Evolution of your gear/tone preferences through the years

[Wattage]

Re: Evolution of your gear/tone preferences through the years

Hmmm....

Mostly tried sounding like KISS and Cheap Trick meets Aerosmith and Ted Nugent for most of my younger years. Had a lot of weird guitars but my fav was an older Iceman with 70's Bill Lawrence L500's through whatever POS amp I had.

Then I added the Pistols, Hanoi Rocks and the Ramones to the mix but I was usually singing and playing Bass at that time.

Then LP's (a2p) through my faithful Randall RG head into an old Laney 4x12 with Fanes The changed to an LP Jr. through the same rig and added a number of blues influences and I guess I forgot to mention AC/DC a number of times already.

Now lots of guitars thorugh any number of amps still basically trying to sound like what I wanted to sound like when I was 12 years old, well with all the additions... Hey I am a simple guy - One Life, One Love, One Sound.

 

[XSSIVE]

Re: Evolution of your gear/tone preferences through the years

i started off playing a '79 guild s60D through a '79 marshall JMP 50w halfstack with an origional MXR distortion + pedal...or a dod grunge pedal hehehe. then i got a squire strat (stock) and an epiphone les paul custom (stock) which i used through the same amp...then the addiction kicked in...i got my new head a peavey ultra plus and an ibanez s-370...i was hooked on floyds for a bit. then i got into EMG pickups and stuck them in eveything. now i play a ton of guitars 90% with duncans (tele hotrails, custom custom, custom, JB, jazz, mini humbuckers etc etc) through the same ultra plus (i love this head) or my atomic 1x12/pod xt combo. my main guitar now is the tele in my avatar...i never would have though back then in my ibanez/EMG days that i would be playing teles lol.

-Mike

 

[HamerPlyr]

Re: Evolution of your gear/tone preferences through the years

Could it possibly be that your playing has improved and you feel less need to disguise it with effects and massive amounts of overdrive/distortion?

I guess that you can look at it as 'tastes changing with age', but I think that it also has something to do with the fact that you're better as a player because of your experience. Don't get me wrong, I like a honey-dripping, buttery distortion tone as much as the next guy, but I know that when I use it, it's a compliment to my playing instead of a diversionary tactic.

 

[That90'sGuy]

Re: Evolution of your gear/tone preferences through the years

Could it possibly be that you're playing has improved and you feel less need to disguise it with effects and massive amounts of overdrive/distortion?

I guess that you can look at it as 'tastes changing with age', but I think that it also has something to do with the fact that you're better as a player because of your experience. Don't get me wrong, I like a honey-dripping, buttery distortion tone as much as the next guy, but I know that when I use it, it's a compliment to my playing instead of a diversionary tactic.

There might be some serious truth to this. I find that I love a good clean tone as much, if not, more than good distortion.

It looks like the main reason so many people have changed their gear is because of musical styles. My tastes went from hard rock to modern rock to classic rock to blues and my gear changed accordingly. I think it's places like this that get a musician more open minded about artists. I only found out about players like Joe Bonamassa and Robben Ford on guitar forums and it helped influence what I was looking for both in style and tone.

 

[Morior]

Re: Evolution of your gear/tone preferences through the years

I haven't played guitar for that long, but my tastes have still changed a lot throughout the four years of playing.

In the beginning, all I ever wanted was a Mesa Boogie Triple Recto. Distorted guitar tones were to be scooped. I had a Squier Stagemaster HSS, but wanted a Les Paul badly. As I "grew older", more mid frequencies were introduced into my sound, I started gravitating towards Marshalls and got a Fat Strat.

Now I'm running a PRS Custom 22 into a Marshall DSL100, and I've pretty much got the perfect tone for me.

And now I kind of want a Fender tube amp thingy or maybe a Laney.

