Your favorite Clapton tone?

Your favorite Clapton tone?

  • Yardbirds

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Bluesbreakers

    Votes: 14 20.0%

  • Cream

    Votes: 27 38.6%

  • Blind Faith

    Votes: 3 4.3%

  • Derek

    Votes: 11 15.7%

  • 70's

    Votes: 2 2.9%

  • 80's

    Votes: 4 5.7%

  • 90's-present

    Votes: 5 7.1%

  • other

    Votes: 4 5.7%
  • Total voters
    70
Re: Your favorite Clapton tone?

Damn, looks like I'm the only one who voted "70's".

I love that country, hicked out "Lay Down Sally", "Motherless Children" sound.

And the box set "Clapton Live in the 70's" is some of the best live guitar ever recorded in my opinion. Awesome tone, soul, and playing.
 
Re: Your favorite Clapton tone?

Clapton INVENTED modern rock tone. Period.

He was the first guy to plug a Les Paul into a Marshall and overdrive it and in so doing INVENTED the humbucker through a Marshall tone that 90% of the players here seem to crave.

He's as responsible for creating the licks, phrasing and vocabulary of modern rock guitar tone as Louis Armstrong is for creating the licks, phrasing and vocabulary of Jazz.

I prefer Clapton's tone on Fresh Cream, Disrali Gears and Wheels of Fire to any other player's humbucker through a Marshall tone.

Lew
 
Re: Your favorite Clapton tone?

Lewguitar said:
Clapton INVENTED modern rock tone. Period.

He was the first guy to plug a Les Paul into a Marshall and overdrive it and in so doing INVENTED the humbucker through a Marshall tone that 90% of the players here seem to crave.

He's as responsible for creating the licks, phrasing and vocabulary of modern rock guitar tone as Louis Armstrong is for creating the licks, phrasing and vocabulary of Jazz.

I prefer Clapton's tone on Fresh Cream, Disrali Gears and Wheels of Fire to any other player's humbucker through a Marshall tone.

Lew
Click to expand...


+1 :smoker:
 
Re: Your favorite Clapton tone?

Personally my crave for Marshall sounds comes from Jimi, sometime ago I gave in with the strats and went back to a non humbucked one, Gilmoure/Beck and Jimi is my thing way over anything Clapton ever made.
 
Re: Your favorite Clapton tone?

love the gibson tone he got with mayall, but the strat tones on layla are some of my favorites
 
Re: Your favorite Clapton tone?

Jeffrec said:
+1 :smoker:
Click to expand...

+1000000000000000000000000!

Was listening to the live version of Spoonful on Wheels Of Fire coming into work this monring...God-like tone! :32:
 
Re: Your favorite Clapton tone?

Z0S0 said:
+1000000000000000000000000!

Was listening to the live version of Spoonful on Wheels Of Fire coming into work this monring...God-like tone! :32:
Click to expand...


The band was so cohesive during that song. It is one of my favorites. There's a cool part somewhere about 7+ minutes into the song where they all build to this climax and then drop into a "hit the ground running" kind of pace, as Ginger crashes his cymbals. Very, very cool.

Jeff
 
Re: Your favorite Clapton tone?

Lewguitar said:
Clapton INVENTED modern rock tone. Period.

He was the first guy to plug a Les Paul into a Marshall and overdrive it and in so doing INVENTED the humbucker through a Marshall tone that 90% of the players here seem to crave.

He's as responsible for creating the licks, phrasing and vocabulary of modern rock guitar tone as Louis Armstrong is for creating the licks, phrasing and vocabulary of Jazz.

I prefer Clapton's tone on Fresh Cream, Disrali Gears and Wheels of Fire to any other player's humbucker through a Marshall tone.

Lew
Click to expand...

I was wondering when you'd chime in :laugh2:

I completely agree with you about his tone influencing modern rock tone. But those licks and/or phrasing -- see Freddie King, Albert King, BB, Buddy Guy, Robert Johnson et al. I would agree that he put those into a modern rock context though.

I'm just as guilty of trashing some of Clapton's work as many here, but in his later years. I agree with Jeremy though -- as far as I'm concerned the Bluesbreakers and Layla are some of the best rock tones *ever*. I like much of Clapton's tone in Cream, but sometimes the woman tone sounds like a broken kazoo to me. It depends on the song and/or my mood at the moment.
 
Last edited:
Re: Your favorite Clapton tone?

Jeffrec said:
The band was so cohesive during that song. It is one of my favorites. There's a cool part somewhere about 7+ minutes into the song where they all build to this climax and then drop into a "hit the ground running" kind of pace, as Ginger crashes his cymbals. Very, very cool.

Jeff
Click to expand...

Very true!

Jack's bass riffs are phenomenal, as ususal.

Man, I would have sold my right nut to be able to go see them live in 67 or 68. Seeing those 3 guys at the top of their games just jamming, must have been heaven!
 
Re: Your favorite Clapton tone?

Clapton with the blues breakers . . . to me, his guitar just sounds the way a guitar should
 
Re: Your favorite Clapton tone?

For me, it's a tough choice between the BB, Cream, and Layla eras, but I guess my all-time favorite would be his tone on "Have You Ever Loved a Woman" from the Layla recordings.

Until I was a sophomore in college, I was much more into Hendrix, Beck, and Santana, and like some of the comments in this thread, I didn't really grasp what all the Clapton fuss was about. Now this was in the mid-70's when Clapton was just starting to climb out of the depths of his personal hell. Then I went to a concert in the summer of '76 that featured Clapton and Santana. I was going primarily to see Santana as the opening act, and he did not disappoint me. But then Clapton came on and just blew me away. I've been a believer ever since, through thick and thin. The guy truly is special, and his legacy is remarkable for its quality, variety, and longevity.
 
Re: Your favorite Clapton tone?

Z0S0 said:
Very true!

Jack's bass riffs are phenomenal, as ususal.

Man, I would have sold my right nut to be able to go see them live in 67 or 68. Seeing those 3 guys at the top of their games just jamming, must have been heaven!
Click to expand...


Somewhere, there has got to be film from some of those shows. I know I've seen a brief clip from the Winterland/Fillmore concerts, but it may have been some stuff that Ginger had had filmed. He was into that at that time. It's also possible that if film existed, it was stolen. Tapes from wherever they've stored stuff have gone missing over the years unfortunately according to one of Marc Roberty's books.
 
Re: Your favorite Clapton tone?

sexual revolution on the Pros and cons of hitchhiking is my favourite example of kick ass clapton tone. but as far as im concerned its all great.
 
Re: Your favorite Clapton tone?

Cream by far, next is bluesbreakers, I love his Cream tone so much, thats kinda the base of the tone im going after now..
 
Re: Your favorite Clapton tone?

I actually voted 80's. I love the guitar tones on August and Journeyman. Those two albums influenced my playing more than I can measure.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Butch Snyder
Your Favorite Chorus Pedal
2 3
Replies
54
Views
2K
AdrianSD
A
S
Your Favorite Tubes
2 3
Replies
59
Views
2K
JMP/HBE
JMP/HBE
Aceman
What is your favorite vintage Strat set?
2
Replies
23
Views
947
Explorer84
E
misterwhizzy
What’s your single favorite pickup?
2 3 4
Replies
60
Views
3K
playas
playas
Chris Pile
What's wrong with the Clapton mid-boost circuit?
Replies
3
Views
1K
jeremy
jeremy
Back
Top