How do you get this new trendy pop tone?

Probably just samples the producer(s) got somewhere in a royalty free collection they bought.

 

Sounds like a neck pickup with some subtle delay. Maybe a little chorus even or some sort of modulation? Hard to say.

 

I'd love to help you but it would mean having to subject myself to that god awful "music". I have boycotted anything I don't deem worthy of the acclaim it receives and they already get far to many clicks of encouragement on their videos.

 

That mystical Justin Bieber tone is very elusive. Single coils straight into a preamp/mixing board and squashed with a ton of compression. Once you have it dialed in, make sure you tell all your guitar buddies that you've nailed the Bieber tone.

 

In all seriousness, the first clip is done with fingers and you need to give the strings a bit of a 'pop' by plucking from almost underneath them. To me it sounds like a cleanish front strat or tele pkup (could even be a 335 type) through a small amp or amp sim.

The Selena tune, I can't tell.

 

In the middle of John Mayer discussing his silver sky guitar was this bit about recording that seems relevant:
Most modern recordings are more direct and less watery and ambient. I can see how this guitar would fit with that.

Yeah, there are a lot fewer tracks, and everything is getting more room and more space. To your point about recording, when I’m playing on people’s sessions these days, I don’t usually bring an amp, I record all my guitars through my Akai MPC. Why? Well, because that’s what the rest of the music is suggesting. When everyone is using virtual instruments and virtual effects, there’s no oxygen.

Those frequencies are so well cordoned off, a Bassman amp with three mics put on it literally will not fit inside the song. There’s a lot of resistance to that from producers. My guitar parts are getting on three times more records these days than when I came in with my guitar amp and a couple pedals and mics. It wasn’t fitting the lexicon, so I had to really look at that and ask, “Is the old way of doing things really honoring the electric guitar?”

https://www.guitarworld.com/artists...eat-around-his-cool-new-prs-silver-sky-guitar

 

That’s a really interesting bit of information. I think it makes sense in terms of efficiency as well but it seems to water down the guitar part. I mean maybe I’m showing my age but it seems to me that the artistry of guitar playing has something to do with the touch a player exhibits based on the feedback they get from the signal chain (effects, amp).

I know for me it’s way easier to plug straight into my DAW and lay down straight tracks to get the bones of the song recorded so I can flesh it out but then I come back and actually play the tracks again and spend some time figuring out my tonez and the feel for the final tracks. I’m just a hobbiest so what do I know but it seems to me this generic approach to recording wouldn’t have resulted in a lot of the great guitar recordings that have come out all these years.

 

On the Bieber one there is no guitarist credited. The producer is credited with 'instrumentation' so I don't know if he played it or it's a sample. That guy isn't on the Gomez track ( and no guitarist credited)so...

...

is probably closest to the truth.

And a song written by Ed Sheeran and sung by Justin Bieber. No, I haven't listened to that.

 

Could be a keyboard.

 

Absolutely, I'll be surprised if an actual guitar was involved in either track.

 

If you play both clips at the same time it seems to help get through it or at least part way through a verse.

 

strat single coil bridge (or middle) pickup - heavy compressor - modulated digital reverb - a lot of wet knob
tada !

 

Humbucker, 335, middle position, slight delay or as stated a Strat on middle position.

Not a very new sound but more of a very old sound.



Also, the keyboard rift in the Gomez song is a rip off of "Every Breath You Take" by the Police.

 

I’m thinking the same thing but with a neck pickup and big helping of compression. Tone control maxed or no-load.

 

"How do you get this new trendy pop tone?"

For the Beebs tune.... a midi controller, a sampler (often a computer), a bad electric guitar sample, load it with far too much compression. If that was played by a real guitar player I'm sure it didn't sound like that going in!

For the Gomez tune.... a nice clean amp tone, middle pickup on almost any guitar, generous amounts of compression and (IMO) too much chorus, reverb and delay.

 

Sounds like direct in to the board, no amp.

 

I played them both together backwards and thought I heard dueling banjos...

...won't do that again.

 

How do I get that sound? Short answer: I don't!

The first sounds like a Midi and a sample. The second sounds like a little bit of chorus and a whole lot of compression. And yeah, as Scout says, no amp for either. (Or musician, either!)

Of course, I only listened to them for seven seconds each. I mean, I like you guys, but not enough to put myself through that!

 

I like the first one, arrangement and production etc. Be better without having to hear the [ahem] vocalist's actual voice... to me.