Request For Guidance Of Cliff & Also Forum Members About Signature Guitar Tone

Warrior said:
Follow the sound in your head. It constantly evolves as we constantly evolve and, likewise, an individuals idea of the tone they want from their instrument will evolve. Sometimes greatly and sometimes very subtly. The charachter of "your" tone will remain regardless (if you allow it). An individuals "satisfaction" with their tone at any given time will be determined by how closely you are able to produce the sound (including feel) you hear in your head.

The tone comes from your "fingers" (technique - which includes many sub-catagories as well as how you apply the equipment you use) as well as your equipment and don't forget your environment.

So the bottem line is....... the sound "you" hear in "your" head is as unique as a fingerprint. No 2 are ever "identical". Follow the sound in your head to get "your" tone.
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Thank you for your words !,definitely I'm following my mind in that way
 
Severed said:
Yes, playing through a cheap practice amp you will still sound like yourself because your choice of fingerings and techniques make up your "style."

However if you think for 5 seconds that you are getting killer tone with that $60 practice amp, well good on ya, but you need a reality check..
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I've honestly never played through a Peavey Rage. But I bet I could make due with it in a pinch.

What the hell is "killer tone" anyhow? It's way too subjective. Get ten guitar players in a room and you'll get a dozen opinions. People post stuff all the time on various forums that they think is killer tone and it sounds like canned ass to me. I'm sure others think that stuff I like sounds terrible. And a lot of times tone doesn't matter at all. For instance, the guitar tone on Blizzard of Oz sounds horrible to me. But Randy Rhoads played his ass off so it didn't matter at all - I still listen to that album regularly.

And there are some truly legendary recordings with really cheap little amps that sound killer IMO. Jimmy Page with a little Supro (I wouldn't argue that the Rage is comparable though), Fender Champs are countless great recordings (some great Faces stuff for instance), Keith Richards has used all manner of cheap little amps over the years, and let's not forget the Pignose:

 
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Chasing that "ideal" tone or "your" tone is an endless and futile journey that we as guitarists tend to spend way too much time on. Generally, when you try to come up with "your" tone you end up with a "bedroom tone" that will get lost in a mix. Gear of course has an impact, but style and technique contribute to tone too. Something as simple as picking technique has a huge impact on tone. Great players can get anything from a smooth clean tone to hard rock/metal on the same amp with the same settings just by adjusting the volume knob and how they play.

No one here is saying that gear doesn't matter or that quality gear won't help with tone, and no, you're probably not going to get what most would agree on as "great tone" on a Peavey Rage. A great player is going to be able to make a cheap pawn shop guitar sing when played through that Peavey Rage though - and it's not just what they play that you'll be hearing, their personal tone will come through.

Obviously some will disagree and not believe that, but I doubt anyone here is going to be able to call up (insert famous guitar player here) and have them play a crap guitar through that Peavey Rage and record it...
 
hey fellers I just came up with the idea of this tone for one of my demo guitar solo from our upcoming album, I just worked about 60 hours on this tone, following the link is the result



kind regards,
 
if only i could make a pignose sound like that

wow!

i agree with cliff tho

its time to do your own thing and what betta than the axfx for you to find something totally your own
 
Cliff just gave us FW17, surely if that, and the 200+ amps can't get one a unique tone, I'm not sure how much we can really ask him to do for us.
 
lqdsnddist said:
Cliff just gave us FW17, surely if that, and the 200+ amps can't get one a unique tone, I'm not sure how much we can really ask him to do for us.
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But.....but...but... the guys in this thread just said you don't need anything more than a practice amp because tone is all in the hands and there is no point in buying different gear or upgrading firmware because you will always have the tone of your hands no matter the gear or firmware and you will always sound the same.......

/sarcasm off
 
Severed said:
But.....but...but... the guys in this thread just said you don't need anything more than a practice amp because tone is all in the hands and there is no point in buying different gear or upgrading firmware because you will always have the tone of your hands no matter the gear or firmware and you will always sound the same.......

/sarcasm off
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Nobody here is saying play through (or buy) crappy gear... What is being said; some players have the ability to make "anything" sound great, or they made due with what they had at the time... That's all really, it's not an argument, it's a fact.
 
