TOP SECRET TONE

[thegreattailz]

Ive been looking for that killer tone for years, and its really a million dollar sound. Its a sound that comes with professionalism, and I hate to say it but it all seems so top secret unless you know a someone famous or a guitar tech. The instrument and amp makers arent dumb, that know what sounds good so its really a money thing. The more money you spend on the best gear the better your going to sound. But its not so easy as looking something up, I think alot of trade secrets are locked up in $20,000 rigs and the guys that know that stuff dont cough it up easy. It takes years to learn and know your gear and ive been playing 18 years and I still havent found the optimum sound. But ill tell ya, I demoed a dual rec with a les paul and it came close.

I got a question, many years ago I owned a crate blue voodoo 100 watt all tube head. I was only half satisfied with it and it was when i was younger and less experienced with running my lines. I realize it wasnt a high end amp, but many years after I sold it a friend hooked up a digitech death metal pedal to one and man for some reason it roared, and I couldnt figure it out I never got mine to sound like that. I currently use a marshall, and I heard your not supposed to use high gain pedals with a marshal head. Just wondering if anyone heard anything about this and if anyone has any great tone stories for metal/hard rock and if you have any examples of a million dollar "GOD" tone, post em. Thanks

 

[thegreattailz]

Dan donegan from disturbed gets a pretty decent tone in this vid for live sound. I doubt its his gigging rig but it still sounds pretty decent

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5DkAkmcq7a0

 

[JCDenton6]

I recall him using a 3 ch Dual Rectifier for his high gain tones.

 

[RSRD]

Its in the hands bro

 

[FourT6and2]

This is the most ridiculous BS I've ever read. One of my favorite tones ever is just a Les Paul plugged straight into a cranked Super Lead. No secrets. No special sauce. Tried and true setup that many "pros" use.

 

[Rogue]

This is the most ridiculous BS I've ever read. One of my favorite tones ever is just a Les Paul plugged straight into a cranked Super Lead. No secrets. No special sauce. Tried and true setup that many "pros" use.

Yep. Some of the best tones ever recorded where with off the shelf, and out of the pawn shop, amps. Starving artists don't have $20k rigs and back in the day the only non-starving artists were guys that made it big and guys that did it on the side of the bill paying job (who weren't going to make it big). Those guys had what they could afford and what did the job for them. If they were lucky, they might have it modded by someone in the business.

The secret? Learning to sound good with the gear that does your genre. That's actually harder than buying all the gear.

 

[supersonic]

Stop kidding yourself, there is no secretive gear, your guitar should sound great without any amp at all. Different amp= different flavour, that's all. Tone is in the fingers.

 

[chunktone]

Stop kidding yourself, there is no secretive gear, your guitar should sound great without any amp at all. Different amp= different flavour, that's all. Tone is in the fingers.

While I'm not a "tone is in the fingers" guy, I will say there are many examples of great players getting great tones with relatively cheap gear. I have also seen the opposite of this. People who can buy anything, but not get great tone. You can get all the info you need in a matter of minutes these days. Some people just have a better ear for tone than others.

 

[Rogue]

Wait a minute, I've changed my mind. I do have some top secret tone gear I could sell.

 

[Heritage Softail]

For me, taking lessons as an adult. I have had about a dozen lessons with a label studio guy.

Second, paying attention to the little things the pros share. I have been messing with pickup height, string gauge, and the biggest is the improvement in my sense of timing. Not that I am good, but working on the slight lead or lag, and the funky timing of an awesome guy dealing with time, Nuno. trying to just nail the feel of some of Nuno's work, not even play it all right, just get the groove.

Third, record your practice on your boom box. Teacher demanded it.

So aside of baseline decent gear, get a professional musician teacher. Do it... And how cool is it that Pete Thorn is now giving some lessons now...

 

[crankyrayhanky]

Everybody stop misleading the OP and let's blow the lid off this thing:
Jazz Picks

 

[Shiny_Surface]

I need a top secret set of hands/ears, can anyone hook me up?

 

[Ventura]

To the OP... It's not the mega buck rigs providing the mega sweet tones, although expensive rigs don't preclude fine tones and playing.

