Gear most important to tone

kill your scene

kill your scene

New member
Alright, I know your fingers, playing style and conviction determine your tone before anything. But proper gear helps things along, too.

Do you think any one piece of gear is more essential to your ideal tone than others? In my opinion, it's the amp. Although everything is making a contribution (wood, pickups, even string type all matter), the amp is not only crucial, it's underrated.

People often spend a ton of time discussing which guitars and replacement pups they should buy, but it's amazing how worthless that all is if you plug into a lousy amp. On the other hand, a good amp can make up for slightly anemic stock pups. I've seen it happen. You'd think people would care more about their amp.... I've never met two amps that were exactly the same.

Any thoughts?
 
Re: Gear most important to tone

kill your scene said:
but it's amazing how worthless that all is if you plug into a lousy amp. On the other hand, a good amp can make up for slightly anemic stock pups.
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I've heard this, and I've seen it done, but I've also seen the crappiest amp brought to life by a good guitar and a great set of pickups. Like a SS Rickenbacher, which was at my local shop, sounded terrible through all the guitars, 'cept one. That one guitar just totally brought that amp out of the grave.
 
Re: Gear most important to tone

kill your scene said:
. . . In my opinion, it's the amp. . .
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I might disagree, but only slightly, and this may be because I'm the guy who doesn't own an "amp". :laugh2:

The guitar is the human interface. Like you said, its the fingers first. But . . . you've got to connect with something that feeds back to your synapse. You have to have something that makes you feel "connected".

Thats the guitar. ;)
 
Re: Gear most important to tone

ArtieToo said:
I might disagree, but only slightly, and this may be because I'm the guy who doesn't own an "amp". :laugh2:

The guitar is the human interface. Like you said, its the fingers first. But . . . you've got to connect with something that feeds back to your synapse. You have to have something that makes you feel "connected".

Thats the guitar. ;)
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I agree 2000%!! If the guitar itself does'nt feel right forget it. That's what I tell people who are looking for a new guitar. Don't even plug it in, just play it for about an hour to be sure it feel's right. THEN plug it in.
 
Re: Gear most important to tone

The seven steps to achieving great tone in desending order of importance:

1. Type of wood guitar is made of.
2. the way that the parts are assembled.
3. the type of pickups installed.
4. the type of bridge and nut installed.
5. the type of amp you run (SS, tube or hybrid)
6. the type of speaker in your amp.
7. guage and composition of the strings on your guitar.
*8. type of effects pedals you run. (only for you pedal/FX jockeys)
 
Re: Gear most important to tone

id go with the guitar for playability, but the amp is very important in tone. My strat really sounds like crap through my crate SS amp-even the low output surfers sound muddy!! But when i play through my peavey classic, its magic. Good tone can be really inspirational and motivating, there's no better confidence booster than hearing yourself sound good!
 
Re: Gear most important to tone

%100 fingers and emotion. Your fingers are your existance. Everything else is but fodder.
 
Re: Gear most important to tone

xerxes said:
70 % amp
20 % guitar
10 % hands/fingers
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I'd say

70% Fingers/Hands/The person playing
Then guitar and amp factors would really depend on your style of playing ,for me probobly both equally but for say acoustic players there is no amp (per se) so just like tone its also subjective,..
 
Re: Gear most important to tone

i'm say the amp, although without good playablility from a guitar it is hard to play, it is possible to get good tone with a mediocre guitar, it just is much harder to play
 
Re: Gear most important to tone

For Electric instruments, the amplifier. Simple as that. It's the tone machine. Guitars offer playability and tweaking of the major tonal palette.
 
Re: Gear most important to tone

Have to agree, amp all the way.
Spent years and lots of money on different guitars and rack effects and was never happy with my tone. I then bought a simple but high class tube amp and now i can play any guitar through it and I love the tone I get.
 
Re: Gear most important to tone

I'd say the more you gig or play out, the more important the amp becomes. A good player can make a 15w SS practice amp sound pretty good for home practice and jamming, no doubt. But once you have to be heard in a band situation, the type of amp you have (coupled with how powerful and refined the tone is) will have a great influence on your tone.

Granted, you could mic a practice amp, and I've seen it get done reasonably well out of necessity, not choice. But at a gig, I'd much rather have a $200 guitar and $1000 amp than a $1000 guitar and a $200 amp.
 