 

[Johnny Q]

Re: Evolution of your gear/tone preferences through the years

1) Heavier strings: in the old days, they had to be elastic bands, until I learned how to actually play the instrument

2) Higher action: Ditto

3) Lower Output Pickups: As others have already mentioned, one day I was shocked to learn that the objective was NOT to find the highest output pickup in existance

4) My old self would say, "I will play nothing but Stratocasters with Single coils!": Around 1988, I discovered the joys of humbucker equipped guitars and Les Pauls in general after pretending for years that I was the 2nd coming of Blackmore or Malmsteen. Now my Gibsons, Fenders and PRS guitars all live together in harmony. Perhaps there is even a P90 equipped guitar in my future?

5) Slown Down!: One day it dawned upon me that every song, regardless of tonality, key etc does not require 600 gazillion notes based off the Harmonic Minor scale or Phrygian mode

6) Expand ones horizons: Yes, Duane, ****ey, Rossington etc are just as cool as the guy in the leopard spandex or Dragon suit w/ the violin bow

7) Gain, distortion etc: I woke up one morning with the great realization that the "if a little is good, a lot must be great" mentality was not correct

8) Competition: Back in the 80's, playing gigs with other bands was like a shootout at the OK Corral - the fastest gun wins, and it was quite stressful. These days - who cares....lets make music and leave the competition to things like Olympic events.

JQ

 

[Johnny Q]

Re: Evolution of your gear/tone preferences through the years

6) Expand ones horizons: Yes, Duane, ****ey, Rossington etc are just as cool as the guy in the leopard spandex or Dragon suit w/ the violin bow

JQ

Whoa!! Mr Betts of Allman Brothers fame just had his first name censored!!!

AKA "Richard" Betts. Every Richard is a "****ey" I suppose.

JQ

 

[TheArchitect]

Re: Evolution of your gear/tone preferences through the years

Started with a one pup Peavey Tracer through a Crate G60 1x12 Combo.

Replaced the amp wth a bassman head and added various Fenders and Marshalls. Still have them all

Guitar wise I have been through many many instruments. Today PRSi are my primary guitars with a LP, a few strats and other niche pieces

 

[Benjy_26]

Re: Evolution of your gear/tone preferences through the years

I started playing classical and now my favorite rig is a LP Standard with a Pearly Gates set into a cranked BF Bassman into a 2x12" opne back Vox cab.

 

[Jeffrec]

Re: Evolution of your gear/tone preferences through the years

I've been noticing lately that as I've gotten older, I've come to dislike a great many things (gear/sound related) I used to swear by, or have become much moreso exclusive to some pieces of gear than I used to...how has your gear/tone evolved?

E.G.s

1) PUPS: In my younger days, the hotter the pup the better...I couldn't get enough gain out of anything back then. I loved Custom's, JB"s and DD's. I would always swap out pups in my guitars for something "crunchier". NOwadays however, I can't stand a "hot" pickup...HB or Single Coil. I'm much more interested in PAF style tones..59's, BB's, Seth's etc. I still like Customs as they retain some PAF-ish tone, but it's no longer my first choice in humbuckers, and JBs and DD's are flat out never even considered.


3) Guitars. I was heavy into Gibsons for many years. Especially when they weren't cool and everyone bought super-strats from Ibanez/Jackson/Charvel, etc. Then thanks to Slash and others in a revival of classic rock tones, I kinda drifted away from Gibsons..and went to Fender Strats that I dropped full size buckers in. After not playing for several years, I went right back to Strats/Super_Strats, and was just not happy totally..It got to the point where I was actually preferring a totally stock strat and hating the HB equipped supers. I still love the tones of a stock strat but the "connection" with the instrument is missing. Now I'm back to Les Pauls and "everything is right with the world"..great tone is there..the right feel is there.

4) Distortion. Related to #s 1 & 2. I find myself going for less and less gain than I used to use. I usually get more inspired with a great medium crunch tone (think late 70's Thin Lizzy, Ritchie Blackmore or Peter Frampton) than I do with the pups soaked. I still use and like higher gain, but the kind of gain amps are capable of these days is just totally uneccessary or desired by me. I used to think 800s didnt have enough gain at all. Now they are just about perfect for the max amount of gain I like to use (though the voicing is not my cup of tea).

