Tone you don't like but works for bands you love

[Bardagh]

Rage Against the Machine. His tone sucks and the vocals suck but all together it comes out listenable for me .

I would agree except I also don’t find it listenable.

 

[Bardagh]

Ultimately I don’t think there are that many KILLER TONE kind of albums or bands. A lot of my favorite albums don’t necessarily have amazing guitar tones. They’re probably fine or pretty good or at least don’t get in the way of the song.

I would actually say Dimebag had a “great” tone even though I would never use it because it fit the material and his playing so well, worked great in the mix, and stood apart from what you heard elsewhere.

I was the biggest Death fan you could ever meet when I was a teenager but really Chuck always either had sort of bad or just passable tone. Symbolic is an amazing album and it has a GREAT MIX (seriously it holds up so well, the drums sound great) but the guitar tone when you focus on it is just kinda there. It’s serviceable and not BAD but it’s neither iconic nor ass kicking or anything else.

 

[Chris O]

I love type o negative , their productions always intrigue me because it's a big wall of sound , most times it's hard to identify what's what but I kinda like that .... so different.... I miss them , r.i.p Pete!

Read up on this a long time ago, and it's a Mesa Recto.

EDIT: just found this: Hickey's early rig (before World Coming Down) consisted of ADA MP-1 & MP-2 preamps or a Marshall JMP-1 with an Alesis Quadraverb running into Marshall 9005 and/or Mosvalve 500 power amps, which were run into one or more Marshall 4x12s w/ G12-75 speakers. During the recording of World Coming Down, Hickey used a Mesa/Boogie dual rectifier,[3] and still uses it, along with a Mesa Boogie Mark IV, as a backup. His main setup consists of a Mesa Boogie TriAxis preamp and TC Electronics G-Force effects processor being sent to a Mesa Boogie Simul-Class 2: Ninety power amp into one or more Mesa Boogie 4x12 cabinets.

 

[Gainiac]

90s GRUNGE. Don’t dig most of it, but I get it Fits. ‘Nuff said.

 

[Chris O]

Ronni LeTekro is an awesome player, but the tone can be a bit overbearing at times...

 

[Bardagh]

90s GRUNGE. Don’t dig most of it, but I get it Fits. ‘Nuff said.

The big problem was everyone went FX crazy, as if there had been a prohibition on anything but tasteful amounts of delay and chorus that was lifted in 1993 and everyone went on a flanger and fuzz binge.

 

[dawnofdreamx97]

Fricken love this song and performance of it

 

[Chris O]

If you were to judge TON's tone by their albums, you'd be missing out. What a great live band! They would come to MN almost every October for a number of years. Amazing live band, and one you had to experience.

 

[RaceU4her]

Ultimately I don’t think there are that many KILLER TONE kind of albums or bands. A lot of my favorite albums don’t necessarily have amazing guitar tones. They’re probably fine or pretty good or at least don’t get in the way of the song.

I would actually say Dimebag had a “great” tone even though I would never use it because it fit the material and his playing so well, worked great in the mix, and stood apart from what you heard elsewhere.

I was the biggest Death fan you could ever meet when I was a teenager but really Chuck always either had sort of bad or just passable tone. Symbolic is an amazing album and it has a GREAT MIX (seriously it holds up so well, the drums sound great) but the guitar tone when you focus on it is just kinda there. It’s serviceable and not BAD but it’s neither iconic nor ass kicking or anything else.

I don’t know man, symbolic and individual thought patterns are two of the great metal tones ever imo.

 

[PurityS.L.G]

Guns n Roses comes to mind. ?

Especially on the UYI records. Just fkn awful all around.

 

[Bardagh]

I don’t know man, symbolic and individual thought patterns are two of the great metal tones ever imo.

ITP is the worst tone of the latter-day Death albums IMO. Harsh and out of phase (Chuck’s love affair with phase and chorus on rhythm guitars ended after this thank god) also the whole mix sounds a little “dirty” like the master got a little trashed or something. Again as a whole it’s fine, it doesn’t sound bad especially by 90’s extreme metal standards, but if I’m listening critically that’s what I hear.

Symbolic is a huge step up soundwise in pretty much every way, and the guitar tone is better for sure. It’s a perfectly serviceable tone that represents the material well and I do like that it’s very clear and crunchy, but it’s also a little fizzy and maybe a bit flat. In the mix it works perfectly but if I were to just listen to those guitars on their own I would not be very impressed or moved.

I think SoP has a much better guitar sound but the final product doesn’t sound as good in a number of ways.