How important is versatility in your gear to you?

[DrNewcenstein]

Re: How important is versatility in your gear to you?

I got hooked on having a versatile setup years ago when I was still just playing along to various artists - Sabbath, Maiden, Priest, Metallica/Megadeth, Purple, Zeppelin, Alice Cooper, ZZ Top, ACDC, WASP, Crue, VH, CCR, etc etc - and I wanted a rack preamp that could get all those sounds, rather than just use one sound for everything, and not have to futz with pedal knobs. Of course, I needed various guitars in various tunings, especially for Sabbath, so I kept adding guitars.

These days, I still use the rack, but I keep it set with my tones that work with my songs and my drum and bass tones, which are not as widely varied. My Jazz/Fusion tones may not sound like what anyone else expects of Jazz/Fusion tones, but I see no problem there.

I do still have the ridiculous guitar collection, though: 28 including 3 acoustics (one nylon) and 5 basses, and even though I have several that are identical (5 WRMG mutts, 4 all-mahogany SLS-types), I don't think any two have the same pickups. 2 of my basses have Jackson J-150 J-style pickups in the bridge, but that's it. AFAIK, I only have one guitar with a (straight) JB in the bridge. Between mag-swaps and hybrids, I've got enough pickup variety for a dozen identical guitars.


However, for me, a large part of the reason for having multiples of the same model but with different pickups is so that I can continually play a guitar I'm comfortable with, yet still get enough tonal variety that I'm not fiddling with eq in the rack or post-producing something to death. You lay down a rhythm track with a LP and your leads with a Strat, and you have to contend with the adjustments (nut width, board radius, scale, etc). By having several identical models with different pickups, you get tonal variety but retain an instinctive feel of the guitar.

 

[blueman335]

Re: How important is versatility in your gear to you?

Versatility isn't important to me. I don't really feel the need to "nail" any particular sound and I feel it makes things more interesting if I adapt songs to suit my own particular taste in sound/playing style.

I do like a certain functionality in being able to footswitch between clean, moderate and high gain tones so that I can achieve the appropriate feel for what I want to convey, but for the most part I like the actual tonality to stay relatively consistent as I ramp things up.

+1. I always take two guitars to a gig, and between that and having a multi-channel amp and a foot pedal or two, there's plenty of variety in my tones, more than I usually need. I have no interest what-so-ever in a 'do it all guitar.' I don't want to play in a band that does 10 genres (and totally confuse, and lose, their audiences).

Having one set up that does one thing well, is much better than a set up that is spread too thin and does 5 things mediocre.

 

[blueman335]

Re: How important is versatility in your gear to you?

The stuff I play now spans everything from folk to jazz to blues, rock, 80s metal to death and black metal

Not genres that are normally associated with each other. Do you perhaps suffer from an identity crisis or multiple personalities?

 

[Chocklit_Thunda]

Re: How important is versatility in your gear to you?

Well my rig was built up on humbucker guitars and an ibanez modelling amp...

The x-1 does the really clean articulate sound well as well as harder crunchy gain sounds
The Yorktown is great for warm acoustic tones, jazz, low gain crunchy rock.

On my amp it's set up for a clean sound, a slightly crunchy clipped sound, a softer alternative type rock sound and a more punk style medium/higher gain sound.

Only recently have I started going for a more versatile set up....
I started a Tele build and With my 335 build I've got an hsh with a p94 in the middle, triple shots with the humbuckers and an acoustic pickup with a blend system... Trying to get a wah wah and a tube screamer in the mix as well... But I'm not aiming to replicate anyone's sound in particular...
Maybe in the future I'll get a single coil strat or something

 

[Johnny the Kid]

Re: How important is versatility in your gear to you?

The sound I have in my head is pretty close to the one I have now. That said I do want to eventually move past the Peavey Windsor.

 

[Powdered Toast Man]

Re: How important is versatility in your gear to you?

Versatility is in the player, not the gear. Keith Richards is mainly associated with the Telecaster and the Twin, however he's played dozens of different guitars and amps throughout the years and yet he still sounds like Keith Richards. He's used Les Pauls, Strats, EBMM Silhouettes, Dan Armstrong Plexis, ES-335's... He's used Vox, Ampeg, Fender, Mesa... Still sounds like Keith.

As for my gear... Well I like what I like and it's partly aesthetic and partly tonal. I guess if I wanted versatility I wouldn't own 4 Telecasters and all non-master volume Fender tube amps.

 

[Little Pigbacon]

Re: How important is versatility in your gear to you?

