Re: Opening the keg - The Well Part XXXIII
What is your view on the state of Rock music today?
What would you consider the Holy Grail of tone?
Given the choice of being all powerful or all knowing, which would you choose?
I believe if you look on the surface, you are not going to be impressed. I also believe if you judge the face of any genre of music by what's happening in the mainstream neither you or the people listening to you are gonna be very happy. If you explore and dive in and look you'll find all sorts of goodies you didn't even know existed. I remember once someone said "The current generation has nothing to offer in the way of good guitarist". I laughed because he sucked.
Now the holy grail of tone for me would can be categorized into several sections.
Clean 1: A very very clean but very sparkly sort of tone in which you can hear the glistening of the fingers over the strings.
Clean 2: A clean that is just starting to break up so although it is clean it is quite dirty, like a Vox amp. This works really well with dark menacing stuff as opposed to happy chimey stuff.
Metal Rhythm 1: A very raw, driven sound but not distorted to the point of fuzz happening. Clear note definition and a slight scoop in the right place to give it a mean vowel shape and to thin it out a little for chordwork, but not get lost in a mix.
Metal Rhythm 2: A loose but not too twangy and not too gainy tone perfect for Low tunings (check my fender thread in tips and clips) Alot thicker than MR1, so better for single note riffing than chords.
Metal Lead 1: The ball tearing sound of a sizzly bridge pickup and aggressive but accurate licks
Metal Lead 2: A woody, melodic, neo-classical sound of a driven neck pickup for leads.
I base these around tones that I like to use.