Seriously, no joke.

[NegativeEase]

What is the fascination with, how shall I put it, smooth, creamy, round, buttery, thick tones?
I mean, I just don't get it. Jangly, twangy, cutting, percussive, raunchy, sizzling, searing.
That I get.
What is it that I'm missing?

Sent from my SM-A115A using Tapatalk

"I just don't get it". -Demanic

and now you get it! Humans ears and brains are all different -you may never like them -thats the answer.

Personally if you don't like Robert Fripp's tone at 1:45 -I just don't see you ever liking round, creamy or buttery.

but theres nothing wrong with you, everyone has inherit internal bias based on the physical structures getting info to their brains and the way their brain processes it.

 

[Demanic]

Now that I very much get.
The value judgment of "chugga chugga" and the people who like it being "juvenile", well, maybe that's really a compliment?

Sent from my SM-A115A using Tapatalk

 

[Lewguitar]

I don't think chugga chugga or warm or creamy or buttery or chimey or jangle or any of those tones really come from the guitar pickups.

Any guitar pickup can sound clean and any guitar pickup can sound heavily distorted.

What we're really talking about is how your amp is adjusted. And how your pedals are used...if you use them.

 

[Gtrjunior]

But Slash has a nice range of tones. His cleaner tones have plenty of jangle.

People pay too much attention to his overdriven soloing tones and forget that what really makes him good are the rhythm parts and rhythm tones he's playing 90% of the time.

Rhythm guitar is an art and most players just want to stomp on their buzz saw and solo all day.

I just used him as a reference since the poster I quoted mentioned him.
You’re right though, he does have a wide range of tones.
If you made me pick one player that I most try to emulate in terms of tone it would have to be Jerry Cantrell. His tone in the song “Them Bones” is fantastic. (To me anyway).

 

[Lewguitar]

I just used him as a reference since the poster I quoted mentioned him.
You’re right though, he does have a wide range of tones.
If you made me pick one player that I most try to emulate in terms of tone it would have to be Jerry Cantrell. His tone in the song “Them Bones” is fantastic. (To me anyway).

I couldn't pick just one. Even if you made me.

Eric Clapton with Cream

Eddie Van Halen

Eric Johnson

BB King

Jeff Beck

Those guys might be my top five

 

[Gtrjunior]

I couldn't pick just one. Even if you made me.

Eric Clapton with Cream

Eddie Van Halen

Eric Johnson

BB King

Jeff Beck

Those guys might be my top five

I hear you!
There are lots of tones that I like too.
There are even lots of tones that I personally wouldn’t have much of a use for but in the hands of another player are phenomenal.

 

[Lewguitar]

I hear you!
There are lots of tones that I like too.
There are even lots of tones that I personally wouldn’t have much of a use for but in the hands of another player are phenomenal.

Then there's Peter Green...

I'm still working on THIS tone!

 

[Dave Locher]

I hear you!
There are lots of tones that I like too.
There are even lots of tones that I personally wouldn’t have much of a use for but in the hands of another player are phenomenal.

That's the key: I like a LOT of different guitar sounds that I have little interest in playing myself but that I really enjoy hearing from other players. The only sounds I can't abide are thin and bright and weak, but even that can be nice in small doses and the right setting.

And not to sidetrack even more,, but why do we call guitar sounds "tones"? I've never understood that. It's a sound, not a tone? ("Tone" is a knob on my guitar, not the sound it produces??)

 

[Erlend_G]

You can't transmit the experience of tasting an apple for the first time by describing it.

A person has to take a bite and experience it for his or her self.

But we try anyway.

I'm not sure everyone thinks of "warm" and "creamy" as being the same sound.

I think of Wes Montgomery when I think of warm. Or classic Miles Davis.

I think of Eric Johnson's clean tones when I think of chimey.

I think of the Byrds, Tom Petty, 12 string electric guitar and Vox amps and some of the Pretenders sounds when I think of jangle.

I think of Duane Eddy and Buck Owens and country guitar when I think of twangy.

Percussive? I think of that juvenile chugga chugga crap. :headbang:

Sizzling? Searing? I think of myself when I'm trying to sound like Eric Clapton with the Blues Breakers, but getting a terrible tone with too much treble and too much overdrive and I'm destroying my already damaged hearing!

