:
Ask anyone who works in a guitar shop (Guitar Center, Music Go Round) and they will tell you to BEWARE spending money on switching pickups - I've heard horror stories of people spending hundreds of dollars to create a certain sound and never getting it, so they continue to spend even more money.

It's kind of like building your dream car from a beater - you have to really do your research and know what you're doing or else you will just waste your time and money.
Click to expand...

the fundamental issue with replacing pickups is that you also need to replace the rest of the electronics with higher quality components to allow the pickups to show their best sound

I have subbed a seymour duncan jeff beck jb1 for the bridge pickup in my el-cheapo 1984 model hondo (a damn good guitar when first shipped and even better one when upgraded and setup correctly) - tricked out with coil taps and phase inversion switching as well as eliminating the tone control and using both pots for individual volumes, standard 3-way switch kept as I could get the phased sound with the switch matrix
 
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Nothing can beat the real thing but through MY KNOWLEDGE and history what I would do to get a good electric guitar sound would be to just use an average / high end sounding Guitar VST and then wire it to NI's Guitar Rig then flip through different presets and work on eqing and such. You can actually get a nice decent sound out of that to be completely honest.
 
Hi, i'm slightly late to this thread but i'm a guitarist/composer looking for recording opportunities. If you need any guitar on your tracks then let me know. I have valve amps, decent microphones and some great plugins/FX.

Thanks
Steve.W
 
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