Okay so this is much more difficult than I thought
it was gonna be I have to say. Hey everyone, my name is Brandon Acker and I'm here with expert Luthier
Marshall Brune. We're here in his beautiful shop and today the plan is to test out guitars and find
out if we can tell which one is more expensive but blindfolded! Right yeah because last time you were
here we did the $200, $2000, $20,000, and $200,000 video. We were both looking at the comments and talking about
this saying "hey you know what I think that for once the comment section is right!" We listened to
you guys! It was always the thought that we have the supposition that they know what the price
is so they're going to say it's a better guitar. Exactly so we decided to take that bias away and
in this video, I have a handy dandy blindfold here which I'm going to be wearing in part one.
This video will be in three parts. Part one I'm gonna wear a blindfold try out two guitars
at a time, mystery guitars that Marshall has prepared I don't know what they are yet and
I'm gonna see if based on feel and listening to see if I can determine which one is more expensive.
In part two, Marshalls going to wear the blindfold and we're going to see if an expert luthier can
hear the difference between the two instruments. In part three you're going to do the test! We're
going to hear two guitars A and B and without seeing them let's see if you can pick which
one is the more expensive guitar. Let's dive In! Pretty good right? Yeah as far as I can see ...
Although I can't see without my glasses so... I should probably yeah there we go probably
put these it's almost like this mask wasn't designed to have glasses on it super that's weird
yeah right but it looks good okay I feel good all right you ready for the first guitar I'm ready
all right I'm gonna see two guitars right and then I'm gonna play each and I'm gonna try to figure
out which one is more expensive. Yeah! All right. Got it? I think I got it. So I have a mystery guitar. I like the
sound. Super resonant, warm, very round whoa I love the tone color let me give it a feel here so I feel like I'm guitars for the first time. This
is crazy. No golpeador. No, no plug or anything like that. The action's good. It seems a bit higher action
than I usually like but I mean it seems like a nice guitar. I would say
this feels like it could be... a good concert instrument from what I can
tell. I'm really impressed by the response of the strings I had a super fast response
and a super warm round sound when I play It's really beautiful! Let me
try a little Chopin because that sounds like it would be beautiful on this guitar. If I get this next part I'll be so surprised... oh my God I got it! Ooph tuning I'm really impressed by the instrument. okay I
think I've taken a lot of information from this guitar can I try another one? Yeah absolutely.
Let's get the next one . You ready? I'm ready. So this is number two. All right. I don't feel
any goldpeador. I feel a normal bridge. Less sound. It seems like instantly not as good of a guitar.
The resonance is much less. Also is it smaller maybe? It feels like almost has
a smaller scale than the previous guitar. The resonance is not as booming. There's no life to the sound in comparison to that one. Let me see. I'll try the same piece Easier to play because I
think it has a smaller scale I should pick pieces without so many crazy
shifts! Oh you seem to be doing all right For the most part.
Let's try that Chopin whoa! Actually the more I play this one the more I
like the sound but I think if I play that one again I have the same impression. This one feels, it
feels quiet and super mellow. I would think that, guitar number one, is the more expensive guitar.
And you are actually correct. Yes! You compared a Daniel Friedrich concert model to a
New World 7/8ths series. The fact that it was smaller was
so evident right away. The shapes were so easy and then of course I lost volume and I lost this feeling that I was playing something really well made.
The sound is just like a, well a piano almost. As far as Freidrich's go, this is really spectacular. Yeah, can I play that one again? Absolutely! Now that I know what it is. I believe that guitar is as old as us! So how does it feel to see? You know it's just totally amazing
when I can see, I'm taking in all all this extra sensory data and it adds to the sound. I can't divorce it from the sound but when you're blind you're just totally studying it and I'm thinking about the Timbre in a way that is certainly more nuanced.