Re: Gear most important to tone

It's pretty much been summed up, but I'd say

1. The skill you have as a guitarist. Brain, fingers, feel, touch, attack.
2. The amp, especially if it's perfectly suited to your style.
3. The guitar, although most players have more than one, but still use one amp, so that's why I put the amp ahead of guitar.
 
Re: Gear most important to tone

Fingers/heart/soul were already precluded by the original poster, and they're obvious. He was asking about gear.

That said;

Amp.

If you want proof, take a Gibson, Strat, and a neckthrough Carvin and plug them all into a Marshall.

Then plug them all into a Mesa.

Lastly, plug into a Fender.

Then try and tell me it's the guitar that makes the tone.

It's my opinion that the guitar is simply a tone generator, it's the amp that makes the tone.
 
Re: Gear most important to tone

Gearjoneser said:
3. The guitar, although most players have more than one, but still use one amp, so that's why I put the amp ahead of guitar.
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Ya I am starting to see amps more like instuments more and more, I think the best concept with gear is to have an amp(or multiple) that defines your tone and then use different guitars to have a different approach. I think that amps and fingers are the biggest part. after I listen to hendrix and zeppelin I can notice the similarity in tone and one used a strat and one used an LP but they both have that feel that you here from all plexis.
 
Re: Gear most important to tone

you know, i cant really get my head around this question to answer it ... i have come up with the only thing that makes sense to me ... that is, the 'WEAKEST' link in the chain takes the whole thing down ... if a crappy player picks up eric johnson's or EVH's, or SRV's, or whoEVER's rig, it's still gonna suck ... if pat metheny or mark knopfler or brent mason picks up a crappy rig, he'll still be able to sound wonderful on it

so i am gonna go with the player as the most critical link ... after that, i think it's the axe more than the amp ... cus i've played good axes through average amps and gotten good tone ....
 
Re: Gear most important to tone

tone4days said:
you know, i cant really get my head around this question to answer it ... i have come up with the only thing that makes sense to me ... that is, the 'WEAKEST' link in the chain takes the whole thing down ... if a crappy player picks up eric johnson's or EVH's, or SRV's, or whoEVER's rig, it's still gonna suck ... if pat metheny or mark knopfler or brent mason picks up a crappy rig, he'll still be able to sound wonderful on it

so i am gonna go with the player as the most critical link ... after that, i think it's the axe more than the amp ... cus i've played good axes through average amps and gotten good tone ....
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kill your scene said:
Alright, I know your fingers, playing style and conviction determine your tone before anything. But proper gear helps things along, too.

Do you think any one piece of gear is more essential to your ideal tone than others?
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He already agreed that the player is the most important piece. He was specifically asking about opinions on gear......

....Sure, EVH may still sound like EVH on a $25 pawn shop kids guitar into a 1/2 watt Sing-n-Play amp....

....But he'll sound much better with a Strat and a Marshall in his hands.....
 
Re: Gear most important to tone

screamingdaisy said:
He already agreed that the player is the most important piece. He was specifically asking about opinions on gear.....
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Exactly. :) Thank you.



screamingdaisy said:
If you want proof, take a Gibson, Strat, and a neckthrough Carvin and plug them all into a Marshall. Then plug them all into a Mesa. Lastly, plug into a Fender. Then try and tell me it's the guitar that makes the tone.
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I'm inclined to agree. As I said before, there are many factors to good tone, but amps are so important.... there is a distinct possiblity they're the most important aspect of your gear.

This is never better illustrated than when you're amp shopping with the same guitar. I have a crappy solid-state practice amp lying around now. When I plug in, I'm instantly disappointed. When I use the same guitar, same strings and same playing style through a high quality all tube stack, it's a new instrument. I think the difference between amps is more noticable when you juxtapose a total piece of crap against a tone machine. You can't tell me there's no difference.

Let's use EVH as an example again. Sure, he sounds like himself no matter what rig he's playing through. That's been established. All players sound like themselves. But he still uses the same gear consistantly. If it truly didn't matter, why does he use 5150 amps everywhere he goes? There has to be something there.
 
Re: Gear most important to tone

well disregarding any human elements (hands, brain, ears, training), i gotta say it certainly isn't the amp, since i sound like me on an acoustic, and live i rarely use an amp...
generally though, it is hard to isolate it to one piece of gear. the pickups are what make an electric for me..
 
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