Twinfan's top 10 guitar tone 'wisdoms'

[MDV]

I use my tuner mute live when switching guitars, so I don't need silent jacks.  I didn't think they were worth it, and something extra to go wrong!

We dont all have a tuner mute, and you dont have to do anything at all for the switch to work, its automatic. I've stopped even thinking about it, just plug and unplug in scilence.

Fair enough - I was just giving an alternative  :)

I gets ya. If you have that facility with something else then I suppose its redundant, unless the you-dont-have-to-even-push-a-button factor comes into play. But save my decimator, which I dont always use anyway (and can also cut out cable noise and buzz on its highest settings!) I play straight in all the time, so I really like the silent jacks

[nfe]

I'm a fan of planet waves for their durability
I'll watch this thread develop though as I will try some clear tones next month

Yes, it is still a great idea to buy a Cleartone cable - as they " do what it says on the tin".  I have been swapping back and forth a lot during an extended jam / practice session, and to be fair to both Cleartone and Planet waves, here are my further observations :

The Cleartone cable is incredibly clear - and perhaps the perceived 'stiffness' and hard treble is me hearing the true single coil 'edge' of my Mississipi Queens for the first time.  I certainly had to use the neck pickup and tone controls with the Cleartones - to round things out a bit.  It may be a case of that old cinematic cliche " you want the truth ? you can't handle the truth ! " . The Cleartones certainly let you hear the vocal quality of adding subtle vibrato to the top strings, especially when applied during a string bend.

The Planet Waves certainly round things off a little bit in the upper registers, making the sound somehow more silky - but perhaps a tad 'blocky'.  The strong point is where the bass frequencies fatten and blur a bit, making excursions onto the bass strings sound very warm and fat.  In contrast The Cleartones evoke the Bass tone of something like a Fender precision - lean ( perhaps even skinny ) - but you can hear the grind, shimmer - and detail of the notes.

Of course ( whilst not used during this test ) - the Monster 'Jazz' cable is somewhere rounder, sweeter and more muted than the Planet Waves ( despite the Monster 'Jazz' claiming to be a fairly balanced cable in the E.Q).

It all does ( for me ) prove one thing beyond a doubt though, and that is that cables DO make a difference - and as Twinfan mentioned at the outset, it's about getting the right jigsaw pieces / components to make the sound you want. Everything in the signal chain chain counts.

I would be very interested to read what  Cleartone / Planet Waves / other cable users feel that they gain or lose from cable to cable - especially around the valid reference point of Cleartones. If this unintentionally hi- jacks T.F's original thread -  we can always lift the cable comparisons onto another ?

Well I used planet waves for a couple of years before finding cleartones maybe 6 months ago. Sonically I mainly agree with you, but one mans this is anothers that - where you prefer the warmer lows of the PWs, I call that 'mud', what you call 'silk' I call 'mush' and I massively prefer the clarity, tightness, high end extension available (i.e. that of my gear, closer to how it really sounds, since cables can only remove sound, not add it, and cleartones remove less), and also the seperation and detail that they can convey. Or allow my gear to show. Whatever. They also allow siginificantly less fizz with high gain (I play metal, mostly).

I'm interested to read this stuff, especially from people who play similar types of music to me (though, I suspect, I sit uite a bit further into the extreme side of things).

I use PW relatively happily, but I play loads of complex chords under hi gain and am always looking for more clarity. S I think I'll get a ew cleartones and see how I get on  :)

[38thBeatle]

I ordered some cleartones on Wednesday night.They arrived today-so very quick service.They look very well made though as I write, I haven't tried them. Gigging tomorrow night and will try them out then.

[Fourth Feline]

OK, seeing as Cleartones are getting a universal thumbs up:

Are the "silent" jacks worth the extra money, are are they just something else to go wrong?

