Binnerscot
Well-known member
Go learn I'm The One.... the forum rests it's case.
Where/when did "modern" guitar tone begin?
- Thread starter misterwhizzy
- Start date
Solarflares
Member
Let’s have a little break to hear some real guitar.
This whole album puts VH1 firmly in its place, as the meanderings of some rock wannabe’s, who were signed before their time.
This whole album puts VH1 firmly in its place, as the meanderings of some rock wannabe’s, who were signed before their time.
Binnerscot
Well-known member
Sounds like Lynyrd Skynyrd with a chicken pickin hang over. Not even close
Solarflares
Member
Oh come on, don’t be silly.
Just more sloppy junk, with some annoying Frank Sinatra impersonator, and a couple of young boys that sneaked out of choir practice.
If you can’t play that all the way through, 5 minutes after hearing it for the first time, then honestly!
Binnerscot
Well-known member
OK, you've just stated challenge accepted. Many, many very solid, old dog players here can all attest to how difficult it is to nail that swing at tempo.... but once you put down the cork you're sniffing, you might notice that.
That was literally a test, I'm not sure your history, but I suspect some troll who was recently banned and working on it again.
Binnerscot
Well-known member
You've been called out now. I'll put a pin in this and remember. This is a cool place with good people, and it has no time for trolls so it stays that way. @jeremy might wanna check this one.
Exactly, that's the whole idea: Eddie wasn't tone, he was swing, groove, in-between playing, his sense of rhythm and harmony was unique, basically it was all technique and music before hardware and this tone obsession BS. Or at least this is what I hear.
Chill brother, we're pretty laid back here
Solarflares
Member
Quite possibly my main gripe is with the industry itself.Chill brother, we're pretty laid back here
I also dislike Ted Templeman, and WEA, for personal reasons - which doesn’t help.
Point taken.
I’ll try harder to dwell in my own positives, of which you might find are worth delving into.
Meanwhile, let’s perhaps take a second to think about 1970, and what an incredible year it was for rock guitar.
I see Jimi in almost everyone that came after that. He was well loved, inspired the world with his spirituality and zen, and is sadly missed. He quite literally tore the floodgates down - and the initial surge of inspired guitarists was staggering.
The wild progression slowed down somewhat during the 70’s, but still, what a huge 10-year catalogue of 6-string diversity.
After Jimi, the guitarist was no longer a static sideman in a matching suit. Instead, every early-to-mid 70’s pop band had some flamboyant, almost androgynous feather-boa type - which “Glam” exploited to the hilt.
It all got very indulgent, and tedious, especially now the whole band wanted to dress up! But there were still real guitar-men out there treading the boards, and carrying the torch for real accessibility to the essence of blues and rock - whilst putting on shows people remember to this day. Jimi’s legacy.
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beaubrummels
Well-known member
I guess it depends what we're considering 'modern.' Being alive in that time, I recall Jimi being very inspirational, but others like Cream/Clapton and a bit of Mountain/Leslie West being more influential on 70s rock. Other than Trowers and Marino, I don't recall too many guys trying to play anything like Jimi - it was kind of done grail that you couldn't touch in a meaningful way going forward. SRV made it work by combining 10-15 other blues players into it. Even in EVH playing, I hear more Cream/Clapton/West than Hendrix, but I really consider EVH more of a harbinger of a later change in guitar music anyway.
As far as 'modern' guitar tone, I think there were various elements coming together in the 80s and it solidified in the 90s into 'modern' guitar tone; and it's still evolving now; if more unique guitar makers can overtake the market - the Strandbergs, Kleins, Tueffels, etc. of the day. The 'amps' make the difference also, and now that it's mostly software, so I'm still waiting to see how far out we could really get. Software is still emulating existing old stuff. Would be interesting to see some soft-amps grown from the ground up and what they could sound like, across the range of clean to distorted.
