Twinfan's top 10 guitar tone 'wisdoms'

[sgmypod]

*L* is alright other guitarist has a Hiwatt..you can't miss him....in a good way

[Fourth Feline]

*L* is alright other guitarist has a Hiwatt..you can't miss him....in a good way

Wow ! Enough said then - as Hi-watt is probably the last word in stage / world domination.  It's no wonder that Dave Gilmour has to put his Hi-Watt gear facing the other way back stage for good 'balance'.   :)

[tomjackson]

A good point, If I spent my hours of internet browsing for the perfect tone on actually playing, I'd be sh!t hot now.

As it stands I'm just luke warm :?

The rule that is more important that any is just play.  I'm off!

You'll be back ;)

MDV, you were right, and I've not even played the guitar :(

I've been to the chippy and looked at Venus through my telescope, so it's not all bad....


But now I'm off for sure, to follow my own golden rule and just play :D

Hold on, quick look at OD pedals first......

[dave_mc]

hard to argue with those, dave, except for the one about NOS valves (i don't know enough about them to agree or disagree), and speaker cabs (solid wood, e.g. pine, can sound good too, though i assume you just meant not to go for cr@ppy chipboard/MDF etc. in which case that's fair enough).

some things i think are important are

1) if it's for home use and it sounds a sensible volume in the shop, there's a good chance it'll be much louder in your (most likely) smaller room at home. :lol:

2) i'm honestly not sure about the buying in a shop versus buying online. I'm aware of all the "guitars can sound/play/feel different even of the same model", etc. etc., and i agree wholeheartedly, but the thing is, you can miss something when you're trying something in a shop (you can not notice a flaw, in other words), plus with buying online, you're covered by distance selling regulations, i.e. you have 7 days of trying it in the comfort of your own home, through your own gear, under no pressure, to make up your mind. you aren't covered by distance selling regulations if you buy in a shop.

Don't get me wrong, a lot of the time you can't be bothered to send the darn thing back, DS regulations or no, and i'd personally rather buy the one in the shop too, but it's worth bearing in mind. buying in the shop's not foolproof (or maybe i'm just an idiot... :lol: )...

I've replaed every single one of my cables with cleartone. They're such an improvment, I need to know that my entire signal chain has them in. I have something like 4 20ft, 3 or 4 10ft, 4 mic cables, 5 or 6 patch cables and 5 or 6 1m or 1.5m cables. And that lot still costs less than a third of the number in planet waves and hosas (that I used to use and now look on with disgust).

Its not that they sound better. Its that they dont have a sound - they let your gears full clarity come through. Its awesome. Perfect partner for BKs.

same here. :lol:

Are these cleartone cables really worth getting? All my cables are made with unbranded cable (as far as I can tell) with neutrik jacks on the ends. Is it going to be worth the switch? These have been great to me for a few years now..

yes. seriously. get one now.

[Twinfan]

Pine, I agree, can sound good too.  Best suited to combos in my experience.  And I was talking about separate cabinets in my original post  ;)

Re. online vs shop buying, I didn't mention this in my post as I've had good and bad experiences both ways.  To me, I only really get to know something at home after I've bought it anyway so how I got hold of it doesn't really matter!  :lol:  Generally, I like to try before I buy though.

[dave_mc]

^ yeah, that's pretty much like me too. i definitely prefer to try before buying, but if something is sufficiently cheaper online once i've done that, then i'll chance the online purchase (i'll also sometimes chance an online purchase if i've done all my research and have come to the conclusion that a certain model, which is impossible to try locally, is what i want). don't get me wrong- if a local shop gets close to the online price, i'll buy local, but if something is £500 online and £900 in a local shop... though to be honest the bigger problem is normally stuff I want not being available here. i'll go for something which is supposedly what i want, even if i can't try it, over something i can try but which i consider to be mediocre, every time (after being caught out by taking the safe option before and ending up having to buy a decimator anyway... :lol: )

touche about pine in the combos, i've only tried it in combos too. :lol:

[noodleplugerine]

I would have three points of "wisdom".

They would be;

If your fingers don't sound good, spending a million pounds on gear will make fuck all difference.

Expense absolutely is not an automatic badge of quality.

Paying too much attention to the opinions of strangers on forums is more often than not immensely counter productive.

Dude, not that I care really... But editting to cheat the censor is really not cool. There's a reason that its there, should prolly pay some respect.

[Lew]

*L*

What does *L* mean?

[Lew]

Cool thread :)

Going to add my thoughts though :D

1 )  Great tone is all about the combination of guitar + effects + amp + speakers.  Some elements just 'work' with others, and some just don't.  Very few things work universally well with all other bits of gear.  In the words of Paul Reed Smith - "everything affects everything else". and most importantly the person

2 )  Your amplifier is as important, if not more important, than the guitar you use.  Play through as many different models as you can before choosing which one to buy. it may be the case for you but it depends on the person :) The Axefx for example can be used to devastating effect.

3 )  Anything expensive is nearly always worth the cost, unless it's specifically designed for collectors.  In which case it isn't.  This now applies to vintage gear, which should be left to the aforementioned collectors. Strongly disagree and it contradicts point 7 a bit.