They look solid Philly. The expected quality of the Neutrik name has extended into the science of the noise prevention mechanism. There is a really  solid ( but smoothly retractable ) metal collar with magnetic properties  at the top of the jack plug shaft; - and when you plug it in, the 3mm collar smoothly pushes back into the body of the jack - and releases a reed switch. The mechanical actuator therefore being seperate from the internal resistor / reed switch. I am certainly a convert to this option - as I got a bit sick of the speaker / ear jolting noise I used to get when un-plugging / switching guitars without first walking back to the amp .  :)

[MDV]

I'm a fan of planet waves for their durability
I'll watch this thread develop though as I will try some clear tones next month

Yes, it is still a great idea to buy a Cleartone cable - as they " do what it says on the tin".  I have been swapping back and forth a lot during an extended jam / practice session, and to be fair to both Cleartone and Planet waves, here are my further observations :

The Cleartone cable is incredibly clear - and perhaps the perceived 'stiffness' and hard treble is me hearing the true single coil 'edge' of my Mississipi Queens for the first time.  I certainly had to use the neck pickup and tone controls with the Cleartones - to round things out a bit.  It may be a case of that old cinematic cliche " you want the truth ? you can't handle the truth ! " . The Cleartones certainly let you hear the vocal quality of adding subtle vibrato to the top strings, especially when applied during a string bend.

The Planet Waves certainly round things off a little bit in the upper registers, making the sound somehow more silky - but perhaps a tad 'blocky'.  The strong point is where the bass frequencies fatten and blur a bit, making excursions onto the bass strings sound very warm and fat.  In contrast The Cleartones evoke the Bass tone of something like a Fender precision - lean ( perhaps even skinny ) - but you can hear the grind, shimmer - and detail of the notes.

Of course ( whilst not used during this test ) - the Monster 'Jazz' cable is somewhere rounder, sweeter and more muted than the Planet Waves ( despite the Monster 'Jazz' claiming to be a fairly balanced cable in the E.Q).

It all does ( for me ) prove one thing beyond a doubt though, and that is that cables DO make a difference - and as Twinfan mentioned at the outset, it's about getting the right jigsaw pieces / components to make the sound you want. Everything in the signal chain chain counts.

I would be very interested to read what  Cleartone / Planet Waves / other cable users feel that they gain or lose from cable to cable - especially around the valid reference point of Cleartones. If this unintentionally hi- jacks T.F's original thread -  we can always lift the cable comparisons onto another ?

Well I used planet waves for a couple of years before finding cleartones maybe 6 months ago. Sonically I mainly agree with you, but one mans this is anothers that - where you prefer the warmer lows of the PWs, I call that 'mud', what you call 'silk' I call 'mush' and I massively prefer the clarity, tightness, high end extension available (i.e. that of my gear, closer to how it really sounds, since cables can only remove sound, not add it, and cleartones remove less), and also the seperation and detail that they can convey. Or allow my gear to show. Whatever. They also allow siginificantly less fizz with high gain (I play metal, mostly).

I'm interested to read this stuff, especially from people who play similar types of music to me (though, I suspect, I sit uite a bit further into the extreme side of things).

I use PW relatively happily, but I play loads of complex chords under hi gain and am always looking for more clarity. S I think I'll get a ew cleartones and see how I get on  :)

Thats what you suspect, huh ;) My poewrball is currently set to 'Origin, Antithesis' :twisted: Rest assured, the above opinions are from a love of pretty extreme metal, you'd have to be into some severe brutality for it not to be applicable experience. We're arent talking metallica here (though I do love them). Eg - http://bareknucklepickups.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=13664.0

I too play weird chords under high gain, and the cleatones live up to their name :D

Disclaimer - this isnt an 'I'm more metal than you' post. Just to explain that it I do indeed use them for the extreme, so the analysis (if not tastes) should apply.

[nfe]

Oh I didn't mean it to sound patronising or owt, I hope it didn't, it's just, well, I love Origin and that kind of blugeoning music, but it's not what I think of as extreme. I would think more really abrassive music rather than heavy, you're more aggressive grind and BM and the like.

But ANYWAY, yes, I'm going to get me some Cleartones and see how I go - aside from anything else, whilst I've never had a problem, I know A LOT of stories about the jack mechanism on the PW cables jamming whilst inside guitars and ripping the socket out. Booooooo.