Creamy? Buttery? Ya got me on that one. Sounds boring.

Yeah, sure man .

(I tried to make a joke, using extensively rare english words. But my mind failed me, I've been up for days ... and I'm no pro in English! , But you get "my" idea- some of the descriptions are like, "way out there, maaan" XD

 

[Ace Flibble]

And not to sidetrack even more,, but why do we call guitar sounds "tones"? I've never understood that. It's a sound, not a tone? ("Tone" is a knob on my guitar, not the sound it produces??)

That knob is called a " tone" control because it... changes the tone of the instrument. Ergo the sound the instrument is producing has a tone, in order for the tone control to change that tone. If an instrument produced a sound with no tone then there would be no tone for the tone control to affect and in fact we would not be able to hear the instrument at all, because all sounds are tones and no tone means literally no sound. (This is why any time someone accuses a pickup, guitar, pedal, amplifier or speaker as being "toneless", you must slap them; the only way something can be "toneless" is if it is literally silent.)

Saying "it's a sound, not a tone" is kind of like saying "it's a colour, not a hue". You can't have one without the other. All sounds have a tone and all tones are made by sounds.

 

[Dave Locher]

Alrighty then, I shall plug a tone generator into my amp and groove to the sounds it produces! Now if only it can find the treble attenuation knob...

 

[Ace Flibble]

... I'm not sure what you're going for there, so... tone generators can be found in most recording studios, and you'll find treble attenuation knobs on amps; typically modelling amps so they can accommodate different speakers and PA systems, altering their own speaker emulations accordingly.

 

[Aceman]

You know - what always surprises me is the narrowly accepted range of opinions of musicians. For people who you would think, as artists, they would be able to look/listen to a lot of different things and appreciate them for what they are - in this case its all music. Yet they are like painters if they went around saying "That person's choice of that shade of crimson is crap"

I may like this tone or that tone, or prefer it to another. Cool. And there are people like Demaniac, who I appalud, for making the effort to understand something that he sees out there but is not a fan of. I think I do that from time to time. I do not like hard style Martial Arts - but for the past two plus years I have been studying Shaolin King Fu - just to understand the differences between it and my usual style. As much as I might believe / say it is inferior to my preferred internal styles, the truth is it is just another thing in the world. There are certainly people who are better than me who could use it to beat me in a fight.

Again - just always surprised how people make music a hate activity by judging a style, a technique or a tone as being inferior.


Like I said - I no doubt peter the sound of a crunchy, tight, shrieking cranked Marshall. But I also have an ES339 that is usually on the neck pup, a T-Top in a Les Paul that can out Slash Slash's tone via a T-Top, and a number of distinctly non-metal sounds. And then we have Nylon string....

Embrace it all. Love what you love because you love it. Understand and appreciate that this is all music, it is just preference and there is no right answer. Expand your sound, your ears, and your mind.

Too much hate in the world. Be what music should be - something to bring us together. Not an excuse to categorize, judge, and demean.

Bravo Demaniac. Good to see that old men can continue to seek and grow! :clap:

 

[Securb]

There is so much bad in this thread. There are generalizations that are very closed minded. People are making assumptions about music they admittedly do not play or even enjoy. Saying Death Metal is high gain music with two-fingered chords is so off base and incorrect. Some death-metal players use very intricate chord inversions. The same can be said about hardcore players. Saying that the gain robs the player from nuance and texture could not be further from the truth. I am guessing some people do not have the ears to hear through the gain and hear the subtle harmonies. Here is a great example Stompbox, high-gain, and huge chords amazing harmony.

 

[Artie]

And not to sidetrack even more,, but why do we call guitar sounds "tones"? I've never understood that. It's a sound, not a tone? ("Tone" is a knob on my guitar, not the sound it produces??)

I think it just comes down to guitar vernacular. Like, why do we call the vibrato arm a tremolo arm? Or why do we refer to reverse-polarity as out-of-phase? Every hobby has its own language. Motorheads, chef's, and lets not even talk about audiophiles. They're even worse than us. (I know. I ARE one.)

