How to get "That guy's tone" funny thing...

[misterwhizzy]

Re: How to get "That guy's tone" funny thing...

Let's also think a bit about the influence Jimmy Page has had on guitarists over the past forty years or so. I would argue that ninety percent or more of guitarists would list him as an influence. Very few others have that kind of impact.

Maybe he's not your favorite guitarist. But I can hear his influence all over the place. Now a bunch of stuff is arguably ripped off, but he's the one that brought it to the masses. I like Page's playing, but the saturation on the radio keeps Zeppelin off my iPod most of the time.

Now I don't like Stevie Ray Vaughn's music either, but he's an undeniably huge influence, and he was a fantastic player.

 

[formula73]

Re: How to get "That guy's tone" funny thing...

We certainly derailed this thread...

and FWIW, nobody in here has refuted Page's influence or skill as a songwriter/riffmeister, just tone and sloppy lead playing. As a matter of fact, I always liked his tone. Different strokes for different folks, I guess.

 

[IanBallard]

Re: How to get "That guy's tone" funny thing...

Here we go... http://www.gibson.com/en-us/Lifestyle/Features/capturing-ace-frehleys-kiss/

 

[sosomething]

Re: How to get "That guy's tone" funny thing...

about evh; whats about him anyway? why does it seem like 70% of the board wants to sound like him, or be him? I wouldn't want to sound like him or be him for all the tea in china. boring tone, ****ty playing. always, always the same licks, same soloing structure.

You are either

1. Too young
2. Too sober
3. Too European

...to understand Van Halen.

But potentially all 3.

 

[formula73]

Re: How to get "That guy's tone" funny thing...

Here we go... http://www.gibson.com/en-us/Lifestyle/Features/capturing-ace-frehleys-kiss/

Great. I always hated his tone, too. Mush. As a matter of fact, the entire band seemingly lived in the midrange. The recordings really don't have a whole lot in the way of highs or lows.

 

[Kam]

Re: How to get "That guy's tone" funny thing...

But potentially all 3.

This is me. :wave:

 

[ImmortalSix]

Re: How to get "That guy's tone" funny thing...

That's a good point, Aceman.

None of it bugs me - it's all just for fun, basically - isn't that why music exists?

 

[sosomething]

Re: How to get "That guy's tone" funny thing...

This is me. :wave:

Hell, I'm almost too young.

But I've got the other two bases more-or-less covered.

 

[IanBallard]

Re: How to get "That guy's tone" funny thing...

You are either

1. Too young
2. Too sober
3. Too European

...to understand Van Halen.

But potentially all 3.

But he's from the Netherlands. You'd think he'd have the "Hometown boy makes good" kind of attitude. Oh well.

 

[Coma]

Re: How to get "That guy's tone" funny thing...

Here we go... http://www.gibson.com/en-us/Lifestyle/Features/capturing-ace-frehleys-kiss/

LOL! To this day, I've never heard ANY self-respecting guitarist saying the words "I wanna sound like Ace Frehly". :laugh2:

 

[FuelGTRX]

Re: How to get "That guy's tone" funny thing...

To me, signature gear is not really a way of getting that person's tone. It's more of a reflection of what the artist would want given the chance to tweak a piece of gear. Unless they used something completely custom built in their hey-day, you can get close to their tone by buying the same gear they used then. Signature gear is what said piece of gear would be like if the artist was given control over designing said piece of gear.

That's why some of these signature guitars made to replicate what they used back in the day confuse me. I mean, some guys did tweak and mod their instruments and some people want that, but I mean, a signature Les Paul or Strat that was or is basically an off the shelf guitar? Thats kind of dumb to me. Why pay extra for something you could buy cheaper off the shelf just to have someone's name on it? No thanks.

 

[Bludave]

Re: How to get "That guy's tone" funny thing...

I have Slash's signature pickups in my LP Standard. I won them in contest & selected those. I didn't NEED them but I wanted to give them a try. Good pickups all around. They made my Les Paul sound really really good! I am very happy with them.

 

[richard parker]

Re: How to get "That guy's tone" funny thing...