Versatility is in the player, not the gear. Keith Richards is mainly associated with the Telecaster and the Twin, however he's played dozens of different guitars and amps throughout the years and yet he still sounds like Keith Richards. He's used Les Pauls, Strats, EBMM Silhouettes, Dan Armstrong Plexis, ES-335's... He's used Vox, Ampeg, Fender, Mesa... Still sounds like Keith.

As for my gear... Well I like what I like and it's partly aesthetic and partly tonal. I guess if I wanted versatility I wouldn't own 4 Telecasters and all non-master volume Fender tube amps.

If a player can sound the same with different gear, how do you explain people who sound different with the same gear, or people who sound different with different gear? Sure, most gear changes aren't going to cause wholesale alterations in the way you play; we're pretty much going to play like ourselves regardless of what we use. But tonally, it's not just a placebo.

You can choose to dial in whatever gear you're playing to give yourself your "signature" sound if you want. Or you can stretch the tonal palette of what you've got and get more different voices out of it. You can also milk a Strat for some version of the stereotypical "Strat" sound, or play to the strengths of a Les Paul for what it does really well. Or you can put really light strings on an LP with P90's, and fool someone into thinking it's a Strat. Or put heavy strings on a Strat with a '59 in the neck, play clean jazz, and have people thinking it's a Les Paul.

If tonal versatility were solely in the player, we'd all have one guitar and there wouldn't be a million pickups, amps, and pedals. If it were solely in the gear, everyone using the same gear would get the same tone.

 

[Powdered Toast Man]

Re: How important is versatility in your gear to you?

I didn't mean that it's ALL in the player, but it's at least 50% of the equation. From a recording perspective, I've read producers say the player is a much larger part of the sound. Like, 80% player, 10% microphones, and about 10% guitar and amp.

As to the original question of versatility and gear. I'm not even sure what that's supposed to mean. I play 50's and 60's style amps and I try and sound like Keef. Then you've got Agileguy who plays modern metal through a late 60's Bassman. Could his rig work for me? With some knob turning, yes. Could my rig work for him? Again, probably if he set it right.

The only true "one trick pony" piece of gear I have is a 5E3 amp. That amp does one thing. It does it well, but it ain't going to do much else.

 

[Little Pigbacon]

Re: How important is versatility in your gear to you?

^ That seems realistic.

 

[T ROCKER]

Re: How important is versatility in your gear to you?

My philosophy has always been 'it ain't the tools, it's what you do with them'. I've seen a lot of very decent players over the years become their own worst enemies trying to use effects as the end to a means instead of a means to an end. Usually everyone comes full circle and starts to lose the 'extra weight' eventually, since it doesn't take too many pedals for one's sound to become very convoluted.

I'm one of those people who actually loves the rotary switch on my PRS. There happens to be that one position the middle (two inside coils, in phase) that suits almost all my needs, except for those occasions I need the bridge HB, or the neck. I use an Ibanez DS10 distortion charger, which is kind of like a vintage tube screamer mixed with a very warm sounding distortion ( it has the fabled JRC chip ...), and this pedal gives me everything I need from almost clean to full thick dirty warmth, just using the guitar's volume knob. There is a treble bleed circuit on the pot, and because it works so well in that guitar I had to put them in all my guitars, including the LP kit I just built. I've always preferred delay instead of reverb,so I dropped a heap of cash on a Diamond Memory Lane 2 analog delay since the Boss delays I'd been using for years paled in comparison. I'll use a little chorus once in a while live, while using doubling in the studio to achieve the same result.

I don't think there is anything wrong with a pile of effects as long as they are working to get 'that sound'; Adrian Belew and Tom Morello are two of my favorite players. I'm pretty sure Tom wears his guitars so high up so that he can bend down and tweak his pedals on the fly. . . At least that's what he was doing when I saw him live.

 

[TheLivingDead]

Re: How important is versatility in your gear to you?

It's as versatile as my budget allows...

 

[That90'sGuy]

Re: How important is versatility in your gear to you?

I used to want to have every shade of dirt under the sun, but now I don't really care anymore. I'd rather have a few core great tones than a million crappy ones anyhow. I've got my one clean amp, my one medium gain overdriven amp, one single coil guitar and one humbucker guitar. I like having some flexibility, but I really like focusing on just having a few basic great sounds to work off of.

 

[Matt42]

Re: How important is versatility in your gear to you?

It's as versatile as my budget allows...

This is where I stand, pretty much.