A cranked combo with a great player and a strat, lester or MIJ-whatchamacallit can totally out do a poseur with a huge dollar rack rig and the finest guitars. It's the mojo, it's the fingers, it's the soul of the player...

Cheers,
Mo

 

[thegreattailz]

Actually I demoed a ROLAND CUBE SOLID STATE 2 6 inch speakers, and a crappy squire strat at a retarded best buy music store, and the tone I got out of it was suprisingly amazing. A $300 solid state amp and a squire strat... Whoda thought...

 

[thegreattailz]

This guy gets a bad ass tone from a processor and no loop... Just a strat and whatever amp hes got

Bad ass...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IsHn9e5V ... plpp_video

 

[Zachman]

The reality/Secret is: Guitar is cool because it's hard. I mean it takes effort, and that goes for selecting, routing, and programming gear too, to accomplish the goal-- not just learning to manipulate one's fingers on the guitar, BUT learning to and becoming proficient at playing the AMP TOO, as well as the other bells and whistles. Ever see a good guitarist get a hold of a LOUD amp and not know or be able to "control" the wild feedback etc...? That is what I am referring to.

No, not all gear is created equally, but that's not to say unless you have crazy expensive gear, you can't sound pro... NOT AT ALL. However, having good gear doesn't suck-- assuming you know what to do with it.

GREAT gear doesn't guarantee GREAT results. It only provides the "potential" for a specific range of results. For some it's the smallest of details which gives the largest amount of inspiration-- this goes not only for gear, but ALSO for attention to detail with one's technique as well. At least-- that's how I see it.

Depending on the goal/goals-- of which there are MANY... as many as there are players-- one may have TONS of choices among readily available, affordable pedestrian gear-- OR NOT-- depending on how particular one is with their expectations.

While MANY focus on playing their guitar (a MUST, imo), some only focus there-- while learning to play their amp and outboard gear as well-- is another important factor that I think many are coming to realize is also an important focal point. Just as learning to record is a separate skill/art-- getting one's "Sonic Sound/Tone etc..." as opposed to one's Stylistic Tone/Sound-- is also a facet which demands attention at some point. There are many who get caught up in thinking that buying gear can solve a ton of issues and it can, but usually only IF one knows the recipe in the 1st place, and one has already achieved a level of proficiency.

Bottom line, use the best gear you can afford-- but

Learning to play the guitar

Learning to utilize gear (Engineering), and accumulating said gear (The potentially expensive part, but not necessarily- just depends on the goal line/lines)

Learning to write songs

Learning to Entertain a crowd

Training your ear/Learning to Listen

Developing a Producer's overview, as to what to use, how much, when etc...

are ALL different facets that come into play.

 

[Ventura]

The reality/Secret is: Guitar is cool because it's hard. I mean it takes effort, and that goes for selecting, routing, and programming gear to accomplish the goal. No, not all gear is created equally, but that's not to say unless you have crazy expensive gear, you can't sound pro... NOT AT ALL. However, having good gear doesn't suck-- assuming you know what to do with it.

GREAT gear doesn't guarantee GREAT results. It only provides the "potential" for a specific range of results. For some it's the smallest of details which gives the largest amount of inspiration-- this goes not only for gear, but ALSO for attention to detail with one's technique as well. At least-- that's how I see it.

Depending on the goal/goals-- of which there are MANY... as many as there are players-- one may have TONS of choices among readily available, affordable pedestrian gear-- OR NOT-- depending on how particular one is with their expectations.

While MANY focus on playing their guitar (a MUST, imo), some only focus there-- while learning to play their amp and outboard gear as well-- is another important factor that I think many are coming to realize is also an important focal point. Just as learning to record is a separate skill/art-- getting one's "Sonic Sound/Tone etc..." as opposed to one's Stylistic Tone/Sound-- is also a facet which demands attention at some point. There are many who get caught up in thinking that buying gear can solve a ton of issues and it can, but usually only IF one knows the recipe in the 1st place, and one has already achieved a level of proficiency.

Bottom line, use the best gear you can afford-- but

Learning to play the guitar

Learning to utilize gear (Engineering), and accumulating said gear (The potentially expensive part, but not necessarily- just depends on the goal line/lines)

Learning to write songs

Learning to Entertain a crowd

Training your ear/Learning to Listen

Developing a Producer's overview, as to what to use, how much, when etc...

are ALL different facets that come into play.

