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I honestly cannot remember anyone around here ever claiming to be able to do that.
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Interestingly, I don’t believe I stated that anyone has made such a claim, however, for those in a quandary as to what nut material, pickups, paint, or whatever, it will make for an honest self evaluation, should they actually want an evaluation.
If you are pondering a change, and you go honestly listen to a number of guitars blind, and find you can detect no difference you may just save a nice hunk of change. Being honestly introspective about one’s own abilities is always a good thing.
As for the difference between a MACK Tuck and a Porsche, or to counter the next volley, a Mercedes and BMW, sure, most with a functioning brain stem could tell the difference, but here I believe we were talking about more subtle nuances.
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But we do hear differences when we change things around.
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Exactly, do a search on my stereo speaker self examination…
The psychosomatic effect of knowing what we are listening to is overwhelming in all but the most disciplined. Then there is the ability to recall accurately, the latent auditory experience, if not repeated in within about 30 seconds. By that I mean… lets say you want to change a bridge… here’s the short version of what happens…
You play the guitar in its present configuration, deciding you do not like the sound… determining the bridge is the culprit… you choose a likely candidate to replace it with, citing glowing reviews, and perhaps some friend’s experience.
So de-tune….and remove the strings….remove the old bridge, install pup in the new one… reassemble guitar, restring… intonate, and get it setup… and play… time, if you’re good, about 30 minutes…
Results: You play it, you like the sound… making the determination the bridge is totally responsible…
What really happened (in many, far too many cases) <weasel clause since every damn word I type is being hyper analyzed…. First, remember, you played the guitar to gain a reference… ask about anyone with the fancy letters after they’re name and they will tell you, you cannot accurately remember precise sound that long… in reality only about 30 seconds… so by time the bridge was replaced and retuned you reference had vanished.
But.. You removed screws and re installed screws, just doing that on an existing bridge will alter the “tone”, as will “fooling” around with the pickup, oh yeah, did you reposition the pickup to exact parameters didn’t you? Very slight movements will result in altered tones… and what of the strings… removing the existing ones and re string with the same set will alter the response and tone due to the flexing and releasing of tension. And replacing them with new strings???. . . well that change in sound can be heard by all but the deaf…
Then there is the added re-enforcement of “your head” again… you have heard a certain “whatever” is the greatest, you spent probably too much money for that “whatever”, and install it. It violates the basic psyche of homo-sapiens to say.. “opps.. I screwed up…” so you conclude, to reinforce your initial decision to “pull the trigger”, it sounds great.
But this is just the tip of a VERY complex iceberg… There are so many variables involved that assigning any one change to tone improvement is something only the misinformed would extol.
The reason I take the approach I do is, I see every day, people asking about aspects of guitar construction, much of which is nothing more than folklore, hoping that such application will in someway do what quality practice will do. Follow my approach; you become well informed and better guitarists, able to make intelligent decisions about your gear based on pragmatism. Follow the crown and you get lost in an endless quest for “tone”, not to mention the money it costs.
Someone that has a nut changed and notices a remarkable improvement causes me to wonder.. Did they take the guitar and plug it in right there in the shop? Carry it home and do so in their “music room”.. or notice the improvement when playing a “gig”. What we’re talking about is music, at its most basic, it’s just vibrations in the air… look around where you are, right now…. Everything you see will effect the sound you hear….some greatly, some barely perceptible, but effect it, it will. I guarantee you the three “rooms” I mentioned would affect that sound far more than any nut could ever do so. Perhaps we should be discussing changing the room.
Ron Kirn