As far as 'modern' guitar tone, I think there were various elements coming together in the 80s and it solidified in the 90s into 'modern' guitar tone; and it's still evolving now; if more unique guitar makers can overtake the market - the Strandbergs, Kleins, Tueffels, etc. of the day. The 'amps' make the difference also, and now that it's mostly software, so I'm still waiting to see how far out we could really get. Software is still emulating existing old stuff. Would be interesting to see some soft-amps grown from the ground up and what they could sound like, across the range of clean to distorted.
Chistopher
malapterurus electricus tonewood instigator
I think the future of amplifier technology is FPGAs
Solarflares
Member
Well, I’ll respectfully choose not to disagree, but my view is different. I’m not so blinkered as you might think.
Myself, I was inspired by all the guitars on the Easy Rider soundtrack album. I was 10 years old. This was a loving, innocent kid, coming straight out of The Lion The Witch and The Wardrobe!
Definitely The Electric Prunes. Definitely Roger McGuinn. Steppenwolf’s “Pusher”. Of course Jimi’s “If Six Was Nine”. All blasted through my sister’s headphones when I was allowed. Stereo? Wow!
That shaped my life. I then bought Backtrack 4, with The Who/Hendrix on one album.
I also read A Clockwork Orange and 2001, and saw 2001 in 180 degree Cinerama on my 11th birthday.
Those also shaped my life.
Watching The Exorcist alone in a cold cinema at 15 - that had a big effect too. But I digress.
I simply couldn’t get enough guitar, and would take the good out of any old shit you care to mention. They all had something - but by this time, what they also had was GEAR, GEAR, and more GEAR. I simply loved that aspect.
To own 3 Marshall stacks, and stand in front of them making my own row was an itch just waiting to be scratched.
I knew from the age of 4 that I was, or would be, a guitarist, or at least own one, but didn’t start playing until I was 18. Although at 9, I watched my sister struggling with Greensleeves on an acoustic, and when she put it down I picked it up and played it perfectly for her. I was no prodigy, but all the signs were there.
I don’t think there’s a guitarist out there that hasn’t given me something to ponder, and use as a guide for my own journey in music.
We shouldn’t take ourselves too seriously, but at the same time we have to protect our ‘art’.
There’s enough success to go round, if you are prepared to work hard at it.
If I got caught up in silly pedantics then shame on me. But I must stress that Jimi was a true force of nature, and blew away any barriers to the advancement of guitar music in it’s own right. I think of him as a brother I never had - one that paved the way for my own early musical experience. He never put any cat down, no matter what they did. But sometimes life gets me, and I react negatively. Wish I could be more like Jimi in that respect.
I guess if I’d been born 10 years later, then it may have been different. But I was lucky enough to tag on to the end of the 60’s, and watch the 70’s unravel in the way it did - but always with a backdrop of Jimi’s sheer musicality and daring.
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beaubrummels
Well-known member
Field Programmable Gate Arrays? Or what is FPGA?
Solarflares
Member
I think that’s exactly what he means.
Possibly Quantum computing might have a significant bearing on audio-modelling prediction and emulation?
But we are such a long way from that - especially whilst the current main use of home computing and AI is to find better ways for people to send snaps of their so interesting lives to others.
Give it 30 years, and you should by rights be able to stand playing guitar in your living-room, and be surrounded by a 3D hologram of the Woodstock stage - with any backing band you want. It will even simulate a 3mph breeze wafting the sweet smell of home-grown, as dusky chicks in the crowd rip the flimsy tops from their well developed bodies, and gyrate in sensual abandon - in a Pornhub meets Guitar Hero kind of way.
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Chistopher
malapterurus electricus tonewood instigator
Yeah, that's the one. I actually wrote a proposal on the subject with the intention of using it as a master's thesis, but life got in the way. Basically you can not emulate, but duplicate guitar pedals on a chip. Very different approach than whats being done now.
beaubrummels
Well-known member
I like that idea.
beaubrummels
Well-known member
Ok, but that is just replacing one technology with another to do the same thing. I'm really looking for a new way to make new never-before-heard sounds.
Chistopher
malapterurus electricus tonewood instigator
My proposed idea would allow you to modifying schematics in real time. What if you wanted to see what a Rat sounded like with extra gain and a Big Muff tone control?
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