Thoughts on ‘chasing tone’

First off, great playing by you and the whole band. You have put the hours in to do your "Job" very well. I enjoyed watching this video because you all put out the vibe of, I love what I do. To me that coupled with a guitar tone that inspires you to play your guitar, or in this instance, emulate another players style and tone, is the most important hidden secret recipe.

I am from the school of find your sound rather that emulate another players tone, which brings me back to my statement earlier. Find a tone that inspires YOU rather than trying to match a particular song or players sound. That said, effects really go a long way to assure that you will pull off what needs to be heard by others to convince them that you have pulled "It" off.

To summate, keep digging for a tone that inspires you to play, others will also enjoy the effort put into that endeavor. That being said, have another guitarist play on your guitar through your rig and watch as all heads turn sideways wondering, why "It" sounds entirely different. Find a tone that inspires, and the best will follow!
 
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I sometimes chase tone in order to learn and borrow something from it. There may be some aspect of a tone that intrigues me, like Zeppelin’s Heartbreaker or Steely Dan’s Reeling in the Years, and I want to learn how they did it so I can try something inspired by that, but always salting to taste.
 
I love guitar and all the historic tones attributed. That "Holy Grail" tone never entered my mind throughout the years for some reason.

I was more fascinated when tweakin' and trying out different setups for my gear and hitting upon a sound and tone that was like incredible!! And one slight deviation of any parameters and it's lost again! LOL

Regarding playing covers....there's tunes that are very forgiving if you don't dial in close to the tone. But there are tunes imho that are kind a unforgiving ....the tone, feel and character should be at least somewhere in the ball park in order to have the impact. For instance...try using Santana's late 70's lead tones for Boston and vice versa. I seen players use psychedelic fuzz sounds playing Larry Carlton! ;-o...might have been ok if it was like intentional but the player was trying to nail his tone.

Tribute Bands I would think should be even closer....as that's what people would expect...somewhat note for note and the tone.

I do of course have my favorite "global" lead presets that I often go to for improvs....stretched out solos...etc

But I agree....it shouldn't be a rabbit hole
 
Rule number one . Never chase someone eles tone.

....he says as he copies Andy Timmons amp settings and buys a Stratocaster for modding purposes and puts a DiMarzio Crusier in the neck.
 
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First off, great playing by you and the whole band. You have put the hours in to do your "Job" very well. I enjoyed watching this video because you all put out the vibe of, I love what I do. To me that coupled with a guitar tone that inspires you to play your guitar, or in this instance, emulate another players style and tone, is the most important hidden secret recipe.

I am from the school of find your sound rather that emulate another players tone, which brings me back to my statement earlier. Find a tone that inspires YOU rather than trying to match a particular song or players sound. That said, effects really go a long way to assure that you will pull off what needs to be heard by others to convince them that you have pulled "It" off.

To summate, keep digging for a tone that inspires you to play, others will also enjoy the effort put into that endeavor. That being said, have another guitarist play on your guitar through your rig and watch as all heads turn sideways wondering, why "It" sounds entirely different. Find a tone that inspires, and the best will follow!
Thanks a lot bro! And I agree with you too!
 
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.
Well, yes of course
 
Guitar is like most everything else, it boils down to the goals or needs of the individual. Opinions on the best way to go about accomplishing those goals are still simply opinions. There are people who have a knack for certain things. Some can sketch and draw without even thinking about it. Some are great with music, others with numbers, still others with words. Some can walk and chew gum, others can even run and chew gum.

Personally, I am not naturally gifted with proficiency or dexterity that translates to an instrument but have always had a good ear. I was always plinking out melodies of songs on the radio on our piano. Frustrated my sister to no end, she was taking lessons and couldn't play a lick.

I'm naturally athletic, played baseball as a kid through high school and picked up golf later in life, becoming a scratch golfer and even toyed with turning professional. It was fairly simple for me, although it took a lot of practice, it didn't take a lot of effort. But music has always moved me and I connect with it in such a way that makes me want to play.

I say all of that the say this; not being naturally gifted as a musician, there are still certain styles and players I gravitate towards. Through the years of attempting to develop a sound that makes me happy, a lot 'tone chasing' went into figuring out why so-and-so's tone sounded different than this other so-and-so. Learning what made each player's tone unique and finding what I liked about it allowed me to integrate these different aspects into what eventually became my tone.

Some players know the tone they want and can simply sit down and dial it in. Others need to chase a bunch of different tones, and their tails, in order to find the one that speaks to them.
 
