Tone chasing is exhausting

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Does anyone else feel the same way? I have enough self-awareness to know that I've recently been spending way more time researching and looking for deals on amps than actually practicing guitar.

It's almost like I'm never satisfied? I own an FM3, a Bad Cat Lynx X and I just got Revv Generator MkIII. They all sound great. But even today, I was looking at clips of KSR amps and wondering "Maybe I should've gotten a KSR instead of a Revv..."

I get it to some extent. You can only know so much about an amp from Youtube videos. You have to play them in-person to get an idea of how they feel and sound with your guitar/cab/speakers. Many high-end amps aren't available in most stores, so you either have to buy one yourself, have a friend that owns one, visit the manufacturer (if you're lucky enough to live close-by), or go on hearsay and random forum posts.

I dunno. I remember a simpler time when I was ignorant to all of this stuff and was happy with my $40 Washburn guitar and a Vox VT30.
 
tone chasing for me stopped when I came to the conclusion that my arthritis prohibits me from playing after carrying something heavy. I sold my 5150 iii and went to the hx stomp. I couldn’t be happier. Everything I want is in that little box.

i use the Friedman model mostly and it gives me the tone I hear in my head.
 
Yes. I feel the same way a lot. I feel I obsess way too much over this or that piece of gear. It’s funny, I’ve run across so, so many players that could just tear it up, and they where playing through what we’d here consider pedestrian type gear.
 
It’s the reason I started modding amps. Nothing ever made me fully satisfied. Every amp was a compromise in one way or another. It was frustrating.

The only way to get the tone in my head and the feel/ response was to do it myself. I have lots of high end amps. Haven’t touched one of them since.
 
It’s the reason I started modding amps. Nothing ever made me fully satisfied. Every amp was a compromise in one way or another. It was frustrating.

The only way to get the tone in my head and the feel/ response was to do it myself. I have lots of high end amps. Haven’t touched one of them since.
It's funny you mention that because I've started getting interested in electronics and how amps work. Did you have an electronics background before you started tinkering? And are there any learning materials you'd recommend?
 
Tone chasing is addictive and even now tuning my Marshall, I’m still perfecting what I hear to what’s in my head. The wife says the changes are small enough to her that she can’t hear a difference but every chord I strum when it doesn’t sound right requires me to tweak it a bit. I’m gaining headway - even with an MSEE theory will only carry you so far. There’s many different ways to tune a circuit and you’re trying to find the combination that you prefer in your head.

I’m done with amps though - if I can’t get what I’m looking for out of my collection I have to stop playing all together - I’m thankful beyond my wildest imagination to own the gear I do and have access to it daily to play. I may not be professional level, but it inspires me to just pick up and play.
 
tone chasing for me stopped when I came to the conclusion that my arthritis prohibits me from playing after carrying something heavy. I sold my 5150 iii and went to the hx stomp. I couldn’t be happier. Everything I want is in that little box.

i use the Friedman model mostly and it gives me the tone I hear in my head.

What do u plug the HX Stomp into?
 
I have 1 more amp on the way and then I'm done.



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For me it was more about wanting to try all the more hard to find stuff like Peters,KSR,REVV and such.
Finally decided a while back to stop. Too many cool things out there now.
If I was wealthy and had more time to devote to writing and recording,I'd keep trying everything I could get.
 
Like above, I wanted to try a few different things out to see what I liked and didn't like. Some were really great but with a few caveats being they didn't have this or that feature that I needed. Others were good but just not quite what I was looking for or had something that I didn't need on it. Either way, I finally have my sound that I like and with every single option and tone I could ever want.
 
Yes, especially seeing as I always come back to Marshall, TS flavour, amp, greenbacks. Should have put my money elsewhere
 
So many of our favorite tones are just great riffs… our brain tricks us and makes us look at it From one side of the coin or the other ( was that great tone or a great riff?). Never forget that. Write killer stuff, and it’s amazing how much better your tone is all of a sudden.
 
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