YouTube Demos - Your thoughts?

[venivici]

So a friend of mine who works for a local guitar shop wrote an interesting article on their shop's blog. I thought it was interesting and he had some valid points. I tend to agree for the most part, as I have watched hundredes of demos like most of you. I have purchased a few pedals based one demos and then found it didn't work welll for my playing/setup. What do you guys think? While I think having all the demos out there is great, sometimes I think it doesn't really help as much as we think. Not trying to stir the pot, just interested in people's thoughts.

http://promusiccenter.wordpress.com/2012/10/18/4-reasons-why-youtube-demos-suck/

Full Disclosure: While this is a local shop I go to sometimes, I don't work there and am not trying to shill for them. Mods - If you think this needs to go to another section, feel free to move it.

 

[gtrbarbarian]

True that to everything his blog said. However, short of a local shop carrying a certain pedal, and having the same amp available as my rig, and the same guitar with the same pickups, and the same setup, or lugging all of my equipment to said shop to try out said pedal: Youtube remains the best approximation of trying a pedal before buying it.

 

[ShredSquatch]

So a friend of mine who works for a local guitar shop wrote an interesting article on their shop's blog. I thought it was interesting and he had some valid points. I tend to agree for the most part, as I have watched hundredes of demos like most of you. I have purchased a few pedals based one demos and then found it didn't work welll for my playinig/setup. What do you guys think? While I think having all the demos out there is great, sometimes I think it doesn't really help as much as we think. Not trying to stir the pot, just interested in people's thoughts.

http://promusiccenter.wordpress.com/2012/10/18/4-reasons-why-youtube-demos-suck/

Full Disclosure: While this is a local shop I go to sometimes, I don't work there and am not trying to shill for them. Mods - If you think this needs to go to another section, feel free to move it.

I agree with this post and the info in the link. I use the youtube demos to get an idea of how something sounds. I NEVER base a final opinion of something on a youtube video.

 

[blackie59]

I would add that from spending years working in the television production business that the audio quality of You Tube is so lousy that it's impossible make an educated decision from listening to any demos at all. Gearmandude, for example, is entertaining like a lot of demos but practically useless as a shopping tool. If you have the money and the time, you're better off buying a used pedal on the Emporium and try it out and see if you like it, if not, resell it.

 

[Jahn]

Reminds me of an old meme I posted on the Epic Meme thread:

 

[venivici]

^^^

haha, very nice.

 

[The P-Man]

It's funny how Youtube demo's are useless yet there are endless threads about nailing tones on albums where mics/recording techniques/hi-fi's/rooms/players/speakers etc etc etc are readily discounted.

 

[venivici]

It's funny how Youtube demo's are useless yet there are endless threads about nailing tones on albums where mics/recording techniques/hi-fi's/rooms/players/speakers etc etc etc are readily discounted.

Touche.

 

[The P-Man]

Touche.

Don't get me wrong, I agree to some extent with the blog post and would always advocate trying gear in person but I also find it hypocritical that you see many people on this forum say how Youtube is no way to define a sound and then continue to post about how they want a pedal to nail a famous album!

 

[venivici]

Don't get me wrong, I agree to some extent with the blog post and would always advocate trying gear in person but I also find it hypocritical that you see many people on this forum say how Youtube is no way to define a sound and then continue to post about how they want a pedal to nail a famous album!

Yeah, I get what you are saying and I think you made an interesting and thoughtworhty point, so I was just recognizing it.

 

[FindThePocket]

I agree with this for dirt pedals, but u can get an idea of what delay, verb, trem, etc. will sound like. Enough to want to try it in your rig or not anyway. For example, I can hear that the repeats on the Carbon Copy are darker and get more saturated than the Memory Lane Jr - which is why I like to have both.

 

[funsize]

sometimes it just helps to know merely if a pedal is capable of a sound you like.

 

[Gas-man]

I'm actually at the point now where if the video starts with the typical horrid single note blues playing I have to immediately turn it off and contemplate starting a thread on the state of electric guitar playing where no one plays a freaking melody any more.

 

[tibbon]

Depends what type of pedal really. For dirt and fuzz pedals, I'll agree that videos can be incredibly difficult to make decisions on. You'll probably get a ballpark idea, but that's about it. And I say this as someone who has made a *lot* of overdrive videos.

Yet, for other types of pedals its incredibly informing. Trying to figure out if a trem pedal is for you? Demos are pretty damn good for stuff like that. Strymon Timeline demos were right on too.

In watching enough demos you start to learn what you can and can't tell from a video.

 

[Uleo]

I'd like to hear more chords and please turn of the delay if not demoing delay.

 

[ChorusCrackpot]

I'm pretty over 'em now.

Demonstrations via digital mediums such as YouTube are just another useful tool to narrow down the selection process before trying out the device for yourself in person.

I say that having grown up in remote areas where I had extremely limited access to large ranges of music equipment.

 

[kcb]

Better have good recording quality - why not HD for a change - good playing, and interesting features - high end versus low end - comparable in-line pedals of like quality smack downs - and creativity - and ideally NO TALKING - or else I am not only gonna not watch, I'm gonna boycott.

There's this one dumba$$, Gearwire? All they do is talk and unwrap things. It makes me so nauseated I have to pop a Pepcid just seeing the name Gearwire. WTF were they thinking? Don't be like that.

 

[crxshdxmmy]

I remember when there was no way to have any idea what a pedal sounded like before you bought it, spare the ever-so-random manufacturer clip. I also remember the laundry list of pedals that I got back then with high hopes about how they'd sound with my setup, based only on the overblown marketing description and maybe a written review or two on a forum... and the complete disappointment when those pedals didn't sound at all like I imagined, let alone any good. And I remember how dumb I felt spending time and losing money trying to pawn it off on somebody else.

Bottom line -- demos are great. And so long as you have at least a little understanding that what you see/hear on the Internet is unlikely to be replicated 100% on your stage or in your room... you should be fine.

What bugs me is people who bitch about demos. Because I remember what it used to be like when they didn't exist.

 

[mcintalker]

I had this "realization" years ago, that a magazine ad (or lately YouTube vid demos for that matter...) that I responded to was merely an intuitive reminder of something I was asking for-looking for and that my "interest" was retriggered by seeing this ad or watching this video. That would always lead to a trip to a shop, to experiment with a piece and then I would know whether I would buy it or not. I always say, I'll bring in my guitar to check out this amp or pedal, though what I know is, I'll have to take it home and try all my guitars, and basses, steel, etc, through it. So the real question is ...Can I return this?!?!? LOL!

 

[kcb]

It's not okay to be bugged because expectations have been changed and more options offered. Standard's are raised and because you used to be cuckolded by lack of offerings you can't now be pissed because others have higher standards.

I used to have to walk twenty five miles to get a ****** education where all twelve grades sat in one hut with light by candles and no heating in the middle of -60 degree winters you smug brats mad about your teachers not having degrees in what they teach.