Warm tone Vs. Bright tone

[newjersey236]

I was just thinking about how many different shades of tone there are possible to create with guitars and i was wondering what you guys had to say..

Do you rather perfer a really warm tone (250k pots, low power pickups/magnets, and bass favored EQ settings) OR a really bright tone (500k-1Meg pots, with high ouput pickups/magnets and(or) treble/mid favored EQ settings)??

 

[Petrovsk Mizinski]

Re: Warm tone Vs. Bright tone

My tone has far more to do with settings than the actual pickups, since I can get dark, warm tones from my pickups anyway.
I play a lot of modern metal and rock, and the tone is pretty much always bright and pretty strong in the upper mids

 

[blueman335]

Re: Warm tone Vs. Bright tone

Warm bridge/bright neck. That makes them closer in EQ & much easier to get one amp EQ setting that works for both PU's, so you'll use them equally. Why have them be totall opposites? I hate the 'tinny bridge/muffled neck syndrome' which most guys have, and they usually end up using one PU all night.

 

[The Dali]

Re: Warm tone Vs. Bright tone

If you are asking strictly about tone, I prefer bright. While I love Boston's tone back in the late 70's, when I play I prefer a tight metal tone.

 

[stratfish]

Re: Warm tone Vs. Bright tone

I've gone from one camp to the other and think they both have their place.

I've played strats for 30 years & cut my teeth on Deep Purple & Led Zep in the 70's. I have only recently started exploring the sounds possible with P90's and humbuckers.
In the early years of Stratdom I was a guy who played with major distortion, tried cramming as many notes into a measure as possible and played 90% on my bridge pickup. When I was young it was all about how loud and fast you could be. Very bright tone was where I lived.
About 10 years ago when I hit 40 years old (and finally had some money) I went on a "tone quest" and discovered so many wonderful variables: boutique amps & pickup makers, etc. Now I play with more feeling/less speed, no pedals, and using all the pickups on the strat and every configuration possible - with about 75% of my time being split between the neck p/u and the neck+bridge (tele) combo. WARM FAT TONE is what I most often strive to attain, with enough highs to capture & project finer notes, bends, etc.

I went from playing as fast as possible with mega bright "Ritchie Blackmore" tones to warm tones with bends more like David Gilmour. Still find a razor sharp strong bridge pickup + a thick warm neckp'up to yield the most possibilites... I've found good pickups set at the proper height as my solution to the "tinny bridge/muffled neck syndrome" that Blueman mentions as being common.

P90's are a great in-between that are (as Aceman recently wrote) "fatter than any strat and cut better than any humbucker..." They really respond to different picking & get nice and gritty when you dig in to the strings!

Newest quest is learning how to get the tones I want from humbuckers which after 30 years of single coils seem to be muddier, but with great powerchord and sustain possibilites.

Once you have all the gear purchased then there are TONE CAP's to experiment with. The variables and nuances never end - but at least tone caps are cheap. A .1uf paper-in-oil cap can yield a wonderfully warm tone when tone pot is fully open.

So now that you know my life story I can actually answer the question: I like Warm tones with a frosting of bright on top + a side order of a HornbySkews "TrebleBooster" pedal for when I want Brian May thick syrupy notes that hang in the air forever. (My one-and-only pedal...)

 

[super rad stuff]

Re: Warm tone Vs. Bright tone

so no midrange-ey tones? because that's what i like to go for. mostly for distorted sounds anyways, with just enough bass to not be thick and just enough treble for clarity. for cleans i guess i like bassier sounds with more treble for clarity?? it's not set in stone, but altogether i like having more treble than i need, and having an abundance of mids.

 

[Petrovsk Mizinski]

Re: Warm tone Vs. Bright tone

so no midrange-ey tones? because that's what i like to go for. mostly for distorted sounds anyways, with just enough bass to not be thick and just enough treble for clarity. for cleans i guess i like bassier sounds with more treble for clarity?? it's not set in stone, but altogether i like having more treble than i need, and having an abundance of mids.

Abundance of mids?
I'd hate to be around your tone then:laugh2:
Personally I cannot stand an abudance of any frequencies in a guitar tone.
Too much mids sounds honky and annoying to my ears (and many other's).
Certainly I'm not from the mid scooped crowd, that just sounds awful, but I think too much mids sounds terrible too.

 

[newjersey236]

Re: Warm tone Vs. Bright tone

Abundance of mids?
I'd hate to be around your tone then:laugh2:
Personally I cannot stand an abudance of any frequencies in a guitar tone.
Too much mids sounds honky and annoying to my ears (and many other's).
Certainly I'm not from the mid scooped crowd, that just sounds awful, but I think too much mids sounds terrible too.

I agree with you totally seeing as i play a modded HSS strat and strats are extremely mid-rangey to start off with, i usually find my mid EQ turned to about 9:00 or so that way its not off but its just mixed in my tone, as far as treble and bass goes though, i feel as if they both make a great tone by working in harmony with a little bit of mids, too many of either makes a really dark sounding guitar or an overly bright guitar with too much mids.

