playing *to* the TONE

[mentoneman]

After awhile after I built enough chops to fight a plexi and not be totally ashamed

Clips or it didn't happen! I needs me some DigiPlex clips and you ain't posted any!

Steve

Two words

henning amplification

 

[mentoneman]

Amen brother Pat! Flesh. its all about flesh.

I had the same problem with Engl amps. Good amps no doubt, but couldnt work with the tone. I sounded foolish, then Mesa welcomed me back into the fold.

DigiJams is right too, the single coil discovery is a righteous landmark.

Those were nice videos. Mentone owns.

For me SRV and Landau are very fleshy
many clean tone moments that bark when spanked.

 

[JackBootedThug]

i'm the opposite of all the posted examples. it's taken me years to develop my skills of making everything i play through sound like shit with no dynamics. A played a buddy's dumble with his authentic 58 sunburst once. I knew he didn't understand what i was about, when i asked him for a metalzone to boost it with. dumble+58 paul+metal zone=tonze.

 

[Greazygeo]

........aint no dynamics with 4+ gain stages.

I don't find that true with some 4+ gain stage amps. Even a 5150 can get good dynamics. Some amps though...on or off.

 

[Meathead]

Two words

henning amplification

Clips or it didn't happen.

 

[Meathead]

Agree!
That's why I ditched the Pod stuff...no playing for the gear there, just all glide.
I set my amps up similar enough (JTM45, Vox, Polaris...) so the feel, frequencies and gain are very similar.
I basically try to make all my amps sound like the same amp. That's why I see no point in buying anymore amps...I just have a flavor I like no matter what.

But I must say, getting on someone else's rig, that you're not used to, can be a nightmare for sure.

that is one thing i can't get around with the POD and the L6 effects. the plastic uniformity and lower dynamic ceiling of the devices drives me nuts! there are guys whose tones i admire who use L6 but for me and my touch, nope.

the hybrid amps are much more appealing, but all it takes is to call up a fender patch on a L6 amp and then plug in to a fender deluxe to hear what i'm saying. bogner alchemist lead tone is pretty neat though.

the M13 i bought almost had me until i unplugged it and tried my old chorus and drive pedals.

i felt so dirty and ashamed....

if the M13 did:
one great univibe ala megavibe
one great analog delay with modulation ala echoplex (keep the looping though..my favorite part of the M13)
one great compressor ala dynacomp
one great chorus ala arion or tristereo
one great reverb ala lexicon
one great drive ala tube screamer

i would still have it. but it did a gazillion mediocre things that sucked tone..

I figured that you wouldn't dig it when I saw that you wanted to try one. Not for the type of tone/feel you seem to like.

I'd love to see an all-in-one smaller sized stomp unit come out and pull off what you're saying.
I'm gonna test drive the Nova System (once they work the bugs out...they've been selling some faulty units).

 

[Sick Michael]

Playing to the tone =

Eric Johnson - Midnight/SRV
Knofler - Brothers in Arms / Local Hero
Timmons - Electric Gypsy
Landau - Roodes tones / Buzzed
Jeff Beck - anything!
Santana (not a huge fan, but he's good at this)
Moore - Blues alive video

 

[stephen sawall]

I think of hitting the guitar using my whole right arm part of my dynamic range. Dynamics means a lot of different things to different people.

 

[* velcro-fly *]

About the dumble stuff though, kills me when people ask how to get Joe B's tone and people start rattling off Cat5and CA Hello?!?!?!?!?!??! MARSHALL

I will admit I want to try a CA

Come on in, the water's warm and FWIW - the answer is in a combo of the above mentioned amps, specifically the Marshall and CA...fuck the Dumble idjuts

So, running the Aiken Intruder and the little brown sweetheart on the left is prettty much what you're talking about.

 

[* velcro-fly *]

[

About the dumble stuff though, kills me when people ask how to get Joe B's tone and people start rattling off Cat5and CA Hello?!?!?!?!?!??! MARSHALL

Stick with your JVM, seems to work for Joe...but it doesn't sound like his standard gig rig...

 

[mentoneman]

Great post Pat!!!!!

I got some lessons from Hinds a while back. That guy is a freakin' monster!! I have to admit to slacking off lately with high gainage. It fit for what the band was doing and did make things supah easy which was nice, but I would rather set a nice fender or plexi on 6 across the board and the proceed to play it until I can play no more.

Off to Monterey with the family for a day of aquarium/beach fun, then tomorrow its woodshed city for an upcoming rehearsal.

took lessons from hinds???
Noice!

How was Monterey?
We went a couple of thanksgivings ago when they had the great white in the tank...
I love that area

 

[tweed]

took lessons from hinds???
Noice!

How was Monterey?
We went a couple of thanksgivings ago when they had the great white in the tank...
I love that area

The lessons were on DVD Pat, I wish it was in person! Hinds is a badass and a great teacher from what I can see.

Monterey was great! Drove down and back the same day. Did the aquarium for maybe an hour then drove up the street to a pucblic beach and spent the rest of the day there. Water was freaking cold but we had a blast collecting shells and jumping over tiny waves. Had my 3yr olds hand, we would run out, then wave would crash and we would try and get to the sand before it hit us. That my friend is all sorts of fun!

