How much does the guitar you use influency your sound

mike_l

TheGuitarWeasel said:

Dayglo Gretsch maybe ...
anything with a 'nail on combine harvester' (Floyd Rose) is too damn awesomes ...

There, corrected your typo
:-??

Dave_Mc

ICBM said:

Dave_Mc said:

A fair bit. I prefer to use the right tool for the job.

At the same time you can sometimes over-exaggerate their differences as well and claim that things won't work at all for something when in reality they just don't do it quite as well.

Totally agree. I spent years refining my live rig to the point I was completely happy with it - guitar, pickups, strings, cables, pedals, amp, speakers - and I felt that each little bit I got right made my sound that little bit better and more in tune with what I was trying to do with it.

And then I went and played the same songs through a borrowed amp sometimes when we were sharing equipment, and sometimes on a whim I would take a different guitar if the colour of it suited the gig I was playing better (no I'm not kidding ) and it really sounded just the same. I could tell it was different, and maybe even some of the people out front could too, but it was still the same really… in that it didn't affect the way the music was presented, if you see what I mean .

Yeah )

I think (for me) it depends on the difficulty of the stuff I'm playing, too. If I'm playing stuff I can just about play, then having appropriate gear can make all the difference (it's a lot easier to play the widdly stuff on a superstrat with a fast neck than on a vintage Fender type neck). And maybe bias comes into it too- I'll notice something not being quite right for my favourite types of music than for the stuff I only have a passing interest in...

TheGuitarWeasel said:

but there's something to be said for the psychological advantage of going armed for the job.

Agreed. Even for practising I think that's important- if you know your gear is suitable you can only blame yourself, so (for me anyway) it means I have no excuses when I suck. )

bertie said:

at the end of the day,  no matter what you 'believe' is in your fingers -  a  10lb mahogany guitar with two high output HBs  wont sound anything like a SSS strat  -- sure you can fuck about all day with  the volume and EQ and get an acceptable sound out of just one,  but if you have three guitars in your armoury, whats the point ?    use them to the max of what they excel at - thats the point of having different types isnt it ?

Yeah

Rocker

I always sound like 'me' no matter what guitar I use.  Maybe I subconsciously adjust the tone to get the sound I like.  In that case one guitar will sound more or less the same as another if they are of the same 'type', humbucker, single coil etc.  An amplifier has a greater effect on the sound assuming it is not trying to emulate another amplifier and you can turn it up enough to get it working in its zone. 

Sambostar

Comparing my Strat with either SSL1's or Texas Specials with my Charvels is like comparing night and day, even with the same amp settings.  Two completely different animals which, not even accounting for the fingerboard radii, on sound and tone alone, push you in completely different directions.  Also find the same when comparing hardtails to V trems or Floyds.  I am always more aggressive with a TOM Bridge or hardtail, because I can be.

koneguitarist

I do a bit of dipping, sitting in with other bands to help out etc. 

When I played for a sixties band last minute. Turned up with my tele a bluesbreaker and an OD pedal.

I was supposed to have been playing bass up until a couple of hours before gig.

Got on stage, not knowing what set was gonna be played when they introduced me as someone stepping in to cover for the local guitarist. ( big no no saying that).

As they introduced me they said "and Taff is gonna play one of Alan's best known songs....... Apache"!

Drums started and I am stood there no knowing this song is to be played having to play it on a tele, without reverb and echo!

Point is I did it, by doubling my picking to get a pseudo echo effect and bending behind nut for tremolo. 

To another guitarist, he would have thought F###whats he doing! But audience were fine and dancing.

We are the ones looking for that specific tone, not the audience.

But a strat and echo would have been bloody handy I can tell you ! 

frankus

I've got a fair few guitars .. teles, strats, 335, (I don't like Les Pauls at all) ... once played I think it's possible to find a close analog on the other guitars..

That said I have a very few sounds I really focus on:

Bridge humbucker
Bridge single coil - no tone
Neck single coil lots of tone
Neck Single coil no tone
Neck/Middle Single coil no tone (for a Hendrix sound on a Twin)

There are ways of getting similar tones from all guitars... and even means of getting those different tones from an acoustic... just picking at different points and digging in different amounts.

I think hearing the sounds you want to keep and taking some time to learn how to immitate them is a good thing to do...

DulcetJones

Other than a slight difference in sound between using a humbucker guitar as opposed to a single coil guitar there's not much difference.  What is different is what kind of things each guitar inspires me to lean toward, I just got a Squier Strat, my first ever Strat style guitar and I can't stop noodling through scale patterns as fast as I can on it, where as my Epi Les Paul has me chopping through heavy power chords, just like the Gibson Les Paul Goldtop I used to own did.

Gru

Many thanks for all of the replies. Some great opinions and views.

I certainly see how a certain style of guitar can influence how you play. I have had a couple of Strat type guitars including a squire, and guitar with twin humbucker and the latter definitely didn't inspire me to play scales.

I have been looking at upgrading my Squier to a strat with a higher spec, but have had a few other guitars catch my eye around the same price range (eg PRS SE Custom). But a lot of my musical influences use Strats, so it would seem sensible not to deviate from that style, although others are tempting. :-)