Guitarists.....

[L.W. Badger]

Re: Guitarists.....

There's always some 12 year old kid that can smoke you, and odds are he'll have a cheap guitar, which only adds insult to injury.

So far we've had good thoughts from everyone, some minor pissing up a tree, but that's the fun of forums like this one, member interaction w/o getting stupid or angry at each other......good group of people here.

I hope the gist was clear......a musician can play on crap, and is better with better stuff; and a hack can't do the same.......unless they're really trying to become a musician in the sense........but this tangents onto the 12 yr old Ry Cooder in the store that embarasses the hackers.......

This kid's been playing his heart out on #2 pencils while some think they need a $200 Cross pen to write eloquently.

In the words of Bruce Lee....."you must project, emotional content".

 

[\m/(00)\m/]

Re: Guitarists.....

i think i would actually prefer to have a better sound and tone. I love having great chops, but if don't sound good while having the good chops, it doesn't really mean a whole to to me. of course in a perfect world i'd rather have both, but good tone (ie: pleasant to the ear) means more to me

 

[BlueSnMettle]

Re: Guitarists.....

I feel fortunate to be one of the few that has the most
incredible chops and some of the finest gear known to man.
Would I sound good on a pine log with two nails & some 10 gauge fishing
line? Hell yeah! Played Eruption just the other night & won a $2.37 bet
just too prove it. So I guess what I'm saying is it really doesn't matter if
don't have the best gear, although it helps. What does matter that you have
friends that are willing to part with thier $2.37 when I coulda use a maple log and sounded much better. But hey, I'm that good.


Peace,

Darrin

 

[L.W. Badger]

Re: Guitarists.....

And just what would you have composed if you had a swamp ash log.......southern ash.........lol!

 

[BlueSnMettle]

Re: Guitarists.....

And just what would you have composed if you had a swamp ash log.......southern ash.........lol!

The possibilities are truly limitless.

Peace,

Darrin

 

[L.W. Badger]

Re: Guitarists.....

i think i would actually prefer to have a better sound and tone. I love having great chops, but if don't sound good while having the good chops, it doesn't really mean a whole to to me. of course in a perfect world i'd rather have both, but good tone (ie: pleasant to the ear) means more to me

I dunno.......sound and tone can be manipulated.......chops are learned and expressed. Put Carlos Santana on a Squire......he'll sound good.......put a Squire-level player on a Santana model PRS, not so great sounding. Not bad......but tone is not in the fingers, or equipment, it's in your heart, cause you dial in that tone that speaks to you, and it reflects when you play. If you've "got it", people can hear it.

 

[Jessie Sammler]

Re: Guitarists.....

:flush::wall::dance::reporter::baby:: party::burnout::smash:

 

[sosomething]

Re: Guitarists.....

I'm enjoying the active participation by some newer members in this thread. That's good to see.

Good discussion here.

 

[guitarded]

Re: Guitarists.....

I've been thinking about this.......a musician is a person who can beat on a log and create a rhythym.....so it is a guitarist can strum on just about any stringed instrument, and create a sound that appeals to the masses, if they're a musician........(caveat: a log-pounder with "talent").

Good equipment, bad equipment, it doesn't matter to the guitarist intent on making a sound, but it's easier done with better equipment. We've heard, a good guitarist can make a poor guitar sound good, but not the same with a bad guitarist with good equipment.

My question to the "guitaristas" of the modern age of economics.......i.e. you can't afford top of the line equipment.........do you want to "sound good"......or "BE good"........It may sound obvious, but I was brought up in an environment of "Be, Know, Do"........what say you?

I have observed that there certain players that sound good on anything they play and there are some that need to sound god in order to play good. I would like to be the first kind but I think I am more like the second kind. Takes me a while to get used to someone else's guitar/amp.

 

[Jessie Sammler]

Re: Guitarists.....

I'm enjoying the active participation by some newer members in this thread. That's good to see.

Good discussion here.

I'm getting a lot out of the different perspectives. Nicely done, guys.

 

[blueman335]

Re: Guitarists.....

I have observed that there certain players that sound good on anything they play and there are some that need to sound good in order to play good.

+1. That's what most guys don't realize. If you're really good, you sound good on anything. And if you're not really good, spend more time practicing. If you requite a high-end guitar to sound good, your playing ain't there yet buster. Blame anything you want, but the fingers make the music.

 

[ImmortalSix]

Re: Guitarists.....

There's always some 12 year old kid that can smoke you, and odds are he'll have a cheap guitar, which only adds insult to injury.

You mean like Wade Laycook?

waylay00 posted up on the SDUGF about a year ago and blew everyone's mind with his "feel" --- and he wasn't playin' with no booteek nothin'!

Thanks for all the comments guys, I really appreciate them!



Yeah, my Kramer is my workhorse. I got it $175 used

Reposted for fun!

 

[KeeperOS]

Re: Guitarists.....

I'm in awe, not only with the chops but also with the tone he was getting

 

[Iron Horse]

Re: Guitarists.....

