Tone is in the gear, technique is in the fingers, BUT...

[TheGreatGreen]

I believe a lot of what we think of as "tone" is actually technique.

I had an injury to my right wrist recently, which took me out of playing for a few weeks. I'm healing up fine now though, and have started playing again. Last night I was going through some woodshedding stuff and kept thinking "man my amps sound mushy, what's going on?"

Well... it turns out the thing going on was *me.* I was out of practice and it took me a while to realize that the reason fast single note runs weren't as clear, and didn't have as much "note separation" and percussive bite as they used to, had nothing to do with my amp settings or how much low cut was or wasn't happening in the boost I was using. The lack of tightness turned out to just be my own sloppy playing. As soon as I identified the problem and devoted more concentration towards making my fingers move exactly like they should (which was more concentration than by brain was used to as I'm out of practice now), the problem resolved itself relatively quickly.

This also got me thinking about the relationship between where gear stops and playing starts, and how that relates to what eventually comes out of the speakers. This is surely a subject that definitely hasn't been beaten to death a million times over since the dawn of tube amps, but it's always worth consideration I think.

I'm defining technique here as "the ability not just to hit the right notes, but to hit them in such a way as to get exactly what you want out of the gear you're using." So if you're ever unhappy with your sound, make sure to check your own playing first before moving on to blaming the gear.

 

[Ben Waylin]

 

[nightlight]

I believe a lot of what we think of as "tone" is actually technique.

I had an injury to my right wrist recently, which took me out of playing for a few weeks. I'm healing up fine now though, and have started playing again. Last night I was going through some woodshedding stuff and kept thinking "man my amps sound mushy, what's going on?"

Well... the thing going on was *me.* I was out of practice and it took me a while to realize that the reason fast single note runs weren't as clear, and didn't have as much "note separation" and percussive bite as they used to, had nothing to do with my amp settings or how much low cut was or wasn't happening in the boost I was using. The lack of tightness turned out to just be my own sloppy playing. As soon as I identified the problem and devoted more concentration towards making my fingers move exactly like they should, which was more concentration than by brain was used to because I'm out of practice now, so I have to put in more effort than "normal" to make up for the difference), the problem resolved itself relatively quickly.

This also got me thinking about the relationship between where gear stops and playing starts, and how that relates to what eventually comes out of the speakers. This is surly a subject that definitely hasn't been beaten to death a million times over since the dawn of tube amps, but it's always worth consideration I think.

If you're ever unhappy with your sound, make sure to check your own playing first before moving on to blaming the gear.

Sound advice.

 

[braintheory]

In situations like that (I’ve been there, but more in classical guitar) my thoughts still were my tone is ok, but my playing is rusty as hell. I think it can be helpful to record oneself, listen and hear how the tone is and the quality of playing. It is true that both tend to get either better or worse with each other, but not always IME

I personally never had a time where my playing was rusty and thought “man what happened to my tone”. It would just be that my playing and coordination needed to be better

If I’m playing gear with really good clarity (like a Klon or Wizard) and there’s a lack of note separation, it’s obvious that it’s my playing, not the gear causing the issue. The gear just better highlights where I’m lacking in playing. It’s just another scenario of great tone with subpar playing with it. Like a singer with a great voice, but poor execution

 

[thegame]

I barely touched the guitar in 2016 due to health concerns. When I plugged in during that time I had the same thoughts that everything sounded like shit. It was definitely me, not the gear. When I got better and played more, the tone I was used to came back. I've said this before and it bears repeating: tone is in the gear AND hands. The gear contributes in ways the hands can't and vise versa. This is a perfect example of people in general only seeing things in black and white or in strict absolutes.

 

[TheGreatGreen]

Yeah, good sound definitely comes from both gear and playing as a kind of symbiotic relationship, (maybe even a co-dependent one for some of us, hah), and usually neither will get you where you want to go by themselves. A Les Paul neck humbucker with the tone on 0 going into a Dual Recto's Red channel with the gain cranked and no boost in front is not going to sound tight and articulate, no matter how tight and articulate your playing is. And the most expensive, driest sounding Wizard you could get Rick to conjure up won't make you sound tight and clear if your playing isn't right there with it.

