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*the* Guitar Tone


Johnny Foreigner

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I just have to add something to this thread.Hearing a player live ,can make a big difference in what you think of their tone.Sometimes the recording is better and sometimes live is better.I heard some live music early this year, that just blew me away.Much better live, Peter Gun by Duane eddy was one of them.Just sent chills thru out your body.

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For cleans, some kind of Fender guitar through a blackface amp, eg Explosions in the Sky

For dirt, an SG or similar through a Tweed, like this

That's about it, to get all the sounds I want it takes about 3-4 pedals, 2 amps, and 1 or 2 guitars(an SG/Tele HH with coil taps or a single coil in the neck could probably do it).

Actually I managed to get everything I was looking for(except looping) with a Fender Vintage Modified Deluxe and an american standard strat. It basically has 3-4 pedals built in though(drive, chorus/vibrato, reverb, and delay). Currently a bit outside my budget though.

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:D

Also gotta throw David Gilmour's tone on a lot of songs, just love it.

Well, yeah........David's pretty good. Understatement of the year! It's hard to hear a Gilmour riff and not know who it is.

When I think back to the music I grew up with, pretty much a steady diet of Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin, I gotta throw one more out there.

Jimmy Page.

I know he seems to be everbody's favorite to put down....too sloppy they say, but he was definitely a forerunner in the shaping of sound. And it's hard to deny that just hearing the beginning of one his riffs wil identify who playing it. And after 40 years it still sounds great.

SR

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That was his style, and I don't think the songs would have the same feel and emotion if he played with technical precision.

Back to Robin Trower, I've been listening to some of his live stuff the last couple of days and my lord that stuff is just dripping tone! Reminds me of the time I saw him live at Arrowhead stadium in Kansas City. That was during the Eagle and the Dove--Bridge of Sighs heyday. The sound was huge. Do they even have stadium concerts anymore?

Oh wait, I remember seeing Kenny Chesney and Brad Paisley on the Marquee for Reliant stadium last summer. Maybe I'm just looking in the wrong places....genres. :D

SR

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  • 1 month later...

Late to the party, but oh well -

For Metal - Mick Mars, Kickstart my Heart. Before flaming me - he's got a nice range of growling lows and clear highs without sounding over-processed

Others - it's a big toss up starting with a blend of SRV/Gilmour and Angus/MacAlpine. They all have unique tones which why I like them. I still think if Bill Haley was around a bit longer, he'd have a tone more like Angus than Chuck Berry :D

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  • 2 weeks later...

Such a difficult question, there are so many great tones out there. Some of my favorites -

Randy Rhoads - Flying High Again. That first chord just comes out and hits you in the face. It's totally searing. Great song, killer tone.

SRV - Little Wing. The cleans are so crystal clear when he rolls back on the volume, but when the guitar is wide open it has this really lovely, warm tube sound coupled with his amazing playing on that track.

David Gilmour - Time. I really like his tone in this solo, sounds violin-like at times.

Zakk Wylde - No More Tears. Killer rhythm and lead tone, and those pinch harmonics in the verse really jump out at you. His tone nowadays has a little too much going on for me, I much preferred his tone on this song/album.

Jimmy Page - Since I've Been Loving You. The lead tone is so small, it sounds like it's coming from a 3" speaker but it still kills and fits the song perfectly.

Neil Young - Hey Hey, My My (Into the Black). The absolute heaviest, most distorted tone I've ever heard. Always on the edge of feedback or the amp exploding. The first time I heard this song, it totally took my head off.

Billy Gibbons - Just Got Paid. One of my favorite intro riffs of all time. Real greasy, bluesy tone on his intro. Come to think of it, anything with Billy Gibbons is pretty much guaranteed to have superb tone.

Jake E. Lee - Shot In the Dark. I really like his lead tone on this song. Plus, the fills he plays during the chorus are really complimented by his rhythm tone.

Norman Greenbaum - Spirit in the Sky. I think this is quintessential fuzz tone.

And many, many more.

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Robin Trower - His tone for me exudes a dark and ominous atmosphere and a mood few others can cop

Alex Lifeson - La Villa Strangiato, again, his tone creates an atmosphere (actually several) that's hard for anyone else to replicate like he can

Robert Fripp / Adrien Belew era of King Crimson - again, tone creating mood and atmospheres, excellent!

Al DiMeola / Elegant Gypsy period, then again on Orange and Blue period - EG period fusion tone - clean sustain with superb staccatto machine gun riffs, moods and atmospheres created with tone that no one else can really capture. O&B has simply gorgeous clean Euro-type tones and textures all over it.

Jukka Tolonen - A Passenger to Paramaribo era - great '70's Euro-Jazz-Fusion tone, I always liked his 335 tone

Pat Methany - great atmospheres created with his double-delay approach in the '80's. Great atmospheric tone!

J.B. Hutto & Lil Ed - J.B. is the uncle of Lil Ed... Both have slide tone about as greasy as Pure Lard Pie. Slide Tone!

Michael Schenker - He does it for me for classic Hard Rock Tone!

And probably my favorite overall....

Guitar Slim (aka Eddie Jones) (Things I used to do LP) for the classic, 'My amp's gonna plum upchuck itself and throw up all over the floor' super-early completely gnarly-ass w/ no effects bluesman tone!

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Jimmy Page was great on rythm..only time he got sloppy(on recording) was in those leads...but that was his style.

I have been saying that for years and gotten some pretty outraged responces. I am glad I am not the only one anymore.

Have you ever seen tapes of him playing live? Led Zep wasn't that great live because he was usually so bombed he could barely stand, much less play.

That being said, I don't care if you're technical or sloppy, so long as you sound good and can play your instrument. I don't like a lot of effects, which is why I don't like listening to Satriani & Vai. I'd rather listen to Los Lonely Boys than them.

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Jimmy Page was great on rythm..only time he got sloppy(on recording) was in those leads...but that was his style.

I have been saying that for years and gotten some pretty outraged responces. I am glad I am not the only one anymore.

Have you ever seen tapes of him playing live? Led Zep wasn't that great live because he was usually so bombed he could barely stand, much less play.

That being said, I don't care if you're technical or sloppy, so long as you sound good and can play your instrument. I don't like a lot of effects, which is why I don't like listening to Satriani & Vai. I'd rather listen to Los Lonely Boys than them.

Exactly Wes.

As far as Zep not being that good live, from what I've seen it's more of the later stuff where he got bad into some really hard drugs (heroine?) that he started do pretty bad. The earlier concert stuff is pretty sweet.

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Mood altering chems have the ability to both make or break a good performance.

That's why they call it dancing with the devil, you never know who's gonna take the lead from night to night.

Yes, some of the crappiest performances from our great heroes could be chalked up to their monkey getting the better of them, but that same monkey years previously could be the same monkey that made them a household name to begin with.

Different sides of the same coin and all like that... :D

As far as Zep not being that good live,

from what I've seen it's more of the later stuff where he got bad into some really hard drugs (heroine?)

that he started do pretty bad. The earlier concert stuff is pretty sweet.

Some of the BEST musicians you've ever HEARD of were stoned on heroin (and other alternatives) night after night, for years on end...yeah, it got the better of most of them in the end, but before it did, it also made them take music to places it had never been taken before...

...just sayin, ...not promotin'. :D

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I think technique, attitude and personality can over-ride "great tone", or in another words, one guy's tone can suck, but everything else comes out and knocks your socks off, or at least makes you want to keep listening. Another guys got the whole "holy grail" rig at his disposal, but nothing magical to go through that rig.

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