Re: What Is Good Tone?
thanks, that's good information, but can i find out these ranges from the internet with the make/model number or something?
Not that I'm aware of. Amp designers don't usually go into that sort of detail in their descriptions, they just present their amps as they are, with these broad range controls, which tends to suit the guitar playing fraternity because it keeps things simple. This is why the search for tone involves playing through lots of different amps to find what speaks to you. Even though music and tone can be quantified to a certain degree in scientific terms, there are also many mysterious factors to both which defy classification in scientific terms. I have found that certain types of tones and playing styles can evoke quite powerful
feelings and emotions which cannot be crunched down to a set of definable values. This is a part of the personal search for your own "voice."
One of the most interesting quantum leaps I've had in terms of tone happened 10 years into my professional playing career. I came across a custom amp builder, who I worked with in designing an amp which I still use to this day. It is a 100w, 2x12 combo with a preamp circuit based on a tweed Fender Bassman, but with an 4 x EL34 power stage. After years of playing Marshalls, this amp was incredibly confronting and unforgiving. It offered no smearing of sloppy playing, so if you played crap, it just came out as really loud crap. If you played sweetly with a broad dynamic, it delivered the most breathtaking and glorious tone I had ever heard. I thought I knew a few things about tone until I started playing through this amp, but it took me to a completely different level of understanding of both tone and accuracy in my playing approach. This amp was teaching me stuff, and prepared me for another quantum leap 5 years later when I found my beloved Fender Super Champ, which took me through the whole process again. It happened again when I discovered 1950's RCA blackplate tubes. That was 4 years ago, and I'm looking forward to the next set of lessons which good equipment can teach me.
All of this feeds back into my career, and continues to develop my ear for tone. The strangest phenomenon is that now I find that I am able to produce this kind of tone from a broad array of equipment, including other people's rigs, hire amps that I might use for one show, and guitars and amps that shouldn't by rights produce those tones. It's like I'm willing the equipment to produce those tones, and it does. This is what leads me to believe that tone begins in the heart and imagination., which seems like esoteric metaphysics, but is very real to me. Regardless, the first steps involve lots of experimentation to find the pieces of equipment which come along to be our teachers!
Cheers.............................wahwah
