The Tone Chase

[Bogner]

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.

[Bogner]

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

[Bogner]

Interesting. We talk about a lot of amps here, but I have always wondered what your actual sound is.

You could always ask.

[LLL]

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.

I'm predicting you'll get very little response on this subject here; for obvious reasons.

[jeremy]

i dont think the core of my sound has changed much in over a decade. guitar with low output pups->'66 deluxe reverb. my chops have gotten worse, so theres that

[Mincer]

I tend to have a sound I get no matter what I play, so I don't really get much joy chasing other tones. I suppose I did when I was younger, but then I realized I tend to go for the same sounds anyway.

[Sirion]

I tend to have a sound I get no matter what I play, so I don't really get much joy chasing other tones. I suppose I did when I was younger, but then I realized I tend to go for the same sounds anyway.

I am much the same way: I tend to end up with nuances of the same tone. That is not to say that some things won't do it better than others, but with the exception of getting a few nuances that I know that I want I can't really say that I am tone chasing these days – I'm rather chasing simpler ways to get the tone I want.

[Bogner]

I'm predicting you'll get very little response on this subject here; for obvious reasons.

It was worth a try...(Maybe).

[Bogner]

I tend to have a sound I get no matter what I play, so I don't really get much joy chasing other tones. I suppose I did when I was younger, but then I realized I tend to go for the same sounds anyway.

I agree with you on the sound you get no matter what you play. I think over time that is developed for sure. My point in making this thread was when you finally achieved the tone in your head with the gear you stumbled upon to get you there for that lightning in a bottle (so to speak) sound you wanted.

[beaubrummels]

When I had a studio, I was chasing sound and learning what all various amps could do. Ultimately, my grail is a '68 Plexi Super Lead 100 into a 4x12 straight Celestion cab. For cleans, the Hiwatt or Fender Twin. For gritty, edgy breakup, JTM45 or Super Reverb. But I've learned I can get those sounds from a variety of gear. It's just having heard the real thing with my ears, now I recognize what knobs to turn on any piece of gear to get as close as possible with racks, pedals, modelers, or even just a Zoom pedal, etc.

[LRS]

I play electric guitar now for some 15-ish years. I tried Fender amps, Marshalls, Vox’s, and a very underrated Laney Lionheart. I ended up liking Fender amps best, but provided with a British speaker. Mostly I plug in my Strat for the sound in my head (Hendrix or Mayer like tones), but my Tele will do as well. The LP sounds killer but doesn’t do the Hendrix thing too well, so it doesn’t get as much love as the Fender guitars. Amp wise I settled on two Fender amps:

a Blues Deluxe Reissue which I run with a Celestion G12-65 speaker, and tubes which emphasize the Fender character (Tungsol). Also the standard 12AX7 phase inverter tube is changed to a 12AT7 (blackface style). I use this amp for band rehearsals and small venue gigs.

My ‘64 Bandmaster is provided with a couple of Celestion V-type speakers, and it sounds huge. I use it for bigger gigs.

That’s it. Three guitars and two amps. I’m happy with this modest collection, this suits my needs to satisfy the tone which comes close to the sound in my head. What’s left for improvement, is my own technique (as always). So although it’s fun to look for new gear sometimes, I must admit that the money would be better spent on taking a guitar lesson now and then ;-)

[LLL]

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.

[LLL]

Get out there and recruit. Do you know any people?

I do - a group of us have our own forum.

But you gotta have quality to attract quality... people who are actually serious instead of treating it like their little social club.

We've lost a number of quality posters here - zenmindbeginner, TwilightOdyssey, etc..

What are you doing to help?

[Securb]

I do - a group of us have our own forum.

Are you talking about GuitarAmped.com?

[beaubrummels]

Keep in mind this is the forum for a pickup and pedal maker and it functions primarily as the first line of support for their products. It's not primarily an amp or audio recording forum, though it has spaces for those conversations if they come up. The pickup, pedal and guitar topics are quite lively, as would be expected.

A number of the regular members seem to have either moved past incessant tone chasing to playing, or have gotten far enough along that they are either satisfied, or some might not be able to afford to go much further. For some, they have great knowledge, but have lives and families and guitar is more hobby/personal satisfaction and can't spend that much time posting on the internet. I don't speak for all, but that's just my observation. In some cases, if people don't respond to your threads, it's just not what they are interested in right now. Nothing personal.

If you don't appreciate the people or the conversations here and feel you are the only one who can assess the 'quality' of the people here, that really is kind of your own subjective opinion, and not the truth of the matter. There's people on here I might not like their personal tone in text, but I still appreciate what they know about guitars and equipment and I still learn from them. Also many of the things you might want to discuss have already been discussed to death in the decades prior, in which case strategic searching can yield that information.