I can't believe I've actually never tried this. That clarity of the top strings! and the scale feels huge now. This thing is powerful! It is. It's a lot of
guitar. Yeah these are probably close to my favorite guitars out there just because it's like this freight train of sound and there's just layers of depth and and no matter how much you lean into it there's always something else to give and it's just deeper and bigger and more. Yeah it's true. I feel like it's doing a lot of the work for me. Any good instrument should just be invisible in the sense that it's a medium through which you can
just express and not in an inhibited way but the best instruments do that and then they give you a little help you know and a guitar like this is actually a really nice place to be if you're starting out and you don't have a ton of budget Just because it's a lot more than well
actually most stuff at this price range. So what are the prices? So this one is about $50,000. Sorry Marshall, out of my price range! This one uh about $900. Wow yeah okay so I have
two things about that instrument. One, I've talked to a lot of students who are interested in something potentially smaller. I'm a huge fan of smaller guitars like 19th century guitars
and so it's more comfortable you don't need to put out a lot of sound. People think you need to make this massive amount of sound you don't need to. If you like that it's okay but it's taste and it plays well. So this could be a great place to be if you were a beginner
intermediate classical guitarist. Absolutely, I know a lot of professional guitarists who play
on something like this as their secondary gig guitar so if they're out playing an outdoor
wedding or something like that they play on one of these instead of bringing out their really
nice guitars just because they don't want to have to worry about it yet these are good enough . I mean I'm not going to call them great but at this price point they are good enough to be a
professional quality guitar yeah in that setting But I'm glad to say that even blindfolded
and knowing nothing about these guitars a $50,000 guitar and about a thousand dollar guitar...it's
night and day. I mean there was no contest. This was a different beast . A different tool doing
different things. The size is noticeable, the sound was was obvious, the lacking of resonance and
volume. Okay I got one right let's keep going! All right here's the first one. Let's see if I could not break one of your
guitars. I'll do a bit of tuning here. So what is your initial impression before
you've even played it? So while I'm tuning I'm already hearing things and I'm
already paying attention here. The first thing I felt is the shape of it very thin
neck uh wide fretboard very kind of thin wide body I have the sense already that this
is not your average Spanish classical guitar. Let me try a little little song this
is the famous Recuerdos de la Alhambra (Tarrega) Wow so I just want to point out that he literally
cannot see anything and he plays better than I'd say half the people that come into my shop
blindfolded and they can see! It's really hard for me to judge the level yet I think I need to
hear the second guitar okay and then maybe then I can tell you more about about this one yeah
let's bring in that second guitar. oh I just noticed before you give me the second guitar I
just noticed this one has a golpeador!. It does have a golpeador. okay there's a golpeador and then
it's kind of buzzy. Is this a flamenco guitar ? It could be. Okay because they
usually they have lower actions and that kind of buzz is kind of a good thing
for Flamenco? And then you have a golpeador A kind of a tapping plate. You sure hope that
you got onto that tapping plate! Yeah is this it ?! or am I just putting a holes in your instrument?
Yeah okay that's very interesting. Okay can I hold this out and you grab it? and here is it.
okay number two perfect. Well that guitar is in tune... and this guitar is a little out of tune. It feels completely different. The touch is different, the neck is thicker uh the whole instrument feels like it has a slightly different shape to it and different tone color. Let's try Recuerdos again to get the same feeling. I feel that the the guitar is hard to play and I keep tuning it and I seem to not be able to get it all the way in tune. The fact that the
guitar is fighting me a little bit... I feel like it's harder to play maybe it's just the strings are a bit stiffer. I'm not sure but I have the feeling that this one is not as good quality as
the previous one although this one doesn't have a golpeador. This one might just be a normal classical guitar. Can I hear the first one again? Absolutely. Man, the blindfolded
handoff. That's intimidating! Scariest thing done in the shop
this week. Okay let's try this again. This one is so much easier to play. So as we talked about in the last video playability is my very first thing that I look for because if you can't play with ease then what are we doing? It's very challenging . So
this one is much easier to play and I have the feeling that, especially up here, it has better intonation. Okay so this is much more difficult than I thought it was gonna be.
If I have to choose, so this is number one and that was number two? That's correct. I would say based on playability that this one is the more expensive guitar. Am I right? Nope. I'm wrong?! No that is a $300 Yamaha but I have set this thing up to within an inch of its life and this is a working man's guitar. So it has been played in like nobody's business. Okay because I was gonna say I like the sound of that one more and it has more resonance but it's hard to play that it ruined the experience. Right, so this guitar is an Ignacio Rozas. Made in Spain. It's un-setup the way that this, I'm pointing to the Yamaha for our visually impaired friends here. At least I'm wearing my glasses! That's true. This one is set
up the way that Ignacio Rozas set it up. The saddle is unchanged and this
guitar was owned by a collector who played it occasionally not somebody who played it every day. Let me see these cool instruments. So this is the Ignacio Rozas. It's absolutely gorgeous, totally beautiful looking, top of the line guitar and it does have a really nice richness of tone but yes, I agree it's it's a bit more difficult to play but that's because this thing is set up that way. This Yamaha on the other hand $300
I think these things are $400 new. Look at that well okay this is a testament to how important playability is. You give me a really expensive guitar that's fighting me because the
action and I mean actions come down to taste, right? Not every person has the exact
same feeling but for me the action was so high that I couldn't do what I needed to do.
