Spititual/Psychological Significance of Tone Quests

[WGTP]

Once again I'm wondering what the point of our quests for a "voice" or tone that expresses what we seem to have a strong desire to let loose into the vibrant sonic atmosphere is all about.  It seems to have a connection to something deep inside, but is it more than just sounding like our favorite guitar hero?  Is it something we need to release into the greater consciousness???  Is it something our fellow seekers need to hear???  Is it more than just Vulcans vs. Tube Screamers???  BMP's transfering energy from one plane to another??? Was Hendrix a prophet???  A savior??? or just a hell of a bluesman for the next millenium 30 years early???      :shock:  :twisted:  

Is this off topic, or THE topic??? :?:  :idea:  :wink:

[jimbob]

Are you high? :lol:
I hear ya though...makes ya think..

[Toney]

Ok, baby your dealer is either ripping you off or is the greatest ever!!!
Just kidding :wink:
Seriously though ......are you high???

[Phorhas]

A friend of mine grow stuff just as good in his bedroom

But it is actually one hell of a subject. to we quest for tone to find some kind of elusive magical tone or is it just post-modern consumer conciusness... never to be satisfied, alwaly seeking, new is always better |(in our case NOS - new OLD sh*t) - twice as expensive is twise as good.

We refuse to execpt that tone comes from the heart trough the finger, continusly trieng to put the blame, or give the credit to an outside product... hmmm

Am I high too?

(Pardon my english, this all sounds better, more articulate and high talk in my native language )

[smoguzbenjamin]

Tone is skin on fretboard. But you can sure as hell make it easier for yourself by getting good gear. Take Joe Satriani, I like his tone, but take away his big amp and effects rig and replace it with my guitar and amp and he'll still be OK, just not as good. Good gear goes a long way.

[Peter Snowberg]

I played one of Joe Satriani's guitars about 10 years ago while it was on loan for the afternoon to an exhibit that I helped put together. It made me appreciate what perfect setup on a good guitar does to make notes ooooze out like melted butter in comparison to having to pull clanky notes from a junk guitar (like mine! )

[Steben]

It's all about HAVING a quest I guess, rather than finding a solution ;-). I'm still dazed and confused    about the Led Zeppelin II album, although I came up with some acceptable DIY tones that are very very close.
Quests for tone and holy grail pedals... they need some hipe and uselessness, it's a quest to achieve your own tone, though you didn't know that at the beginning.  :?

[Paul Marossy]

Ok, call me a heretic, but tone isn't everything. Yes, it goes a long way towards "inspiring" your playing. But, equally important is how you play something, playing with emotion, the context in which you are playing, and so many other factors. In the last couple of years of building all these stompboxes, I have come to realize one very important thing: there is no substitute for good playing. That has really made itself evident in my own playing since I have been limited to just an archtop electric, an amplifier and an analog delay pedal lately at church.  :shock:

I have a new found respect for people like Pat Metheny and Jim Hall who can sit down together and play some great tunes, chord melody stuff that is tasty, melodic, sometimes out there. And hearing a fretless classical guitar for the first time on their album together has definitely got  very interesting sound. Having played fretless bass for a number of years, I'm thinking of turning my classical-electric into a fretless classical. Not for chords probably, I think it would be hard to get them right on, but for melodic stuff, it sounds very cool. As unique as an electric sitar...

[MartyB]

It's communion.  Either that or its the chicks.

[strungout]

Have you ever noticed how certain people use certain words that others don't? Or have a different pronounciation? This is what tone is to me. The accents of a language.
Different tones put different accents on different things and carry different emotions. Consider a "grunge" band like Nirvana. If you read the lyrics, you'll see the connection between the muddy, sick, disturbed, muffled, acid in your stomach, depressive kind of tones. But of course, none of that would mean much without the out of tune chords. Or more simply put: a song about manic depression (bipolarity it's called now I think) would benefit from being mirrored by notched mids. Of course, this one is plain obvious, but it can certainly get more complex and subtle.

