my theory of guitar tone

[Johnny Mac]

I've always thought that the amp is a musical instrument in itself. It's highlights or doesn't if it's cheap and shite, the guitars natural acoustic tones and also the sound of the pickups. It's all part of the whole package as there are so many contributing factors.

Effects either enhance to your ears or ruin a good tone and are subjective to the individual.

All this in the fingers stuff is only relevant if your a good player!

[goddamn electric]

I have to agree about a lot of tone comming from the individual. The amp, the guitar, the pickups etc, will give the desired sound but the way its played will bring out the tone, the difference between picking a note with an upward or downward stroke, velocity, vibrato, alternate picking or legato style runs, use of pinch harmonics etc will all greatly shape your tone. a great player can sound great with rubbish equipment, but a bad player can spend all the money in the world just to sound as good as they really are.

[blue]

i remember a youtube video of Mattias Ekhlund doing an instore clinic.  all he had to play through was a little Gorilla practice amp ( about which he created much mirth! ) but he still sounded fantastic!  i also recall a magazine article where the writer said he had handed Steve Vai his own strat and he still sounded just like Vai.  the writer was most disappointed to find that after Vai left the guitar went back to sounding the way it had always done!  :lol:

and in the Zakk Wylde thread there's another video of him doing "emotive solo number 16b(second revision)", that sounds pretty good, and that's the Epiphone Les Paul he's playing, but of course it's through Jan Cyrka's Cornford rig.

i myself sound incredible through absolutely anything     my guitar playing's not so hot though  :roll:

[bmulroney]

At the risk of stating the obvious, there are a lot of factors that make up a players tone.  A quality amp whose power is matched to your typical playing volume/style.  ie:  a 100W JCM800 stack sounds great, but not at bedroom levels!  Your choice of guitar(s) has to match your playing style in terms of set up/pickups/body woods, etc.  

I find that the best tones come from using less pre-amp gain than I always initially think, and having the action on my guitars a little higher than I would really like.  Got to be able to dig in, and let your strings ring cleanly.  And make sure that your cables and jackplugs are all high quality and in good connection.  Your signal will only be as strong as your weakest link.  Don't let a cheap patch lead ruin ££££'s of gear and years of playing!!!  ha ha.

Just my humble views - feel free to disagree.  After all, it is a forum.