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Studio: https://www.voltperoctave.com
Music: https://www.euclideancircuits.com
Me: https://www.jamesrichmond.com
R.
Eqd Speaker Cranker clone
Monte Allums TR-2 Plus mod kit
Trading feedback: http://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/60602/
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
For me, "tone" is more personal, and includes those tell-tale signs that let you identify a guitarist in relatively few notes.
Eqd Speaker Cranker clone
Monte Allums TR-2 Plus mod kit
Trading feedback: http://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/60602/
I edited that for you @ICBM
I think it's kind of like when people buy all kinds of fitness gear and supplements etc., it's easier to buy stuff than exercise or practice.
Obviously gear does affect tone big time but it just makes it sound different. I wouldn't be surprised if there were people on an endless loop of buying gear thinking that will finally make them happy with their playing but it's futile.
That's technique mostly - phrasing, pick attack, vibrato etc. That's what makes a player sound like themselves far more than the actual tone does, even for a player with a very distinctive tone like Brian May.
Exactly - tone and technique are two different things.
What confuses it is that different players do actually produce different tone (timbre) from the same equipment set the same. *Some* of it is in the hands.
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
However, i generally dial something similar into the different amps to start with.
For my tuppence worth - it’s a combination of everything. If gear played no part Jimmy Page would sound just as awesome playing air guitar as he does with a Les Paul and a Marshall Plexi. Similarly, if fingers played no part I could sound just like anyone provided I had their rig.
High gain sounds mask the differences between guitars and players - cleaner sounds allow you to hear dynamic nuances which tend to reveal players’ characters - but none of the players in the video ‘really’ had much personality - they haven’t yet developed the touch/phrasing/dynamic sophistication that experience brings.
If you take (say) early Knopfler, 70s era Clapton and Richard Thompson - they each used very similar tones - but their playing was instantly identifiable. I subscribe to the view that the equipment gives a basic ‘sound’ - the more skilled player sculpts that into something distinctly their own....
What is my tone like if I have my equipment in my hand?
It's kind of like painting. The fundamental colours comes from the paint ...red, yellow, vermilion, sepia etc. If you got 10 artists to paint exactly the same picture with the same colours in each section, ie no mixing, you'd still distinguish them by brush styles. Those differences come from their hands, but the underlying colours can't be changed...no matter how brilliant the artist they cant make yellow magically become red.
I know, youll say but artists mix colours...but thats the same as a guitarist mixing eq and effects and vol and tone control settings. The thickness layer of paint is how hard or gently we hit the strings, the artists choice of brush is our choice of guitar, the artists choice of canvass material is like our amps, the choice of brush v palette knife v smudging cloth is like a plectrum v bottleneck or fingers...different tools to spread our colour ie our sound in different ways.
How the artist uses all these things comes from the artist themselves. Just as how we all use our tools differently.
So I suppose it's all about perspective and interpretation. I'm absolutely from the school that tone is from the gear ...no one can make a strat through a clean Fender Blackface sound like a Les Paul through a cranked Marshall set to 11. For me that mix of guitars and amp is tone. But how that tone is used...that's from the guitarists touch and skill.
But then we might actually all be saying the same thing, but using different interpretations of language, which is where all the debate, argument and confusion might be coming from.