Members Willyguitar Posted July 11, 2010 Members Share Posted July 11, 2010 Went to a blinding gig performed by a local blues band on Friday night, and it was also blindingly obvious to me that all this talk about perfecting tone, the subtle differences between different pickups, strings, woods, etc. etc, is just such a load of baloney, and SO insignificant. With this particular band, the overall sound would have made it VERY difficult to tell whether his guitar or other kit was worth Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members D Carroll Posted July 11, 2010 Members Share Posted July 11, 2010 Thats how you get a blues tone. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members o.versteer Posted July 11, 2010 Members Share Posted July 11, 2010 So, are we just being just a wee bit silly here? Of course we are, but there's no harm in that is there? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members nickeroo Posted July 11, 2010 Members Share Posted July 11, 2010 Sure, you can plus in a Squire Affinity and get a blues jam going, and get it sounding good if the player is ok, and the amp is ok. However, I personally find that if I like what I am hearing, tonewise, then I play better. Liking tone = having good pickups as a minimal necessity. You are very correct in saying that an audience cannot hear differences: But if I am gigging on a strat with 11s or 10s, fitted with some solid Seymour Duncans, into a 2X12 amp with a bunch of mid level pedals, I play the best I can, because I like what I am hearing. My amp is cheap but I like the sound. My pedals are DIY but I like the sound. If I was playing into a Gorilla 1X8 on a 25-30 year old Far Eastern guitar with cheap-ass Harley Benton 9s, I would have to fight to even feel comfortable, and I LIKE fight in a guitar. Having to wrestle overmuch with a guitar means I cannot bust loose as I like. So for me nice tone is good, and an audience can't tell, but if I am being bugged by a bad tone or bad guitar or bad amp all night, it weighs on me. And I LOVE "cheapies" BTW. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Les Paul Lover Posted July 11, 2010 Members Share Posted July 11, 2010 You can make some very good music with half decent equipment. It'll sound better with better equipment though... There's a local lincoln band I really like (dead baby parade) - the singer (fantastic rock voice), plays a burny strat in a line 6 spider amp. They sound great. His guitar parts could still sound nicer though. Here's something to ponder: He came around the other day, tried my Vigier Expert through my Rockerverb and was in awe. Thing is, I may have the much nicer gear, I'm the one playing alone in my lounge. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members jelloman Posted July 11, 2010 Members Share Posted July 11, 2010 So, are we just being just a wee bit silly here?OF COURSE we are...none of us can actually play, so we compensate for our lack of talent and/or motivation by constantly buying/selling/trading equipment on a never-ending quest for the "right" sound......or we at least SAY we do... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members metalheadUK Posted July 11, 2010 Members Share Posted July 11, 2010 I really dont give a {censored} about gear in the sense that it either works for me, or it doesn't.Thats the bottom line.For guitars, I need 'em to take a beating, and I'm anal about them holding tuning. If I have to retune once during a set, it's not good enough.They also need to stay in one piece in hectic gig conditions...sockets working loose and bits falling off is unacceptable.Luckily there are dirt cheap guitars that can take gig after gig without compromise just as there are more expensive guitars that can, but there seems to be no correlation between price and gigworthiness...And if you dont gig, then provided it plays OK and sounds OK, does any of it matter? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members mistersully Posted July 11, 2010 Members Share Posted July 11, 2010 stop making sense... you'll leave the snobs with nothing to feel superior about Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members scuzzo Posted July 11, 2010 Members Share Posted July 11, 2010 you can go into any music store and hear some guy who just has not connection to rhythmic or melody. pull down some high high end ride and just plunk and torture then thing.. and you can hear some little kind pick up some cheap guitar and weave really cool melody or a nice groove... you can say what you will but at a point its just up to you.. a good guitar or great guitar will only get you so far and then... mho,,, its rarely the ship that is the problem.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members soundcreation Posted July 11, 2010 Members Share Posted July 11, 2010 I don't see why the two things you are talking about have to be mutually exclusive. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members billybilly Posted July 11, 2010 Members Share Posted July 11, 2010 Great players make anything sound good, no doubt. Live, it comes down to reliability of equipment rather than tone if your {censored}hot. I find the mix more important over the gear. Having the drums drown out the other instruments and vocals drives me insane. Having said all this, I play mostly at home for me and love the quest for great tone. All my mates comment on how good my gear sounds and I have earned it through experimentation and money. I am a tone snob but only for me. PS Gary Moore has great tone. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members scott944 Posted July 11, 2010 Members Share Posted July 11, 2010 "Blinding gig" must be one of those English phrases that means....well, I don't know what it means. But it brings up an interesting point, which I've posted here before. What about a blind tone "tasting", if you will. Tough with guitars, but easy with amps - set up several allegedly comparable amps on stage behind a curtain with a "jury" seated in the audience out front. Same player, same guitar...and have someone switch amongst the amps. See who favours what without any visual clues to distort perceptions. Think your (modeler, boutique piece, whatever) sounds like a (plexi Marshall, Twin, whatever), let's see! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members DaveAronow Posted July 11, 2010 Members Share Posted July 11, 2010 A real artist will create art with whatever tone he is given. He will play the tone, listening to it, analyzing it, and adjust nuances of his own playing style to milk the best qualities out of that tone, and then, like an old master painter, he will create something with it that will convince you that no other tone would sound right for that situation at that moment. That is the difference between an artist and a player. The artist plays the tone, he masters it and is in complete control of the situation.. The player gets played by the tone, it owns him, and it severely limits his ability to be free. He is controlled by it, and bound up like a crazy person in a straight jacket. He is tones' little bitch. Oh, and the thing about the artist...... he doesnt even think about it. He just picks up and plays. It just automatically happens that way for him. So, yes, I completely agree, that NEEDING any certain kind of tone whatsoever is complete bull{censored}. an artist will make art with whatever he is given. A broom handle, a piece of string and an old washtub, for example. And you can always instantly hear the difference between a player and an artists. One sounds like he is doing a decent job at it, and the other one sounds like he was born to do it. But, as mentioned before, it is OK if an artists does have certain favorite tones as well though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Elias Graves Posted July 11, 2010 Members Share Posted July 11, 2010 Stop being right all the time, Dave. HC will be out of business. EG Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members soundcreation Posted July 11, 2010 Members Share Posted July 11, 2010 Well...here is bad tone {censored}ing kicking Joe Satriani's ass all over that room, in spite of his awesome playing. [YOUTUBE]D9v5e1TTwts[/YOUTUBE] So say what you will about "gear not mattering" and I will say bull{censored} every time. There are some minimum requirements, and a {censored} 10w solid state practice amp isn't going to get it done. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members ashasha Posted July 11, 2010 Members Share Posted July 11, 2010 I'm always kind of on the quest for tone, but that's because of my character and who I am as a person. I'm an engineer first and a guitar player second which sucks to be honest. I understand that though and accept it. I also find that specific tone, feel, etc, all inspire me in different ways. Versatility is what I look for in my collection of crap; not specifically versatility in one guitar mind you; if it does one thing well that's plenty; I just don't like having two things that do the same exact thing. I don't gig so I don't need redundancy. But what makes me smile is the fact that all of the things that were technological limits and probably what the designers would consider flaws or weaknesses in a lot of the gear that is the defacto standard are so important to getting 'good' tone. Imagine if we never had distortion or frequency response limitations. A lot of the great tones we have today would have never been heard. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members CoqBelliqueux Posted July 11, 2010 Members Share Posted July 11, 2010 So say what you will about "gear not mattering" and I will say bull{censored} every time. There are some minimum requirements, and a {censored} 10w solid state practice amp isn't going to get it done. There should be a warning before the 13 sec mark. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Angry Tele Posted July 11, 2010 Members Share Posted July 11, 2010 maybe I dont wanna play blues? I dunno I think Satch sounded pretty good in that video. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members soundcreation Posted July 11, 2010 Members Share Posted July 11, 2010 maybe I dont wanna play blues?I dunno I think Satch sounded pretty good in that video. There is no way this question will come across as anything but insulting...but believe it or not I'm being serious..and not trying to insult you... Can you hear the difference between his ability and the sound coming out of the amp? ie the tone? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Elias Graves Posted July 11, 2010 Members Share Posted July 11, 2010 I thought he sounded like himself. Not the best recording ever, but???????????EG Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members soundcreation Posted July 11, 2010 Members Share Posted July 11, 2010 I thought he sounded like himself. Not the best recording ever, but??????????? EG OK...I'm not sure how you guys can't hear the difference..Yes he's playing the same notes in the right places with the same "feel" for lack of a better word...But the sound is absolutely {censored}...and sounds nothing like his "tone". And it's NOT because of youtube compression.Hell joe even says "it was painful on this guitar" at the end and I'm sure he didn't mean physically. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members etawful Posted July 11, 2010 Members Share Posted July 11, 2010 I thought he sounded like himself. Not the best recording ever, but??????????? EG Agreed, it's impossible to tell from that recording because the recording is so piss poor. I'd wager that it sounded pretty decent in person before you add in the crappy recording. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members etawful Posted July 11, 2010 Members Share Posted July 11, 2010 OK...I'm not sure how you guys can't hear the difference..Yes he's playing the same notes in the right places with the same "feel" for lack of a better word...But the sound is absolutely {censored}...and sounds nothing like his "tone". And it's NOT because of youtube compression.Hell joe even says "it was painful on this guitar" at the end and I'm sure he didn't mean physically. I can find you any number of videos of people playing through top notch equipment that sound like {censored} merely because of the bad recording quality. Now I'm not saying that someone playing a $75 15 watt solid state practice amp that they got as a package with their Starcaster is going to have great tone. But I'll guarantee you that a good player playing an Agile or a Squier CV series through a decent lower priced amp (say a Blackstar HT-5 or something along those lines) will sound far better than a mediocre player playing an R9 through a Dumble. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Elias Graves Posted July 11, 2010 Members Share Posted July 11, 2010 I think the bigger point is that a good artist is gonna sound good on anything. My nephew, who is an amazing guitarist, was farting around with some kiddie toy 1/2 size nylon jobber at a friend's house a while back. It sounded fantastic. Yes, the "tone" was pretty bad but the sounds were terrific. EG Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members metalheadUK Posted July 11, 2010 Members Share Posted July 11, 2010 So say what you will about "gear not mattering" and I will say bull{censored} every time. There are some minimum requirements, and a {censored} 10w solid state practice amp isn't going to get it done. Soz mate, but I can get it done with a 10 watt solid state practice amp, and often do.Marshall MG10...great sounding little box. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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