Getting that Slash sound

[Mark Hammer]

Yeah, that makes everything, um......simpler.

I completely forgot about the cigarette and hat though.  I probably need to bring my pedal to one of the homeless guys in front of my workplace and get him to rub his thumb and index finger on the box.  Gotta be the tar and nicotine that produces the sound.

[mars_bringer_of_war]

Yeah, that makes everything, um......simpler.

I completely forgot about the cigarette and hat though.  I probably need to bring my pedal to one of the homeless guys in front of my workplace and get him to rub his thumb and index finger on the box.  Gotta be the tar and nicotine that produces the sound.

I realize you're being facetious, but I wonder what years or decades of smoky club gigs does to a finish, and how it does or doesn't affect the sound of an instrument. All that nicotine obviously affects finishes cosmetically, but sonically too?

[Mark Hammer]

A not unreasonable question to ask. 

The finish?  Well, anyone who has washed the walls of a chain-smoker can tell you about that.  I'm pretty confident the two tweed Fenders I own probably started out much lighter coloured than they were when I bought them.

For the electronics, probably the best place to start would be to look/listen at/to house P.A.s in bar and clubs.  The musician's gear may only spend a few hours in the midst of tobacco haze.  In contrast, the house P.A., particularly the mixer board, never leaves the premises.  If the byproducts of a cigarette-puffing crowd were going to manifest themselves anywhere, it would probably be there.

[mars_bringer_of_war]

True, but I was wondering more about frequency/resonance damping, or related issues, not necessarily negative.

[Mark Hammer]

Well start with the basic question, and that is "How could stuff in the air that is capable of forming a residue when it settles possibly alter the electrical/conductive qualities of something?"

Things are always more wondrous and amazing than I imagine them to be, but my initial impression is that the principal effects of prolonged exposure to cigarette smoke (on electronics that is) might be in the area of conductivity of components.  That could be the surface of resistive strips or wipers on pots, switch contacts, jacks, and maybe IC and tube sockets.  If the paint on the outside of a passive component doesn't change it, then I see no reason why a tar residue would.

Of course, when one gets into the realm of speakers, the potential for air pollution effects are much greater.  Partly because the speaker is much bigger than any single electronic component and more exposed too, but also because as a mechanical device its properties are more likely to be subject to anything that makes it heavier, goopier, dirtier, etc.

[mars_bringer_of_war]

Well start with the basic question, and that is "How could stuff in the air that is capable of forming a residue when it settles possibly alter the electrical/conductive qualities of something?"

Things are always more wondrous and amazing than I imagine them to be, but my initial impression is that the principal effects of prolonged exposure to cigarette smoke (on electronics that is) might be in the area of conductivity of components.  That could be the surface of resistive strips or wipers on pots, switch contacts, jacks, and maybe IC and tube sockets.  If the paint on the outside of a passive component doesn't change it, then I see no reason why a tar residue would.

Of course, when one gets into the realm of speakers, the potential for air pollution effects are much greater.  Partly because the speaker is much bigger than any single electronic component and more exposed too, but also because as a mechanical device its properties are more likely to be subject to anything that makes it heavier, goopier, dirtier, etc.

I submit that paint on guitar hardware does affect tone, even if very slightly, in the same way that finish type affects tone. There is a difference between nitro and acrylic lacquers, lacquers and urethane-based finishes, urethane and polyester, etc. Of course, the composition of the hardware is more influential-brass or steel, for instance.
Even the specific piece of wood is unique, mahogany is different one plank to the next, and so on. Play 5 LPs or 5 Strats-do any of them sound the same? Play each Strat through 5 amps of the same make/model...differences?
One could go on forever, but in the end, guitar tone is unique to the instrument/amp/player, and no 2 are exactly alike.

[SISKO]

Almost getting out of the original theme, but related anyway

http://youtube.com/watch?v=xsUKtl9SgUM

http://youtube.com/watch?v=ZVBIzkAaL14&feature=related

[Darkness, Darkness]

Thanks for the videos  !!!!! Indeed I prefer the USI II sounds but that guy as still nowdays THE sound. Of course Appetite for Destruction at that sound too but nothing compare to Estranged for me