Different players, COMPLETELY different sound.

electronpirate

electronpirate

Axe-Master
Last night a bud came by for a few pop-tails, and I showed him my music room.

He's a player, not a great one, but with more money than talent (he owns about 6 NICE guitars, and they rarely see the light of day...oh, along with an old Super, and a Zinky Superfly.)

We fired up my rig, he popped on my LP, and proceeded to sound like @ss playing my JVM and Plexi patches. It was horrible. He's not good, but he has a certain style I can only characterize as 'sloppy'...he hammers the strings on the right hand, and does floppy fingers on the left. Honestly, he can sometimes come up with some pretty cool sh!t playing this way, but in this case, it was like oil and water. I had to drown him in delay and vibe to get any semblance of anything musical.

I switched places, and the tone was back! I guess I just play with a helluva lot more precision than he does.

Another reason that it's SO tough to trade presets. Sure I could have tightened that up for him, made it more for his style, but why?
 
Have had a similar thing happen myself... I was playing something, sounded great, a bud started playing and sounded different, not as chunky etc... definitely in how you strike the string, part of your hand that mutes, etc...
 
I had the opposite, my older brother was playing my Axe rig in my home/project studio and was getting incredible edge of breakup on my 335.

Completely blew my mind. I had the door open and could have sworn he was playing my vintage bassman rig.

Of course I couldn't make that preset sound anything like that! :) And the kicker was he was using all my gear, my guitar, my rig, my CLR's... :)
 
The first time I played through a Mark IV it was a wake up call. I felt naked and alone like it was my first day on guitar, and it really helped me learn to play. Prior to that, cheap distorted amps covered my mistakes but squealed and hissed like crazy.

Luckily it all comes down to preference and style. The Axe Fx makes dry and in your face tone as easily as the syrupy easy to play stuff. Steve Vai said it best and if I remember "Everyday is like Christmas with the Axe Fx"
 
I teach and play out a lot. Most of my early learning students, playing my guitar through my Ax2, will sound like crap. They either man handle the guitar or are timid. I really believe that once you know how to play, and are confident, you loosen up and it directly relates musically. Your touch becomes more precise and your dynamics are controlled. That's why they say "It's in the hands".
 
JT2 said:
I teach and play out a lot. Most of my early learning students, playing my guitar through my Ax2, will sound like crap. They either man handle the guitar or are timid. I really believe that once you know how to play, and are confident, you loosen up and it directly relates musically. Your touch becomes more precise and your dynamics are controlled. That's why they say "It's in the hands".
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Yeah, that's why i play better when alone and the record button is not engaged ^^
 
yeah maybe another factor going on here, (well apart from these guys are bad players), is that you learn to tame a sound

When playing with 150 amps and with differing amounts of effects and cabs, someone time you learn its not the sound

Its kind of like you work out how to accentuate the positive characteristics

i know my self, i dial up a patch and its like this sucks, however you may come back at another time and rock it out

Its my guitar spirituality things I've been sprouting to my band these days, dialing in the right sound isn't as important as learning how to tame and master that sound

yeah i know its gay, however 2 cents given, and i want change
 
electronpirate said:
Last night a bud came by

He's a player, not a great one, but with more money than talent

and proceeded to sound like @ss

It was horrible. He's not good, but he has a certain style I can only characterize as 'sloppy'..

I had to drown him in delay and vibe to get any semblance of anything musical.
I guess I just play with a helluva lot more precision than he does.

Sure I could have tightened that up for him, made it more for his style, but why?
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With friends like you, who needs enemies?
 
It all starts in the hands and mined…
I'm "considering" myself as modern player, I like progressive metal, chunky leads, massive distortion and crystal spacy cleans etc….
Also my playing style and technique is influenced very much by known "modern" players..
The other guitar player in my band is the complete opposite, he is the typical slow hand, a blues guy, using pedals, tele guitar, small tube amp etc…
Whenever we practice together and he plays my rig I just can't believe it is actually my setup, it all sounds soooooo bluesy, so old school style.
The funny thing is that every time I play his setup he just look at me and ask: how the Fxxk do you get this massive chunky distortion?
Of course when he play (same setup / pedals on or off) it sounds……bluesy.

I remember once I had a PRS that simply I could not get along with, no matter what I tried It sounded to me bad.
Than one time he played it and my god, the angels started crying!
I remember keeping it for some times only because it sounded so good when he plays it, but eventually it was sold to finance a MM JP6 which fits me like a magic.
 
There is a lot of truth being spoken in this thread. Even little things like pick selection can make all the difference in the world. I bought a few nice V picks three or four months ago, and used one in particular almost constantly with my Strat. Loved it, sounded big and warm and beautiful. Plugged in my Gretsch after not touching it for a couple of months, and it sounded dark and wooley and a lot of things that a Gretsch shouldn't be. I messed with the pickups, adjusted my patches, and was frustrated for weeks by it. I couldn't figure it out. Then I couldn't find my nice V-Pick, and picked up one of my old Fender Mediums, and yup- there it was, all that good Gretschyness came right back. It was the bloody pick!
The other player in my church band sounds totally different through my rig, and I don't sound anything like him through his. Attack and technique are HUGE factors in tone!
 
this is exactly why I crack up when people start ranting in the "tone is in the hands" discussions. Obviously a certain part of the tone is the rig, but the biggest is your touch, phrasing, attack, picking style, vibrato style...if you have any style whatsoever you sound like you no matter what the gear. That's why those vids where celebrity artist "x" is playing through some craptacular gear and everyone is like "OMG, SEE!! He still likes himself because he's so amaze balls"....no, it's because he's just playing the way he plays, it's the way HE sounds.

I don't know why so many people argue it...
 
yup all in the hands. No one I know sounds like me. I even sound like my self on other peoples rigs go figure lol
 
Funny I wonder if this is why sometimes I cant stand my tones and other times they sound great; is it my mood, ear fatigue, or the way Im playing that day?
 
symphx said:
Funny I wonder if this is why sometimes I cant stand my tones and other times they sound great; is it my mood, ear fatigue, or the way Im playing that day?
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Had that exact scenario happen last week when I plugged it in to my new active PA rig. I hated the tone, couldn't dial it in. Granted I did not play for about 2 weeks but still, muscle memory kicks in.

The point is that the same week I had my buddy who is a professional studio artist and recording engineer come over. He had me plug in, flatten the EQ, run signals left and right dedicated, BOOM! It sounded like it was suppose to and I was happy again. It is funny how having someone else witnessing you jam away helps and perpetuates your desire to dial in tonality differently.

It also can be how you are playing that day, I have had that... Just trying to sound like John Mayer ending up sounding like Carlos Santana trying to play like Tosin Abasi while tripping on 'Shrooms. Sometimes it just doesn't add up.. ;)
 
You can't have one without the other because without the amp, etc., you have no sound. But the way that the player interacts with the sound is where tone comes from for me.

A great example about patches and stuff.....every Mark Day patch I try sounds utterly horrible when I use it. Granted it's Mark's playing that I'm comparing myself to, but his touch and nuance is definitely different than mine. He can control the amount of gain that he uses to great effect where I tend to just sound like a mess. Conversely a lot of my patches are brighter and tighter (i.e., borderline harsh as hell) compared to what most people tend to like. But it works for me and sounds right.
 
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