A long post about asking for tone advice

kotornut · #1 03-03-2008, 11:42 AM

Lately, when I ask for advice I'm thinking lately that I need to take it more and more as a grain of salt.

The members here are knowlegeable beyond want but, asking for tone advice is so overwhelming that you can't make heads or tales of it.

I'm finding that most of the people with actual knowlege are older than me (so 25+) and many times they suggest sounds that are based on tones when they were my age or younger. That's great, I think EVH, Vai, Satch and so on are Saints of the guitar religion but, I must say that I'm not particularly enchanted with sounding Brown or like Vai.

My guitar heroes start with those guys but, I like the death metal, power metal and a lot of new stuff that isn't based on that stuff. And I 've noticed that a lot of people take tone advice from people who play an entirely different genre of music than they do. Or have a bais toward tones I heard when I was in Kindergarten. That's not bad but it's just not the right advice for me all the time.

So as I traveled across Japan for a Wedding this weekend I did a tone search of my favortie artist and started building my own library or what I want to do with a guiars tone engine. I recommend the younger people on the site do the same, heck everyone. I think more of us should be the engineers of our tone instead of always asking for advice.

Yes, many will say this or that is crap or lame but still we should be in charge. Don't think I am saying that advice is only rhetoric. I'm saying don't think that a guy who loves Shawn Lane is going to really help you a lot to sound like As I Lay Dying or Nile.Look at it this way Steve Vai and EVH didn't just use a Strat or a Les Paul to get their new sound. Why should todays new guitarist use the same tone generating gear that was developed 20 years ago? They changed the guitar sound, so can the new guitarist today.

Just something I was thinking baout and doing all weekend. Now I know what kind of pickups and such I'm going to get. I guess it's a long winded way to say that though. But, I feellike just talking about guitar stuff so eh.

markyperfection · #2 03-03-2008, 12:24 PM

makes good sense. as a guy of similar age (a bit older, but still) and similar music taste (my musical appetites are truly vast but metal is a large chunk of it) i find that despite the fact that many of the awesome dudes on jemsite might not sip the same musical vodka as me, there is a tremendous wealth of gear/tone knowledge here. and yes, while vai and satch and evh and others didn't necessarily build their signature tones on vintage gear, the old stuff was a great starting point for them to anchor their respective ideas in and push forward.

excepting perhaps fire and the wheel, all innovation and progress is rooted in past achievements. everybody wants to sound good, and everybody has a different approach to doing so. i'm perfectly accepting of any advice, and so should anyone who cares enough about their sound to come here and ask for help. sometimes i feel as though electric guitar (in terms of gear, anyway) has reached a sort of critical mass; it might be a complete lack of imagination on my part, but apart from improving existing designs with better materials and construction methods i often fail to see what else could be done. i definitely agree when you say that it's up to the modern guitarist to bring about the next great change in tone or gear design, though honestly i'm pretty confident that that next great change will come (directly or indirectly) from someone who pokes around over here.

btw, what pickups did you decide on? haha.

kotornut · #3 03-03-2008, 12:37 PM

Steve's Special and two Area '61s for my 560. I know, not necesarily breaking the stereotype after all I said

, but I was thinking for so long that I couldn't use something with a mid scoop. After research, a good mid scoop, not an annoying one like many cheesy metal bands, is what I like. I kept hearing "you need mids to stand out and solo," over and over again but I just couldn't justify it when I heard what was being played.

As far as the Area '61s, that is where I get my vintage, there are a lot of times in a show where I need to use tones that I just can't get from high powered humbuckers but I need noiselss stuff.

I'm just not a fan of EVH tone of Evolutions or the Tone Zone. I just can't do it. Actually most of my favorite tones come from EMG players and Duncan players. But since, I joined a rock band recently and I thought I should go with versatility before rawness so no EMGs and Duncans were just a bit more expensive than the DiMarzios so the Dims won out. I don't get to play the metal

Oh, well I like the rock too.

I wrote what I wrote because we all come to different tone conclusions and i think it gets lost when we ask a bunch of people on a forum what we shoud do.

rastachild · #4 03-03-2008, 02:16 PM

totally agree and have said basically the same thing in other threads. advice is only good if it's relevant and you have to take the source into account as well. everyone has valid opinions, but many differ from mine and vice versa. which is why i usually stress 'imo' whenever i dole out advice so people realize it's all relative.

anyway, living in the states and especially texas, there are many outlets to try out amps, guitar and equipment so i don't have to rely on anyone's opinion (which is why i never ask for advice). unfortunately, many jemsiters are in parts of the world where they have no way of trying anything out and need opinions from people who are knowledgeable before shelling out $2000 -$3000. just make sure you know about the source before you take the advice to heart.

tt0511 · #5 03-03-2008, 02:36 PM

Yep! I totally agree too. Actually, I haven't tried a Dimarzio pickup I don't like, except the HS-2, lol. But, I think I actually love a lot of different distinct tones. I just appreciate that there isn't "the tone" to be had, but a vineyard of variety of superb tones, from Eric Johnson, to EVH, to Vai, to Satch, to Balducci (whose tone I wasn't originally into but has grown on me like a fungus, lol), to Timmons, to Gambale, to Angus, to Andy Summers, Dave Mustain (there's your metal), to Kirk Hammet, and on and on and on. Such a vineyard to choose from. Just depends on my mood at the time.

I've found that having such a variety of tone at my hands via different pickups, guitars and amps is sometimes inspiring me to do things I've never done before. That said, I'm quickly finding that I love the neck position of a guitar, in every one of my guitars. And that is NOT a high mid kind of cutting tone that the general opinion says we need. So, it's making me want to try the Steve's Special, which I've read numerous posts about saying it is terrible. And, some posts saying it's a fantastic pickup.

To say it best, I will quote one of my close friends who told me one day: "Have the balls to be yourself". That's some of the best advice I've ever received, ...for, in the words of Audioslave, ...."to be yourself is all that you can do".