So if I had to give a concert, I would prefer this one. Of course I think that sound is objectively nicer. It's more resonant and it's a better made. It looks more beautiful, now that I can
see but man, playability goes a long way. It really does! Okay well this is already going much differently than I expected. Should we try another one? Absolutely. Today's video is brought
to you by Classical Guitar Pro. That's my brand new online classical guitar course which is six hours, 53 videos. It's a whole curriculum designed to teach you what you would normally learn in the first six months to a year of classical guitar lessons. So if you want to learn classical
guitar but are stuck struggling to read music or struggling to learn the techniques check out
classicalguitar-pro.com to learn more Maybe I should play blindfolded more often Marshall I feel like my other
senses are heightened. Yeah oh yeah. How's the smell? That's the other thing, I was gonna mention it, sometimes guitars have an amazing smell. I wonder if that is a factor. I'm gonna smell this next pair. Let's see if it helps me. Round three. Uh...what? I can fit the entire
guitar in my hand so this is uh oh I feel uh a pickup this is something's off. What? Okay so it could be plugged in. Yeah
this is some type of acoustic/electric maybe or just electric I can't tell. I certainly wouldn't play this thing acoustically. I wouldn't either. I don't recommend it. It could be one of those acoustic/electric things but because it has actually more sound than an electric guitar so probably it probably is but it doesn't sound great Okay, this is the Ashoken Farewell. It was used in the soundtrack to a Ken Burns documentary on
the Civil War. It's super beautiful. The neck is super wide. It's a cut away, okay. All of
a sudden I can play super high. I wanted to go to the 14th fret but I'm like oh...
tons of wood and then nothing and then okay I'm holding some type of acoustic/electric. Something with a cutaway. These usually aren't super expensive. The best ones I've seen are like 1500 bucks and they can be as little as like 500 bucks.
So I imagine this is somewhere between that price range. 500 and a thousand maybe? Should we try number two? Yeah let's try number two. Are my glasses on straight? No but it adds to the ambience. At least it's funny. Yeah that's better. Ah there we
go. Now I can see. Yeah now you can see. they should really make glasses for people who wear blindfolds. Come on, man. Okay well, the pegs are on the wrong side. This is one of those headstocks. It's like a Fender guitar or something. Do we have a 19th century guitar? This headstoc, these tiny little tuners. These little metal tuners remind me of
a Stauffer guitar. Stauffer made these great Romantic style guitars in the early 19th century
and I love them. They have all the pegs on one side just like that and so maybe this is something in that style? Yeah.... in that style... I said I played these guitars. I didn't say anything about tuning them well with the blindfold. I think I'm holding a 19th century guitar
and it feels glorious after that funny acoustic/electric or whatever that was.
Let's try the same Civil War tune. That is a gorgeous guitar. So if I guess it right, I get to keep it right? That was what we agreed? Oh yeah. Money, of course. You know I think this one is cake. This is the more expensive one. This is some type of of 19th century style guitar.
