Tone?

[Stigroadie]

Lots and lots of talk about 'Tone', it gets treated with an almost religious reverence.
Do these tone believers ever venture outside of their music rooms? Do they ever gig?
I find it hard to believe they do. Every room, every stage sounds different. You do a 2 month tour playing 5 to 6 nights a week and your rig wont sound the same twice. Then you have the buggerment factor of some sound engineer making the guitar sound like he wants it in the mix. The capacitance per foot of some 6" patch cable or the materials that make up the caps in your guitar really do pale into the irrelevant.
How do the tone heads deal with this? Or dont they have to?

[boneyguy]

They're all busy sitting around in cargo shorts listening to their John Mayer records while relicing their guitars.


Thank you and goodnight.

[Lunchie]

I don't like John Mayer...

[Dave_O]

Aww-- Now you went and spoilt it by being sensible...

Ever notice how when a room fills up and gets warmer the sound of your rig changes? I've found that by draping a pair of cargo shorts over my AC30, the problem seems to go away.

[Carlsson]

I might be wrong but... I sometimes get the impression that those that gig the least are the busiest tone-chasers. Playing at home, over backing tracks lets you hear a lot more of the nuances in tone compared to a band mix. Nothing wrong with that.

I think a lot more about my tone at home than at a gig (or rehearsal). While playing with others I worry more about how I play than my tone. I try to dial in a decent sound, then switch pickups, OD/tremolo/echo etc on/off etc for "variation".

[Ricky D.]

Originally Posted by Stigroadie

Lots and lots of talk about 'Tone', it gets treated with an almost religious reverence.
Do these tone believers ever venture outside of their music rooms? Do they ever gig?
I find it hard to believe they do. Every room, every stage sounds different. You do a 2 month tour playing 5 to 6 nights a week and your rig wont sound the same twice. Then you have the buggerment factor of some sound engineer making the guitar sound like he wants it in the mix. The capacitance per foot of some 6" patch cable or the materials that make up the caps in your guitar really do pale into the irrelevant.
How do the tone heads deal with this? Or dont they have to?

Truth.

[Telemarkman]

Originally Posted by Stigroadie

Lots and lots of talk about 'Tone', it gets treated with an almost religious reverence.
Do these tone believers ever venture outside of their music rooms? Do they ever gig?

I'm a bit uncertain of what you actually mean. Do you imply that "tone" doesn't exist?

I gigged for more than 20 years (1967-1990), and I believe that "tone" exists. Does that make me a "tone believer" - whatever that means ... ?

Originally Posted by Stigroadie

Every room, every stage sounds different. You do a 2 month tour playing 5 to 6 nights a week and your rig wont sound the same twice.

I've never been on a 2 month tour, but I've played LOTS of different premises, from small clubs to large sports halls or even a stadium, and they all sound different. So I guess we agree on this.
But I've never played anywhere without having some sort of tone!

[mindlobster]

Tone is a marketing term.

[Telemarkman]

Originally Posted by mindlobster

Tone is a marketing term.

Without tone, no music ...

[Jupiter]

[hemingway]

Does lengthy discussion affect tone?

[goonie]

The tone of this thread stinks.

[Toriginal]

It has got to be tough. There seem to be so few venues that are built acoustically sound anyway. It's tough being in the audience listening to it too at times.
Open steel beamed ceilings, hard floors chairs, people, glass, mirrors.
Lots of gigging musicians seem to have in ear monitors and monitors stuck in front of them. It's a whole different ball game trying to listen from an audience's perspective.
Luckily after a few beer, noone really cares.
No, I never gigged on guitar. Yes I play only in my basement.
There are things that make a difference and there are things that don't in guitar construction. That's a given. Construction materials in a cap. I don`t think so.
Or you could just crank everything up and drown everything out in a mish mash of bad sound. Unfortunately, that is the case far too often. Don't these people ever play at home? Probably not. LOL. Touché.

[mindlobster]

Originally Posted by Telemarkman

Without tone, no music ...

You know what I mean. Look through the ads in the guitar magazines...tone this, tone that...in the 80s it was pointy guitars...now it's TONE.

[Telemarkman]

Originally Posted by mindlobster

You know what I mean. Look through the ads in the guitar magazines...tone this, tone that...in the 80s it was pointy guitars...now it's TONE.

Of course I know what you mean ... But misuse of the word doesn't mean tone isn't an essential part of music. We mustn't let those marketing people define the word the way they see fit.

[Stigroadie]

It's such a subjective thing too.
What I consider a good sound or tone might make another guys skin crawl.
Whats that old adage about opinions and a**holes? Everyone has one and everyone elses stinks? Could we modify it for tone?

[Zillinois]

Originally Posted by boneyguy

They're all busy sitting around in cargo shorts listening to their John Mayer records while relicing their guitars.

Thank you and goodnight.

Ouch.

[Stigroadie]

Originally Posted by mindlobster

in the 80s it was pointy guitars...now it's TONE.

Brass heavyweight hardware and dense body woods were also very 1980s and now if you dont have a lightweight stop bar on you Les Paul or feather light swamp ash.......
Its the guitar equivalent of sushi.

[banjohabit]

Originally Posted by mindlobster

Tone is a marketing term.

+1 it does exist, but there are usable varieties of it and simply noticable varieties also. i've discovered a wide range of tones i can make with just my tele and amp, but that doesn't mean they are practical for me to use playing the gig sometimes. often as not, it is a struggle just to be heard by your bandmates and vice-versa. even in the same room, but on a different night.

my tone changes from song to song. i have "my tone" on my banjo, the same all the time, which can only be varied by touch and attack. i find my tele to be remarkably similar, BUT, add a bit of reverb and stomp on an OD pedal and i've got a whole other pallate of tone to color each song to it's best advantage.

so, no. i can't go with the idea that i'm supposed to seek some identifiable tone that is (here's the pitch) unique to me and makes me stand out among my peers. if you want to stand out among your peers (and make your bandmates happy that they play with you) serve the song ! adjust your tone to make the song sound good ! adjust your playing to make the song sound good ! adjust your attitude to make the song sound good !

[trev333]

You see.. I have these guitars... and this amp.... this is my tone... luck of the draw.. I didn't seek these bits of equipment out.. they found me...

whatever I feel the dials need to be set at for my ears is my "tone".... ;)

I don't think I've ever tried to emulate someone else's "tone"...

as much as I like other peoples "tone" ... I've never felt my musical aim was to sound like them...

though it's surprising how a Tele played through a Fender twin... kinda sounds like "tones" you've heard before somewhere?...;) .. or the sound good set of P90's through same... mmmm :)..

I try not to mess with that too much..:)