Members dcooper830 Posted November 13, 2009 Members Share Posted November 13, 2009 I'm 100% satisfied with my tone. But my playing suffers due to my laziness and not practicing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members notcool Posted November 13, 2009 Members Share Posted November 13, 2009 When I was a teenager, yeah. Guitar tones - Les Paul vs. Strat. I couldn't afford to own both, so I tried to make the former sound like the latter by changing to a splittable humbucker or farting around with equalizers to alter the tone. Both approaches failed miserably. Amp tones - Music Man and Marshall. Couldn't afford either, but I had a hybrid Peavey that I thought sounded somewhere in between. I had a good imagination. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Willyguitar Posted November 13, 2009 Members Share Posted November 13, 2009 There's a kind of critical point where it crosses over to become a {censored}bag. Up to a point, new and nice gear inspires you... but you need to maximise the time just playing the bastards. Case in point: my favourite guitar, after trying loads (in my view) of different electrics is one of the simplest - Junior - precisely because you just pick it up, and once it's in tune (which can be a pain with those crappy tuners) you're ready to go. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Coralkong Posted November 13, 2009 Members Share Posted November 13, 2009 My playing suffers pretty badly, without having some "search for the elusive tone" getting thrown in the mix... +1. Only if I'm writing on my hollow-body do I really "fiddle" anymore. I have a GNX-3 with about 120 pre-programmed "tones" in it, if I find myself wanting something different, I just push the "UP" pedal to the next one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members C-4 Posted November 13, 2009 Members Share Posted November 13, 2009 My tone has evolved over time. When I started playing Diezel amps, I got a lot closer to it then ever before. It has nothing to do with the amount of distortion the amp provides as I don't use a lot of distortion. It has to do more with the tone and smoothness of the distortion then the amount of it. I now have my tone locked in due to changing the tubes out in the amp and with my new Diezel coming, I will be able to get even more dialed in. In the end, my tone still has clarity in the note, plus the thrust and power of distortion, without the distortion over-powering the tone. The guitar is also a big part of the tone I get and using carbon fiber guitars has brought me much closer to getting it then using any wood guitar I have ever owned. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Cool Hand Luke Posted November 13, 2009 Members Share Posted November 13, 2009 For me, the Tone Quest is a definate {censored}bag. When I was a teenager money were short and I spent all my time playing and learning new stuff. It did bug me, that my guitar didn't sound as good as what I heard on the CDs but I just tried to make the best of what I had. And that meant playing well. The past 8 or 9 years I have been Tonemad and have always had that constant urge to change stuff in my setup and it has definately taken away from the time that I would otherwise have used on playing and practicing. During the past year I have been trying to change focus and have started the battle to re-acquire my chops. I'm moving forward and I have been scaling back on my setup and amount of gear in use. It doesn't mean that the {censored}er (Tone Quest) isn't still there, but I'm deliberately trying to fight it and focus on the playing instead. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members A-20 Posted November 13, 2009 Members Share Posted November 13, 2009 Yes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Guitzilla Posted November 13, 2009 Members Share Posted November 13, 2009 To me striving for new tones (which doesn't have to equate to buying more gear) is a part of why I play. To answer your question, no. Trying to find a new sound inspires me to play more. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Vintage55 Posted November 13, 2009 Members Share Posted November 13, 2009 I found my tone is fairly simple to attain now that I have an amp that is really good clean. I've tried all kinds of amps, both tube and ss, over the years trying to get one that had that perfect overdriven sound. And was never quite satisfied, because after the honeymoon was over, they all seemed to end up being one-trick-ponies in that regard. I'd change guitars and the overdrive I liked, I no longer liked. So now I use a number of different overdrive pedals to give me the variation I need from guitar to guitar. Other than those OD pedals, the only thing I use is a delay, compressor and a little chorus now and then. Not much tweaking needed beyond compensating for the output level of the pickups in a particular guitar. Tone is in the fingers, as long as your gear is pretty good, and the only way for it to get really good is to practice, practice, practice... