Tone is in the fingers - Mythbusters style

[BIGKAHUNA]

Ok if this is retarded just keep moving on - or bust my ballz if needed. I dont know jack about recording. I have been wondering what "reamping" is so I googled it. Seems to me this would be a great way to put the "tone is in the fingers" belief to the test.

Has anyone ever (assuming it can be done) taken a track from one the greats like EVH, George Lynch, Randy Rhoads, Petrucci, Satch, Vai, Aldrich, De Martini etc and performed a reamp using an amp with that is known or commonly agreed to have a horrible tone? I think it would be interesting to say the least.

Blast away for feel free to comment.

 

[glpg80]

i vote a digitech grunge pedal slamming the front end of a pignose with a computer speaker installed and mic'ed for the reamp. cant get any worse than that

if you can make a garbage can sound great on the player end, then you can play anything and make it work. no myth behind this at all.

 

[steve_k]

i vote a digitech grunge pedal slamming the front end of a pignose with a computer speaker installed and mic'ed for the reamp. cant get any worse than that

that's my current rig........

 

[glip22]

I think the playing would be great but the tone will suck. Now if you play great and have shitty tone you will still sound good with shitty tone.

 

[steve_k]

I think the playing would be great but the tone will suck. Now if you play great and have shitty tone you will still sound good with shitty tone.

It will be good shit though...

 

[Shawn Lutz]

I think the majority of it is all in the hands of the player, their fingers and pickhand attack. It would be intresting to see that done but you would need a dry DI'd source to input into each amp.

The other side of things are the player playing off the amp, feeling the pick response while plugged into any given amp, you wouldn't get that feel happening IMHO.

Players will sound like themselves regardless of what they play through with slight color differences yet still identifiable as themselves....

 

[squank]

I used to think tone was all in the hands. Then I played an acoustic

 

[amiller]

Ok if this is retarded just keep moving on - or bust my ballz if needed. I dont know jack about recording. I have been wondering what "reamping" is so I googled it. Seems to me this would be a great way to put the "tone is in the fingers" belief to the test.

Has anyone ever (assuming it can be done) taken a track from one the greats like EVH, George Lynch, Randy Rhoads, Petrucci, Satch, Vai, Aldrich, De Martini etc and performed a reamp using an amp with that is known or commonly agreed to have a horrible tone? I think it would be interesting to say the least.

Blast away for feel free to comment.

Tone is a combination of gear and player. Your test would not be valid because EVH or anyone would adjust their playing according to the rig they were using...more attack, different pick angle etc. Also, each player would dial in the rig according to what they're hearing.

 

[romanianreaper]

I don't believe the whole "tone is in the fingers" thing. I think it is what you are playing thru. Granted, certain players have a "sound" but most of it is equipment.

Alot of people hate Randy Rhoads tone. Imagine him playing his licks thru Alex Skolnick's rig. It would sound unreal.

 

[glpg80]

I think the playing would be great but the tone will suck. Now if you play great and have shitty tone you will still sound good with shitty tone.

It will be good shit though...

 

[glip22]

I think the playing would be great but the tone will suck. Now if you play great and have shitty tone you will still sound good with shitty tone.

It will be good shit though...

 

[OUTLAW1969]

i vote a digitech grunge pedal slamming the front end of a pignose with a computer speaker installed and mic'ed for the reamp. cant get any worse than that

that's my current rig........

Yeah, but the Van Den Hul cable through the pignose makes alot of difference.

 

[Bob Savage]

But first, let's define "tone."

 

[freeballinusa]

Amiller had it right-- The player can use his hands to compensate...take a 'bad amp' and make it sound good but if it is a re-amp situation you take out that part of it which is huge, having said that I am sure certain characteristics of a great player would shine through 'blind' like that -- but all in all the premise is whack. Believe me it IS in the hands

 

[kasperjensen]

A Ferrari won't make you a better driver.

A Ferrari will however let a good driver unleash his/her potential.

 

[Alex_Flouros]

I happen to be one of those people that do believe that tone mostly comes from the way you play..
I do believe that probably all of the players you mentioned will sound good pluged on any kind of amp..
Yes they will sound better with a better amp..But their style of playing will overcome the poor tone of most cheap amps and make the result sound at least decent..
Vai is a good example for me.. I kinda hate the Legacy amp for my own reasons..I simply don't like the tone of it..
But Vai will sound good through it cause he's playing like Vai..I do hear the difference when he's playing through the Bogners..And it is better,at least for me..
But again his tone could be audible through almost anything..
Just my 2c. Don't start jumping on me..
Cheers!
Alex

 

[Ventura]

To the OP, the idea's a cool one, but it's not feasible as the reamp is happening outside of the original equation. I'm neither a 'tone in is the fingers' or 'tone is in the rig' kida a guy, that's inconsequential to the concept, but what's happening here, is if you ARE trying to prove or disprove that tone is in the fingers, it has to be proven at the time of incidence, not after. So, in this case, it would be EVH having to conjure something out of a Pignose, or Randy trying to conjure something out of a Traynor TS-15 or the like. It has to happen at the time of incidence to hold any water - otherwise it's a separate incident and relationship.

Parallel versus deductive versus incidental logic, argument and reasoning. No dice. There'd be a 'strange loop' in the argument when written down as:

Bob created Eddie.
Eddie created Sam.
Sam created Bob.

Sam is the reamp.

Mo

 

['63-Strat]

 

[bigdaddyd]

In all fairness, this is just E.J. using an inexpensive amp that is simulating a similar tone to what he uses not using a crappy tone as mentioned above. His normal rig is just excessive to the point of O.C.D. This is on par with Joe Bonamassa demoing a Marshall Class 5. Not really a good example. Now E.J. sounding like E.J. through an old Gorilla with no effects and forced to use another brand of batteries... just wouldn't sound the same. He would sound better than most, but not the same. Even here he has his tone dialed in.

 

[Zachman]

A Ferrari won't make you a better driver.

A Ferrari will however let a good driver unleash his/her potential.

It does also present the "Opportunity" to accomplish things that just aren't possible in let's say, in a Pinto, despite the driver's prowess or status. And... the exhaust note definitely stands apart from the Pinto, no matter who is revving the motor.