The Tone Chase

[Top-L]

When I had a studio,

I'm interested in the HAD part of your statement. Were you trying to make money at it or realized it was just an expensive hobby and moved on?

Looks like it was funded with tech stock options.

[Erlend_G]

Yeah guys :/...

I've got more than good enough gear; to sound like a virtuoso. The only thing I'd want, was a third pickup in/on my Wildkat; - to get a bridge/mid series tone., I'm researching the possibility to mount a surfacemount/flat GFS single coil, on the top-. with no holes or non-reversible mods.

Apart from that, "tone is in the fingers"; or - as I'd say. "tone is in the "soul" or "set and setting"" :/. There is so much to be done, with a responsive and dynamic guitar/amp/tone,
-where the output changes drastically in how I play.

I once owned a Yamaha SA-5, 1966, number 374. It was so sensitive, I could actually hear MY THOUGHTS when playing it fingerstyle. Too bad, a meth head stole it.

oh well . If I should think about everything that's wrong; I'd go crazy.

Nowadays, I got the Wildkat Koa, that is very warm and resonant, with P90's. And the Peavey Predator Plus, that's a lil mongrel, with some bright ceramic bar SC's.

With two amps; Blackstar HT-20mkII, and a Carlsbro Sherwood 60w SS 2x8";- I got about everything I need. Especially with a 10band EQ in the effect loop(s).



merry playing, folks!

-E

[beaubrummels]

I'm interested in the HAD part of your statement. Were you trying to make money at it or realized it was just an expensive hobby and moved on?

Looks like it was funded with tech stock options.

Not sure what the snark is about from you, but it was funded with more than 10 years of hard work and savings, setting a budget, coming up with A, B, C and D plan options to put it together, not being able to predict what exact elements I would be able to afford, constantly adjusting plans, and buying key pieces at a time as opportunity and funding was in place. Other people take vacations, buy nice cars and spend their money on other things. I put all I had into the studio. I found a 1500 square foot facility with floor dimensions I wanted, and I designed the interior myself. It started humble, doing track work for other artists. Also did a variety of other work, from audio restoration projects to mixing projects to solo artists and combo groups. 2-3 years in I was making money, above break even. After some years when the next generation preferred playing ukeleles in their bedroom into Garage Band to post on YouTube, and instrumentation of the day didn't have sources that generated above 90dba that required a studio to record in, I started to lose enough client work to make it not worth the monthly cost to maintain a facility.

You should try it sometime. It would change your attitude.

[Obsessive Compulsive]

Out of 54,828 total members...

And a random snapshot of currently-active members: 492...

A topic about tone chasing on a pickup & gear forum gets only 5 people posting about their tone in 2 days; with little to none back-and-forth, too.

That is so wrong on so many levels.

And from the looks of it, "Social Hour with the Girls in the Off Topic section" is much more important.

FFS, we need some new blood.

Wrong forum. For gear/ recording/ tone chasing, go to Gearspace (formerly Gearslutz).

[Bogner]

Wrong forum. For gear/ recording/ tone chasing, go to Gearspace (formerly Gearslutz).

[Obsessive Compulsive]

We are all tone chasers in our own way. The hunt never seems to end and that can be inspirational at times and frustrating at others. This thread is for the chasers that became catchers of the sound in their head and the story and or listing of the gear that was involved to accomplish that endeavor.

Speak for yourself. I've been using the same preset, same knob setting, same effect type since 2013. My tone is straightforward hi-gain with chorus and ambient/ room reverb. Think Metallica black album or VH F*U*C*K.

[LLL]

Not sure what the snark is about from you, but it was funded with more than 10 years of hard work and savings, setting a budget, coming up with A, B, C and D plan options to put it together, not being able to predict what exact elements I would be able to afford, constantly adjusting plans, and buying key pieces at a time as opportunity and funding was in place. Other people take vacations, buy nice cars and spend their money on other things. I put all I had into the studio. I found a 1500 square foot facility with floor dimensions I wanted, and I designed the interior myself. It started humble, doing track work for other artists. Also did a variety of other work, from audio restoration projects to mixing projects to solo artists and combo groups. 2-3 years in I was making money, above break even. After some years when the next generation preferred playing ukeleles in their bedroom into Garage Band to post on YouTube, and instrumentation of the day didn't have sources that generated above 90dba that required a studio to record in, I started to lose enough client work to make it not worth the monthly cost to maintain a facility.

You should try it sometime. It would change your attitude.

What console and outboard gear did you snag?

1176, LA-2A.. API, Neve...?