There is definately a personal tone people are looking for, one that represent them and who they are...which brings me to think that this is why THE tone is so hard to find: who we are constantly changes as we experience more, learn more, lose more. Of course I also think part of it his hype which sort of "directs" people to search for a certain tone, a Hendrix or Morello tone, instead of searching for their own.

Maybe I'm rambling. Hope that made some sense.

[smoguzbenjamin]

I have to agree with Paul there. I can name numerous occassions where I could come home from a good day at school and just play like a madman and actually sound good on my 10W cheap-ass amp. On other days when I was just fooling around being bored I'd sound like puke. You've got a point, Paul

Another thing I can say honestly is, if you learn to sound OK with a crap guitar that's too heavy and hasn't had new strings in three years, you're gonna sound great on a nice guitar with new strings. Perosnal experience  speaking there

[Paul Marossy]

I'll agree with strungout, up to a point. Heavy metal wouldn't sound like heavy metal if they were playing thru a Roland Jazz Chorus. The comparison to language is good also. But, in my mind, those inflections, pronunciations, etc. are the things that make up a guitarist's style. Kinda like the lines/riffs that he/she uses, along with the tone they have that makes some guitarists immediately recognizable. But, there is still more to it than that. One's writing style, etc. also comes into play.  

What smoguz says is true also, IME. That's where technique comes in. I know some cats who could make a cardboard guitar with 10 year old strings on it sound great!

[WGTP]

First, it's all legal, just a few sips of the Skyy.

Second, you guys need to get a nice guitar if you don't have one, they are a blessing.  If you can get your distortion to sound good with a piece of cardboard then...

I've been thru the pickup deal (a good one helps) and speakers (they help as well)

Third, change your strings more than once a year, "it's like getting a new girlfriend" unknow guitarist in music store.

I'm sure it is obvious from my posts here that I'm a guitarist first and a neo EE aspirant last (I also can't spell).  I'm much more interested in harmonic content and sustain than I am bias and impedance.  Thanks to all for helping me with that stuff.

I have probably practiced/played a guitar on 1/3 of the days during the last 35 years.  It's definitely theraputic, if not medatative, relaxing, envigorating, addictive, WAY COOL, etc.  I play way better than I ever thought I could, so I don't worry much about technique anymore.  I play way faster than is typically useful or called for.  

Like most of us, I have borrowed/been inspired by/stolen things from the greatest musicians of our time, from Pearlman (violinist) Atkins, King, Paul, Page, Beck, Clapton, Leslie West, Johnny Winter, Joe Walsh (Listen to James Gang Live for some cool echoplex stuff and great tone) DiMeola and Jazz guys who's names I don't even know using a variety of instruments.

Your all right about phrasing and style and tone to relect the angst/joy etc.  Like sonic (physical) graffiti.  I don't think it's about a 100w. Ragging Marshal Stack (why do we like it when it rages)  One watt is plenty for the house.  

I guess I'm wondering WHY we have a need to do this.  What is the point, sheer pleasure???  Do we have the male bonding thing going on here, (am I not supposed to mention it)  Is this our way of Howling :twisted:

Does it replace chanting around the fire naked on a full moon night, howling with the wolves, (I can still hear the coyotes in my suburban domicile) and sneeking off into the bush with a young girl (I know), hunting bison (there is a herd on the way to work I feel a need to stop and commune with) or fighting off saber tooth tigers (the neighbors claim so see cougars roaming the woods???

I guess we have been twanging our bows and beating on drums since we dropped down out of the trees (I think the Maple bows sound better than the Elm, different wood grain).  

[Paul Marossy]

I guess I'm wondering WHY we have a need to do this.