Sharka said:
Nobody here is saying play through (or buy) crappy gear... What is being said; some players have the ability to make "anything" sound great, or they made due with what they had at the time... That's all really, it's not an argument, it's a fact.
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That's an OPINION that leads to the logical fallacy in your argument: that the rest of us DO in fact need > crappy gear to sound > crappy gear... which is exactly the point Severed and I are making.
Talent playing through garbage is still talent, just as the garbage is still garbage tone.
 
Tone is like color, there are no bad colors, and there are no bad tones, a creative person/artist can probably make a song out of any given tone/sound, even if its modeled on a Micheal Moore cheese burger fart

That being said, there are other things at play here

There are tones that sound more like something else ie mimic
There are tones that sound more contemporary or modern more appropriate for certain genres styles of music

Playing a particular tone can be very inspirational, that is a subjective thing, but if your inspired the more likely it is you can make that tone sound good

Conclusion

So in the end, it really is the player/artist that make tones sound great, however its the listener who has the final say, just like its the artist that make colors look great though it really is all in the eye of the beholder

Last note, someone people may have favorite colors and favorite tones, genres styles, however we will get caught in an infinite loop here which may result in a singularity that takes down the site
 
Rotti said:
That's an OPINION that leads to the logical fallacy in your argument: that the rest of us DO in fact need > crappy gear to sound > crappy gear... which is exactly the point Severed and I are making.
Talent playing through garbage is still talent, just as the garbage is still garbage tone.
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It's not opinion... It happened. People made music with that gear whether you like it our not. So, according to your logic you are basically saying all Queen and countless other artist use gear not your standards, they'er albums are garbage. Okay... if say so.
 
Hyper Planet said:
There is always something around my mind about creating my own unique and original tone on the guitar tone land.

1- what we need exactly ?,
2- It's a huge, complex and expensive circle ?
3- Do we need a really good studio, sound engineers and mixing guys like:
Richard Chycki, Andy Wallace, Paul Northfield,Rick Kwan, Michael H. Brauer, Doug Oberkircher, Kevin Shirley...?
4- We could only use just a really good guitar tone tools such as AXE-FX ll ?
5- How much sound engineering and mixing guys are involve in this circle ?
6- How much our idea about that original guitar tone is important ?
7- Which one of them has more additional contribution ?
8- Do you think all the story happens in the studio by engineers tricks and techniques ?

Kind Regards,
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I grew up in a time when most great guitarists created their own signature sounds. The Beatles, The Byrds, Cream, Jeff Beck, Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Queen, Yes, Genesis, U2, Adrian Belew, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Eric Johnson, etc.

Your sound starts in your head. You also sometimes get lucky just experimenting with a new effects unit (or combination of effects). Adrian Belew was great at that. He came up with many unique sounds. David Gilmour is another great example.

Brian May’s main sound was a combination of the guitar his dad made for him, a treble booster,echoplex, and Vox Ac30s.

The great old Rockabilly sounds were mainly the sound of the guitar, amp, reverb and a delay unit.

The great old blues sounds were mainly the sound of the guitar and amp, with no effects.

Clapton’s sound in the Bluesbreakers was a Les Paul, Marshall, and a treble booster.

Cream’s sound was an SG into a Marshall.

Jimi Hendrix main sound was a Stratocaster, wah, fuzz face, and univibe.

When I first met Stevie Ray Vaughan (before he had a record deal), he used a Stratocaster, a wah a tube screamer and a small Marshall combo amp. He sounded like the Stevie Ray Vaughan we all know today.

So clearly you do not need a lot of things going on to have a great sound. It can be as simple as your guitar amd amp choice.

In the old days it was mainly your choice of guitar and amp. A Telecaster, Stratocaster, Les Paul, Gretsch, Rickenbacer, all sounded very different from each other. As did your choice of amp. A Fender Twin, Bassman, Vox Ac30, Hiwatt, Marshall Plexi, etc all sounded very different from each other.

A great producer can help making your sound even better. George Martin had a lot to do with the Beatles guitar sounds. As did Eddie Kramer for Jimi Hendrix.

It starts within you though.
 
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