How would you define a Vintage sound?

Re: How would you define a Vintage sound?

To my ear, a vintage sound is one where you can hear the strings (hint: They sound like strings.), and it makes a difference what guitar is being used. A modern sound is either too processed or too distorted (or both) for the subtleties of the instrument upstream to matter that much.

A vintage sound is easy on the ear or, if it's a little grating, it's at least pleasingly lo-fi enough to be kitschy. A vintage sound could be produced completely without digital equipment and might even be created without the participation of a single transistor.

With a vintage sound, the distortion, gain, or overdrive becomes part of the guitar's tone. With a modern sound, the distortion overlays or just flat-out replaces the original sound coming from the pickup. I don't perceive this as being an actual instrument; it is only my experience as a guitar player that leads me to believe there was a guy in the studio playing one at some point. With a vintage tone, you can practically see the guitar when you close your eyes.
 
Re: How would you define a Vintage sound?

I'd say majority of tones you can think of pre Van Halen I guess but mainly pre Metallica. Plenty of mids dirty nice cleans that aren't too sterile.
Bands that come to mind are -
Thin Lizzy, Led Zeppelin, The Who, Hendrix, Early AC/DC etc
The opposite of vintage is the scooped mids metal tones, the recto tones, solid state cleans.
 
Re: How would you define a Vintage sound?

James Rock said:
I'd say majority of tones you can think of pre Van Halen I guess but mainly pre Metallica. Plenty of mids dirty nice cleans that aren't too sterile.
Bands that come to mind are -
Thin Lizzy, Led Zeppelin, The Who, Hendrix, Early AC/DC etc
The opposite of vintage is the scooped mids metal tones, the recto tones, solid state cleans.
Click to expand...

Solid state cleans aren't vintage?
The Roland JC-120 would like to have a stern word with you
 
Re: How would you define a Vintage sound?

I always thought of vintage as being two different types, old vintage and boutique vintage. There seems to be a lot of new amps made to sound and play just as if they are old moldy vintage amps. My definition of vintage either way is sweet, muddy, warm, and dynamic.

It's kind of opposite of what I consider a modern sound which is crisp, tight, warm, and punchy. This is kind of my mindset as of now but I am still learning.
 
Re: How would you define a Vintage sound?

I was going to make this a through explanation of what contributes to a vintage tone, however, there really is no point...

TONE IS SUBJECTIVE!

Sorry for the caps, but really... it doesn't matter whether the gear is from the '50s or whether the gear was bought yesterday. What matters is what sounds good to you. To me it seems that the high-gain stuff was not really popular until the '70s and '80s, so the blues, jazz, classical, or whatever was more popular at the time did not need ice-searing highs, massive amounts of distortion, or brutal low-end... It was meant to sound pleasant, sweet, smooth, a bit muddy, magical or whatever sounded good at the time. Now, since the high-gain stuff is quite popular; it's all about definition, clarity, punch, and a TON of distortion because it sounds better that way. If I had to play metal that sounds pleasant, sweet, smooth, muddy, and magical... then I would sell my guitar and start playing a violin.

But if I had to define what a vintage tone is, then I don't think I could do that. What was 50 or even 25 or even 10 years ago could be considered vintage. I wouldn't be surprised that in the next 25 or 50 years the current sound of metal isn't going to be vintage.

If I had to describe a vintage tone that sounds good to ME, it would be B.B. King. If I had to describe my high-gain tone, I would define it: a brutal tone with enough clarity and vintage flavor combined OR Amon Amarth tone with a vintage flavor, but even Amon Amarth changes their tone with every album.

Anyway, tone is subjective. That is why you have so many knobs on your boutique, vintage, or modern amplifier so you can sound good with your subjective tone, unless you like the tone of your favorite guitar player. That is a different story... still, I know that I wouldn't want to exactly sound like my favorite guitar player and have a little bit of my tone in there, but that's me, not you. :)
 
Re: How would you define a Vintage sound?

MrD4rK5 said:
I was going to make this a through explanation of what contributes to a vintage tone, however, there really is no point...

TONE IS SUBJECTIVE!

Sorry for the caps, but really... it doesn't matter whether the gear is from the '50s or whether the gear was bought yesterday. What matters is what sounds good to you. To me it seems that the high-gain stuff was not really popular until the '70s and '80s, so the blues, jazz, classical, or whatever was more popular at the time did not need ice-searing highs, massive amounts of distortion, or brutal low-end... It was meant to sound pleasant, sweet, smooth, a bit muddy, magical or whatever sounded good at the time. Now, since the high-gain stuff is quite popular; it's all about definition, clarity, punch, and a TON of distortion because it sounds better that way. If I had to play metal that sounds pleasant, sweet, smooth, muddy, and magical... then I would sell my guitar and start playing a violin.

But if I had to define what a vintage tone is, then I don't think I could do that. What was 50 or even 25 or even 10 years ago could be considered vintage. I wouldn't be surprised that in the next 25 or 50 years the current sound of metal isn't going to be vintage.

If I had to describe a vintage tone that sounds good to ME, it would be B.B. King. If I had to describe my high-gain tone, I would define it: a brutal tone with enough clarity and vintage flavor combined OR Amon Amarth tone with a vintage flavor, but even Amon Amarth changes their tone with every album.

Anyway, tone is subjective. That is why you have so many knobs on your boutique, vintage, or modern amplifier so you can sound good with your subjective tone, unless you like the tone of your favorite guitar player. That is a different story... still, I know that I wouldn't want to exactly sound like my favorite guitar player and have a little bit of my tone in there, but that's me, not you. :)
Click to expand...

"Tone is Subjective" is true up to a certain point.
There are plenty of times where a guitar tone can just sound objectively bad for a particular situation
 
Re: How would you define a Vintage sound?

bungalowbill said:
Some of that Jimmy Page was a Tele through a cranked Supro.
Click to expand...

And for me that was THE best Jimmy Page.


And FWIW I'm not saying that just because I'm in love with my new Tele :D I've always thought that LZ1 had the best tone/production/material.


Anyhoo- to answer the original post-sort of. I wouldn't try to define it. Why do we need to? To me it's like Porn, hard to give parameters of what is and is not Porn, but you know it when you see it. Same with Vintage tone- you know it when you hear it.
 
Re: How would you define a Vintage sound?

Solid state cleans aren't vintage?
The Roland JC-120 would like to have a stern word with you
Click to expand...
That is a tone I don't consider vintage even if the amp itself is. I think it was quite modern sounding with its hi fi ish tone compared to say 50's and early 60's clean amps. Like vintage rock, retro rock or classic rock whatever you'd call it I consider as stuff pre punk (as in late 70's not when punk was first created). Thats just how I've seen it as a guy growing up in modern times but sharing taste in vintage pop music.
 
Re: How would you define a Vintage sound?

Jessie Sammler said:
To my ear, a vintage sound is one where you can hear the strings (hint: They sound like strings.), and it makes a difference what guitar is being used. A modern sound is either too processed or too distorted (or both) for the subtleties of the instrument upstream to matter that much.

With a vintage sound, the distortion, gain, or overdrive becomes part of the guitar's tone.
Click to expand...

nice observation
 
Re: How would you define a Vintage sound?

crusty philtrum said:
But to me, what is considered vintage sound is simply normal. I have heard that tubes will one day be replaced by some device called a transistor, but believe me, that will never happen. Radios and calculators that can be carried in the pocket? Pfft! Dream on ! The next thing will be people trying to tell me a computer won't take up three rooms in my house. You crazy young people today.
Click to expand...

:lmao::lmao:
 
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