I own only 3 guitars but it's just occurred to me that (as of last week) they all have signature pickups. My SG has a JB bridge, my Strat has a Bareknuckles Irish Tour (Rory Gallagher) and my Firebird Studio has a set of Bareknuckles Steve Stevens Rebell Yells. The biggest internet retailer in Europe (GAK) still describes the JB as the Jeff Beck pickup. I got my JB about 15 years ago after a glowing review in a UK guitar mag (who also called it the Jeff Beck) but not because I wanted to sound like Jeff Beck. I rate this pickup as one of the very best purchases I've made, I still think it's an astonishing pup. I got the Irish Tour about 2 years ago. Tim Mills built it with Rory's sound on that particular album in mind. I had a rails bucker in my Strat and wanted to go back to a single coil sound and couldn't find the original pickup. I didn't really expect it would make me sound anything like Rory but playing it through a Laney VC30 which is kind of AC30-ish it absolutely NAILS that sound. Quite remarkable. I don't have too much idea of what Steve Steven's tone is because I haven't listened to him much, I just liked what I read about the pickups.

I don't care about the artist connections because no-one can look at my guitars and tell what the pickups are. On the other hand the idea of a signature guitar really turns me off. The SRV Strat being possibly the worst example. What message are you sending to people when they're watching you playing a guitar with 'SRV' plastered over it in highly visible lettering ?

My Jimmy page thoughts - the first Led Zep album I heard was the second album. I haven't heard it in years but I remember liking his tones on that album. On the other hand I HATED his tone on Led Zep 4 and for me it just about ruined the album. Horrible.

 

[Robert S.]

Re: How to get "That guy's tone" funny thing...

In all fairness I owned a set of JPs and installed them into a 59RI LP. The tones that popped out were amazingly close to many things I had heard on the LZ albums, especially when the pick ups were used out of phase with a wah set in the sweet spot.

Tone is alchemy unless you are slamming the front end of a high gain amp with everything including the kitchen sink. In that case you are hiding so much in the sludge that it really doesn't matter. I know we like to tear down our heros but despite JPs flaws, he still wrote some of the coolest songs to date that I have ever heard. Tone is tone but cool trumps all.

Want to play the cool tone game, play clean in a room full of people.

Want to play rough, pull tone out of an acoustic.

It's all in the hands...

 

[TeleLubber]

Re: How to get "That guy's tone" funny thing...

I know we like to tear down our heros but despite JPs flaws, he still wrote some of the coolest songs to date that I have ever heard. Tone is tone but cool trumps all.

I agree with these points.. Page is definitely one of my heroes, but I never wanted to sound like him.. Ace Frehley was the reason I started plaing guitar after seeing him in concert in 1977, but I never wanted to sound like him either.. (I actually wanted to sound like Iommi)

I think maybe this is in some way due to the fact that when I first started playing I had no clue how they got those tones.. and as years went by, I just developed my own sound.. I agree most of it definitely comes from your hands..

That being said, I quite often see people trying to find old Supro amps, and MKII tonebenders.. only to find they still don't sound like Page when they do get their hands on these things..

Listen to recordings of yourself.. you will recognize yourself (tonewise) immediately, even with completely different gear/settings/styles etc..

 

[dr. ad]

Re: How to get "That guy's tone" funny thing...

I don't see signature pickups as a way to get an artist's tone, rather as a pickup on its own, with its own merits.

about page: like him on record. live he's sloppy, major turn off.

about evh; whats about him anyway? why does it seem like 70% of the board wants to sound like him, or be him? I wouldn't want to sound like him or be him for all the tea in china. boring tone, ****ty playing. always, always the same licks, same soloing structure.

i'm with you. i appreciate his playing, but can't stand the 'songs' and think his tone is the most overrated thing since jesus.

 

[Empty Pockets]

Re: How to get "That guy's tone" funny thing...

i just wana say that Jimmy Page is way cooler than sexier and probably has a bigger penis

i have no opinion on signature pickups

 

[dr. ad]

Re: How to get "That guy's tone" funny thing...

i didn't know jimmy page had signature pickups
do they make it impossible to tell a tele from an LP?
or does that only kick in when you're knocking the guitar out of tune and drooling all over yourself?

 

[formula73]

Re: How to get "That guy's tone" funny thing...

i didn't know jimmy page had signature pickups
do they make it impossible to tell a tele from an LP?
or does that only kick in when you're knocking the guitar out of tune and drooling all over yourself?

 

[Coma]

Re: How to get "That guy's tone" funny thing...

I think what's REALLY ridiculous is the Yngwie malmsteen and Steve Vai signature cables DiMarzio has launched. They go for between $114 and $153 here... For a f*cking THREE METER CABLE!