What is tone?

maltingsaudio

Surely the electric guitars tone is 100mv plus or minus 10 mv?

OilCityPickups

DrJazzTap said:

Tone can be used as a word to sell snakeoil like products to the easily led. 
In the same manner as the word performance is used to sell sports gear. 

Totally agree ... 
The guitar buying public's penchant for believing utter bollocks is only rivaled by the gullibility of the hifi enthusiasts. You only have to waft the heady scent of mojo around a guitarist for them to start collecting shiny things like ADHD affected magpies. 
The truth is that 'tone' mostly comes from factors that in the great scheme of things don't cost a fortune to get right. The chief being practise and developing a good ear. 

HAL9000

Good Tones
Bennett
Iommi
Curtis

Bad Tones
Soprano
Blair
Burgess

elstoof

Under Tones

Sharkey
O’Niell
O’Niell
Bradley
Doherty

Power_Freak

OilCityPickups said:

DrJazzTap said:

Tone can be used as a word to sell snakeoil like products to the easily led. 
In the same manner as the word performance is used to sell sports gear. 

Totally agree ... 
The guitar buying public's penchant for believing utter bollocks is only rivaled by the gullibility of the hifi enthusiasts. You only have to waft the heady scent of mojo around a guitarist for them to start collecting shiny things like ADHD affected magpies. 
The truth is that 'tone' mostly comes from factors that in the great scheme of things don't cost a fortune to get right. The chief being practise and developing a good ear. 

This is true of any (usually male dominated) hobby... Coffee machines, mountain bikes, fishing, fountain pens, watches... you name it, there'll be some guy fussing over stuff that makes next to no difference. It's part of the psyche

Offset

HAL9000 said:

Good Tones
Bennett
Iommi
Curtis

Bad Tones
Soprano
Blair
Burgess

Good tones, bad tones... you know I've had my share.

OilCityPickups

Power_Freak said:

OilCityPickups said:

DrJazzTap said:

Tone can be used as a word to sell snakeoil like products to the easily led. 
In the same manner as the word performance is used to sell sports gear. 

Totally agree ... 
The guitar buying public's penchant for believing utter bollocks is only rivaled by the gullibility of the hifi enthusiasts. You only have to waft the heady scent of mojo around a guitarist for them to start collecting shiny things like ADHD affected magpies. 
The truth is that 'tone' mostly comes from factors that in the great scheme of things don't cost a fortune to get right. The chief being practise and developing a good ear. 

This is true of any (usually male dominated) hobby... Coffee machines, mountain bikes, fishing, fountain pens, watches... you name it, there'll be some guy fussing over stuff that makes next to no difference. It's part of the psyche

I suppose I find it difficult to see guitar as a hobby having never really had a proper job full time apart from guitar/music ... sad innit? :-)

Bigsby

guitars4you said:

pluckbuddy said:

SlopeSoarer said:

Cheating using AI (ChatGPT)...

Q) Describe tone in relation to a guitar.

A) Tone in relation to a guitar refers to the quality and character of the sound produced by the instrument. It encompasses elements like brightness, warmth, richness, and clarity, influenced by factors such as the type of wood used, the pickups, strings, and the player's technique.

It's a sad and slightly frightening day when AI steps in to answer a subjective question quicker and better than a group of mostly sane and sensible humans. 

I fear for us all. 

I’m not sure it has given us a definitive answer - Most of us have already a) implied there isn’t one and b ) most of the AI reply is just a smarter sentence to again what many of us have said 

where it has not given us a definitive answer is when it says ‘it encompasses elements like’ plus ‘ influenced by factors such as ‘ 

So yes it touches on key factors but so had we all along - But IMO there is no definitive scientific test and/ or answer - Only guidelines many of which are subjective 

It probably read this topic.... 




...and lucky it isn't conscious yet!

fretfinder

Whatever tone is, Chris Buck is apparently dipped in it. 

Philly_Q

fretfinder said:

Whatever tone is, Chris Buck is apparently dipped in it. 

I hope it dried off OK.

Fishboy7

A tone = s x semi-tones   

BillDL

Offset said:

Good tones, bad tones... you know I've had my share.

Before I realised that was a reference to the Led Zeppelin song my first thoughts took me back to Windows 95b.  Microsoft was pushing the "multimedia" capability of Windows PCs and there was a folder buried on the installation CD that contained a video of Edie Brickell singing "Good Times, Bad Times, Give me some of that".  Remember that?

Philly_Q

BillDL said:

Offset said:

Good tones, bad tones... you know I've had my share.

Before I realised that was a reference to the Led Zeppelin song my first thoughts took me back to Windows 95b.  Microsoft was pushing the "multimedia" capability of Windows PCs and there was a folder buried on the installation CD that contained a video of Edie Brickell singing "Good Times, Bad Times, Give me some of that".  Remember that?

No.

DrJazzTap

OilCityPickups said:

DrJazzTap said:

Tone can be used as a word to sell snakeoil like products to the easily led. 
In the same manner as the word performance is used to sell sports gear. 

Totally agree ... 
The guitar buying public's penchant for believing utter bollocks is only rivaled by the gullibility of the hifi enthusiasts. You only have to waft the heady scent of mojo around a guitarist for them to start collecting shiny things like ADHD affected magpies. 
The truth is that 'tone' mostly comes from factors that in the great scheme of things don't cost a fortune to get right. The chief being practise and developing a good ear. 

I used to cycle about twenty miles a day to an old job.  A guy at work, who was a middle aged overweight chap spent £90 on a sky branded cycling shirt. The personification of a mamil.
I've also seen a bunch of cyclists hiding under a railway bridge during mild rain, to protect their precious metal bicycles. 

I think tone is like wine described by Dylan moran. 


I'll concede that I do think the parts matter. But if you've got shit vibrato and can't tune a guitar, then you'll still sound the same on an expensive guitar.