 

[mentoneman]

Playing to the tone =

Eric Johnson - Midnight/SRV
Knofler - Brothers in Arms / Local Hero
Timmons - Electric Gypsy
Landau - Roodes tones / Buzzed
Jeff Beck - anything!
Santana (not a huge fan, but he's good at this)
Moore - Blues alive video

yuppers

notice how none of these examples are blazing speed demon solo songs

my favorite tone moments come from medium tempo songs, but evh yngwie dann huff holdsworth ej lane....get some killer shred tones

Gilbert and vai not so much

I can't wait to her guthries next disc!!!

 

[mentoneman]

took lessons from hinds???
Noice!

How was Monterey?
We went a couple of thanksgivings ago when they had the great white in the tank...
I love that area

The lessons were on DVD Pat, I wish it was in person! Hinds is a badass and a great teacher from what I can see.

Monterey was great! Drove down and back the same day. Did the aquarium for maybe an hour then drove up the street to a pucblic beach and spent the rest of the day there. Water was freaking cold but we had a blast collecting shells and jumping over tiny waves. Had my 3yr olds hand, we would run out, then wave would crash and we would try and get to the sand before it hit us. That my friend is all sorts of fun!

You just described my last 17 or so summers with my kids.

My son called me from Oahu yesterday just to tell me he went to Sandy beach sraight from work and skimboarded for 7 hours straight the day before and was headed back for more.

I get great joy knowing I passed on my love of the ocean to my kids and they are hooked!

 

[mentoneman]

About the dumble stuff though, kills me when people ask how to get Joe B's tone and people start rattling off Cat5and CA Hello?!?!?!?!?!??! MARSHALL

I will admit I want to try a CA

Come on in, the water's warm and FWIW - the answer is in a combo of the above mentioned amps, specifically the Marshall and CA...fuck the Dumble idjuts

So, running the Aiken Intruder and the little brown sweetheart on the left is prettty much what you're talking about.

Brotatoes when did you get 3 carol Anns???????

Brah....no ak an den!

 

[degenaro]

Yup, playing to te amp...the very reason why I never could make a Dumble work for me. That said playing to the amp has IMO more to do with how hard you hit than anything else. And I had the same issue with say a vibroverb with choking the snot out of the notes as I had when I played friends Dumbles with the exception of SSS or Dumble style amps. Now that I'm back at fingers with no pick I can actually work a vibroverb.

good point.

i definitely don't picture you being a dumble guy due to your heavy attack.

it's definitely always been my goal once i knew what i was doing on the guitar to play dynamically with tones and setups that respond to soft or hard touch, so i instinctively gravitate to players that use that element.
i had the advantage of starting on acoustic things like ukelele and classical guitars around the house, which are very responsive to things like picking with your nail versus the flesh of your finger for tone and volume, using lateral classical vibrato versus string bending, etc.

Yup, been playing a lot of acoustic and ditched the pick again so the dynamics thing is something I've been messing with lately.

i'd love to hear what you could do with an acoustic into the axefx.

i'm into earthy piano type acoustic gtr tones.

Seeing that my acoustics I use most is a 50 year old Gurian, and a nylon string Marchione both without electronics i don't see that happening.

 

[Anonymous]

After awhile after I built enough chops to fight a plexi and not be totally ashamed

Clips or it didn't happen! I needs me some DigiPlex clips and you ain't posted any!

Steve

Two words

henning amplification

How does this get me clips of Digi jammin' through his Marshall?

Steve

 

[Anonymous]

Two words

henning amplification

Clips or it didn't happen.

IT hasn't happened. Yet!

Steve

 

[* velcro-fly *]

Brotatoes when did you get 3 carol Anns???????

Brah....no ak an den!

That is a pretty sick picture.....

Truth be told,that was up a Jason's last week...I already had the OD2 sold but wanted to get it together with the others to check out. The brown OD2r came home with me, Jason sold the Tucana, and I shipped the OD2 out on Saturday. The Carol Ann's are bad mofo's. So much more going on with them than people realize. So now I gots one, Jasons gots none - and that's seriously subject to change

The OD2r is the low power version of these and is perfect for my needs. This amp fits this discussion here perfectly. It is what it is and really coaxes some different things out of the player (if you let it). Given that I'm pretty comfortable with it by now, I find diggin in to play to the amp and changing some things up. Same thing with the Aiken - its a toothy little rig and pulls out the metal head in me. Together its a pretty magic setup.

So yeah man, I agree 100% with what you're saying. Its useless to to try and make things be what they're not. Revel in the unique qualities they bring to the table.

 

[Anonymous]

I dunno... I feel like more of a man when I impose my will on the amp. The sense of power is intoxicating...

Steve

you know as well as anyone that corralling a peacemaker to bend to your will is not easy, but doable, and you are still left having to develop some "mojave fingers" to really extract the goods.

and the fight actually makes for great tone.

In all seriousness, I agree. What I'd say though is that your playing style and the type of music you play are going to dictate what type of amp you are drawn to.

Steve