I have a Fractal audio product, so if I want to sound like my heros, I can. If I want to sound like me, yeah I can do that too! I think
 
I've based my set of 15 or so presets on amp models. Sort of a "wouldn't it be cool if I had all these amps" setup. So I can sit down and say, "Let's play the Dumble today!". And really, I just want the Dumble to sound like a Dumble. Maybe my idea of the iconic Dumble lead sound is Robben Ford on "The Miller's Son", so I might try to dial it in to capture that vibe. But it's driven by the desire to catch the best of the model, not to chase a specific tone.

Where I find that I have to watch out is that there are things that I just like and I try to put them in. For instance, I generally like spongy dynamics, so I'll often find that I punch up the SAG and the pre-amp hardness because that tends to emphasize that. It's also tempting to increase the harmonics as I find that tends to smooth out the distortion. My fear is that I'm somehow forcing all of the models into some level of "sameness". Sure, an AC30 is never going to sound like Boogie, but it's not always that clear.


IR's are an even bigger problem in some ways. Out of all of the factory IR's, there's only a handful that I really like, and very often not ones that match the speakers that would have been stock on the amp models. And IR's have a HUGE impact on the sound. So, if I'm using a small handful of IR's, am I adding to that overall "sameness" of my presets.

Not that I loose sleep over this, but it's something I ponder from time to time.
 
‘chasing the tone’ of a particular artists...I also don’t necessarily get the point sometimes.
... you could get damn close.
Thoughts and opinions welcome. Thx
Regarding covers, unless an act is known for putting a twist/spin on the artist/tone/approach, it's a good idea to get damn close for a few reasons (in my experience, YMMV, etc.).
  • It makes you better at dialing tones: improves your ear, expands your methods, approach, thinking, prevents laziness, etc.
  • For really well known tones, and especially tribute work, the closer the tone, feel, expression, attitude the more the audience loves it. It's critical for vocals, but definitely applies to guitar.
Does being a girl in a bra stop this badass from "getting damn close?" Hell's Belles no!

 
I don't necessarily "chase" anyone's tone, but emulating them from time to time helps me gain better understanding of how different pieces of the signal chain (including my hands :)) affect certain sounds. I guess you don't have to emulate a certain sound to learn that, but I tend to learn better when I have a target in mind. Sort of like running just to run, or training for an event.

That being said, ultimately for me it's more about weeding out elements of sounds I like rather than just copying someone's tone. For example, I like the neck pickup sound of Satriani on "Crystal Planet", and I like the really edgy high end gain on DGM "The Passage", and the low mid fullness of early '90s EVH. So emulating those tones to a degree helps me figure out how to get those elements into my own unique sound.
 
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.
 
Chasing Tones was a very important stage of my knowledge of the AxeFx Beast!
Expecially climbing the learning curve of all those "deep" amp parametres that are not so evident (i mean not like just putting a reverb pedal in the chain) because they interact with your playing style.
Sometimes a lucky guy can to invent something new and personal, but most of the times you must study the past before you can go over!
 
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Sometimes a lucky guy can to invent something new and personal, but most of the times you must study the past before you can go over!

There is a difference though between studying the past and I have to have Gilmour's sound because without it I am nothing!

What will make your guitar tone memorable to others is not how well crafted it is but the songs you use it on. Because if you write a hit song, then regardless of how crappy you think your tone was, someone else will go online and clamor I have to have XXXX's sound because without it I am nothing!
 
There is a difference though between studying the past and I have to have Gilmour's sound because without it I am nothing!
I don't think I've heard anyone imply or act like they're nothing without X guitarists famous tone. In my experience, there are a lot of guitarists who simply want a specific tone for their own enjoyment independent of what others think. There are also those who need certain well-known tones because they're in a cover band.

What will make your guitar tone memorable to others is not how well crafted it is but the songs you use it on. Because if you write a hit song, then regardless of how crappy you think your tone was, someone else will go online and clamor I have to have XXXX's sound because without it I am nothing!

I agree, though the same logic could apply with respect to production values in general, however I'd argue that a great song with high production values and great sounding drums, guitars, vocals, etc. make a song that much more enjoyable to listen to and ultimately that much more memorable.

It's also important to consider that X guitarists famous tone may sound fairly unrecognizable depending on playing style and the type of music it's incorporated into. For example, I've never heard anyone accuse Def Leppard of ripping off Boston's tone on Hysteria despite the exclusive use of Tom Scholz' Rockman on that album.
 
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