I've Got Tone!

The importance of how an instrument sounds is as crucial as the person playing it, and is under-appreciated as a tool equal to a good guitar, drums or bass.   It was Jimmy Page's tone that made people sit up and notice Zeppelin; it was how Judas Priest sounded that made them successful, not just the songs; Pink Floyd's LPs would've been a shell of themselves if it weren't for Water's and Gilmour's stellar sense of acoustics; and it was Eddie Van Halen's understanding of his amps and how to get the best noises that made the VH debut so powerful--  let's face it, it wasn't the material, it was how that record sounded .

Agree?   Disagree?   Let's hear it !





Edited by Atavachron - July 19 2015 at 17:51

It's material and  sound. Why should there be any predisposition towards one over the other?

Edited by Dayvenkirq - July 19 2015 at 18:35

The sound is an inextricable part of the material. Writing for different guitar tones can be like writing for clarinet vs. mandolin. Someone with an acute awareness for how things sound will also naturally create better material, too.

Polymorphia wrote: The sound is an inextricable part of the material. Writing for different guitar tones can be like writing for clarinet vs. mandolin. Someone with an acute awareness for how things sound will also naturally create better material, too.

Bingo.

Kati wrote: I need to point out that the reason, a major factor here might that we tend to continue to go love back to the classic albums where there were no such things as loudness war, most albums had a dynamic range between 10 to 13. This is why many people recently tend to prefer LP's from new releases because those are not as much compressed as cd's or mp3's, i.e. an album might be an 8 dynamic range while same album as an LP could be 11 dynamic range. Thus no wonder we tend to opt for the ear friendly one, especially if we intend to listen to that album many times.

I definitely think tone is important. Steve Hackett has excellent smooth tones with commanding sustain. Marc Ceccotti from Edhels fame (or lack thereof) has very similar qualities to Hackett's tone. Steve Rothery's fantastic tone is actually better than his playing. Jan Akkerman's playing is better than his tone. The tone is like an effect pedal. It will mold and affect what you play as you play it in a delicate feedback loop. When it comes to straight guitar ironically I like to turn the tone dial on my amps way down to nothing and throw on some reverb. The effect is a sort of ghostly hollow sound with the reverb bringing out my Les Paul sustain in a slightly different manner than one typically hears. Then there's my effects or synthesizer produced tones. I particularly like stuff that sounds more creamy than crunchy. I don't go much distortion. I may use some overdrive (Boss Feedbacker/Booster) or compression (Pigtronix Philosopher King: grit dial) on odd occasions. Since back in the 80s I started doing experiments using ring modulators to add or increase harmonics in my guitar signal. The results were sometimes pretty synth-like.

^That's sweet. Scuffed up nicely. It looks like it's vintage. Do you get the foamy sounds by turning the output down with distortion up? I never used one. I checked it out on YouTube, though. There are so many distortion pedals out there each with a character of its own. The Boss DS-1 sounds awful, and the "synth" mods people do on it sound worse. Steve Hackett uses an Electro-Harmonix Big Muff. I've never used it, but Electro-Harmonix is my favorite maker generally. I have a Boss Adaptive Distortion pedal DA-2, which is unique in that it lets you play more complicated 7th or 9th chords without the notes getting mashed into a wall of noise. Individual notes remain perceptible even with thick distortion. It's a good pedal, but I don't have a place for it currently on my pedal board. I also have a Roland GR-D, which gives some nice creamy distortion and even some sawtooth timbres if you turn the dials right, and it's GK compatible (it can be used with a divided pickup, or with a regular one), but it is a bit noisy. The Boss MO-2 Multi-Overtone pedal is something I highly recommend if anyone wants to play with their tone. It lets you alternatively add high, mid, or low overtones to your signal. It has a detune option and gives a bit of clean boost too. Genuinely nice.

Catcher10 wrote: Kati wrote: I need to point out that the reason, a major factor here might that we tend to continue to go love back to the classic albums where there were no such things as loudness war, most albums had a dynamic range between 10 to 13. This is why many people recently tend to prefer LP's from new releases because those are not as much compressed as cd's or mp3's, i.e. an album might be an 8 dynamic range while same album as an LP could be 11 dynamic range. Thus no wonder we tend to opt for the ear friendly one, especially if we intend to listen to that album many times. Of course I agree.......

Jeff Beck - Nadia

Does anyone have DIY effects? This is a homemade oscillator/synth unit I cobbled together with a friend:  

Edited by SteveG - August 26 2015 at 10:00