Why do I have to make all my guitars sound the same? How do I get rid of this curse?

[dr.barlo]

Hi guys,

Help me out. I need some perspective.

For almost every guitar that I have, I end up changing this and that and somehow make them sound quite similar. But that's bad... I wanna have some spectrum you know.

E.g., I have this 76 Deluxe



I love the way it sounds, somewhere in between a tele and a honky weak PAF kinda tone in the bridge and a thick tone in the neck that is cleaner than a weak PAF and thicker than a strat and better than a tele. I can use the bridge on a clean amp just like a tele for country and stuff. And I seriously prefer this guitar, somehow I've bonded with it and think I prefer shorter neck scales...

Then, why am I harboring ideas about a custom shop mini hb that'd sound like a weak Brobucker... or WLH bridge... The neck can stay, it does already what I am cursed with anyways!

What's up with that! I should get rid of all those plans and just forget about them all and play the **** out of this guitar. But cannot help it.

BTW here is the bridge of that 76 deluxe of mine on some backtrack thanks to TDPRI folk (recorded today):





B

 

[ehdwuld]

Re: Why do I have to make all my guitars sound the same? How do I get rid of this cur

Have you tried using different pedals
Some pedals react to pickups unexpectedly

 

[eclecticsynergy]

Re: Why do I have to make all my guitars sound the same? How do I get rid of this cur

Mini hums always left me wanting a little more body in the bridge.

 

[dr.barlo]

Re: Why do I have to make all my guitars sound the same? How do I get rid of this cur

Have you tried using different pedals
Some pedals react to pickups unexpectedly

Nope, it's not a pedal thing. The amp(s) and pedal(s) are ok an kinda prolific covering lotsa ground.

Mini hums always left me wanting a little more body in the bridge.

I hear you man, the same goes for me I suppose. But the problem is then it'll not be able to do tele stuff that well you know. So it's not good to thicken up the tone in the bridge.

B

 

[t1r12003]

Re: Why do I have to make all my guitars sound the same? How do I get rid of this cur

What other guitars do you have?

 

[philthis]

Re: Why do I have to make all my guitars sound the same? How do I get rid of this cur

you know I used to do the same thing untill i added jazz and blues into my mix. I like guys like Kenny Burrell, Wes Montgomery, Norman Brown, and Chuck Loeb. Blues was all over the map but some great tones. I kinda just started to branch out on amps with different tubes and pickups to match tones I loved. I used to hate Telecasters but now.....Meh I found a use, same for Les Pauls and I even bought a Gretsch White Falcon too. I realize now I was in a total rut playing super strats the whole time. I like the sound of P90s and single coils especially Eric Johnson single coils.
Just a few ideas. Good luck with your search

 

[ehdwuld]

Re: Why do I have to make all my guitars sound the same? How do I get rid of this cur

I put JB/Jazz in every guitar I have
they are all different woods and scale lengths
solid body and hollow
they each have a similar sound but not a similar feel

I play each one a bit different

 

[Mincer]

Re: Why do I have to make all my guitars sound the same? How do I get rid of this cur

This happens to me, too. I just had to deal with the fact that I'm not one of 'those' guitarists that can use different styles of guitars for different sounds. They all sound like me, and that goes for friend's setups that I play through, too. So I've given up that and embraced that it is just the way I sound.

 

[beaubrummels]

Re: Why do I have to make all my guitars sound the same? How do I get rid of this cur

If they sound similar, you can play most of your repertoire with whatever guitar you have in your hands, some songs might work better than others, but you can play non-stop.

If all your guitars sound different, you’ll have to pick up a different guitar for each song, which might sound better, but can be inconvenient.

 

[jeremy]

Re: Why do I have to make all my guitars sound the same? How do I get rid of this cur

i definitely have some that are similar but my tele and my les paul dont sound the same. i play the same ****ty tired licks on em though so they do sound similar

 

[dr.barlo]

Re: Why do I have to make all my guitars sound the same? How do I get rid of this cur

:yourock:

Maybe I should give up and get me a p90 sized HB that'd make this guitar sound like one with an a5 PAF with some muscle. I think I should not do it, but I keep going back to the idea.

I sound like me for sure... but then again me with a tele and me with a LP are not the same you know... So, this is rather sounding like me part is sorta granted. That said, I cannot use a thick LP for clean tele/strat stuff. I have other guitars, maybe more than I need. A tele, a strat, another LP with buckers, an ES335 kinda guitar (H555), a PRS McCarty... So it's not like I gotta get this 76 deluxe to do all them styles you know... Also, it is not a pedal thing; I was a pedal junkie for a while and I don't lack amps and pedals.

It is just that somehow I've bonded with this guitar. I wasn't expecting it (thought at first that the neck is too thin, it's too heavy bla bla...) but somehow now it feels like my right arm you know. And hence, I keep going back to thinking of ways to convert it to this LP standard with an A5 PAF with some muscle you know... That said, I have to confess that I kinda like the recorded tone of this guitar.

B :beerchug:

 

[dr.barlo]

Re: Why do I have to make all my guitars sound the same? How do I get rid of this cur

I put JB/Jazz in every guitar I have
they are all different woods and scale lengths
solid body and hollow
they each have a similar sound but not a similar feel

I play each one a bit different

At one point in time I had more than a dozen PG's... Almost all the HB guitars that I had, had PGs.



