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Is bad good tone better than really good tone?


Cliff Fiscal

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That's kind of what I'm getting at....sometimes the "good" tone isn't the one that fits the best......or maybe we'll never know because we don't try?

 

I always think about the Beano album.....that is some monster tone that raised the bar for a lot of blues dudes....but that tone isn't the first place people go....it's thick, tubby, raw, dark, rauchy, over-the-top, and LOUD.

If the Beano album was made today, the life would have been processed out of that tone. We love it for what it is, and because Clapton made that tone work with his amazing talent.

 

I think as artists we can be too particular, precise and reserved to really unleash that nasty good stuff.

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What is good tone?



  • Axl Rose






Insights and incites by Notes ?

 

 

W..What? I don't think he even has a 'tone'.

 

A perfect example of Good Bad Metal tone is any band that uses the mighty Boss HM2 Heavy Metal pedal well (first 2 Entombed albums, Dismember, Hail of Bullets). It may sound like a farting giant, but I prefer it to most modern metal amps.

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Dunno, but I'll take a Deluxe Reverb over a Gorilla into a 2x12 every time. :idk:

 

:lol:

 

Having said that, I've been a 'ballpark tone' guy for a while. I've had a couple tube amps that sound pretty spectacular at a certain volume level, but often that level is too high for most needs.

 

My two main amps are a Dr Z Carmen Ghia (I got a great deal on it, but the 2x10 costs $1,350 new) and an 80s Yamaha G100-112 solid state jazz amp that I paid $90 for. I almost always play with a Wampler Ecstasy Drive pedal turned on with the gain down low. For the cleans and low gain tones I mostly play, I'd say the Z is maybe 10% better. They are in the same ballpark, the Wampler makes them both 'pop' a bit more... I roll off a fair bit of the top end and I'm perfectly happy with either one, but when I've been playing the Yamaha for a while and I plug into the Z, it definitely sounds better, but not enough to make a difference.

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W..What? I don't think he even has a 'tone'.


A perfect example of Good Bad Metal tone is any band that uses the mighty Boss HM2 Heavy Metal pedal well (first 2 Entombed albums, Dismember, Hail of Bullets). It may sound like a farting giant, but I prefer it to most modern metal amps.

Hah, I have two of those pedals. Go to any youtube demo that actually demos that pedal at the settings those bands used. Absolute utter crickety sounding piece of {censored}.

 

Now listen to them in the mix.

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Well I thin there's some boat missing going on about good tone/bad tone/tone chasing.

 

Perhaps the word "appropriate" would be a good sub for "good" in this instance. I mean a Jim Root Tele thru an Orange Rocker 100 with the gain dimed is a fantastic tone for brewtz, but would be wildly awful if covering Stairway or something...

 

Also, people spend hundreds upon hundreds of dollars because there's a tone in their head or a feeling they're missing in their hands... same reason we all don't drive 2011 black Ford Model T's while wearing gray sweats and converse.

 

Also, during band practice, between songs is when you should tweak your eq. It always sounds different in the mix. Usually it's the mids. Quite a fickle knob, that one.

 

Oh and as far as tonal fidelity goes.... again, it's to taste based on the song/style.

 

 

Heh, miniature psyc/soc rant.

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exactly......so what's the point of all of the gear chasing and holy grail tone chasing?

 

 

It sells guitars!!!

 

So guitar companies and the magazines they advertise in are always trying you to "search for the perfect tone". Of course that doesn't exist. So that means you need a new guitar, new amp, new FX pedal, and so on ($$$). And a$ $oon a$ you buy your new guitar or whatever el$e you are ga$$ing for, you will need to buy $omething el$e becau$e that perfect tone $imply doe$ not exi$t.

 

I think we would all be better if we spent more time chasing technique than tone. But you can buy tone, you have to work for technique.

 

Just think of all the vocalists who were not blessed with great voices but were very popular and drew huge audiences: Bob Dylan, Doctor John, Stevie Nicks, John Lennon, Leon Redbone, Louis Prima, Louis Armstrong, Blossom Dearie, and I could run a list as long as the guitar players list if I tried hard enough. But they had something that connected with their audiences, and it was the ability to make an emotional bond with their audiences.

 

Technique isn't everything either, but it does give us the ability to play what is in our soul --- and if what is in your soul is appreciated by the audience you will reach them --- even if your tone is by your own standards lousy.

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I remember back in the day when I ripped a hole in my speaker... yepp.. Good Times. Now that tone is available in any modeller!!
:o

 

Can you share the settings for impaled with a screwdriver vs surgical incision?

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