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Cats-o-caster Posted November 13, 2009 Members Share Posted November 13, 2009 {censored}bag fer sure - I can't tell you the number of times I sat down to play for an hour or two, and blew all my time fiddling with pedals and knobs while just playing one chord... I'm a recovering gear whore. Same here... damn tone Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members BydoEmpire Posted November 13, 2009 Members Share Posted November 13, 2009 Only when I bought a GT-8. I spent more time trying to get that damn thing to sound consistently decent than I did practicing. I ended up selling it and bying a little iGTR headphone amp for quiet practice and I'm fully productive again. Other than that, no. I have my gear set up how I want it, and it sounds good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members EJD Posted November 13, 2009 Members Share Posted November 13, 2009 I don't do that at all... I'm just a player, straight up. If it's got nice distortion and cleans, it's good enough for me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members papaboom Posted November 13, 2009 Members Share Posted November 13, 2009 I think the whole tone-quest thing is like trying to buy your way into being a good player in some ways... As for those who argue that all these great players speand alot of time chasing tone etc - well yes that's all well and fine but that's their career y'know? Money is on the line in their case - and let's face it - those players have gobs of time and money to do this with... chasing tone is part of their jobs.. But I knew a lot of guys growing up that I could play circles around who were hardcore tone-questers... I could make my measley little SS amps beat their Marshalls every time because - quite frankly - they sucked. That being said - I prefer having a good tone to work with... but if you're fretting over the minutae chances are you need to spend more time chasing your skill than your tone. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Norcal_GIT_r Posted November 13, 2009 Members Share Posted November 13, 2009 Tonequests are fun for me.Make a few pickups play them, tweak the recipe make a few more. Play some more.So no it doesnt make my playing suffer, it makes me play more. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members nuke_diver Posted November 13, 2009 Members Share Posted November 13, 2009 No not at all. Sometimes I don't get a sound I want but I tend to just play through it knowing that it's probably me And when I want killer tone I just grab my tele with my Pure90's...That always seems to have good tone which is why it has become my main recording guitar Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members peavey_impact Posted November 13, 2009 Members Share Posted November 13, 2009 My tone quest ended the moment I connected my Cali to my VHT Deliverance. The beer and the laziness on the other hand definitely causes my playing to suffer lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Mr Songwriter Posted November 13, 2009 Members Share Posted November 13, 2009 I've got 6 guitars and quite a few amps now but I still don't think my tone is 100% there yet, probably the main thing I'd like is better definition in my OD sound - there's stuff that I'm playing that isn't coming through clearly from the amp, so you could probably say that the tone itself is causing my playing to suffer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Jkater Posted November 13, 2009 Members Share Posted November 13, 2009 with an acoustic no, of course, but with electric, I'm still trying to figure it all out. Thing is, I'm not very well equipped like i said in the other thread. If I did spend a lot of time tweaking and trying different things with sounds and effects, etc it would bring me forward in achieving a sound that inspires me and that would not be a waste of my time, I think. The main thing that slows me down with learning and keeping my chops is... HCEG. I love it here and I can safely say that it looks a lot like an addiction but I know that every hour spent here posting and lurking is an hour not practicing. fortunatly, I do find time to play as well so it's not like I don't play because of this place but not as much as I should. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Angry Tele Posted November 13, 2009 Members Share Posted November 13, 2009 if my tone was a person, Id kick 'em in the nads! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Brian Krashpad Posted November 13, 2009 Members Share Posted November 13, 2009 N/A I've never really claimed to be on a "tone quest" in the first place. I just buy stuff that crosses my path at a good price, if it's a little different than what I already got and I have cash on hand. I may go into a pawn shop once or twice a week on the lookout for a deal, or check craigslist, but that's not time I would've spent practicing or something. So, to whatever extent, if any, the way I keep an eye out for deals constitutes a "tone quest," the answer is that it has absolutely no effect whatsoever on my playing. I always sound like me no matter how much gear I have or what I'm playing through/with, and I bet I would play just the same if I had one guitar and one amp. No correlation that I can see. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members rockguitar130 Posted November 13, 2009 Members Share Posted November 13, 2009 If I had a bigger income (high schooler part time job) then I'd quickly find the tone I want. But I am still on the quest! Just need money! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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