Who does not really care about their sound ?

[Blazer]

Everyone’s perception of what they hear is different. I have several different dirt pedals on my board. Honestly I don’t hear a big difference in them.
People claim they hear a difference when they change to different saddles.

That reminds me of this anecdote about David Gilmour.

Pink Floyd was rehearsing for the "Animals" tour and David had an issue with his amp, which was one of these.

So he asked the crew to uncouple it and fetch another one from the storage. One of the crew decided that Gilmour was being a diva and decided to take the amp, wait a few minutes, come back in, and put the same amp back on.

And promptly found out how good Gilmour's musical ears are, he noticed it straight away.

 

[metalicaster]

I don’t really use pedals anymore. Got a vol/wah pedal in the bag if I remember. There’s no consistent ‘my tone’. Turn the amp on and turn the knobs till it sounds like electric guitar and is loud enough and play. Changes day to day. Vary the playing to suit the sonic soup de jour.

I find it easier to be adaptable to tone than lug enough gear to recreate it in any venue.

 

[gimmeatele]

Me, after hearing B B King say the sound from his music was not the one he heard in his head, so if B B can't get it, I ain't going to worry

 

[tubedude]

If you're gonna go pedalboard, GO PEDALBOARD!

View attachment 1057542

Even with all that silicon disengaged, I wonder how badly the signal is degraded.

 

[ruger9]

i'm not sure i agree with that. i only use one amp, one that i built and tailored for myself.

i use an always on opto compressor dialed in really subtle. it has three roles:

There's no need to agree/disagree. There is no "right or wrong" on this question. We all get our own tones how WE EACH see fit. Different strokes!

One of my favorites players get his tone by boosting his blonde Bassman with the preamp of a Space Echo (Brian Setzer), which makes it an "always on pedal."

 

[aFewGoodTaters]

I care about my tone and sound, but I'm one of those 'tone is mostly in your hands' believers. I'd rather spend hours woodshedding and learning new songs / techniques to improve my tone rather than buy a new amp / pedal.

 

[P Thought]

I mess with the knobs and switches on my guitar a lot more than I do the ones on my amps. Usually the amp volume's up pretty high, and I control it from the guitar.

 

[Toto'sDad]

Even with all that silicon disengaged, I wonder how badly the signal is degraded.

The only pedal I need is the gas pedal, and brake pedal.

 

[loopfinding]

There's no need to agree/disagree. There is no "right or wrong" on this question. We all get our own tones how WE EACH see fit. Different strokes!

One of my favorites players get his tone by boosting his blonde Bassman with the preamp of a Space Echo (Brian Setzer), which makes it an "always on pedal."

oh sorry, i misread, i thought you were saying the guitar or amp is "wrong," like "something is wrong with your guitar or amp."

 

[radtz]

That would work, but I literally play RECLINED - with my feet up! It doesn't rock when reclined. I can reach over and adjust the reverb on my FR-1000, but that's about the extent of it. I have learned to live with a nice clean tone. It forces me to play clean as well.

Oddly, the most recent pedal I bought was a cheap wah-wah!!

I got you on this. You need a Spark modeling amp and the wireless pedal. You get 4 buttons you can change without having to un-recline, just use your fingers.

 

[Cyberi4n]

My tone is now a Blues Driver Waza into a ProJnr4. I also add a wah and a tremolo to the mix. If I can have the amp volume up into breakup I turn the BD gain down, and if I have to turn the amp down I turn the BD gain up. Pickup selections, guitar tone knobs and volume gets me most of my tones. Liberating after all these years of pedalboarding and digital modelling etc etc

 

[ruger9]

oh sorry, i misread, i thought you were saying the guitar or amp is "wrong," like "something is wrong with your guitar or amp."

I was... for me. If I need an always-on pedal, I have the wrong amp or guitar.

 

[TeleBackelaer]

Well, doesn't it matter what style you play, or if you're playing originals, are just noodling around or really try to cover something? When I try to copy or cover another song, yeah of course I use pedals. A lot. I like to play some Pink Floyd when I feel like it. You can't really do that without any effects now can you (be it pedals or using an amp with built-in effects)?

On the other hand, I feel it's always the music itself that makes the song. Only rarely have I come across a song that sounded great because of the effects that were used. Mostly, those would have been great songs with or without effects either way.

How about this one? Sounds just like a guitar into an amp*. Magnificent song. It's just his singing, the beautiful backing vocals and a pretty straight forward 345 sound. It makes me think "pedals, what?!" Sheer magic.



*(yeah I know he tends to use a pedal here and there. But I don't believe he's got a lot going on here besides a guitar and an amp.)

 

[Cheap Trills]

I sound about the same through any gear I play. However, I play differently based on what gear I'm playing. If you understand that statement, then we can have a beer together, jam, and talk guitars.

 

[4pickupguy]

Of course. Getting used to less gain has been a game changer for me. Really digging it. Oddly enough, a Fuzz Face has made that much easier. Caring about your sound doesn’t have to mean being obsessed with gear which I am more than I should be.

 

[Blazer]

Yes, they sure are and that was the main complaint whenever I brought it to rehearsal “Turn that thing DOWN man!” and me going “Can't, this is as quiet as it gets.”

But the tone is just so good.

Quoting my own post here but yesterday at rehearsals, I hooked up my Fender to a Marshall 4x12 cab and everybody told me how good it sounds, but they also urged me to actually turn up, since it made the sound really come alive.

 

[Fiesta Red]

If you're gonna go pedalboard, GO PEDALBOARD!

View attachment 1057542

That makes me feel better about my pedalboard.

 

[39martind18]

Since I don't have blazing chops as a lead player, I need a really good tone to put my music across to my audiences. I find pedals generally get in the way of my tone. Onboard reverb and, occasionally, vibrato are about the only effects I use. My tone comes from my guitar and amp choices and my fingers.

 

[11 Gauge]

There was a time when I obsessed over tone a lot more. I was basically trying to replicate what I'd heard others do, both on recordings and live.

Over the years, I just experimented with all kinds of different guitars, amps, and pedals, to find the right combinations.

I think I actually prefer the sound of a BF/SF Fender with an OD pedal, as opposed to turning up the amp enough for it to be dirty the same way. I also love the sound of a BF/SF amp either totally clean on the vibrato channel, or maybe just starting to break up a little bit, so for some stuff, my '71 VR with the volume at around 6 (on the vibrato channel) is like absolute perfection to my ears.

I also really like my Marshall Origin 20H turned up to where it's just a bit dirty on its own, mostly with the boost engaged.

I've got a couple of modest pedalboards that each have a tuner, a boost, an OD, a delay and a reverb pedal. I never use any kind of always on pedal.

I play rock types of stuff almost exclusively, and almost nothing that anyone would consider country, and no jazz (I don't have the chops for that), and very little blues. I guess you can expand that out to surf/garage, but I kind of consider all that to be extensions of rock, anyway.

I also rarely ever feel a need for things to be either exclusively clean or distorted, so I kind of enjoy stuff all along the spectrum.

Probably more than anything, I just tend to gravitate to a specific sort of EQ/dynamic sound, and it doesn't actually matter what the actual rig is, as long as all the pieces in it can get that sound.

 

[Matthias]

I thought I cared but I spend a lot of time playing through a Mustang Micro these days and not even keeping track of which setting I’m on. It’s like tone goblin mode.