When dialing in your tones...

[EET_FUK]

Do you find one GREAT sound for one guitar, your #1, go-to guitar, or do you find a tone that sounds really good with several guitars, but is just shy of tonal nirvana?

I usually go for the latter, as nobody except me is going to notice the difference, and I like to play 2-3 guitars a gig, sometimes more depending on what tunings I'm using. The exception being if I am recording, as that's when I do sit down and obsess a bit over finding that sound for a certain song.

 

[Gone_Shootin]

Re: When dialing in your tones...

I have it down to the point that I have a general idea where the sweet spots are for different guitars in my collection.

 

[TwilightOdyssey]

Re: When dialing in your tones...

Tonal Nirvana is a moving target that depends on way too many variables -- how fresh are your ears that day? how fresh is your perspective that day? is the AC power clean or are you playing at a peak usage time and there is sag? how much wear is there on your strings? how much wear is there on your valves? are you playing at a different volume? different room? standing instead of sitting? sitting instead of standing? & cet, ad naseum, & cet

Sometimes I dial in a sound I like. Most times I just plug in and play. Heck, 99% of the time I play acoustically with no amplification, real or simulated and don't even worry about getting the sound out of my guitar unless I have to. When I'm recording, I will try to dial in the best sound I can for that bit ... but I mean for REAL recording, not tracking a demo.

For rehearsals, I will dial in a useable sound for that room on that day; I may tweak it from there, but that usually involves turning the volume louder or softer.

 

[Securb]

Re: When dialing in your tones...

Call me a creature of habit but most of my guitars have very similar tones, I am big on med/high output humbuckers. Tweaking my tone from guitar to guitar is more of a nudge that a major adjustment. I also keep my amp very neutral with a slight nod towards the bass side.

 

[jimijames]

Re: When dialing in your tones...

I usually go for as many sounds possible from a single guitar, for me at least that makes it easier to get close to that perfect sound because you dial in the guitar and just change the flavor going from series to split to parallel.

So, I have a strat and a tele that between the two can do just about any sound. The strat is HSS, and the tele is HS with a humbucker in the neck. Because the strat has strabro 90s and a p-rails, between the two I can get:

- Humbucker, P-90, or single sounds in the neck
- All the strat in-between sounds, with both p-90 and single coil flavors
- Tele bridge sounds, strat bridge sounds, p-90 bridge sounds, and both vintage and hot bridge h/u sounds

So because of that I can get away with relatively consistent EQ settings between the two guitars and have a broad palette of sounds to work with.

edit: I also have a switch to get out of phase sounds from the tele.

 

[Mad-Max]

Re: When dialing in your tones...

I typically have a tone for my #1 and then when I plug my other guitars in, I adjust it accordingly. Most of the time though, I just let the guitar do the talking and leave the amp settings alone.

That being said, if you want to have a consistent tone throughout all the guitars you play, buy guitars with similar tonal characteristics and specs. Otherwise, you'll run into having to constantly tweak your settings on your amp if you're extremely picky about getting the tone right, and that's an endless fight.

I own a very bright sounding guitar, and on the other hand I own a dark sounding one. However, I barely do any tweaking on my amp due to the fact that I might want a certain type of tone for a certain application. Again, let the guitar do the work and get a tone you like on an amp and stick with it. It's much easier that way.

 

[xxxplorer]

Re: When dialing in your tones...

What twilight said... Even humidity in the air can make sound all crazy. When playing I just go for ... Nothing worse to me than a player who comes off stage pissy because his tone is 'bad'.

 

[chadd]

Re: When dialing in your tones...

I use different guitars to get different tones, I don't want them all to sound the same. My "number one" varies depending on the tone I need for a song or a part.

 

[Aceman]

Re: When dialing in your tones...

Programmable. Multi. Effects.

 

[Grenade]

Re: When dialing in your tones...

I use different guitars for different tunings and sounds.

 

[Rockstar216]

Re: When dialing in your tones...

Since I only use one guitar 9 times outta 10 on most gigs I usually don't mess with the amp settings unless I'm recording then yea the EQ will be adjusted but other than that nope not really. If i'm using a back line or a amp that's not mines I usually set my vol first then adjust the EQ to get as much clarity as possible which usually means rolling off the Bass and upping the Treble a bit and the mids can go either way depending on the amp. Once that's done I start adjusting to get the guitar to feel good under my fingers which usually means I see how much bass I can dial back in without getting to muddy or bottom heavy. I like a lot of treble because I can always dial it down with the tone knob and still maintain a good clarity and cut.

 

[Securb]

Re: When dialing in your tones...

To expand on this my bridge pickups are very simular. My guitar setups are designed to pull as much tone out of an instrument as possible. My Strat is a freakshow. P-rails/Single/Pearly Gates, The Iceman has a Dimbucker/Jazz setup split/split/phase. And the combos get weirder. But typically I will have a high/mid output humbucker in the bridge to give me a familiar starting point.

But every once in a while I go off the reservation.

 

[ItsaBass]

Re: When dialing in your tones...

My main amp is now a mesa 5:25 Express Plus. Every guitar has different settings that are ideal to my ears. Even my four SSS Strats all need different settings, and it isn't as if they have radically different pickups; they're all pretty much vintage-style pickups wound to about 6KOhms. I try to get used to where the knobs go for each guitar, rather than finding a "do-it-all" tone and then leaving the amp there most of the time. And when I finally dial in a good tone, you bet your ass I write it down, with as many controls as that amp has.

On my little Ampeg, it's a bit easier, as the options are limited with its single tone knob.

 

[Myaccount876]

Re: When dialing in your tones...

Amp is always the same, and guitars are swapped according to what differences would be useful.

 

[Phantasmagoria]

Re: When dialing in your tones...

I just use one tone..

My guitars are all set up by me so that they all sound great with that tone. Pickup balance/height-adjustment & different string gauges (9's vs 10's) can work wonders here. They don't all sound the same with that amp setting since they're different guitars/pu's/tonewoods/weights/shapes/whatever , but they do all sound awesome (to me haha). I don't even tweak my amp when switching between 6 & 7 string guitars...

I may have pedals in the loop for solo's (delay/harmonizer ..foot-switchable) but otherwise it's just that one amp tone for everything.