I like versatility, but to me versatility isn't 20 guitars and 3-4 amps with 15-20 pedals. Would I love to have that much, sure, but I wouldn't be taking it all with me to gigs. My perfect gig rig would consist of 4 guitars (Acoustic, single coil strat or tele, hollowbody, and a solid body double humbucker), a nice 50w or less tube amp with a good clean (and possibly good dirt), and a 8 or 9 pedals depending on the amp. This would allow me to do everything I'd need to in my band from acoustic folk to some of our more country tunes all the way up to our rock stuff.

 

[DeathALT.]

Re: How important is versatility in your gear to you?

Pretty Important to me, since everyone in my band likes so many different types of music. We play blues, punk, rock, and every genre of metal known to man. The versatility won't be so much of an issue if I find a JSX and get a couple good pedals.

 

[Chickenwings]

Re: How important is versatility in your gear to you?

I find that i go for gear that allows maximum room for reproducing playing nuances. I also like really simple gear that interacts with my guitar's controls. That way, i can get maximum versatility in terms of getting all kinds of colours and textures in my playing. I can't really "nail" other player's tones as per playing carbon copy replicas of the sounds that you hear on record, but ive never came across a crowd that demanded it. Play the right note at the right time and use the right playing nuance and you are close enough and still have some room for personal expression.

 

[aleclee]

Re: How important is versatility in your gear to you?

Even though my rig can do >300 presets, I really only use 5-10 of 'em. OTOH, that's more variations than most non-modeling rigs can do. Having a rig that's capable of greater versatility has increase my appreciation for that versatility.

 

[blueman335]

Re: How important is versatility in your gear to you?

I can't really "nail" other player's tones as per playing carbon copy replicas of the sounds that you hear on record, but ive never came across a crowd that demanded it. Play the right note at the right time and use the right playing nuance and you are close enough and still have some room for personal expression.

+1. Most bands can't reproduce their studio tones on stage, and good guitarists don't copy their old solos note-for-note all night. I think if you're in the ballpark, you're good.

 

[Boogie Bill]

Re: How important is versatility in your gear to you?

Being versatile is key for me, as my current band plays a very wide selection of cover tunes from several genres.

I use Mesa Boogie amps: a Mark IV combo, a Mark III combo or half-stack, a DC-3 combo, or a Maverick 212 combo. So I have amps that can go from 15-30-35-75-85-180 watts to cover any venue. The amps are very versatile tonally, but I tend to stick to the sweet spots when I'm playing live.

I view pedals like an artist and his color palette. I don't want to be monochromatic. I want my tones to go from the palest of pastels to deep, vivid hues. No one color should dominate. The tone should serve the song...always.

I own 53 guitars at the moment, with many duplicates. A G&L Legacy is my Number One and I have several to choose from. I love the strat body style, all of mine are G&Ls, and I have other G&L models with their different pickups. I use these types of instruments:

Legacy
Legacy with hotter pickups (Comanche, S-500, Legacy Special)
Les Paul
ES-335
12-string electric
12-string acoustic
Dreadnought acoustic
5-string banjo
4-string electric bass

I've taken as many as seven guitars to our gigs. I usually don't re-adjust my amp for the different guitars when I switch to accentuate the differences.

And while there are technical and tonal reasons for using a certain guitar on a song, a lot of it is just for my own inspiration. Sure, I can play "The Thrill Is Gone" on my Legacy--but play it on the 335 and I BECOME B.B.King. Like an actor getting into the part, the guitar can help me channel the spirits of the song and the artist.

Bill

 

[Drunken Bowling]

Re: How important is versatility in your gear to you?

If it sounds like a Les Paul through a Marshall, that's all that matters to me.

 

[Dr. Vegetable]

Re: How important is versatility in your gear to you?

I have a lot of guitars and gear, and I constantly try it out in different combinations. At any one time I only have a few pedals in my chain, and one guitar in my hands, but I sometimes even play through two amps at the same time.

When I'm playing I don't often worry about whether I'm using the "right" guitar for the song, and I have found that most solid tunes can survive being played on the "wrong" guitar quite nicely, thank you very much. I select which guitar to play based on my mood, and I don't change guitars often - only between songs!

I'm not chasing other people's tones, but whatever "signature tone" I may have is independent of any particular guitar, pedal chain, or amplifier. Whether it's the Destroyer through MXR pedals into the Tube Meister, or an ART100 through Ross pedals into my Blues Jr., it still sounds like me. And I'm OK with that. Just as long as I can switch to guitanjo whenever the mood strikes...