Do I need to have my hearing checked

[JessieEd]

All the pickup comparison clips on the Seymour Duncan web site sound exactly the same to me...the Vintage Strat sounds just like the Hot Rails, just like the Antiquity and on and on. I have listened in my home studio with nice monitors and also good headphones...they all sound great but they all sound the same to me. Can anyone (or everyone) say that they all sound different? Can my hearing be corrected to tell the subtle differences? If I can't tell, then why would I ever change pickups...again?

 

[Killing Floor]

Simple. You change pickups if You hear a difference. Don’t do it for someone else.

 

[Gardo]

Simple. You change pickups if You hear a difference. Don’t do it for someone else.

Agreed
There are so many variables that your ears are what matter

 

[Si G X]

That's a tricky one because obviously you aren't just hearing the pickup in isolation.

I said in the 'your signature sound' thread that my sound is always the sound of a crunchy marshall and it doesn't seem to make a big difference which guitar I play into it, it just sounds like a slight variation of the same sound. .. and that's different guitars with different types of pickups!

You are hearing those pickups in a guitar, through an amp (or amp modeler) into whatever equipment recorded it, over the internet and out of whatever you are playing it through. I don't think you have a hope in hell of hearing subtle differences. .. especially if the volumes are leveled to be the same.

 

[kuch]

All the pickup comparison clips on the Seymour Duncan web site sound exactly the same to me...the Vintage Strat sounds just like the Hot Rails, just like the Antiquity and on and on. I have listened in my home studio with nice monitors and also good headphones...they all sound great but they all sound the same to me. Can anyone (or everyone) say that they all sound different? Can my hearing be corrected to tell the subtle differences? If I can't tell, then why would I ever change pickups...again?

If it sounds good to you, what else matters? Lucky guy!

 

[Hank-Frost]

All the pickup comparison clips on the Seymour Duncan web site sound exactly the same to me...the Vintage Strat sounds just like the Hot Rails, just like the Antiquity and on and on. I have listened in my home studio with nice monitors and also good headphones...they all sound great but they all sound the same to me. Can anyone (or everyone) say that they all sound different? Can my hearing be corrected to tell the subtle differences? If I can't tell, then why would I ever change pickups...again?

I just went to the Duncan web site and listened to the Antiquity™ Strat Texas Hot, Vintage Staggered Strat, Hot Rails® Strat and the Antiquity II™ Surfer Strat. All 4 sounded distinctly different to me and I have quite a bit of hearing loss. Literally, no two samples sounded alike.

Have you been playing guitar very long? I know it was much harder to hear things like that when I had less experience.

 

[Old Verle Miller]

First consider that anything you hear coming off these demo videos is subjected to whatever digital processing is being done on the 'net and in your computer.

And yes, you may have a mild form of hearing loss, i.e., what is known as "nerve deafness" from repeated exposure to loud sounds, BUT, human beings are not reliable in terms of hearing subtle variations in sound they hear in a sequence unless the two sounds are short and are played repeatedly. (One exception to this is when we compare individual tones for equivalent frequencies, like in manual tuning or harmonizing.) The more reliable method for multi-frequency combined sounds like a chord on a guitar is to hear the two sound sources separately but simultaneously in two different ears (assuming your L/R hearing is roughly equal) at the same volume.

If you have access to some studio mixing/editing software, try sampling a part of the clip for PU "A" in mono onto the left track and PU "B" in mono to the right, then play them back into your headphones. If your mix/ed ap has a decent graphic representation of the track, you can even zoom in and compare them visually and see if there are differences that you're not hearing.

Given the fact that a lot of us on this forum face the possibility of hearing damage from, ahem, close proximity to high decibel noise sources, well ... let us know what you find out.

 

[JessieEd]

First consider that anything you hear coming off these demo videos is subjected to whatever digital processing is being done on the 'net and in your computer.

And yes, you may have a mild form of hearing loss, i.e., what is known as "nerve deafness" from repeated exposure to loud sounds, BUT, human beings are not reliable in terms of hearing subtle variations in sound they hear in a sequence unless the two sounds are short and are played repeatedly. (One exception to this is when we compare individual tones for equivalent frequencies, like in manual tuning or harmonizing.) The more reliable method for multi-frequency combined sounds like a chord on a guitar is to hear the two sound sources separately but simultaneously in two different ears (assuming your L/R hearing is roughly equal) at the same volume.

If you have access to some studio mixing/editing software, try sampling a part of the clip for PU "A" in mono onto the left track and PU "B" in mono to the right, then play them back into your headphones. If your mix/ed ap has a decent graphic representation of the track, you can even zoom in and compare them visually and see if there are differences that you're not hearing.

Given the fact that a lot of us on this forum face the possibility of hearing damage from, ahem, close proximity to high decibel noise sources, well ... let us know what you find out.

Thanks for the great analysis. I think that is spot on. I have have age and years of loud music behind me. Now I play somewhat quiet...a Princeton with a 12 on 4. It sounds so different in every room we play(which these days is very seldom). I do have hearing loss above 8k that would surely make me unable to hear subtle differences especially on the high side. Thanks again.

 

[Boreas]

A person could have normal hearing but poor discrimination skills. Why not get tested anyway?

 

[johnb]

WHAT?

 

[Jakedog]

They all sound different to me, even just playing them back through my iPhone speaker. I’m pretty flippin’ deaf.

 

[Jupiter]

If you can’t tell the difference consider yourself lucky

When ignorance is bliss
Tis folly to be wise

 

[TheFuzzDog]

Yes. You need to get your hearing checked. Not because of the videos, but because you should have it done every year.