 

[Devin]

I believe a lot of what we think of as "tone" is actually technique.

I'll have to ask Tag what he thinks about this

 

[braintheory]

Yeah, good sound definitely comes from both gear and playing as a kind of symbiotic relationship, (maybe even a co-dependent one for some of us, hah), and usually neither will get you where you want to go by themselves. A Les Paul neck humbucker with the tone on 0 going into a Dual Recto's Red channel with the gain cranked and no boost in front is not going to sound tight and articulate, no matter how tight and articulate your playing is. And the most expensive, driest sounding Wizard you could get Rick to conjure up won't make you sound tight and clear if your playing isn't right there with it.

In the case of the wizard you’d get in that scenario a very articulate base sound that further highlights where the playing is lacking or unsynchronized vs other amps not being able to show as much

The new Hell Razor model can get also more saturated and gainy than the others, but still maintains an impressive amount of note definition and openness for how much gain is there (modern levels unboosted)

 

[TheGreatGreen]

In the case of the wizard you’d get in that scenario a very articulate base sound that further highlights where the playing is lacking or unsynchronized vs other amps not being able to show as much

The new Hell Razor model can get also more saturated and gainy than the others, but still maintains an impressive amount of note definition and openness for how much gain is there (modern levels unboosted)

Exactly. My point was that the end result of both scenarios would be a failure to achieve what you want.

Another way to say it would be that you can't really buy or tweak your way into having great tone alone. Of course this is not to say your gear has to be expensive, far from it. Just that your playing is every bit as important as the gear itself.

 

[braintheory]

Exactly. My point was that the end result of both scenarios would be a failure to achieve what you want.

Another way to say it would be that you can't really buy or tweak your way into having great tone alone. Of course this is not to say your gear has to be expensive, far from it. Just that your playing is every bit as important as the gear itself.

Well I agree that to have an overall package that others would like the tone and playing both have to be good, but I see them as 2 different goals that both help each other. It seems if you just have one of the 2 most listeners aren’t able to separate and just hear something they don’t like, but as guitarist or serious musician trying to learn as much as we can I think there’s value to be gained if you come across a player that has just one but at a very high level

 

[TheGreatGreen]

Well I agree that to have an overall package that others would like the tone and playing both have to be good, but I see them as 2 different goals that both help each other. It seems if you just have one of the 2 most listeners aren’t able to separate and just hear something they don’t like, but as guitarist or serious musician trying to learn as much as we can I think there’s value to be gained if you come across a player that has just one but at a very high level

Yeah definitely. I'm sure anybody who considers themselves a fan of metal has heard plenty of phenomenal playing through bullshit terrible gear and even worse production. You can absolutely learn something from that.

And anybody with access to youtube can see an endless parade of top-shelf gear that sounds like it's amplifying a guitar being thrown down a flight of stairs. There's just as much to be learned there, too.

 

[braintheory]

Yeah definitely. I'm sure anybody who considers themselves a fan of metal has heard plenty of phenomenal playing through bullshit terrible gear and even worse production. You can absolutely learn something from that.

And anybody with access to youtube can see an endless parade of top-shelf gear that sounds like it's amplifying a guitar being thrown down a flight of stairs. There's just as much to be learned there, too.

Yeah there’s plenty of great players who just don’t seem to care that much about tone. I’ve also heard plenty of bad players on both electric and classical play great gear and they’d have amazing tone when playing simple stuff like a few chords or long held notes spaced out, but then sound bad once playing stuff more challenging, but my ears just kind of tune out for those parts lol. I think those bad players know how to get good tone as long as they’re not playing stuff beyond what they can do even if it’s limited for them

 

[MadAsAHatter]

Tone is in the gear, but its the player's technique that will either bring that tone out to its full potential or shroud it in darkness with sloppy playing.

Edit: Adding to this that the greatest player could probably make it sound passable, but could do only so much with a K-mart special rig.