[MDV]

Oh I didn't mean it to sound patronising or owt, I hope it didn't, it's just, well, I love Origin and that kind of blugeoning music, but it's not what I think of as extreme. I would think more really abrassive music rather than heavy, you're more aggressive grind and BM and the like.

But ANYWAY, yes, I'm going to get me some Cleartones and see how I go - aside from anything else, whilst I've never had a problem, I know A LOT of stories about the jack mechanism on the PW cables jamming whilst inside guitars and ripping the socket out. Booooooo.

Ah! Well, you could be right then. If thats what you call extreme, I dont really go in for that kind of extreme. I'm a tech death metal, thrash and post metal guy at heart. I appreciate HiFi production, and dislike LoFi sounds. I dont like black metal, I like some grind, but not much. We may well have quite different tonal aims. I dunno.

Good luck with the cleartones, tell us what you think when you get them

Out of curiosity, what did you think of the track? Its not finished by any stretch, but I'm interested in your opinion.

[Oli]

Slightly amusing anecdote regarding ClearTones from me:

I'd heard people on here talking about them and saying they were really good, but I never really trusted the name- it sounds like something of QVC ("introducing the MegaClean SuperMop!" never sounds that great really :)), so i never even checked the website out, i just carried on using my VanDamme cable with Neutrik ends, and being very happy with the results- i'll never use another cable again, VanDamme is amazing stuff.

Anyway, because of this thread, I decided to the check the ClearTone site out, to see what the fuss was about.... imagine my surprise when i see "We use only high quality European made Van damme cable and NEUTRIK connectors" on the page! So even though i haven't even tried the cables yet (will be ordering some very soon though :)), I can also put my hearty self on the list of BareKnuckle endorsees :)

Sorry for the slight side-track, was a good list TF, although I have to disagree with the point about old valves and JJ's, I haven't been impressed with their preamp valves when i've tried some. Svetlana EL34s rock my power amp world though :)

[dave_mc]

^ haha

[nfe]

Out of curiosity, what did you think of the track? Its not finished by any stretch, but I'm interested in your opinion.

I quite like it - good demo for the painkiller certainly! - though I think some of the riffs push their luck in length, and the desecending run motif maybe appears too often on quite s hort time but varying drums and vocals would probably elieviante that straight of the bat.

I'd really like to hear it as a finished tune  :)

[MDV]

Cheers

Its being re-worked, but I dont have many more ideas for it at the moment, I'm working onother tracks.

[Twinfan]

Yep, an old thread resurrection!  :lol:

I was thinking about this thread this morning and wondering a) what I wrote, and b) would I think differently now it's 2.5 years on.

Do you know what?  I still stand by the 10 points in my original thread.  I would probably only add that stability of gear, and using what you have more effectively, can be a massive source of tonal enhancement.  If you're not quite getting the tone you want, twiddle some knobs on the amp and/or guitar and adjust some pedal settings.  Don't automatically sell something and buy a replacement!

I'm currently loving my tone more than ever, and my live rigs haven't changed in over 12 months:

YC/DC?

PRGuitars SGR with DiMarzio PAFs
JTM45/100 clone
Matamp 4x12 with Celestion Golds and G12H Heritage speakers
Sennheiser wireless

Jump The Shark

PRS Modern Eagle
Bogner XTC Classic
Matamp 2x12 with Celestion Golds
Wah / Chorus / Phaser / EQ / Delay / Reverb pedals

[plastercaster]

Are you still using cleartone? I wonder if the forum hysteria has died down a little since 2009...

My tuppence: Thank god I'm slightly deaf because I can't hear the difference between picks or cables.
But I will say I've had a VDC cable with neutrik jacks for about 4 years now and used it almost every day and it's never broken, outlasting a dozen cables in the process (sadly at any given point I'm too poor to get a good quality new one).

[_tom_]

I think I still have largely the same gear as I did when this thread was made as well, with the exception of my SG!

One of my leads died recently so I'm tempted to try one of those Cleartones now if they're still going strong?

[Twinfan]

I'm still using all the Cleartone cables I've had for years - no problems whatsoever.  The guy who runs the company was a pain in the backside last time I ordered something, but the product is good at a decent price.