George Lynch tone?

Hey Mr. Willy 👍, It really doesn’t offend me at all, I just think it’s very ironic that we are all such gear hounds, constantly searching for that last 5% to improve our tone and yet some people still think it’s mostly in the hands…
Now, obviously, Technique is ALL in the hands, which is how we immediately recognize an Eddie Van Halen or a George Lynch solo.

When Eddie played through that fender 42 years ago, of course, he sounded like himself, and everyone knew it was him even when they weren’t watching, but the tone coming out of that amplifier sucked.
 
There's nothing intrinsically special about Van Halen's fingers, or Yngwie's, or Steve Vai's. They're just bones and soft tissue. It has everything to do with how they hear things and their own creativity. Their own tastes. EVH's note choices, and phrasing, and rhythm, and timbre, didn't originate in his fingers. He could have amputated his left hand and learned to play the trumpet, and I'm betting it's still would have been distictive. With guys like Van Halen, you can see their personality and their creativity in every decision that affects the music, not just how they touch the guitar. None of it is in the fingers; they're just one of many parts of the mechanism.

I don't think anyone is offended, just the tired predictable responses of "it's in the fingers, man" when someone asks about copping a given player's tone. Even the OP knew to anticipate those kind of lazy, useless responses to a question about gear and timbre.
 
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No one is asking for trem picking, pentatonics, and Floyd rose advice when they ask how to get the brown sound.

Once you, I, or anyone else gets to a reasonably proficient level at guitar, we are all talking about the gear, not someone's magic fingers.

The only time the "magic hands-tone" argument comes into play is when it's a beginner asking the question.
 
The only aspect "in the fingers" is the phrasing; period.

That's assuming of course that the callouses are well formed (mushy callouses can fuck up your playing and tone); which they should be.
 
I think what is happening here is that when we say " fingers" I think some of us are equating it to the physical fingers while most of us are saying the tone is in the fingers is the culmination of the mind, phrasing, vibrato style, and right pick attack and timing. That is where the tone comes from. At that point that person plays on anything and sounds like them. So if you don't have that feel, nothing will give you the tone. It seems clear to me. We aren't talking about fingers here people...

But yeah of course you can get close to it and in some cases nail it when you can play in that style. Like Levin does.
 
Kapo_Polenton said:
I think what is happening here is that when we say " fingers" I think some of us are equating it to the physical fingers while most of us are saying the tone is in the fingers is the culmination of the mind, phrasing, vibrato style, and right pick attack and timing. That is where the tone comes from. At that point that person plays on anything and sounds like them. So if you don't have that feel, nothing will give you the tone. It seems clear to me. We aren't talking about fingers here people...

But yeah of course you can get close to it and in some cases nail it when you can play in that style. Like Levin does.
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You think you could use your "mind, phrasing, vibrato style, and right pick attack and timing" to get a Jon Schaffer rhythm tone without a Larry? Really?

I'm not even being facetious, I would be seriously impressed. Seeing as how I've devoted 20 years of exhausting, meticulous practice to develop that style + technique, and didn't nail the tone until I got a Larry.
 
Mr. Willy said:
I don’t think anyone is saying that tone is ALL in the fingers. You’re obviously not going to be able to plug a Metalzone into a Fender Twin and sound like Eddie on VHI. But the hands are a BIG part of the sound. Man, this really seems to offend some of you guys.
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I think people take more offense to people responding with that to tone questions on guitar gear discussion boards. It's a douchbag response in that context and people being douchbags generally pisses people off. When you think about it, the whole objective of saying that in response to tone questions on a guitar gear discussion board is 100% JUST to be that douchbag. Everybody knows the person asking the question was asking about gear unless they're complete idiots.
 
SpiderWars said:
I think people take more offense to people responding with that to tone questions on guitar gear discussion boards. It's a douchbag response in that context and people being douchbags generally pisses people off. When you think about it, the whole objective of saying that in response to tone questions on a guitar gear discussion board is 100% JUST to be that douchbag. Everybody knows the person asking the question was asking about gear unless they're complete idiots.
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This. 1000% this.
 
DanTravis62 said:
You think you could use your "mind, phrasing, vibrato style, and right pick attack and timing" to get a Jon Schaffer rhythm tone without a Larry? Really?

I'm not even being facetious, I would be seriously impressed. Seeing as how I've devoted 20 years of exhausting, meticulous practice to develop that style + technique, and didn't nail the tone until I got a Larry.
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No, I'm saying he would sound closer than any of us on a Larry but would sound pretty similar on any rig that was close enough. So the fact that you have devoted 20 years means nothing really because you aren't him. He would make the rig you've been building sound like him.

Anyway it doesn't matter. Not sure why it is an unwritten law here that you can't mention the obvious. What is wrong with eluding to the fact that if you can't play like the guy in question, you might be dissatisfied with the exact or damn near exact rig? Might save people time and money if they can't play for shit. I think most of us said hands and then gave suggestions so it isn't like we were being difficult. I totally get where you guys are coming from though so I think we can all agree that they both matter. The song writing is ultimately what matters. That's what we remember most.
 
I think we should feel good about ourselves though, we went full on gearpage for this one.

I already gave my gear suggestions but if he has none of those and has a bogner, he could probably turn the master up on the blue channel set to medium gain and goose that with greenbacks too. Then the rest ....is in the hands :p.
 
Rdodson said:
When did Lynch get into Fanes? I thought that was a part of that sound.
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Not sure. His Eminence super V were supposed to be inspired by fanes but then they were discontinued and replaced with lynchbacks which were more greenback meets v30. I have a pair of super V and they sound bitey. Hold up to gain well.
 
Kapo_Polenton said:
No, I'm saying he would sound closer than any of us on a Larry but would sound pretty similar on any rig that was close enough. So the fact that you have devoted 20 years means nothing really because you aren't him. He would make the rig you've been building sound like him.
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Then you aren't talking about guitar tones, you're talking about guitar styles.
 
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