IMO, to be good, you have to sound good. Of course the tone isn't the most important factor in music. But nonetheless, music is all about sounds and the tone is a vital part of a player's identity. Let's face it: we're on a guitar pickup manufacturers forum. You cannot honestly say that tone doesn't matter. It is one of the key elements of music along with melody, harmony and rhythm. All the great guitarists had/have a great tone that suits their style. It is one of the things that makes us respect players like Gilmour, Clapton, Beck, Knopfler, Hendrix, Page, Blackmore, Kossoff, Fogerty, Springsteen, May, EVH and Gibbons.

 

[Jessie Sammler]

Re: Guitarists.....

I've often wondered that but have been afraid to mention it. If tone is in the fingers, then why are we swapping pickups and changing magnets? Are we just trying to find a distraction to take our minds off the fact that we need to practice more and aren't very good players? Or could it be that the sound we hear through our amps is a combination of what/how we're playing and the equipment? Maybe more one than the other, but you can do only so much to escape the impact on your tone of the gear in your hands.

 

[Jessie Sammler]

Re: Guitarists.....

Uh-oh, Blue's in here. I'd better run...:burnout:

 

[Jackson Distortion]

Re: Guitarists.....

IMO, to be good, you have to sound good. Of course the tone isn't the most important factor in music. But nonetheless, music is all about sounds and the tone is a vital part of a player's identity. Let's face it: we're on a guitar pickup manufacturers forum. You cannot honestly say that tone doesn't matter. It is one of the key elements of music along with melody, harmony and rhythm. All the great guitarists had/have a great tone that suits their style.

I'm going to respectfully disagree because - using the early guitarists of Megadeth for example, they were all good, if not great players in their respective roles, but IMO generally speaking - there was nothing remarkable about any of their tones - but they still sounded good nonetheless because of their exemplary playing skills.

And while tone is a big part of a players identity, it doesn't automatically make the tones that they've produced over the course of a career wholly good. Randy Rhoads comes to mind. His tone did not make him good, he obviously showed the world he was a good guitarist without stellar tone (what has been recorded on studio records, at least). It might've helped him play better, but alot people think certain tones he used were the definition of crap.

The aforementioned guitar players used a Metal tone to produce their music with; a key element per their genre, but Dave Mustaine, Marty Freidman, and Randy Rhoads particularly are considered great guitarists (maybe not in the company of the guitar greats you've listed - why not though???), and while thier tones were suitable for them, their particular tonal productions are not particularly sought after unlike the dudes in your listing. Of course, there are the few that try nonetheless.

 

[Petrovsk Mizinski]

Re: Guitarists.....

Jackson Distortion really nailed it there.
Personally I think Randy Rhoads tone was incredibly awful, Metallica had awful tone on Kill 'Em All, MoP and ..AJFA (sorry, I cannot stand ultra mid scoop).
That being said, the latest Megadeth album is quite an exception, and many metal audio engineers reckon it's one of the finest thrash metal productions.
The guitar tone on that album is absolutely incredible and just crushing and it's proof that a lot of the guitar tone in the studio has much to do with how capable the engineers are in the studio with setting everything up right etc

 

[Jackson Distortion]

Re: Guitarists.....

I've often wondered that but have been afraid to mention it. If tone is in the fingers, then why are we swapping pickups and changing magnets? Are we just trying to find a distraction to take our minds off the fact that we need to practice more and aren't very good players? Or could it be that the sound we hear through our amps is a combination of what/how we're playing and the equipment? Maybe more one than the other, but you can do only so much to escape the impact on your tone of the gear in your hands.

Tone is in the fingers as they are a primary means of driving all possible tones available in our gear. And if you can't get all of it with your fingers, you can surely build some gear with them to get the rest.

It's really about the innate connection to music, and thinking objects making unthinking objects respond in such a way that makes music good to ones ears.

Can I borrow 2 cents from someone to cover my post? :1:

 

[blueman335]

Re: Guitarists.....

I've often wondered that but have been afraid to mention it. If tone is in the fingers, then why are we swapping pickups and changing magnets? Are we just trying to find a distraction to take our minds off the fact that we need to practice more and aren't very good players? Or could it be that the sound we hear through our amps is a combination of what/how we're playing and the equipment? Maybe more one than the other, but you can do only so much to escape the impact on your tone of the gear in your hands.

Obviously the tools have an impact. But not as much as you'd think, judging by the incessant talk here about gear. We can tweak our guitars and PU's all day long, but our fingers are infinitely more important. When you're onstage in a dark, smokey bar, no one knows what kind of guitar you're playing; it's what you do with it that makes them remember you, or forget about you the minute they walk out the door. They don't give a crap about how much you spent. Is that what we should do, say to the audience: "Yeah, I screwed up the last few songs, but do you have any idea what this guitar retails for?"

Unless you're playing a really horrible entry-level guitar, I think it's safe to say that most of our shortcomings as musicians are due to ourselves, not the equipment, which serves as a perennial scapegoat. It's human nature in just about every field, thinking that the solution to what we lack in talent can be made up by what's in our wallets. Although people try every day, you can't buy your way into heaven, and you can't buy your way to being the next Jimi Hendrix.