Where is the tone?

[redaxe]

So I got thinking lately- where does 'tone' come from? Here's my breakdown (in terms of percentages) and I'd like to know what you all think and maybe you'd like to help tweak my theory of tone.

58% from the amp
16% from the pickups
10% from the wood of the guitar
8% from the picking technique of the player
5% from the strings
2% from the type of bridge
1% from the ear of the person controlling all of the above

Anything I'm forgetting? I'm interested in putting new DiMarzio pups in my guitar but I'm a bit skeptical about how much of a tonal difference I'll actually perceive from the new pickups that my amp won't overshadow. Lets make a discussion of this. What do you think- where is the tone?

[elcid]

Why would you wonder about the tonal difference with Dimarzios? You already figured it to be 16%.

[shreddersymphony]

This is a hugely debated, complicated issue that will likely never really be resolved. I agree with you that the amp counts for most of it, simply because tests have shown me that even the crappiest of guitars can sound good with my amp.

Nevertheless, pickups do make a big difference in my opinion. All of my guitars have different pickups and all of them sound noticeably different from one another. Of course they are also different woods (mahogany, alder, korina, and basswood)...so as I said, a complicated issue haha.

[Fabio]

I think that first of all you have to decide WHAT the term "Tone" is. To me, a player's "Tone" is much more based on how the guitarist in question accentuates the notes, slides, bends etc.

A player that I consider to have "bad" "Tone" is one that don't bend cleanly, don't articulate well, don't slide in and out of notes in a nice way or all in all just don't have a musical, "singing" way of playing.

Now I'm of course talking about when you play melodies. That's a person who's got a bad "Tone" playing melodies. But the same guy might excel when playing metal rhythm guitar.

Let's take Vai for example. He said in an interview that Eddie Van Halen once came over (To the studio or whatever the place was) and played a bit through Vai's equipment. And Vai says that Eddie sounded just like Eddie, even when playing through Vai's stuff.

That's always been, for me, 70% of a players tone. If we're into talking percentage. And I guess people talk about this when they say that "Peoples tone only comes from their fingers".

But I do realize that when you talk about "Tone" at the moment you mean something like "How the soundwaves interact with each other, something something". That is, if you were to play a basic über-metal E5-chord on an EMG-equipped Les Paul through a Mesa Boogie, or the same über-metal E5 chord with a Gibson 335 through a Fender Blackface it won't sound the same. That's for sure. But figure you add a distortion pedal to the 335/Fender-combo and a delay pedal to both setups and make Joe Satriani play Satch Boogie through both sets, with the sort-of right amount of distortion dialed in, it will in all ways sound like Satriani. Hence why the equipment for me personally is considered to be about 30% of the tone. It's still sort of a third of what you need, but if you can't make a Squier+Real Cheapo Amp sing you can't make, say, a PRS Custom 22/Peavey JSX sing. When you can make the Squier sound good, though, you'll REAP on the better gear

[shreddersymphony]

Makes sense to me. I know this has been posted 100 times but this is the truest proof I've seen of tone being hugely affected by the player...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9v5e1TTwts

[6fingers]

tone comes from your fingers so instead of buying equipments,put your fingers close to your ear and listen to them!
bwahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha

[Fabio]

Originally Posted by shreddersymphony

Makes sense to me. I know this has been posted 100 times but this is the truest proof I've seen of tone being hugely affected by the player...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9v5e1TTwts

Exactly. I think every guitarist should see that video. Or well, maybe not. Might put Mesa Boogie out of business if everyone decides they're good to go with their cheap Gorilla amplifier :P

[shreddersymphony]

Haha, most likely Mesa, Fender, Line 6, etc aren't going anywhere. In my experience people who can make a little gorilla amp sound like that are usually the people who can (and do) afford the serious gear.

[chaos731]

In discussions like this, it's important to differentiate between "tone" and "mojo".

Satch, Vai, BB King, EVH, et al sound like themselves regardless of rig size or quality because of mojo and style. Someone like Eric Johnson, who relentlessly and obsessively seeks constant improvement of his sound, also has loads of mojo and style, but he's constantly tweaking his gear to help him pin down the sound in his head. That sound in your head is your "tone". Everything else is mojo, man...mojo.

[callen3615]

I think pickups do contribute, not as much as the amp tho. My line 6 practice amp makes every guitar sound the same. Picking technique/the pick you use is a large part of tone, then I would say fingers are the most important.

[callen3615]

Originally Posted by Fabio

A player that I consider to have "bad" "Tone" is one that don't bend cleanly, don't articulate well, don't slide in and out of notes in a nice way or all in all just don't have a musical, "singing" way of playing.

Now I'm of course talking about when you play melodies. That's a person who's got a bad "Tone" playing melodies. But the same guy might excel when playing metal rhythm guitar.

Exactly. I'm a big megadeth fan, and dave solos sound alot different from lets say Martys.

Daves holy wars solo starts at 4:59: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-YczYC2yHTM

I think that sounded kinda sloppy or choppy, but his rhythm play is great.

Martys tornado of souls solo starts at 3:10: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RnAA_3NVmFg

I think he is alot smoother player than dave, his melody just flows better.

And the thing is for the most part they play the same gear.

[redaxe]

Good to see some discussion! Take my quantified values with a grain of salt please. I was just using them as a guiding point. I personally feel that I can sound the same on most any kind of gear. I'm an RG guy but I've had to gig with my friend's Epiphone Les Paul once and I managed to get a tone and sound that I felt sounded "me." I think that tone is really some sort of interaction between "mojo" and the sound itself.

Edit: Wow, never saw that Satch vid before. Really made me smile to see him playing like that with that sort of gear. What a great guy.

[luke1010]

I agree that the amp probably has the biggest effect on the tone.
However if the person using the amp has no idea what they are doing with it (like alot of guitarists I know)...... you're still gonna have a crap sound.

[Rotti]

Q: Where is the tone?

A: In your head.

[teokiatuan]

Originally Posted by Fabio

I think that first of all you have to decide WHAT the term "Tone" is. To me, a player's "Tone" is much more based on how the guitarist in question accentuates the notes, slides, bends etc.

true, but i think ts was talking about gear-tone, not stylistic techniques like the above, no?

since he has listed out all the components of a rig... i could be wrong though