Sound....or what we think sounds good?

[Vasshu the humanoid typhoon]

Sometimes I just wonder about this!
I have had a few that asks about getting a more smooouuuutthhh thooohhne...
because it is too harsh..blah blah tone blah blah fry mypass...blah smoothy doothy....then I get a real tired look....play it with the band and come back again
Most returns and looks slightly bewildered....
"Well it was working just fine, the harsh sound was not present, it blended well without need to turn up to insane levels, but the smoothy loofy woofy cremesuperduper tone home gizmo, that I also brought along did not work, it drowned out."

Guitars, especially electric ones are not pretty instruments by far, those nasty mid spikes and strange boxy sounds, ugly and unpleasent as they are, suddenly can work well when the rest of the band kicks in, well this was just a broad stroke, I know that...for those of you who likes to do the funny thing with ants
Some other kinds of music demands something else, as usual the right piece for the job at hand is sometimes just not the hammer but the dremel.
It can be simple, like riding a toneknob, or simply play in a different way.
Change speakers, or another amp, or a fuzz, maybe a buzzy icky dist or drive??
Who knows?
I could write more....but I think this will do for now
Niels
P'S I love my JB and 59b, plus my singlecoils and my Demon

 

[JohnnyGuitar]

Re: Sound....or what we think sounds good?

Rid... you've turned 100 years old! congrats.


BTW,
I read your post twice. I suspect that you've been reading too many reviews on harmony central and that you've been somking. However, I have no idea where the point of the post is.

 

[Vasshu the humanoid typhoon]

Re: Sound....or what we think sounds good?

You know...all the rants about gear that sound bad.....well they think it does, they just never figured out where to use it!!
There are not much out there that is totally useless!
You can fit in alot of different gear and pickups, amps, speakers etc etc...
Oh this pickup has a bad screeching sound, icepicky, blah blah no bottomend, not tight enough, wrong mids...hehe
It just annoys me.....I have plenty of gear, had alot of pickups, while some of it may not have been to my taste, it was never something that I could not get to sound like something useful.
And I do not waste my time on HC by the way....that is useless

 

[StrangeSound]

Re: Sound....or what we think sounds good?

I'm one of the people who went crazy because it didn't sound good on tape or whatsoever but in the band and a cranked tube amp on stage -> it was a blast!

I try to get a smooth tone out of the amp at home because there aren't drums/bass who would kill the "fuzz" in my tone. I agree that a light "harsh" sound is the ticket to play in a band but it's a pleasent sound then! A sound which is too dark in the band is worthless and I understand it!

 

[Vasshu the humanoid typhoon]

Re: Sound....or what we think sounds good?

See Adrian gets it
Hehe

 

[JohnnyGuitar]

Re: Sound....or what we think sounds good?

See Adrian gets it
Hehe

Duh... once you explained it a little better. :laugh2:

Currently I'm using an amp with tone controls that would hardly change his identity - there's only "fine tunning" to the basic tone. And I love it.
The search for more mids or treble or whatever has some justification but the basic question is- does it sound good to you? and when you're on a "quest" for better tone your taste might change once in a while, so does needs. And you might find out that what you looked for was not more treble but just a piece of gear that would be more pleasing for you.

 

[Mephis]

Re: Sound....or what we think sounds good?

I love horribly harsh cutting tones...

Am I part of a minority? My setup screams like hell lol.

I can understand the arguements to perfect your no.1 axe though. Nobody wants anything or any part of their setup to be lacking.

When you have a bunch of guitars/amps/pedals that you play, you start losing the right to complain.

 

[frankfalbo]

Re: Sound....or what we think sounds good?

Sometimes I make my guitar sound horrible-on purpose-because of how it fits in the mix. I also have a Roland GS6 in the rack because it gets the most horrible square-waved, white noised, digital crap distortion ever. BUT....Every once in awhile, I use it with a band-pass filter to isolate from 300hz-4khz, and blend a little of that with a normal tube raunch, it's delicious. Crazy harmonics not occurring in nature start to squeak out, and the crunch layers start to build a midrange fortress to be reckoned with. Until then it just sits dorment, awaiting my next command.

But yeah lots of live sounds are no good when isolated. Only in a 3-piece can you truly give the guitar full frequency dues. Otherwise I agree there is some ugliness to most great guitar tracks that makes the overall mix (live or studio) complete.

 

[Mike M.]

Re: Sound....or what we think sounds good?

I must admit that, as an at home player I definatley fall into the "too much of a mid-hump" crisis" category. I know the mids are important and you've got to use them, but sometimes those upper-mid-spikes can really grind on my eardrums badly and I find I'm doing all I can to relax them somewhat.

 

[The Golden Boy]

Re: Sound....or what we think sounds good?

all the rants about gear that sound bad.....well they think it does, they just never figured out where to use it!!

Looking at tone in the overall context of the song... man, there's some people that have had some awesomely bad tone that totally works in the context in which it's used. On the big scale of things- I absolutely detest Clapton's lead tone in Cream's White Room- if that would have been anyone else, or if it were NOW- all the tone Nazis would be all over how bad that sound is. It definitely works where it's at, but man, I hate that sound.

 

[JohnnyGuitar]

Re: Sound....or what we think sounds good?

+1
The lead tone on the first version of White room was horrible. It's still one of my favorite songs though and there are better versions recorded live over the years.

 

[Pink Unicorn Horsey]

Re: Sound....or what we think sounds good?

Looking at tone in the overall context of the song... man, there's some people that have had some awesomely bad tone that totally works in the context in which it's used.

This hits the nail on the head. So many times, we hear people complaining about how their totally awesome bedroom tone sounds muddy, ice-picky, etc., in a band context. That's because guitars are midrange-frequency instruments. They sound more full in the bedroom with the classic smile EQ because you don't have a bassist and crashing cymbals along with them. Once you put that same rig in the middle of the band, turn up the mids and taper the highs and lows; you'll drop right into the mix quite nicely.

- Keith

 

[GuitarStv]

Re: Sound....or what we think sounds good?

This remids me of the first time that I jammed with my drummer . . . I had a little 40 watt solid state amp, and cranked it up using the same settings that I had been practicing with. The whole jam I couldn't hear myself properly, and when I did it sounded thin, bright and crappy. I went home and almost sold my amp. By the next time that I came to play I had realized that the kick drum and cymbals eat a lot of the highs and lows so I cranked the mids . . . even my drummer was saying that I sounded way better.

 

[devastone]

Re: Sound....or what we think sounds good?

You're totally right Rid, the JB is one of the best pickups to cut through a live situation, but it can get old on it's own. I was playing with a band once and I had an Ibanez JEM with Evos and a Robin with a JB, everyone told me that the Robin cut through much better.

Often good tone is relative to the application. But, the electric guitar, especially in a rock or blues context, is a "rude" instrument and shouldn't be tamed down totally.

 

[daemon barbeque]

Re: Sound....or what we think sounds good?

Many of my fav. songs have tones that i would never used.But i like tehm in that particular song or band!And many ice-picky or mid-spyked tones get huge with a decent bass in backround!