 

[Mincer]

You know - what always surprises me is the narrowly accepted range of opinions of musicians. For people who you would think, as artists, they would be able to look/listen to a lot of different things and appreciate them for what they are - in this case its all music. Yet they are like painters if they went around saying "That person's choice of that shade of crimson is crap"

I may like this tone or that tone, or prefer it to another. Cool. And there are people like Demaniac, who I appalud, for making the effort to understand something that he sees out there but is not a fan of. I think I do that from time to time. I do not like hard style Martial Arts - but for the past two plus years I have been studying Shaolin King Fu - just to understand the differences between it and my usual style. As much as I might believe / say it is inferior to my preferred internal styles, the truth is it is just another thing in the world. There are certainly people who are better than me who could use it to beat me in a fight.

Again - just always surprised how people make music a hate activity by judging a style, a technique or a tone as being inferior.


Like I said - I no doubt peter the sound of a crunchy, tight, shrieking cranked Marshall. But I also have an ES339 that is usually on the neck pup, a T-Top in a Les Paul that can out Slash Slash's tone via a T-Top, and a number of distinctly non-metal sounds. And then we have Nylon string....

Embrace it all. Love what you love because you love it. Understand and appreciate that this is all music, it is just preference and there is no right answer. Expand your sound, your ears, and your mind.

Too much hate in the world. Be what music should be - something to bring us together. Not an excuse to categorize, judge, and demean.

Bravo Demaniac. Good to see that old men can continue to seek and grow! :clap:

For as rebellious as rock music is supposed to be, there is a lot of conformity and guitar/amp/pickup/string/pedal shaming (if you are different) across all instruments, not just guitar. Forums are full of "of course this is the way it is done" close-mindedness which drives good people away who either think they are doing something wrong, or don't want to hang out with people that echo and reinforce their opinions in thread after thread.

I always appreciate someone doing something that hasn't been done. That's what my heroes did.

 

[Lewguitar]

There is so much bad in this thread. There are generalizations that are very closed minded. People are making assumptions about music they admittedly do not play or even enjoy. Saying Death Metal is high gain music with two-fingered chords is so off base and incorrect. Some death-metal players use very intricate chord inversions. The same can be said about hardcore players. Saying that the gain robs the player from nuance and texture could not be further from the truth. I am guessing some people do not have the ears to hear through the gain and hear the subtle harmonies. Here is a great example Stompbox, high-gain, and huge chords amazing harmony.

After watching and listening to that I literally feel like I just woke up from a nightmare.

What's the value of inducing feelings like that in someone?

 

[Securb]

After watching and listening to that I literally feel like I just woke up from a nightmare. What's the value of inducing feelings like that in someone?

My point exactly! You really should not be commenting on music you know nothing about. Stompbox was formed out of Berklee College of Music and was signed to Columbia Records. This is not some simple garage band. The writing, arranging, and performance of this song are amazing. But still, you prove beyond your myopic view of music no one or nothing is valid. Or maybe your ears just can't hear what is going on in the song. Berklee offers Music listening Analysis 101 online for free, you should sign up.

 

[weepingminotaur]

Some styles/genres of music that do nothing for me, by and large:

Atonal compositions.
Country.
Free jazz. (I'm much more of a classic jazz person.)

Doesn't mean I think they're garbage or that people shouldn't play them. I can appreciate the craft and artistry in a genre of music, even if it doesn't move me at all to listen to or play.

 

[Lewguitar]

My point exactly! You really should not be commenting on music you know nothing about. Stompbox was formed out of Berklee College of Music and was signed to Columbia Records. This is not some simple garage band. The writing, arranging, and performance of this song are amazing. But still, you prove beyond your myopic view of music no one or nothing is valid. Or maybe your ears just can't hear what is going on in the song. Berklee offers Music listening Analysis 101 online for free, you should sign up.

When I watched that video I felt like I was inside the mind of a madman.

Someone locked up in an insane asylum so he wouldn't kill someone.

But when I read some of your posts, and feel your rage and anger, especially when it's directed towards me, I can certainly see why you relate to that music and those images.

I see and hear no beauty in that music. Only pain, rage and anger.