what is the defintition of british tone?

[emilio]

Re: what is the defintition of british tone?

i thought this was going to be a much simpler reply. now its seems to have turned into a sort of debate. cool.:smokin:

 

[CapoFirstFret]

Re: what is the defintition of british tone?

Plain and simple....

BRITISH

Anything derived off of these amplifiers.

AMERICAN

Anything derived from these style amplifiers (with the exception of the JTM 45, which was based on a bassman, but altered a enough to change the tone entirely)

 

[JamesHealey]

Re: what is the defintition of british tone?

I mean yea it's deffinatly the whole Marshall vs Fender thing..

but it's gone much further than that..

i mean the Mesa/Boogie Recto is deffinatly american sounding, and the Stilleto is british sounding..

ENGL's are American sounding but German made, Cornfords are British sounding but use 5881's in there Mk50 head and that sounds english?.

but yea for me the tones that epitomise British and American sounds are..

70's
American, BB King
English, Thin Lizzy

80's (Late 70)
American, Metallica ...And Justice For all
English, Van Halen First Album

Today's Music
American, Lamb of God
English, Zakk Wylde

oh and being British i prefer my own countries sound

 

[JohnnyGuitar]

Re: what is the defintition of british tone?

It's a hard question. Years ago someone asked how would you define the tone of a Tele? adter hours of trying to explain by using words like treble, brightness. bite, someone just said - Twang.

It's the same with British and American tone because EQ values change with the pickups, guitars, speakers, recording gear, even the room you play in, etc...

The way I hear it, and there are exeptions, is that British amps, clean or dirty, are "rougher around the edges" while American amps are more "polished".

Maybe it's because when the first amps were made in America they did try to make them sound cleaner and by the time they got into making amps in the UK, cleans were less important...

Clean or dirty, a good player can get amazing results from both types...

 

[STRATDELUXER97]

Re: what is the defintition of british tone?

Most of it stems from the surplus of European and American military tubes after WWII.

Audio techs soon discovered which tubes sounded the best for guitar amp circuits, and European amp companies used what was most available to them....the primary ones being EL-34 and EL-84 (Marshall & Vox).

In America, the same thing applied, and we narrowed it down to 6L6 and 6V6, which Fender built his company around....Peavey and Mesa followed suit.

I kept this description basic, since there's a whole slew of other British and American tubes I'm leaving out.

We both share pre tubes, and they're basically the same. Euro ECC83 = American 12AX7.

That's the primary reason why there's a "British sound" and "American sound."

Good post buddy....Oddly enough,the Marshall sound changed for the aggressor by accident,as the availability of 5881 tubes dwindled in England..The Marshall sound continued to evolve after the JTM 45 amp..I feel in a good way,in that the tone was gainier and more aggressive and cutting later on..

 

[STRATDELUXER97]

Re: what is the defintition of british tone?

British tone began with the cranked Les Paul through a Marshall...the BLUES/ROCK tone of Eric Clapton in the Bluesbreakers and Cream. That, for me, is where it really started. I know the Beatles, Stones, Yardbirds and the Who and all that came earlier, but for me, Clapton was the man who turned his Marshall up to 10 and overdrove the bejeezuz out of it with a Les Paul playing blues. Even Hendrix wanted to meet Clapton when he first came to England.

American blues players got a cleaner tone and for me, we're talking the tones of Mike Bloomfield and BB King...and Freddie King, Albert King and some others.

So, IMO, Clapton's British Blues created the modern rock tone inherited by Van Halen and others and it was Eric Clapton playing the licks of his heroes through a cranked and overdiven Marshall.

And the American tone is tone of Eric's heroes playing through Fender amps and not playing as distorted as Eric was.

Lew

Lew....I Like the way you said it..I was trying to convey the same thing and used Cream,Led Zeppelin,The Who,and Hendrix in my equation...Problem is,this was only 1 Marshall/British type sound before the MV stuff..To me these first Marshall tones we mentioned were the ones that put the british sound on the map!