So I know the feeling.

B

 

[ehdwuld]

Re: Why do I have to make all my guitars sound the same? How do I get rid of this cur

for me
when I pick up the semi hollow ones
I don't do the high gain riff rock that I do on say the solid body LP
or the shred stretches I do on the Flat Ibanez neck

some necks are thin and I can get my hand around and do some bluesy thumb over licks
some necks are just too thick to do that with

the Dean Semi hollow with the Piezo wants jazzy stuff ya know

it all sounds like me
but I add different drum loops and try to get different progressions
of chord inversions on the same I-IV-V

 

[NegativeEase]

Re: Why do I have to make all my guitars sound the same? How do I get rid of this cur

Man, I would start upstream at the most influential source of you tone -your playing style and technique The way you hold and strike the string with you pick and strings, the way you finger and bend the strings, the voicings you gravitate towards, your scales etc etc.

Not to say you shouldn't address tonal similarities in your gear.... but the great players still sound like great players on a Squire through a Peavey Bandit.

So work on diversifying your playing approach and habits for different music styles and and tonal approaches for the goals you are seeking in different gear.

We all get into playing ruts that manifest themselves into some slight tonal boredom upon listening to ourselves.

 

[Boogie Bill]

Re: Why do I have to make all my guitars sound the same? How do I get rid of this cur

My perspective....

I play a variety of Les Paul models and 335s; G&L Legacys, S-500s, Comanches and Legacy Specials;12-string guitars; Ibanez Ghostriders and an Artstar. Got some duplicates, and obviously some are vastly different in construction and/or pickups. Most of my guitars use stock pickups. I play a very wide range of material; I play clean a lot, and no metal.

The Boogie amps I use are excellent at revealing the character of each guitars' tone. I savor those differences, and resist the temptation to walk back to my amp and re-adjust it for each guitar.

For me then, the trick is picking the right guitar for the song. I enjoy each guitar for what it is. I'm never going to mod a Les Paul to get Strat tones, or vice-versa. I would enjoy that Deluxe, and not try to turn it into a shred-stick.

I suppose though, if one has a more limited repertoire, one might not need that kind of versatility. But it is a process, a journey to define what we each need from an instrument. There are a lot of guitars that don't work for me, or have quirks that I'm simply not willing to put up with. I was lucky to define what worked for me forty years ago, and that hasn't changed very much at all over the years.

Good luck on your journey.

Bill

 

[dr.barlo]

Re: Why do I have to make all my guitars sound the same? How do I get rid of this cur

... revealing the character of each guitars' tone. I savor those differences, and resist the temptation to walk back to my amp and re-adjust it for each guitar.

For me then, the trick is picking the right guitar for the song. I enjoy each guitar for what it is. I'm never going to mod a Les Paul to get Strat tones, or vice-versa. I would enjoy that Deluxe, and not try to turn it into a shred-stick.

...

Good luck on your journey.

Bill

Good advice. Thanks!

B :beerchug:

 

[AlexR]

Re: Why do I have to make all my guitars sound the same? How do I get rid of this cur

Yeah.....find the inherent tone of the instrument and play some styles that push it further that way. Minis really have a great tone that makes them great for 'non-typical Les Paul' styles of music.

 

[Wattage]

Re: Why do I have to make all my guitars sound the same? How do I get rid of this cur

I don't know that I make them all sound the same but definitely there is something similar I go for. I don't know exactly what that thing is exactly but if a guitar doesn't have it, it doesn't get played enough and just sort of becomes a "seasoning" guitar for recording. Best thing for sounding too much the same for me is learning something new on it, find that guitars voice in the new stuff.

 

[Dave Locher]

Re: Why do I have to make all my guitars sound the same? How do I get rid of this cur

I want my guitars to sound exactly the same. Exactly! They don't, which kind of drives me bonkers. But they are awfully close, close enough that most non-players probably wouldn't notice the difference if I switched.

But yeah, I listened to some old demo tapes I found in a box and I sounded roughly the same with three different guitars and two or three different amps. I know what sound I like and I manage to find it and reject equipment that can't do it for me.

 

[dr.barlo]

Re: Why do I have to make all my guitars sound the same? How do I get rid of this cur

Does the following sound nasal to you? Especially around 2:00-2:30? 2:19 - 2:26?



The guitar sounds good I know that. And maybe it could sound better.



Here I go again!

:banghead:

Ok ok I don't wanna turn it into a fat LP and all. It has a lot of muscle in the neck with a ~6.40K mini anyways.

An easy fix could be either Duncan mini HB's (Seymourized?) or DiMarzio Super D soap bar. I dunno? Super D could be over the top maybe? In general, I don't like ceramics, but this not being a normal HB and all... maybe it is the way to go.

Ideas?

B

EDIT: The amp is my JTM50 clone, with 2 EL34's (JJEL34II) and a Heyboer Bassman OT but low plate V. I've ended up liking EL34's way more than KT66's and 6L6GC's in this amp. The speaker is a WGS ET-65 (Celestion G12-65 inspired ) and no rec eq. apart from some touchup.