Wasting time chasing tone?

[Saturn]

For the last 2 months I've been testing amps and effects. Finding the gear that will work best for me and I have put together a really cool versitle rig. I realized today that I have been spending all my time dialing in my sound. Getting my tones down. Setting up patches on my processor and not finding new chord progressions or coming up with new riffs. I sat down this moring to learn some new riffs and play with some old forgotton scales and ended up experimenting with effects and amp models.

 

There are some really great amps and effects out now and you could spend all your time on the boards reading how one person thinks one thing sounds like crap and another person thinking it sounds great. You can spend all your time buying and selling gear looking for the perfect tone.

 

Aren't we just wasting time? I found great tones out of my gear over a month ago but still look for something better. I really could have bought one of hundreds of amps and gotten a great sound.

 

To quote Frank Zappa "Shut up n play yur guitar".

 

/end rant thank you for listening.:blah:

[Fuelish]

Aren't we just wasting time?

why, yes.... yes, we are

[Engl Kramer]

There's no right and wrong- whatever makes you happy.

Many of my favourite guitar players are nothing in the way of technique, but they know how important tone is for the good of a song/band.

A good riff or scale is worthless without good tone.

[DavidMgT]

Luckily I am pretty simple with respect to my preferred tone.

 

My favorite tone tends to be

ASAT Bluesboy (or Gibson LP Standard) + Clark 'lil Bit Amp (or Gibson GA30)

 

I'll occasionally add a Fulltone OCD or fatboost.

 

The one tiny problem is that there are always more great guitars and amps:)

[SeanJovi]

Yes, I'd say we're wasting time. But I don't think I could appreciate Gilmour as much if it weren't for his heavenly tone. Sounds horrible, but it's true.

[cratz2]

Well, I think there's a fine line. Some folks are fine just to plug into ANY amp while others search for the ultimate pickup/pedal/amp/speaker to the point of excluding play time.

 

Somewhere in between there is a balance but if you can't play very well, you aren't going to sound very good. On the other hand, I'm quite certain that if you are into surf music and you have a MIM Standard into a Blues Jr, replacing the pickups and maybe getting a more surfy sounding amp with a bigger reverb tank will be a pretty radical improvement.

 

But I hear what you're saying... ESP in regards to multi FX units. I used to dig editing those things for hours on end, getting two or three similar patches, then comparing them. Kinda drives you crazy. I still use the Tonelab for somethings, but very often I get the tone I'm looking for with a strat into a Deluxe clone with only three knobs.

 

[Grantus]

I think there comes a point when you get diminishing returns in your search for great tone.

 

However, there is bad tone out there, and it can be fixed. Much of that doesn't have anything to do with the equipment, but nice equipment can sometimes help a bit.

[Saturn]

Great tone is important.....No vital to being a good/great player but I found a killer sound 15 minutes after plugging in my Marshall Haze. With my cuurent rig I can dial in anything from sparkling cleans to heavey thumping over drive. I think it's time to stop tinkering. Get a nice tone and play the crap out of that guitar.

[St. Andrew]

For the last 2 months I've been testing amps and effects. Finding the gear that will work best for me and I have put together a really cool versitle rig. I realized today that I have been spending all my time dialing in my sound. Getting my tones down. Setting up patches on my processor and not finding new chord progressions or coming up with new riffs. I sat down this moring to learn some new riffs and play with some old forgotton scales and ended up experimenting with effects and amp models. There are some really great amps and effects out now and you could spend all your time on the boards reading how one person thinks one thing sounds like crap and another person thinking it sounds great. You can spend all your time buying and selling gear looking for the perfect tone. Aren't we just wasting time? I found great tones out of my gear over a month ago but still look for something better. I really could have bought one of hundreds of amps and gotten a great sound. To quote Frank Zappa "Shut up n play yur guitar". /end rant thank you for listening. :blah:

 

That kind of talk could ruin a bunch of prissy, pretentious amp and effect builders

[Elias Graves]

 

Plus

 

 

EG

[Saturn]

Plus EG

 

Exactly!!!!!!!!

 

Grab your tools and make some music!

[Special J]

Well, it's not a waste of time if you enjoy yourself while doing it, I guess. But yes, the time is probably better spent practicing, especially if you're a beginner and ever hope to get out of the bedroom. Another thing is, you can spend all this time getting what you think is a great sound, but then you get together with a band, and it doesn't work at all.

 

It's really not hard to get great tone, especially if you purchase some good tools. It's pretty hard to screw up a Les Paul > Plexi or a Tele > Super Reverb. As long as you have the playing to back it up, the tones should be there.

[mikesr1963]

Funny thing is, when I'm searching out new tones, I am playing my guitar.