 

[super rad stuff]

Re: Warm tone Vs. Bright tone

Abundance of mids?
I'd hate to be around your tone then:laugh2:
Personally I cannot stand an abudance of any frequencies in a guitar tone.
Too much mids sounds honky and annoying to my ears (and many other's).
Certainly I'm not from the mid scooped crowd, that just sounds awful, but I think too much mids sounds terrible too.

alright, maybe i worded that wrong. you're right, it is honky sounding with too much mids. what i mean is i like to have a bit more than what is normal at the amp, because i use a boss ge-7 for a slight scoop and bass boost, along with a boss sd-1, mxr classic, and little big muff. the muff is pretty scooped sounding, but with the midrangeyness of the boss OD and mxr dist. and amp, and scoopedness of the boss EQ and fuzz, there's still a good bit of mids left with the impression that it's an angry scooped sound

 

[ACH91332]

Re: Warm tone Vs. Bright tone

I like a relatively warm bridge pickup and a bright neck pickup. I use mostly Les Paul sounding guitars through my Marshall JVM which I have many tube substitutions but generally I dial in a bright and punchy rock tone with. I also keep thje gain pretty dry.

Having the warm bridge makes me brighten up my amp which makes for a really single coilish sounding neck pickup which is what I prefer with neck humbuckers.

 

[Marshall_Abuser]

Re: Warm tone Vs. Bright tone

I've recently found out that the best setup for me is not the thickest pickups into a bright amp, but rather the other way around. I cut most of the high-end and bass on the amp so that I get a thick midrangey 80's style shred lead tone which is a bit honky, but allows for a lot of cut through those 80's AOR mixes filled with unending reverb and stereo ping-pong delay.

 

[oilpit]

Re: Warm tone Vs. Bright tone

Who says you can't have both?

Treble can be warm....

as for me, I like lots of mids and treble, with dialed back bass

 

[SirJackdeFuzz]

Re: Warm tone Vs. Bright tone

Trebly tone (in a good way) from a Tele, but a warm tone from any other guitar for me.

 

[SirJackdeFuzz]

Re: Warm tone Vs. Bright tone

Bridge, 250K / Neck 500K
Broadcaster / [n]A2P w cover


Broadcaster :

" The 1948 pre-Telecaster® pickup had an exceptional twangy, "nasal" sound with tremendous sustain. Leo Fender called it the Broadcaster®. The STL-1b duplicates this sought-after vintage sound with larger-diameter (.197") pole pieces in a flat pole piece orientation. Compared to the Vintage '54, this pickup has slightly more output and more snarl in the mids. Comes with waxed cloth hookup cable. "


Alnico 2 Pro :

" The Alnico 2 magnet and moderate windings yield a warm, sweet tone with more natural string vibration for great sustain. Classic rock players who get their distortion from the amp rather than the pickup love the APH-1. It allows them to back off the crunch and get beautiful clean tones with softer attack. Compared to the '59, the Alnico II Pro has a rounder sound with a spongier bass response. Comes with four-conductor hookup cable and no logo. "



The best of BOTH worlds.
Play this guitar w the toggle in the middle pos.
Maybe as an EMG AB onboard Boost for the bridge pu to scream over the neck if need be.

http://www.emginc.com/products/category/4/4

Probably my perfect all-in-one-guitar of all time !

WARM & TREBLE, ALL ROLLED UP IN ONE SEXY PACKAGE

 

[JohnnyGuitar]

Re: Warm tone Vs. Bright tone

Depends on the style or situation. As long as it's not too dull or too spiky or thin - it's fine with me.

Do you rather perfer a really warm tone (250k pots, low power pickups/magnets, and bass favored EQ settings) OR a really bright tone (500k-1Meg pots, with high ouput pickups/magnets and(or) treble/mid favored EQ settings)??

With a few exceptions like the JB, low power pickups are tend to actually be brighter than high output pickups and the pot choice depends on the type of pickup - humbuckers usually use 500k pots in any output.

 

[cakire82]

Re: Warm tone Vs. Bright tone

I like the warm tones with tight bottom end, rounded highs and enough midrange to sound like a guitar

 

[mrturtle_91]

Re: Warm tone Vs. Bright tone

I prefer a bright tone from the bridge, like a Tele pickup, Filtertron, or something like that. From the neck I like a somewhat warm sound, but still having some brightness to it.

 

[newjersey236]

Re: Warm tone Vs. Bright tone

You all have some quite interesting responses out there. I think i myself love a single coil tone that sounds extremely warm (not in the sense of overloading loading bass in the mix but rather the warmth from a slightly cranked tube amp) with a little bit higher amount of bass on the EQ to add some more depth to the warmth and also a good amount of treble to make the single coils really glisten and add some of that jangly snap they are known for. And mids, im not really a high mids fan, i mean i dont dislike them or perfer a sound without no mids but i just like enough to add a little more boldness and snarl to the tone.