5) Effects. When I was young I went through a "bought every pedal BOSS made", phase then starting hitting all the rackmount stuff with my Marshall/ADA preamps rack setups. Then eventually back to a handful of pedals as I prefer the sound before the amp vs. in a loop (barring a delay). Nowadays I hardly EVER plug in my pedals or use the built in ones on the modelers I have. Maybe a little reverb...sometimes a fairly slow delay time with lotsa repeats for heavy melodic leads (like say Parisienne Walkways or Still in Love with You), and once in a blue moon I'll uses the Leslie simulations for Frampton type sound. But 99% of the time it's jes a guitar into an amp..with a very very slight amount of reverb or dry.


Am I just getting old ? (well of course...but )

Do others experience this as well?

Nice analysis. I think the basic tone I've always wanted, I finally nailed(based on Clapton's Cream-era tone). I've fine-tuned somethings and it sounds like "me" now.

As for PUPS, I agree. I used to think hotter was better. I've come to appreciate subtlety.

As for guitars, I'm still a Les Paul & SG guy, but have been a Hamer convert for years.




Jeff

 

[Loserchief]

Re: Evolution of your gear/tone preferences through the years

i started out using a Lp clone and a crappy johnson 10" amp. I thought it was cool at this time to just pump up the gain and play some powerchords as fast as possible.Now i'm still a metalhead but the level of gain and distortion has decreased a great bit(i want definiteon and that's lacking with too much gain). I can't stand the muddy LP tone anymore and i want more variety from a guitar. My style of playing has changed and so did my gear. I'm now using cleans quite often which was absolutely impossible in my earlier time. I'm now more focused on melody and flow than on speed and heavyness.

 

[aleclee]

Re: Evolution of your gear/tone preferences through the years

In the early days of my playing (80-93) I was into humbuckers (Aria/Steinberger copy) through a SS amp (Roland Cube/GK 250ML) with a very saturated tone. Ronnie Montrose's work with Gamma was probably my benchmark tone. Cleans were pretty much an afterthought. FX weren't a big deal except for stereo chorus and a wee bit o' delay.

Through the rest of the 90s I played a Strat through a cheap tube combo. Nice cleans, so-so OD. The purchase of a digital multiFX made delay a much larger part of my sound. To be honest, I wasn't really playing all that much during this period.

When I really got back into guitar playing about five years ago, I came to the realization that while many of my favorite players (Gilmour, Hendrix, Clapton) might have played Strats, I really didn't like the way I sounded on one. I went back to chasing that ultimate saturated tone, buying amps by Koch, Soldano, and Rivera. I also got into PRS guitars during this period.

Somewhere along the way, I finally developed an appreciation for Marshally crunch as well as raising my expectations for sparkley cleans. IMO, my Rivera Rake does the clean/crunch thing as well as any amp I've ever played (and I've played a lot of amps from Crate to Peavey to Marshall to Bogner to Diezel). The Rake does a good saturated tone but my tastes have changed to where I want a less edgy lead tone. That's where my Fuchs comes in. It does the Dumblesque sweet OD thing.

I also got into Joe Driskill's guitars. Going from the Rios to EVH's was like night and day: much more clarity and punch. Suddenly, I didn't care so much for high output pickups.

The next chapter of my tone journey might be written this week. Last month I played a Two Rock Emerald Pro and was blown away. I now have a true appreciation for the term "touch sensitive" as the amp went from sparkley cleans to blooming leads with only changes in right-hand technique. From a tonal standpoint, it's not so much saturated as just large-sounding. It's a very different OD from anything I've heard: it gains harmonic content while somehow avoiding any buzziness. Hopefully I can arrange a reasonable price for the one I have my eye on.