lwknives
Power User
Really you are just re defining what tone means.I will believe that "tone is in the fingers" when I hear somebody make an open G chord on a Fender Telecaster straight into a Fender Twin sound like a Les Paul with EMGs into a 5150 with a delay and chorus in the loop.
Until then, I'll believe the truth, which is that "expression is in the fingers, while tone is in the guitar, pickups, amp, effects, cabling, power, room you're playing in, mic, recording preamp, post effects, etc."
ALSO, a bad player can make a good rig sound bad and a good player can make a bad rig sound good, but that's because what we consider to mean "sounding good" has a lot less to do with the tone than we might think. Music is about the expression of emotion, after all. So this means that the way you express yourself through your instrument is going to be more important than a bunch of gain stages, filters, and effects, etc.
However, in the same way that no matter how hard I press the gas pedal on a VW van, I'm not going to be able to win with it in a Formula 1 race, no matter how I hit that G chord on a tele into a Twin, I'm not going to be able to make it sound like a 5150.
So no, "tone" is not in the fingers, but the way you express yourself through your instrument, which is by far the most important part of playing, definitely is.
I could just as easily say that the sound that comes out of the guitar when an open chord is played is the RIG and the way the guitar player makes it sound is the TONE!
If you are just re defining the word tone to not include the sound that comes out when the guitar how can you know you are correct? The dictionary definition seems to be a little more open in its definition of tone.
But if tone is defined as the sound that comes out of the speakers then the expression definitely effects the tone!