Members Darkstorm Posted July 22, 2007 Members Share Posted July 22, 2007 Granted many of yesterdays players used such and such a brand of amp and speakers for the sound coloring those gave to their guitar. However, a strat, a gibson sg, a jackson dinky, and bc rich warlock with stock pups will all sound diff thru the exact same amp and speakers. Myself like a lot of modern players isnt interested in coloring caused by amp and speakers since the signal sent to them is the ready for direct recording tone desired. Thus those like me prefer amps and speakers of the hifi grade rather then highly coloring the sound type and will most often go straight to the clubs PA for our main sound. Pups form the base tone of the guitar which then gets colored by the woods used and to some extent by the strings used. This tone then goes to processor for the desired distortion or overderdrive and any other effects wether echo, reverb, ring mod, or whatever. When a stage monitor is used its just for personal sound monitor and hifi uncolored sound by that is preferred. So as to give more the sound one would hear on cd recording by the band. For the rest of the world of players, the amp and speakers are the final coloration ingrediant to the sound the guitar and whatever proccesor or effects feed the thing. This can be an important choice. As the player isnt providing ready for recording sound to the amp and speakers and thus relies on them for the final coloring and in most cases, main overderdrive or distortion char to make the out of the speakers sound the ready for recording one. To me order of importance for final sound from start and main ones are: pups, proccessor, woods used in the guitar, strings, and that tonal flavoring ones method of picking or fingering gives to include fretting hand actions. So amp and cab can take the place of processor providing last main sound which includes ovderdrive or distortion. So simply put its imo pups then processor or amp and cab as 2nd main agent for sound voice. With this sound colored by the woods and pick plus fretting hand actions. Yes diff gauge picks can make a diff in sound due to an individuals picking style etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members garthman Posted July 22, 2007 Members Share Posted July 22, 2007 Please. please, please, don't anyone mention wood! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Gravity Posted July 22, 2007 Author Members Share Posted July 22, 2007 Fingers. Don't rain on the G.A.S. parade. If someone wants to throw money at new pickups or an amp ... LET THEM!!! We're all (well, mostly) just big kids here who love to get excited by and purchase new toys! DADGADammit, if you could do a search for my name, you'd see that the ratio of my posts in this forum to my posts in the amp forum is somewhere around 20 to 1 and most likely >20 to 1. I actually considered posting this same poll over there, but decided against it since it seems the vast majority over there prefers to play whatever amp has the most ridiculous amount of gain. Which, for me, has not so much to do with good tone. So now who's the asshole? Mostly though, I wanted to see how others felt and I wanted people who are looking to change how their rig sounds to see where the pickup sits in respect to the other factors. PS Doctor Morbius Kennedy wasn't just shot by a lone gunman. HE WAS SHOT BY THE LONE RANGER! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Gravity Posted July 22, 2007 Author Members Share Posted July 22, 2007 Please. please, please, don't anyone mention wood! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members One-armed Alec Posted July 22, 2007 Members Share Posted July 22, 2007 So let's propose two hypothetical scenarios: 1) You're summoned to a jam or recording but your car breaks down and you have to use public transport. You can schlep your guitar (and a pedal or two) but you have to leave your amp. You phone ahead, and you're told that (if it's a live gig) someone will loan you an amp and (if it's a session) that the studio has Amplitube, GuitarRig or some such available for you to use. 2) You're booked for a gig/session, but for family/soclal/dayjob reasons you have to originate from somewhere other than wherever your gear is. You arrange with a friend that he'll pick up your stuff and move it to the job, and you'll meet him on the set. Unfortunately, when you get there, you discover that he misunderstood, thought you already had your guitar with you, and he's only brought your amp. Luckily, the studio has a guitar there or, if it's a gig, the guitar player in the other band is willing to loan you his spare. In which of these situations would you rather NOT find yourself? Well, I can tell you which of those situations my 'friend' would rather NOT find himself - the useless bastard! Seriously though, that's a toughie... Bumming an amp could mean playing through something with a tone that I'm utterly unused to, or is inappropriate for the style of music I'm supposed to be playing. Having said that, if digital modelling's an option, then I'm going to be able to find a usable tone one way or the other. On the other hand, if I had to use A.N. Other's guitar, it could prove altogether alien in terms of ergonomics, tone, setup - for me such an abomination would be a heavy-arsed, double-hummed Les Paul strung with .008s that are slammed to the frets . No, if it came to the crunch, I'd least like to be in the position of borrowing a guitar. I'm a strong believer that tone is in the amp more than the guitar, but when it comes to borrowing an unfamiliar piece of kit, the stakes are far higher with a guitar - it's the piece of equipment with which you have the most intimate relationship, the thing you touch, hold, find solace with... it's all very personal . Also, in this day of digital modelling, etc, there's far more scope for finding 'your' sound even when your usual amp is locked up in the back of your rusty old clapped-out Cortina (or Winnebago) . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Doctor Morbius Posted July 22, 2007 Members Share Posted July 22, 2007 I'm starting to see a trend here. Just another couple of week's worth of data and we may have something. Pickups: 2, 3.13% Amplifier (includes speakers/cab): 57, 89.06% Both have and equal effect: 5, 7.81% Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Doctor Morbius Posted July 22, 2007 Members Share Posted July 22, 2007 Please. please, please, don't anyone mention wood!Morning wood? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Gravity Posted July 22, 2007 Author Members Share Posted July 22, 2007 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members sartana Posted July 22, 2007 Members Share Posted July 22, 2007 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members AndersonTech Posted July 22, 2007 Members Share Posted July 22, 2007 Fingers. When I stick my fingers in my ears I can't hear anything! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members vexed73 Posted July 22, 2007 Members Share Posted July 22, 2007 Between these two options, what do you think has a greater effect on tone?From my experience, the amplifier has the most dramatic affect. The amplifier is the cake.But once you get the right amplifier, finding the right pickup to compliment said guitar through said amplifier is the icing on the cake.How about you? YEP! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members TheCross Posted July 23, 2007 Members Share Posted July 23, 2007 amp amp amp that's all i got to say. i can play the crapiest guitars over my lovely framus and they always sound lovely Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members curseoftruth Posted July 23, 2007 Members Share Posted July 23, 2007 Amp, hands down. A crappy guitar will sound better through a great amp, but a great guitar will still sound crappy through a bad amp. Just to some tests at GC to confirm this theory. Most people tend to tread in the middle ground and don't have a super bad amp or guitar, most of the stuff out there these days is passable, which is fantastic. This isn't a gear snob comment but comes from personal experience -- when you move up the food chain to super high quality, well built and often expensive stuff, you really can tell the difference with amps. I had a really good amp and a really good set of guitars to start with and was really happy with my tone. I got a great amp and let me tell you, the guitars sound even better! Of the four amps I have, the first is a Crate solid state, things sound OK. Next is a Marshall Valvestate, things improve greatly and it is passable for sure. Then the Marshall DSL, excellent and pro tone for sure. Then the Orange came and I didn't think my tone could get better, wrong. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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