4 )  Some bits of gear, especially guitars, just won't suit you no matter what you do to them.  If it's not over 90% 'right' as standard, sell it and buy something else.  You can't polish a turd. agree 100%

5 )  As tyres for your car are the link between you and the road, speakers are your tone's link to your ears.  Like amplifiers, try as many different types as you can and buy the best you can afford. I remember when I was having my Martamp built and I suggested getting the more expensive celestions than he suggested and he said stick with the chinese ones

6 )  Old valves are not worth buying any more as they're either worn out, rejects or ridiculously expensive.  Use new JJs, especially the Gold Pin versions, as a default option. Agreed!

7 )  ClearTone cables ( www.award-session.com/cleartone_cables.html ) are tonally transparent, high quality and incredibly well priced.  Do not get sucked in by marketing. ooooh thanks, I'm using GeorgeLs atm and was going to upgrade to lyric HG's but I'll check these first. Any more info on them?

10 )  At the end of the day, you will always sound like you.  Use this to your advantage and chose the gear that suits you, and not what suits someone else.  Use your ears! Great advice :)

I would say... having my guitar set up properly and for the way I like it is more important to me having a good sound than a superior instrument and good left hand and right hand technique has far more to do with how we hear good tone than the gear.

[MDV]

Cool thread :)

and good left hand and right hand technique has far more to do with how we hear good tone than the gear.

Once again, this is such bollocks.

If its not, then put your gear where your mouth is. Send me all your stuff and I'll send you a squire starter package.

[nfe]

Cool thread :)

and good left hand and right hand technique has far more to do with how we hear good tone than the gear.

Once again, this is such bollocks.

If its not, then put your gear where your mouth is. Send me all your stuff and I'll send you a squire starter package.

Completely disagree. Whilst obviously different gear sounds different and you're not going to get a humbucker to sound like a single coil in a hurry, the same person playing totally different gear will always sound pretty similar tonally.

Certainly, when I was playing for a living, I did a huge number of gigs with borrowed gear and could always get extremely similar sounds after a couple songs settling in. I always found the same working in guitar shops and jamming with the other guys. You could lift pretty much any guitar in the shop and plug into any amp and get pretty similar sounds going. Not identicle, but much closer than accepted gear wisdom would have you believe.

[MDV]

Cool thread :)

and good left hand and right hand technique has far more to do with how we hear good tone than the gear.

Once again, this is such bollocks.

If its not, then put your gear where your mouth is. Send me all your stuff and I'll send you a squire starter package.

Completely disagree. Whilst obviously different gear sounds different and you're not going to get a humbucker to sound like a single coil in a hurry, the same person playing totally different gear will always sound pretty similar tonally.

Certainly, when I was playing for a living, I did a huge number of gigs with borrowed gear and could always get extremely similar sounds after a couple songs settling in. I always found the same working in guitar shops and jamming with the other guys. You could lift pretty much any guitar in the shop and plug into any amp and get pretty similar sounds going. Not identicle, but much closer than accepted gear wisdom would have you believe.

Then the squire starter package offer stands. I dunno what you got, but I'll trade you that for it ;)

[nfe]

Cool thread :)

and good left hand and right hand technique has far more to do with how we hear good tone than the gear.

If its not, then put your gear where your mouth is. Send me all your stuff and I'll send you a squire starter package.

Completely disagree. Whilst obviously different gear sounds different and you're not going to get a humbucker to sound like a single coil in a hurry, the same person playing totally different gear will always sound pretty similar tonally.

Certainly, when I was playing for a living, I did a huge number of gigs with borrowed gear and could always get extremely similar sounds after a couple songs settling in. I always found the same working in guitar shops and jamming with the other guys. You could lift pretty much any guitar in the shop and plug into any amp and get pretty similar sounds going. Not identicle, but much closer than accepted gear wisdom would have you believe.

Then the squire starter package offer stands. I dunno what you got, but I'll trade you that for it ;)

No. Because nobodies arguing that good gear doesn;t sound better than bad gear, just that your hands have mor to do with it than anything else.

Plus, playability is a completely different matter  :)

And some guitars are prettier than Squier Strats, aside from anything else. Should be noted though, amongst dep gigs that have been last minute, I HAVE borrowed and gigged with the £99 Squier starter pack strats and a Marshall MG  :lol:
Once again, this is such bollocks.

[MDV]

Cool thread :)

and good left hand and right hand technique has far more to do with how we hear good tone than the gear.

No. Because nobodies arguing that good gear doesn;t sound better than bad gear, just that your hands have mor to do with it than anything else.

Plus, playability is a completely different matter  :)

And some guitars are prettier than Squier Strats, aside from anything else. Should be noted though, amongst dep gigs that have been last minute, I HAVE borrowed and gigged with the £99 Squier starter pack strats and a Marshall MG  :lol:
Once again, this is such bollocks.

If its not, then put your gear where your mouth is. Send me all your stuff and I'll send you a squire starter package.

Completely disagree. Whilst obviously different gear sounds different and you're not going to get a humbucker to sound like a single coil in a hurry, the same person playing totally different gear will always sound pretty similar tonally.

Certainly, when I was playing for a living, I did a huge number of gigs with borrowed gear and could always get extremely similar sounds after a couple songs settling in. I always found the same working in guitar shops and jamming with the other guys. You could lift pretty much any guitar in the shop and plug into any amp and get pretty similar sounds going. Not identicle, but much closer than accepted gear wisdom would have you believe.

Then the squire starter package offer stands. I dunno what you got, but I'll trade you that for it ;)

?

[nfe]

Edited, I managed to write my reply in amongst the quotefest  :lol: