Tudor,
Gedanken for the samples. I'm like 20thCenturyBoy ... I can't really tell much difference between the samples. The only one that stood out from the rest was the DiMarzio -- it seemed to have less depth to it.
I've been playing for 30 years, but only in the last 10 or so started really paying attention to my tone. I can tell when I don't like a pickup or an amp when I play it, but it's hard for me to do the discrimination required by those samples. Among my favorite guitar tones that I've heard are Van Halen's first albumr, Larry Carlton on FingerPrints (late 90's release), Blow by Blow from Jeff Beck and anything Wes Montgomery did. (I know those are not all in the same genre, but that's how tastes go, sometimes!). Individual solos that stand out are "I can't tell you why' and 'One of these nights', by Don Felder of the Eagles.
In my guitar collection, I find that I keep guitars that sound like I'm thinking they should sound when I play. That is, they're responsive and expressive. I'm thinking that might be what made the original PAFs so special - they translated the players every nuance into the sound. Since I'm not playing the samples, I can't tell what the guitarist is trying to do and thus I can't compare that to what's in the sample. So, I guess like Tudor, you have try it out and see if it works for you.
On the albums I've mentioned there's so much texture in the guitar playing to me it's a tactile experience to listen to it. BlowByBlow is almost always in one of my CD players because of this.
BTW, growing up I listened to KISS a lot. I still do occasionally, but I find the guitar tone to be 1 dimensional. THe chunky hard-driving riffs are ok from the live albums, but studiowise they sound sterile.
I've gone on too long.....sorry.
Thanks,
Bill
