I Want to Clear Up a Misconception

[Little Pigbacon]

Re: I Want to Clear Up a Misconception

I don't want to over-speak for other guitarists on this, but I see it as a complicated interaction, a feedback loop of sorts. When you can hear what you play -- an acoustic guitar in your living room, an SG through a Bassman in the studio -- I think you naturally modulate some characteristics of your playing in response to what you hear. I probably do this more than a lot of players, because I don't practice much and I try to work the gear to get a tone that I find satisfying in that moment.

Some of our favorite players seem to be able to coax the same tone out of anything. I'll probably never be like that; I'm too much in love with the differences between pieces of equipment, and when I get a sense of that with a guitar, pickup, pedal, or amp, I respond to it and try to wring out a tone that incorporates those differences as I perceive them.

So I think we have some control over how much we let our tone vary with the gear.

 

[MetalManiac]

Re: I Want to Clear Up a Misconception

This is a great thread. You know why? because in 30 years, when I am long since gone, the kids on this forum that will then be my age, will still not have resolved this! hahah. Yes, this is an endless enigma!

 

[beaubrummels]

Re: I Want to Clear Up a Misconception

Tone is in the listener's mind. Before that, it's just moving air.

 

[DreX]

Re: I Want to Clear Up a Misconception

This is a great thread. You know why? because in 30 years, when I am long since gone, the kids on this forum that will then be my age, will still not have resolved this! hahah.

That's because it's not really a debate, it's a problem that almost every guitarist has at one point or another, framed as a debate, and the problem is "why don't I sound like [insert classic rock guitar hero]? I bought the right amp and guitar and a Tube Screamer, what's the problem?" As long as people play guitar, it will keep on smoldering.

 

[Dr. Vegetable]

Re: I Want to Clear Up a Misconception

I wasn't aware that this was a misconception....

tone is totally at least 80% determined by how you play the guitar... your technique, phrasing, etc etc...

The other 20% is a how the instrument translates your playing into a sonic realm, ie it's a product of the materials and construction of the instrument.

No, no, no!!! You have this all wrong.

The actual percentages are 81.6% fingers, to 18.4% gear.

Please check your facts before you post misinformation on here.

 

[DreX]

Re: I Want to Clear Up a Misconception

No, no, no!!! You have this all wrong.

The actual percentages are 81.6% fingers, to 18.4% gear.

Please check your facts before you post misinformation on here.

He took the measurements right after a bowel movement.

 

[Artie]

Re: I Want to Clear Up a Misconception

It would be nice if we could get away from "how to sound like X" as being a catch-all term, and split it out into the two. How to get Hendrix's tone? Strat and a Marshall (I'm simplifying for the purposes of this post). How to play like Hendrix? That's a harder one.

But sometimes you might want to know how Hendrix got his tone, because you like the tone and you want to use it for your own playing style. In these situations, "tone is in the fingers" is a singularly unhelpful thing to read.

Exactly! I wish I could get the "tone" that the B-52's get in "Follow Your Bliss". I don't necessarily want to play like the B-52's. (Although, I'd take that.)

 

[Artie]

Re: I Want to Clear Up a Misconception

He took the measurements right after a bowel movement.

I hope that movement didn't end with a D.C. al Coda.

 

[GuitarDoc]

Re: I Want to Clear Up a Misconception

Maybe there really is no tone...it's only in the mind of the listener.

 

[Dr. Vegetable]

Re: I Want to Clear Up a Misconception

If I play my guitar and there's no-one around to hear...








...do I still suck?

 

[CTN]

Re: I Want to Clear Up a Misconception

if you play your guitar and you have rendered yourself deaf from years of cranking marshall stacks beyond any reasonable limit of human comfort, can you still make teh toanz?

 

[Dr. Vegetable]

Re: I Want to Clear Up a Misconception

^ Yes, but it takes more alcohol than it used to.

 

[Chickenwings]

Re: I Want to Clear Up a Misconception

Tone is the servant of chops. Chops are in the fingers.

 

[AlexR]

Re: I Want to Clear Up a Misconception

^ Until such times as you have eaten them, and then pick your beer up again.

 

[MetalManiac]

Re: I Want to Clear Up a Misconception

Tone is the servant of chops. Chops are in the fingers.

Thats where we diverge in fundamental philosophy Sir.

Chops are the servant of tone. Tone is in the gear.

 

[Chickenwings]

Re: I Want to Clear Up a Misconception

its irrelevant if you don't tune your guitar.

 

[AlexR]

Re: I Want to Clear Up a Misconception

Buuurn

 

[MetalManiac]

Re: I Want to Clear Up a Misconception

its irrelevant if you don't tune your guitar.

I'm working on that! BTW.. some guys here think just cause I have old Marshalls I am an expert...I don't know jack about Marshalls besides a few key points I have discovered .I've never really played them much yet . Sure, I know they sound fantastic though. I do intend to start playing them soon.
I have a lot of goof tone Spearmints ahead though! Lots of pedals and a entirely new listening experience as I become familiar with Marshall ( and a Traynor Marshall based amp) full stacks.

 

[CTN]

Re: I Want to Clear Up a Misconception

tone is derived from lamb chops cooked on top of redplating tubes.

you n00bs know nothing.

 

[guitfiddle]

Re: I Want to Clear Up a Misconception

Thats where we diverge in fundamental philosophy Sir.

Chops are the servant of tone. Tone is in the gear.

Chicken and the egg. Chops existed before electric gear, but they changed in relation to how the gear made people play differently than they had before it existed. Electric chops wouldn't exist without electric gear, but the gear wouldn't make any tone without the chops.