When tone matching doesn't work...

So as you might know I've been matching tones for years. I keep getting many questions about it simply stating that "match EQ doesn't work" etc. To keep it short I'll say this: driven tones are matchable but the cleaner the tones get the harder it will be to match them. And I'm sorry to say this but CLEAN TONES CANNOT BE MATCHED! Ofcourse it's possible to do the process but you can't match EQ a humbucker to sound like a single coil and expect them to sound identical; just like you can't match EQ Pavarotti to sound like Axl Rose.

Here's a good example I've been working on. Song is: Reef - Place Your Hands


That's an amazing tone right there. Really blows me away. What really made me interested was the fact that those guitars are not doubled so basically if I was gigging as the only guitarist I could have that kind of a stereo tone live. It's a clean Fender amp on the left and a dirty Marshall amp on the right and it's just one guitar take. So how do I get this tone?

Although that guy is playing a 70s Les Paul in that video... that's a Fender neck position tone for sure right? I'd say it's a Stratocaster neck position but on a live video that guitarist was playing with a Telecaster in bridge position. Well he didn't sound like that live so I'm going to ignore that. I don't own a Stratocaster right now so I've been trying to get this tone with my Telecaster. It's impossible. So this tone matching process forces me to buy a Fender Stratocaster if I want this tone. :)

So to answer many personal messages, here's an example of where tone matching gets really tricky and I thought it would be good to share it to all yall! :)

that doesn´t sound like a typical strat, sorry...i don´t know why this shouldn´t be a les paul actually...i won´t say this is no strat, but i´d say i´m sure you could get nearly any guitar to sound like that...if you really want that...;-)
btw. anybody knows if the singer recovered from his illness...? ;-)

just kidding...don´t take it the wrong way...
 
that doesn´t sound like a typical strat, sorry...i don´t know why this shouldn´t be a les paul actually...i won´t say this is no strat, but i´d say i´m sure you could get nearly any guitar to sound like that...if you really want that...;-)
btw. anybody knows if the singer recovered from his illness...? ;-)

just kidding...don´t take it the wrong way...

So what you're saying is that single coil guitars and humbucker guitars sound the same? :)

Personally I don't think you'll find that type of Hendrix vibe without a single coil neck pickup.
 
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