What's the point of chasing someone else's tone?

[BeZo]

I'm in the opposite camp, so I don't get it. I listen to a lot of stoner doom and sludge stuff, but I hate fuzz pedals. I think those bands sound great when I see them, but I don't want to sound like that. I play post-metal sludge with real amp tones instead of farty ass fuzz boxes.

 

[S̷͖͑m̵͎͂á̵̺s̸͚̈́h̴̬̑]

I'm in the opposite camp, so I don't get it. I listen to a lot of stoner doom and sludge stuff, but I hate fuzz pedals. I think those bands sound great when I see them, but I don't want to sound like that. I play post-metal sludge with real amp tones instead of farty ass fuzz boxes.

I get this. I hear some absolute killer tones and while I appreciate the way it works with their music, I know it would drive me up the wall if I had to use it for the majority of what I do

 

[VonBonfire]

I play post-metal sludge with real amp tones instead of farty ass fuzz boxes.

^This is basically what I tell myself when I see that big muff console with 32 toggels on it.

^

 

[harddriver]

I'm in the camp of... if it's a good tone, you like it and it inspires you to play then there is absolutely nothing wrong in chasing how to get that tone. It's still going to sound like you playing but with "that" tone and there is nothing wrong with that.

My main tone setup for most of my playing out years was a basic Randy setup, 79 Marshall 2203, 78/79 MXR Distortion +, Crybaby Wah, Phase 90/ MXR/Boss Flanger, Marshall 1982A cab. I played alot of different stuff with that setup and it sounded great. I didn't start getting into the minutia of things until after I stopped playing out.

 

[Findthetone1]

I have benchmark tones that I absolutely love from artists, but I've never spent hours, days, years toiling over getting it. Mostly because I'm just a lazy bastard. If that's a player's passion though, that's cool too.

 

[RaceU4her]

i always ask the EVH chasers what they are gonna do when/if they actually nail the tone, do you have a drink? smoke a cig? take a nice shit?? never really get an answer though

 

[S̷͖͑m̵͎͂á̵̺s̸͚̈́h̴̬̑]

i always ask the EVH chasers what they are gonna do when/if they actually nail the tone, do you have a drink? smoke a cig? take a nice shit?? never really get an answer though

Well obviously, they will get blowjobs from fifteen virgins, become a national superstar and have the love and admiration of the 60+ community of rig-talk

 

[tia_project]

In my case is more for learning and understand sounds within the context of a band.

I found always fascinating as some time a particular guitarist sound was "highly suggested" by the producer or engineer and when I research and experiment in achieving it I learn something new about sound construction and fitting in a particular context.

I like understanding the sound sculpting, decisions and construction and learn from it.

A classic example for me is the '80s la session clean sounds (I know it is talked A LOT) and understanding how is built, how the different effects interact helped me to understand better its difference from a pull me under style one, or this love and other heavily modulated cleans.

Or recently the love of cascade gain stages with a fuzz onto a ts style into a cranked british oriented overdriven amp. Mostly due to researching rabea sound.

 

[DanTravis62]

i always ask the EVH chasers what they are gonna do when/if they actually nail the tone, do you have a drink? smoke a cig? take a nice shit?? never really get an answer though

The irony is that 90% of that sound is impossibly easy to get if you don't suck at lead

Seriously just crank up a plexi into some greenbacks, it's in there I promise

The last 10% is the board and shit like that, which is unobtanium anyways so not worth obsessing over

It's been debated so much it makes me feel like i'm going insane - "how do i get EVH tone" *someone explains that you need to actually practice guitar* "NOOOOOO NOT LIKE THAT I WANT TO GET THE TONE WITH MY REVERSE MORTGAGE MONEY"

 

[Geo]

It's easy to bash guys chasing someone else's tone and maybe it's worth laughing at but seriously one day I will basicallly become Eddie then you'll get it.

You can always just bang Valerie Bertandernie, that might be easier.

 

[DanTravis62]

I'm in the opposite camp, so I don't get it. I listen to a lot of stoner doom and sludge stuff, but I hate fuzz pedals. I think those bands sound great when I see them, but I don't want to sound like that. I play post-metal sludge with real amp tones instead of farty ass fuzz boxes.

I listen to mostly "classic" doom and "funeral" doom which isn't the fuzz pedal and weed crowd, so I'm not super into the type of tones people are talking about when they talk about "doom" tones

But even for those styles of music NONE of them use those farty fuzz pedal tones, they are all huge cranked model Ts and sunn beta leads and shit

 

[Tone Monster]

i always ask the EVH chasers what they are gonna do when/if they actually nail the tone, do you have a drink? smoke a cig? take a nice shit?? never really get an answer though

It’s feels incredible to nail a hallowed tone. A challenge.

 

[TheGreatGreen]

Chasing one tone of some other artist's and sticking to it is something I've never really understood.

On the other hand, I kinda love nothing more than hearing some awesome tone and going on the hunt to figure out exactly what was used to achieve it. But that kind of thing is fun because it builds your own knowledge base so you know what elements to take from what tones to ultimately build your own sound.

 

[RaceU4her]

Chasing one tone of some other artist's and sticking to it is something I've never really understood.

On the other hand, I kinda love nothing more than hearing some awesome tone and going on the hunt to figure out exactly what was used to achieve it. But that kind of thing is fun because it builds your own knowledge base so you know what elements to take from what tones to ultimately build your own sound.

I’ve loosely tried to get some Metallica tones with my iic+ for example, it is a fun way to work on recording skills

 

[Techdeth]

I was chasing something like this . But now I finish with hermanson 5gs

 

[TheGreatGreen]

I’ve loosely tried to get some Metallica tones with my iic+ for example, it is a fun way to work on recording skills

Yeah that’s a good point. Sometimes chasing specific tones is a great way to hone your ear and tweaking skills, Trying to nail something specific with examples you can compare against is a much different thing than twisting knobs “until it sounds good” and just going with whatever you land on.

But trying to ape the specific sound of another band or album and ending the tweaking there is probably not the best way to go. It will mean you’ll be living in somebody else’s shadow, and everything you do will be (almost guaranteed to be unfavorably) compared to that other band / guitar player / whatever.

 

[JimAnsell2]

I currently live in Seattle. I never live anywhere very long.

gotcha... there was a show in aug 76 at cobo with kc and the sunshine band, and average white band. There was a pretty famous bum rush and riot at the show during AWB's set. its googleable.

 

[Rackman]

Yeah that’s a good point. Sometimes chasing specific tones is a great way to hone your ear and tweaking skills, Trying to nail something specific with examples you can compare against is a much different thing than twisting knobs “until it sounds good” and just going with whatever you land on.

It's pretty much an essential skill if you're going to be a tracking engineer for guitar stuff. Someone says I want this to sound like AC/DC, you have to have some way to get there. Does that mean an SG, Schaffer-Vega and a plexi? Not necessarily. But it does mean having some idea where that tone sits an what kind of combinations can be dialed close. An ES-5 Switchmaster and a Deluxe ain't gonna get you there.

 

[MantraSky]

Happy Helloween \../

 

[mctallica1]

I chased others tone quite a bit early on and it helped me learn what worked for me and what doesn’t. Over time, I definitely developed my own thing.

As others have mentioned, there are a lot of guitarists that I listen to that I dig what they are doing, but I could never use the tone.

FWIW, I’ve never, in my 40 years plus playing guitar, had even the slightest interest in VH tone. I know im in the minority for my generation, but I was always MUCH more interested in thrashy rhythm tone