OT: Massive Misconceptions you had about sounds before you knew what you know now.

[AidyCM]

I used to think that my Fender Frontman 15G was a valve amp because it had a little vent.

[conky]

When I was getting into guitar I saw a delay pedal and thought it delayed your signal.... as in no dry signal, just made your sound come out of your amp later with. I thought that was the most useless {censored} ever.

[RUExp?]

When I was getting into guitar I saw a delay pedal and thought it delayed your signal.... as in no dry signal, just made your sound come out of your amp later with. I thought that was the most useless {censored} ever.

 

[ChuckNorris1982]

When I was 5, I was obsessed with a live performance I saw on TV of Clapton in the 80s. I couldn't believe what i was hearing (distorted guitars), and I always wondered how to make an electric guitar sound like that. My brother's know-it-all (actually a know nothing bull{censored}ter) friend assured me he ran his guitar through a devide called a 'squeak', and I believed him.

[AluminumFalcon]

I thought my DOD Death metal distortion sounded good.

[seifukusha]

someone besides me cares about the sound of my gtr.

[scolfax]

Two biggies for me:

 

- I thought that double-tracked guitar parts were done by one guy (at the same time)

 

- I didn't understand that a wah pedal could be made to make your playing sound more complicated than it actually was

[Fender&EHX4ever]

mids are bad

Totally. Before digital music, we all wanted everything hi-fidelity with crisp highs. It wasn't until the last 10 years or so that I started paying more attention to the mids

[chris_d]

I used to think that mids were bad, and that chorus was a useful effect, that also sounded great with distortion.

 

I loved my Crate GX130C so much.

[Harry_Manback1]

My EQ has gone from massive scoop to massive hump.

 

Totally. Before digital music, we all wanted everything hi-fidelity with crisp highs. It wasn't until the last 10 years or so that I started paying more attention to the mids

[Fender&EHX4ever]

My EQ has gone from massive scoop to massive hump.

LOL

We always want what is most difficult to have.

[kirs]

I had no idea that amps could create distortion for a long time; I thought distorted sounds had to come from pedals.

I thought that too when I first started playing. The first on-the-verge-of-breakup tone I noticed when I become aware of tone was The Beatles rooftop stuff. I asked a Beatles superfan I know what pedal they used to get that sound and he was like

[Cirrus]

I used to think that mids were bad, and that chorus was a useful effect, that also sounded great with distortion. I loved my Crate GX130C so much.

Me too I think back to the first gigs I did with a out of tune squire strat, going through 4 dano mini pedals into a 100 watt carlsbro (do you get them in the states? This thing was totally {censored}!) amp with the lower and upper mid knobs turned totally off.

The first time we played a gig with a sound guy, he suggested I wouldn't cut through with the sound I had and I was totally offended that he was crapping on MY TONE.

[BlackHive]

When I was like 12, I asked my guitar teacher which pedal I should get to make my guitar's notes sound really short. He had no idea what I meant so I pointed out some songs that had that sound in it. He revealed to me that I don't need a pedal to make that sound and told me what they're actually called:

 

"Palm mutes".... face palm.

[spentron]

That if you put an EQ unit set for mid boost into a normal guitar amp, you actually get boosted mids.

 

Less specific to this thread and much, much longer ago, that the material of the pick didn't affect the tone.

[Fender&EHX4ever]

That if you put an EQ unit set for mid boost into a normal guitar amp, you actually get boosted mids.

 

That's not a misconception, at least not with my gear.

[AdmiralAckbar]

i used to think teles were awesome lol so stupid back then

 

 

IM SORRY WHAT!!!

[AdmiralAckbar]

I thought my DOD Death metal distortion sounded good.

 

 

i thought the metal-zone sounded good XD

[MrNixon]

Hendrix's feedback. It was so mysterious to me. Now, not so much... but still, that guy was one of the first rock guitarists that had complete control over his instrument.

[iamthearm]

i had fairly traditional guitar training early on and i always thought that any kind of crazy or cool sound came out of a giant rack with beeps and bloops all over it.

[MathiasWilliam]

I thought if you had treble on full, it would make you have more distortion

[Prince Squid]

I used to think my Marshall Valvestate was a good amp.

 

 

You were right then and you are wrong now.

 

I used to think the more gain the better. Later I realized that most of the stuff I liked didn't contain that much gain at all.

[Dr.Pain-MD]

When I was a wee lad, I thought that guitarists created distorted sounds by playing special chords. I remember trying to play an electric guitar in Radioshack and being disappointed that I couldn't make those cool distorted sounds.

[woude]

This is all more than 10 years ago, but;
-I thought transistors were better than tubes, because you didn't have to replace them after some time

-I also thought that distortion came from pedals, not the amp.

-I thought that the gain and volume knob did the same thing, untill someone showed me how to properly use them.

-I almost quit playing because my amp at the time could not produce chimy inbetween gain sounds like a vox. I thought it was my technique. When I played a good tube amp for the first time I couldn't believe my ears; it was the amp that was bad, not me.

-I thought all pickups sounded the same, only some were humcanceling, like humbuckers.

-I thought compressors existed solely to get palm-mutes to sound tighter.

-I thought digital modelling amps & rack fx made tube amps & stompboxes obsolete.

-I thought you could compare amps just on features like the ammount of speakers & wattage, but that they sounded basically the same beside that.

-I thought people chose electric guitars because of their looks only and that most electric guitars sounded basically the same.

[zygoat]

I thought there were little speakers inside Marshall heads that accompanied the bigger speakers under it.