[beaubrummels]

What console and outboard gear did you snag?

1176, LA-2A.. API, Neve...?

I didn't use a console. It was a ProTools studio from the beginning. I started my studio because I was getting work doing tracks for other artists and needed a place to work where I could record sources that generated > 90dba levels, like drums and loud amplifiers, and had a good sounding room, which requires some square footage. Outboard equipment was mainly preamps and microphones and any I/O conversion needed. You don't really need a console unless you are recording orchestras or live bands with high track count going in, and/or if you are mixing high budget projects where that last $10,000 of sound on each track will matter to the client, and likely you are staying analog up until the master. That was never my plan or objective. Studios that use a desk generally have tape for the primary storage medium, or once they store to digital rarely go back through the desk. You lose quality if you go from digital storage, out through an analog board, and then back to digital storage, because of all the conversion. The tracks I worked on came to me as digital sessions on digital storage to start with. So for me, buying a console would be a waste of $100k that I'd be getting taxed on annually. If you are part of a corporation or have a multi-million dollar budget, it's easier to justify a desk and store to analog tape; which is a very expensive way to go and to maintain. If you are independently financed and working individually, you have to consider all that cost vs benefit/need.

[Cynical]

One of the instances for me was the hunt for a somewhat familiar sound yet a unique sound. I went through several amps on this journey and discovered a lot of great amps along the way. Those amps were fantastic in their own right but not fully what I was looking for. I was looking for a Modern High Gain sound back in the early 2000's and kept coming up short until I discovered the Bogner Uberschall. It was everything I was looking for that I couldn't find in VHT (Fryette), Mesa and many others back then. As soon as I played it I heard "something" within that amp that connected the dots and brought all the search criteria together in one amp. I still feel that is my core tone/sound to this day, my main root system if you will.

Bogner Überschall into a 4x12 Bogner Überschall Rear Loaded Cabinet

For me, it's a more modern version of this. Twin Jet into front-loaded Uberkab. The gain structure is so beautiful, tight "enough" for playing most metal that isn't super-modern without a boost, but it's got that organic thing going on like a boosted 2203 rather than the gain-stage overload of most boosted high-gain amps. It's almost like a Dual Recto without that "rubbery" response they can sometimes have. And then channel 1 puts it completely over the top, best modded-Marshall channel ever.

[Bogner]

Speak for yourself. I've been using the same preset, same knob setting, same effect type since 2013. My tone is straightforward hi-gain with chorus and ambient/ room reverb. Think Metallica black album or VH F*U*C*K.

Good for you!

[moshpit817]

This is what you need for amazing tone:

https://www.musicgoround.com/product...iABEgJh3fD_BwE

Yep..tube rolling in that ought to be a lot of fun !

[gsammo79]

*the* guitar tone I wish I could pull off comes from two ZZ Top albums. There's the "Gimme All Your Lovin" lead tone & the "Vincent Price Blues" rhythm tone.

That's been my ideal sound for a long time. There's something different about the quality of gain (good gain) he gets--beyond having the right gear, amp settings, and strings that I dont hear from really anyone else's sound.

I've had MJ make me a Gimme All Your Lovin bridge pickup and she did a great job.

Another guy that comes to mind is George Lynch. There's a genius these two guys have with their tone that separates them a little, or a lot.

[Bogner]

It is amazing( to me) how many different sounds I like for different reasons and for different things. I also really dig some of the cooky, weird sounds you hear on theme songs and movie/tv intros, commercials, etc. Better Call Saul comes to mind. Weird song, weird tone but I dig it.

[ArtieToo]

It is amazing( to me) how many different sounds I like for different reasons and for different things.

Ditto to this. I don't usually comment on threads like this because I think they're more geared towards performing musicians, which I'm not. But having said that, I've been chasing this tone forever. It's just a clean tone. Probably a Tele, and it's probably in the fingers. But dang, I love this sound.

For those not into the B-52's, this song is as far removed from typical B-52's as you can get.

[jeremy]

*the* guitar tone I wish I could pull off comes from two ZZ Top albums. There's the "Gimme All Your Lovin" lead tone & the "Vincent Price Blues" rhythm tone.

That's been my ideal sound for a long time. There's something different about the quality of gain (good gain) he gets--beyond having the right gear, amp settings, and strings that I dont hear from really anyone else's sound.

I've had MJ make me a Gimme All Your Lovin bridge pickup and she did a great job.

Another guy that comes to mind is George Lynch. There's a genius these two guys have with their tone that separates them a little, or a lot.

id assume there are at least a few layers going on there, especially the vpb tone. great tones though