Thoughts on ‘chasing tone’

FusionFanatic

FusionFanatic

Inspired
Something I’ve noticed on numerous threads over and over again is users ‘chasing the tone’ of a particular artists... whether it be amp tones, and / or effects used. While I ‘get it’ per say, I also don’t necessarily get the point sometimes.
I personally rather get a great tone (to me) from what I have and spend more time playing... understanding that we ‘tone junkies’ are all on the quest for the holy grail of tone.
To start... Everyone’s sound is somewhat unique to themselves. Your guitar, pick type and / or fingers, your attack, amp, cabinet, tubes, even cables, strings, and to Eric Johnson... batteries too.
With all these variables, and using the most advanced modeling pre-amp processor available, an amazing amount of possibities are at our disposal. Great ones at that, and yeah... you could get damn close.
I would love to dial in Brian May’s tone, Jimmy Page’s tone on the song Houses of the Holy, Allan Holdsworth’s clean and distorted sound... etc. But... I won’t ‘chase’ it forever, because of all the above things mentioned.
I play in a National tribute band, and another band doing covers and originals. I’ve been a gigging guitarist for over 35 years, and personally I have always dialed in various tones from clean to dirty, and have used these for whatever suits the song. Same with effects... although they can (sometimes) be easier to dial in.
We have a huge pallet of tones to choose from, and a huge variety of studio quality effects. FAS is a GREAT company that makes the best there is, and a great and helpful forum too.
Even with the over 250 amp models we have to chose from... all tube amps, even ones of the same make and model have their ‘own’ voice, same with guitars and cabinets (FR/FR included) which makes them very unique. Sure... the same amp or guitar will be in the ‘ballpark’, but you get the idea.
I guess I’m one of those players that look to capture ‘my’ sound, because in the end, on a guitar... your sound is all in the hands and what you use.
Thoughts and opinions welcome. Thx
 
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Agreed... Just like playing the instrument, too.

You could spend a lifetime trying to sound or play like Eric Johnson. But then, at the best you'll be the guy who is the second best at being Eric Johnson.

I'd much rather work on being the best me. Having an identifiable signature tone or style is where it's at.
 
I'd much rather work on being the best me. Having an identifiable signature tone or style is where it's at.[/QUOTE]
Agreed. Plus, to me... trying to sound and play like someone else is what I call a player who has an identity crisis lol
 
Nothing wrong with chasing tone if it is what one enjoys. Playing, performing, recording etc are all equally great aspects of the guitar hobby, but not better, nor worse.

I have a friend who enjoys baking, essentially trying to duplicate some existing unknown recipes, and she is darn good at it. The challenge of trying to crack what was used and how she can duplicate it is what she seems to most enjoy.

So if you enjoy playing, then play, and if you enjoy trying to emulate a specific guitar tone, above all else, rock on with that.
 
I have my own tone that's taken quite a few years to develop that inspires me when there's time to just sit down and make some music. However, I play in a church band and we cover a lot of different artists. Personally, I try to emulate the original band's tone as close as possible so "chasing" a particular tone is part of the gig for me.

Using a Les Paul through a Marshall for parts originally played on a Tele through an AC30 just doesn't seem right, especially with the availability of tools like the Axe. It doesn't serve the song in my opinion.
 
I never really chased. More studied, as for me, knowing what I'm hearing is paramount to understanding it so I can then create my own tones / effects.

My tone is constantly changing and evolving, and I think it's like this for most of us, at least those that are more than fiddler / bedroom players.

That said, I did a covers project where I put in ridiculous amounts of time to copy studio recording tones and effects for a small time bar band lol.... it was fun, I have no regrets.
 
JoKeR III said:
Worried about context yet you pull a quote out of the middle of a post?
Besides, when he closes with....

....it kind of opens the door to many possible points of view.
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My comment was only relevant to the context I quoted. Which is why I quoted only that part. ;)

I didn't say there was anything wrong with what you posted.

I was simply stating my opinion that I don't think trying to sound like the original artist when playing covers is what the OP meant by "tone chasing".
 
Even if you find the very tone you're chasing, it probably means nothing if you don't nail the playing style of the artist who's tone you're chasing too.

For example, Phil Anselmo told once that he would take Dimebag's guitar during a rehearsal break and in his hands it would sound like shit. And we know Dimebag's tone is famous.

I think catching tones is good for learning purposes but if you're not only a copycat and you have your own playing style, you need a tone that suits your own playing. Even when playing a cover.
 
FusionFanatic said:
I'd much rather work on being the best me. Having an identifiable signature tone or style is where it's at.
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Agreed. Plus, to me... trying to sound and play like someone else is what I call a player who has an identity crisis lol
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If you're in a cover band, many feel that playing and sounding like the original is the whole point.

But that is debatable too, as is the extent to which you chase after perfect emulation for every song.

I'm fascinated by the guys who build a different preset for each and every song their band plays, trying to get it exact. Personally, I just can't/wont do that even though technology enables. Too much work, time and stress to maintain, and it takes a lot of the fun out of playing live when it gets too complex. Also, the rest of your band and live mix stays the same all night. If your guitar tone changes every single song (based on matching the original artist's recording), sometimes it won't sit/cut right in your band's mix.