It's even got the floating neck and usually there's a key. Aha! There's a keyhole here that you can turn and then change the action. It's got a raised fingerboard, the Stauffer style headstock. This is a 19th century guitar. The other one's acoustic/electric. This costs way more. Absolutely! Like eight grand ? Ten. Okay yeah that is a 1860 Scherzer. Okay going up against a handmade, made in Canada Godin. Oh a Godin, okay. So those are one of the better of the acoustic/electric. oh yeah yeah I think this thing is like 17
1800 and it wasn't too far off 1500 being the top look at that this is a good round
yeah yeah you're not doing too bad hey all right you know you play so well like this I actually forget that you are
blindfolded here is a guitar nice nice first string I like the
sound is aren't preaching to the factory Marshall what's going on look I
guarantee everything except the tuning this is a fantastic guitar I love the sound
of the first string it's a super it's like a bell it's like that uh Friedrich guitar
has that same type of bells round sound very warm very loud uh resonance but it
doesn't strike me as like bam it's more of like a blossom wow yeah there's a lot of
room for that sound to evolve and grow yeah foreign I love the thinness of the neck the size
of it is perfect the action is perfect the tone is super sweet thank you it's a super rewarding uh super rewarding sound I love it this is definitely
uh certainly in the thousands uh this one could be maybe like an eight thousand dollar guitar don't
tell me yet but that's how it feels to me it feels that the quality is that good it's got a lot
of the things I look for uh in an instrument okay good so should we try the next one I want
to try the next one yeah oh this guitar is hairy can't put a price on Marshall though an insurance
agent begs to differ okay guitar number two whoa we have something funny Happening Here
we have some type of sound Port uh don't put too many fingers is there something
going to bite my fingers in the inside different Timbre this feels like a
completely different animal than the last one good or bad I can't tell you let's try that
uh that same Chopin and let's see what happens you know I can't get my bearings on this
instrument something strange about the okay I'll give you a little hint on this one it's not 12
Frets to the body it's 14 Frets to the body I feel that there's 14 and then the scoop right makes
it even if it makes it feel like almost a cutaway because I'm used to going until I hit the wood
right and so yes that's that's clear yep but here yeah you're passing a little bit so it's
here yeah so what are you picking up on the sound of this one something's different
about the sound it's a it's not the same HEPA resonance what if I told you to move your
hand up towards the sound hole a little bit and then go back towards the bridge to establish where you are let me try this piece
and see if I can get used to it more foreign okay there's some interesting things about this
one that I can't quite put my finger on but uh the previous one in terms of what I know about
classical guitars feels like the more uh valuable instrument it's at least I can say it's one that
I would prefer to play to play myself all right let's take a look so that is one of my hybrid
guitars this one was requested to be built with 14 Frets to the body and with that by the way so
this was a customer request and I don't have many of my guitars around if ever you know what's so
strange is this is not now that I can see it it's mostly the same right but it feels big because the
14th Frets of the body right and then this sloping thing and the proportions right which is different
what was I think throwing you off in terms of the sound because your hand was essentially closer
to the bridge you were more ponticello than you expected to be in the ticket very beautiful as
I went this way yeah I think what I'm realizing is like the physicality of it like the the feeling
that it was on was unusual for me was contributing to the to the sound in a negative way for me right
because I was saying something's different I'm not controlling this as well as a controlling one
that I was you know the standard proportions right right absolutely and by the way you were comparing
to one my father's 25th anniversary models which there were 25 of these things built this one is
I believe oh number 25 of 25 so he kind of had his hand in at this point in time and this one
was built with the most Ultra Premium wood wow it's got some of the nicest Spruce I've ever seen
for the tops it's got some of the most gorgeous Brazilian rosewood for the sides in the back
it's got the 999 sterling silver Rogers tuning machines and it's got this gorgeous carved head
that it was hand carved and the label was hand scribed so you know this was the Ultra Premium
Ultra Luxury uh only 25 of these were made so I guess that one's more expensive yes so at least
I got that one and rightfully so I think this is one of the most magnificent guitars that we've
heard today it is spectacular can I play that one again what I'd like to do now is go back and forth
again now knowing what they are and feeling that again that first string is really spectacular oh
yeah yeah there's there's a lot going on there wow it's like Crystal Clear that's
what I I think I love about it the clarity of the the clarity of the sound
the clarity of all the Harmony on the inside it's a it's a totally gorgeous sound now that I know what's going on here let
me hear this one again yeah okay now that I'm actually seeing
it now that I actually control for the Timbre in a better way I get it also
much darker sound yes much more Rich the sound Port adds a new dimension to it
to it uh of course the playability is completely different because I can go right
right go way up and of course things like much easier I hope that all this wood in the way