AND learning to not let yer cat jump off a polished slippery ledge...

 

[Zachman]

The reality/Secret is: Guitar is cool because it's hard. I mean it takes effort, and that goes for selecting, routing, and programming gear to accomplish the goal. No, not all gear is created equally, but that's not to say unless you have crazy expensive gear, you can't sound pro... NOT AT ALL. However, having good gear doesn't suck-- assuming you know what to do with it.

GREAT gear doesn't guarantee GREAT results. It only provides the "potential" for a specific range of results. For some it's the smallest of details which gives the largest amount of inspiration-- this goes not only for gear, but ALSO for attention to detail with one's technique as well. At least-- that's how I see it.

Depending on the goal/goals-- of which there are MANY... as many as there are players-- one may have TONS of choices among readily available, affordable pedestrian gear-- OR NOT-- depending on how particular one is with their expectations.

While MANY focus on playing their guitar (a MUST, imo), some only focus there-- while learning to play their amp and outboard gear as well-- is another important factor that I think many are coming to realize is also an important focal point. Just as learning to record is a separate skill/art-- getting one's "Sonic Sound/Tone etc..." as opposed to one's Stylistic Tone/Sound-- is also a facet which demands attention at some point. There are many who get caught up in thinking that buying gear can solve a ton of issues and it can, but usually only IF one knows the recipe in the 1st place, and one has already achieved a level of proficiency.

Bottom line, use the best gear you can afford-- but

Learning to play the guitar

Learning to utilize gear (Engineering), and accumulating said gear (The potentially expensive part, but not necessarily- just depends on the goal line/lines)

Learning to write songs

Learning to Entertain a crowd

Training your ear/Learning to Listen

Developing a Producer's overview, as to what to use, how much, when etc...

are ALL different facets that come into play.

AND learning to not let yer cat jump off a polished slippery ledge...

Of course there is an interesting tone that happens upon impact as well... Difficult to reproduce

 

[Ventura]

Of course there is an interesting tone that happens upon impact as well... Difficult to reproduce

Aw c`mon man, you know I`m a cat lover...

 

[dstroud]

The reality/Secret is: Guitar is cool because it's hard. I mean it takes effort, and that goes for selecting, routing, and programming gear too, to accomplish the goal-- not just learning to manipulate one's fingers on the guitar, BUT learning to and becoming proficient at playing the AMP TOO, as well as the other bells and whistles. Ever see a good guitarist get a hold of a LOUD amp and not know or be able to "control" the wild feedback etc...? That is what I am referring to.

No, not all gear is created equally, but that's not to say unless you have crazy expensive gear, you can't sound pro... NOT AT ALL. However, having good gear doesn't suck-- assuming you know what to do with it.

GREAT gear doesn't guarantee GREAT results. It only provides the "potential" for a specific range of results. For some it's the smallest of details which gives the largest amount of inspiration-- this goes not only for gear, but ALSO for attention to detail with one's technique as well. At least-- that's how I see it.

Depending on the goal/goals-- of which there are MANY... as many as there are players-- one may have TONS of choices among readily available, affordable pedestrian gear-- OR NOT-- depending on how particular one is with their expectations.

While MANY focus on playing their guitar (a MUST, imo), some only focus there-- while learning to play their amp and outboard gear as well-- is another important factor that I think many are coming to realize is also an important focal point. Just as learning to record is a separate skill/art-- getting one's "Sonic Sound/Tone etc..." as opposed to one's Stylistic Tone/Sound-- is also a facet which demands attention at some point. There are many who get caught up in thinking that buying gear can solve a ton of issues and it can, but usually only IF one knows the recipe in the 1st place, and one has already achieved a level of proficiency.

Bottom line, use the best gear you can afford-- but

Learning to play the guitar

Learning to utilize gear (Engineering), and accumulating said gear (The potentially expensive part, but not necessarily- just depends on the goal line/lines)

Learning to write songs

Learning to Entertain a crowd

Training your ear/Learning to Listen

Developing a Producer's overview, as to what to use, how much, when etc...

are ALL different facets that come into play.

Your post is awesome, but those vids at the bottom are cracking me up