Gear elements and order of impact on pure guitar tone?

[MDV]

Amp
then if you put enough gain on it nothing makes a difference. :)

BURN THE WITCH!!

[Twinfan]

He's absolutely right!  Very, very good point Matt!

[MDV]

He's absolutely right!  Very, very good point Matt!

Says the man thats only just heard opeth - you know nothing of high gain!!

[Twinfan]

I know what my levels of gain do, so at crazy high gain you might as well play a brick!  :lol:

[MDV]

While I do use less gain than you might expect, its just not true that nothing makes a difference. If anything the differences become more important. High gain tones are extremely hard to get right, keep clear and defined, ballanced, mix and...wait, youre not listening are you ;) minds made up. Ok :)

[nfe]

There are so many variables this is extremely hard. I mean, if we're talking about people playing with a Marshall MG combo and an Encore strat then things go in a very different order than the guy with a Tom Anderson and Dumble.

What I'm positive of, if that ignoring the player and style, the volume and tone controls have more of an influence on tones than anything else.

And, seemingly, I'd put the amp lower than pretty much everyone else.  :lol:

I tend to think that if you can't take a high gain amp with everything at 12 o'clock and get a perfectly usable tone for more or less any style with a strat then you should probably get practicing a lot more before you start chopping and changing all your gear, or your probably going to end up try to get sounds by thinking rather than listening.

Also, suggesting tons of gain means everything sounds the same and everything makes less of a difference is total nonsense. But not a sentiment that I'm surprised to hear on this forum  :P

[Philly Q]

I'm not really sure what I think about this topic, but if we're talking LIVE sound surely you also have to factor in the PA system and the acoustics of the room/hall.

I've hardly ever been to a gig where I've thought "wow, amazing tone".  It's always too loud (yes, I'm too old) and usually I'm grateful if I can recognise the song through the swirling waves of distortion and noise.  A lot of the time they could be playing a Chinese Squier through some wretched old tranny amp and it wouldn't make a blind bit of difference.

[hunter]

Many good points coming up here. I think very different points of view are all right. It completely depends on what you value for yourself as well I guess, and indeed, style can make a big difference. Jazz players sometimes play DI into the mixer, for them the Guitar is all I think.

I put cables and signal chain above the guitar as for example my PRS SE with BKPs versus my PRS McCarty with BKPs is less of an audible difference than if I have a sucking pedal or shitety cable in the signal chain.

[MDV]

I've hardly ever been to a gig where I've thought "wow, amazing tone".  It's always too loud (yes, I'm too old) and usually I'm grateful if I can recognise the song through the swirling waves of distortion and noise.  A lot of the time they could be playing a Chinese Squier through some wretched old tranny amp and it wouldn't make a blind bit of difference.

This I get. Irks the hell out of me.

[MDV]

Many good points coming up here. I think very different points of view are all right. It completely depends on what you value for yourself as well I guess, and indeed, style can make a big difference. Jazz players sometimes play DI into the mixer, for them the Guitar is all I think.

I put cables and signal chain above the guitar as for example my PRS SE with BKPs versus my PRS McCarty with BKPs is less of an audible difference than if I have a sucking pedal or shiteeety cable in the signal chain.

Cables only take sound out, though. Once you hit a certain point in quality, theres little to no more difference to be had, and its quite an objectively measureable thing - the higher the capacitance and oxygen content of the cable, the more high end it sucks. You can like the sound of a "poorer" cable by all means, but they arent adding anything, and the difference is pretty one dimensional imo.

[TheIronBeast]

Some interesting responses to this question.

For me it would be, without including effects:

Guitar/Pickups
Amp
Cables
Strings
Picks

[CaptainDesslock]

I think

Amp
Cab
Pickups and guitar I think of as rather inextricable, and they go here.
Strings
Speakers
Valves in the amp
cables
Pick

Subject to revision. Some things I'm not too sure about.

What I do know is that the most important thing is how they all work together.

That is of course assuming you are using a valve amp............

Theres another kind? I'd forgotten.

but wait wait wait!!! What if you have AxeFX and (heaven forbid) your playing through a monitor!?!?!?!?!

You have to think about these things people!

[Twinfan]

Also, suggesting tons of gain means everything sounds the same and everything makes less of a difference is total nonsense.

But it does!  :lol:  It makes it sound all shiteeeeee!

[nfe]

Also, suggesting tons of gain means everything sounds the same and everything makes less of a difference is total nonsense.

But it does!  :lol:  It makes it sound all shiteeeeeee!

 :lol:

Get it righ'roun' ye.

[_tom_]

For me its something like:

Player
Speakers/cab
Amp
Guitar/pickups
Pedals
cables
picks