[metallica_00]

Sure...but at the same time I personally really enjoy "chasing tone". Discussing minutiae, trying new things out, tweaking - that's fun to me. So I don't really fell like I have wasted any time. Guitar playing and guitars are fun. So I "wasted" my time having fun tweaking? Whatever you enjoy, do it.

 

Understood, there are plenty of options out there to get good tone, and most of us could easily "settle" where we are at and have plenty of stuff to get a good sound. But tastes change/refine and as you own stuff for awhile you begin to notice things you may want to sound at bit differently. A touch more clarity in the lows perhaps? Maybe a smoother gain sound? When I hear these things, I figure out away to adapt to it and I get happier and happier with my sound. That's not wasting time.

[Saturn]

Tweaking is fun but I just went to a nice clean sound on my amps (stereo rig) threw on a little TS9 over drive and reverb got a sound that was pretty killer and jammed for the last hour. Once I made a concious effort to just quite tweaking and play I finally came up with some new musical ideas.

 

It's fun to play around with your gear and even more fun to get new gear but in the end just make some damn music.

[metal0822]

isnt the whole point of playing your guitar to have fun? so if you have fun messing with your effects then youre having fun, which is what you bought the gear for. that being said i agree with your original post. shut up and play

[RaVenCAD]

When I was younger, I chased the perfect tone. Bought some expensive pedals, did the tube amp thing a few times, rotated guitars about monthly, and spent way more money than I had.. In the end, I figured out that guitar tone is like paint. There are many shades of blue (or red, or yellow or whatever color you want) and after all the effects, amps, pickups and guitars are tried, blue is still blue. Music is more about what you do with your sound than how you get to it.

 

And yes, sitting down with a modeler almost always ends with patch tweaking. I've found that if I don't want to waste my time, I shouldn't load up Gearbox when I sit down with my X3.. I spend far more time recording when I just go with my existing patches. If Gearbox is up, I'll tweak it to death.

[BAXANDALL]

I'm done pretty much with tone searching. The only problem I have now is that instead of going in the studio and playing, I go in the studio and stare at my rig in disbelief.

[Saturn]

 

When I was younger, I chased the perfect tone. Bought some expensive pedals, did the tube amp thing a few times, rotated guitars about monthly, and spent way more money than I had.. In the end, I figured out that guitar tone is like paint. There are many shades of blue (or red, or yellow or whatever color you want) and after all the effects, amps, pickups and guitars are tried, blue is still blue. Music is more about what you do with your sound than how you get to it. And yes, sitting down with a modeler almost always ends with patch tweaking. I've found that if I don't want to waste my time, I shouldn't load up Gearbox when I sit down with my X3.. I spend far more time recording when I just go with my existing patches. If Gearbox is up, I'll tweak it to death.

 

 

Funny thing is I don't really use the models on my RP1000 much but I waste a lot of time playing around with them. Finding a cool sound then just going back to my natural amp sound anyways. The models are nice to have. I dialed in a couple I use but didn't even get the RP for the modeling as much as the effects. It almost becomes like a video game messing around with no purpose.

[RaVenCAD]

I've got about 10 patches on my X3 that range from a vocal setting for my piezo, to a raunchy Marshall ala GnR, a rectalfrier, and even an AM radio sounding thing.. They're all saved on the X3, so if I'm in a serious mood, I know they're there. If I'm not serious and I just wanna noodle (95% of the time as of late..), I load up gearbox and hit www.customtome.com and see if there is anything fun..

[stevieb]

 

Good tone is worthless without good playing and technique.

 

 

Fixed.

[Dougie.Douglas]

I have a cheap setup compared to some of the gear you guys have... but I think I can get a pretty good tone without too much fiddling.

[prolog]

I find I'm happy with almost any guitar through my C30. I realize there is better gear out there, but I'm just not a tweaker. I'm really easy to please.

[Saturn]

Simple is sometimes the best. I've heard some guys with over the top rigs that sound like complete crap. How ever you get that tone doesn't matter just play the hell out of it. I had a Crate V18 a while ago and heard many people bashing it. But I plugged direct into it with a Tele and got some great tones. Well after I changed the tubes that is.

[Dougie.Douglas]

Simple is sometimes the best. I've heard some guys with over the top rigs that sound like complete crap . How ever you get that tone doesn't matter just play the hell out of it. I had a Crate V18 a while ago and heard many people bashing it. But I plugged direct into it with a Tele and got some great tones. Well after I changed the tubes that is.

 

I tell you what - I was playing an Ibanez S-something or rather (the really thin ones) through a Blackstar HT-5 head into a Mesa 4x12" cab, and the tone was absolute crap! Just shows... eh?