Yeah, so in general, I agree with you :)
 
I always have and always will chase tone. Trying to be the best me I can possibly be. I never try to absolutely nail an artists tone, because I'm trying to nail the notes so i can learn the song.
 
unix-guy said:
My comment was only relevant to the context I quoted. Which is why I quoted only that part. ;)

I didn't say there was anything wrong with what you posted.

I was simply stating my opinion that I don't think trying to sound like the original artist when playing covers is what the OP meant by "tone chasing".
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Okay, time to draw a picture.

The first part of my post indicated that I have my own personal tone that's used when sitting down and playing what I want to play. I indicated that in my case, chasing a tone is a result of the type of band I'm in.

I simply stated this as another perspective in response to the OP's query;
FusionFanatic said:
While I ‘get it’ per say, I also don’t necessarily get the point sometimes
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I was attempting to say the "point" in some cases for "...'chasing the tone' of a particular artist..." is not an attempt to have that define their personal tone but rather to be as authentic as possible when covering songs. The tones I 'chase' are not necessarily what I would choose for my own personal tone but being as accurate as possible is necessary for me to feel good about a live set.

I will attempt another thought, hopefully this one meets your approval.
Someone who is really into Jeff Beck will more than likely choose to play a Plexi and a Strat. They would probably want to play his music so they would naturally want to sound like Mr. Beck when playing one of his songs.

I think you would agree there are a lot of players who like several different bands and/or guitarists and try to play their songs. Naturally then, they would want to sound as close as possible to each one of them when playing their songs. Their own tone, whether intentional or not, eventually develops out a combination of the tones they've chased.
 
Whether it's the actual goal or not, it's inevitable. Even those who say they have created their "own" tone cannot help but be affected by their influences in some fashion. I don't think anyone who moves to the Carolinas, Georgia or Alabama plans on developing an accent but even if they try not to, eventually it's there.

Not to make a rabbit trail but I feel that style, more than tone, differentiates us as players.
 
Personally I couldn't care less about tone. I find it a useless pursuit. As long as I have a decent clean tone and a decent hi gain tone I'm happy. I keep reading about people talking about how they hear a tone in their head, I never had that. I had riffs in my head and my challenge has always been to bring those to life. For 15 years my tone at home was pedals into a Roland Bass cube amp using the XLR out into a mixing desk into headphones, and I was fine with that. Live I used a Fender Twin, which was obviously an improvement, but a pain in the ass to use at home. Because the big advantage of the Roland was that it was silent when you plugged in a headphone plug. A Boss DS-2 Turbo Distortion was my hi-gain tone and I home recorded a lot of songs with that setup. Tone didn't matter to me, the song did. And sounds. As a U2 fan I reckon you tend to gravitate more to chasing sounds and effects more then tone as Edge basically has a different tone with every song.

If I had a quest for tone it probably started in 2005 when I joined a Radiohead tribute band. But even there I was always more interested in chasing their many sounds and noises then nailing their amp tones. Those guys use a lot of Vox amps, I always used a Fender. Jonny Greenwood plays a Tele, I used a Strat. It did got me into using Lace Sensor pickups though. I learned to nail the sounds, never bothered with the amp tones, and guess what? Nobody complained about that. It taught me that when you do covers or tribute how you play a song matters, that you play the correct notes matters, that if there's an iconic effect in it, it matters but not as much as we like to think, and that as long as your basic cleans and crunch tones are decent and sit well in the mix, you might as well have something completely different then the original. Energy and presentation trump tone a thousand times over.

Chasing tone can be fun, and addictive, but lets not pretend that its as important as we like to think. For if you play well the audience will think your cheap Boss DS-1 into a cheap solid state amp will sound just as good as a gold plated TS-9 into a Dumble. Ultimately we do it for ourselves, and as a saying goes, a fool and his money are soon parted. And there is a whole industry waiting to cater to us to part us of our money in this quest, feeding our addiction. How many iconic albums were recorded by new upcoming bands that had absolutely atrocious guitar tones? And who later upgraded their gear with the best money could buy, but no longer delivered songs that were as good as those on their early albums? Lots of people cite Metallica's Black Album as one with excellent guitar tones. But if that album did not also have excellent songs as well it would only be known as the overproduced album.

In closing I want to leave you with this rig rundown vid of Tom Morello, where he talks about his Arm the Homeless guitar and how he gave up on chasing tone and instead focused on making good with what he had instead. I LOVE that philosophy.

 
With all the good answers, I’m not going to use any quotes. But in regards to ‘tone chasing’ and playing covers authenticity, I look at those as two different things.

Sure, most of us gravitate towards capturing the sound of our favorite artists. At the same time though, many of these artists don’t have the same tone when they play live.. some might.

Also, IMO... it’s more important to play covers with conviction and unless doing your own version, is to play whatever cover you’re doing as close to the original
as possible. Your audience will forgive you if it’s not exactly the same tone they used on the original recording. Exception, improvising a blues solo per say. I look at it this way... if it’s a solo that’s a ‘composition within the composition’... play that solo note for note. Examples... Hotel California.., Money, by Pink Floyd... etc. Blues and jazz artists as an example, improv all the time. YMMV of course.

I’ll post the demo video below of the Def Leppard tribute band I’m in. My tones were not to try and ‘nail’ the recordings, but I use sounds that I can use with other songs and for myself. This was recorded when I still used the Ultra... I have the IIXL+ now, so it’s even better. I’m the guy with the Les Paul.

 
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