Good question. Some people seem to find their tone and it stays that way for many years. To use Pat Metheny as an example again, he has had the same few basic tones for many years. That, along with what he plays,  makes his sound immediately recognizable. But, for others, there is always "something out there that may sound better" than what I'm using now. Maybe the difference is that people like Metheny are much more focused on what they are playing as opposed to how it sounds. This is where I am at today. Yes, I still need a good tone to play my best (because who likes a crummy tone?!), but I have felt recently that the "quest for tone" can become a crutch. If you need some kind of new tone to inspire you, then it seems like you may have a basic problem with creativity. I'm speaking as much to myself as to anyone else that this may possibly apply to. The other thing is that is a lot of chasing after your own tail, and can "waste" a lot of your time. That is not to say that building all the stompboxes that I have built is a waste of time because I have learned a lot from doing it and I feel that it helps me in a lot of areas, but it sure has been a distraction, and my playing has suffered as a result. That is why I am focsusing on becoming a better player as of late.  

On the flip side, I appreciate players like U2's Edge. It seems like every album, he has changed his sound, and that is cool, too. But, it seems like his sounds go along with the theme of the album, so it seems appropriate.

[RDV]

Well, Friday night I had a great tone, but played like shit. Not crap, shit.
I do the electronics bit cause I like it. You can get great tones with store-bought gear. If you play good, it is good. If you play bad, then all the gear in the world ain't gonna help ya.

RDV

[WGTP]

One of the reasons I play so much these days is trying out new sounds, which has lead to lots of practice and song development.  It has really inspired a lot of positive things.  On the other hand, I haven't learned what I need to about computers/recording, etc.

Other than beings so cool, I'm not sure what wielding a great tone is about.  Sure it can be a crutch/excuse, but can't anything?  I find I'm less likely to suck when I have a cool tone, it is just too inspirational, too much adrenalizing, too much of a RUSH.  

Have you ever ran a '68 Z-28 up to 6k and dropped the clutch and then run it thru the gears till you ran out of road?  A 440 Plymoth wasn't bad either.  I guess the ultimate was my brothers LS6 Nova and the way he drove, now that was a RUSH.   :twisted:

[STOMPmole]

I think it has to do with the need to express your individuality and have a 'unique voice'.  Tone has to be one of the MOST subjective aspects of guitar playing.

For example, someone mentioned Satriani's tone.  I don't think anyone will argue he's a talented player...if you ask me however, his tone SUCKS and has sucked for years.  Just my subjective opinion.

[smoguzbenjamin]

Tell you what, about 3 years ago when I had just got the very basics of guitar playing down, I was at school when some guys were practicing for a band night. I stuck around and heard this guy get tone like the offspring just right. So I went to myself "Wow this guy plays like Dexter Holland!". So I went home, grabbed my guitar and tried to copy it. And failed. Miserably.

Then a year later I got a MetalZone. And I got the tone OK, but I still sounded like crap. Then I started to really learn how to play, and now I use my DS-1 for the offspring and I can copy it great. And for those who know the song, playing the intro to "the kids aren't allright" is a great simple-to-play-but-great-to-show-off riff :mrgreen:

All in all Tone Quests are about what you want to sound like or how you expect yourself to sound. Strangely enough only fellow guitarists seem to know about tone and what it is.... :|

[Steben]

The Boss DS-1 is a great pedal to discuss in this thread. It's the most pure simple out of the box pedal ever produced since the MXR dist+, widely sold, widely double sold as second hand etc...
But it really sounds perfect if your playing style is ok. Every great name in music's history should sound ok with this stupid Boss pedal. Its far superior to other boss pedals, because it allows you to tailor your playing more. But about other boss pedals: we cannot forget that the commercial world likes to "excitate" our tone quest to enlarge their selling rates...

[smoguzbenjamin]

A true tone quest is all about your own taste. If you read a boss (or dod or ibanez) ad saying "your quest for tone is over!" and you go "wow" you're probably a punk kid trying to mimic the big boys. FYI I am one of those punk kids, ghaha

And yes I agree, the DS-1 sounds pretty good in the right hands