it's a totally beautiful instrument both of these are fantastic uh guitars so congrats
to the brene family thank you foreign it's some type of lab harp is there other buttons on it sometimes
there are like uh Auto heart buttons oh this is not an old harp it's like an actual
lap harp okay so we have some type of lab harp which has not been tuned no who's got that time no
what that's for sure I can't say I've ever walked up to any of these and they actually aren't
no I mean most of them are decorations this one is probably the nicest decoration piece
you can have I believe it when I can see it shall we compared to uh a nice Auto harp yeah
I look forward to seeing this one but let's uh let's go to the next one all right next
one you know so that was actually a zither all right yeah which was used as
training for a lot of German boys uh in lieu of getting piano lessons so if you could
show proficiency and aptitude on the zither then you were granted the ability to take piano and
how that instrument translates into a piano I have no idea but it makes sense to the Germans
so here is something number two oh whoa uh uh okay lots and lots of strings
we have a body which is guitar like what's gonna happen over here so do we have like a okay we have a beautiful open tuning
so it's kind of like another harp but but we can fret it yeah it almost
feels like a theorbo for a minute because on the fiorbo you have the short
neck where you play Then you have a scale so actually it feels like
almost like a baroque loose well thank you it feels like a mini thermostat what is this thing
I have no idea what this is can I fret these yeah what I don't know what this is I can't say
I've ever played anything like this before but it's fun isn't it it is very fun it's tuned
FDA FDA and then diatonic going down yeah which is the same as a baroque loot yeah it's like a
little burrow glutes hold on let me think here you go major exactly the same tune what am I playing this is
a tension guitar that one of my clients wanted to play like a baroque loot but he didn't want to
buy a baroque loot so with all the guitars in the shop I actually find myself grabbing this one a
little bit more than the rest just because it's so different and so much fun well but you can't
play you can play the music here oh here it is foreign go I forget how it goes I love
the fact that you are actually looking up where is it the last thing I expected was
to have a baroque loot tuning but I kept doing little things like wait a minute
that's exactly how Brooklyn it feels I have to see this is a 10 string japanese-made guitar and I
believe that there was only about four or five of these 10 string matsuokas actually made
so this is actually a very rare guitar the open D minor tuning of the Baroque glute is so nice
to just immediately feel like you're you're in this beautiful key with this great low bass notes
um the funny thing about it for me is that you have Frets going all the way across because you
never you never use them right right right right it only use the top ones one could argue that
this is actually more functional than a loot or theorbo and first of all when you put this onto
the table it's not going to roll off that would help you I have broke one instrument that way
I know yes so which one is more expensive hmm I guess I should have guessed when I had my
blindfold done but yeah this one by far well actually that's a real coin toss really why
is that because of zither was actually made by Hermann Hauser nowhere the first okay so it not
see this is the problem with the Blindfolded thing you add in like the historical value a famous
blue shirt uh and suddenly that you that's not something you could perceive with uh without
knowing it right well conditionally speaking that thing more or less belongs in an antique
shop and it's a curiosity you know if you've got your v e style Hauser if you've got your Yobe
style Hauser but you don't have a Hauser zither well okay I would say this has been a pretty
interesting test I've learned a couple things about myself listening I think I'm gonna try to
listen without uh you know looking at things more often it's a kind of revealing exercise actually
it is it's amazing how much your eyes influence the sound you know the the the notion that the
flamenco guitar is such an incredibly brilliant and Brash instrument uh you actually said that my
flamenco guitar sounded quite nice yeah and which is a a surprise because it's just a 300 instrument
it's a perfectly average guitar but it's undergone a lot of work to get it to play that way one of my
main takeaways here is certainly a reinforcement of the idea that playability is King there's
kind of like separate you know Fields there's like historical value and there's something to
say about you know that's a meaningful object because of its hystericity and then there's sound
pure sound and then there's playability and for me still playability first what do I actually want to
play and then sound and then if there's historical value fantastic that's really really cool
but I can't believe I actually chose the the cheap guitar over the the expensive one in
this case but it just reinforces the point if you can't play something easily and well then what are
we doing right exactly and music is hard enough you shouldn't have to fight the instrument to be
able to play the music yeah and I've directed many a person to a lesser expensive guitar because
it fit their hand better they may have wanted to spend more but if you've got an even an okay
guitar that plays really really well just play it and enjoy it you know I'd rather you play on a
cheap guitar or an inexpensive guitar that feels good yeah then something that's expensive that
doesn't totally agree thus concludes part one I think it's time to turn the tables I want to see
if Marshall brene here can listen to two different instruments and pick out the more expensive one
I failed one let's turn the tables sounds good foreign
