I am well aware that every guitar player is different and the same setup doesn't work for everyone... and even if it did... how boring would that be. But, I would like to start a conversation that might be helpful to start thinking through tone and how to approach it or what has worked for people. A couple things!
1. Having great tone will not make you a better player- so practice because the thing that impacts tone the most is your fingers!
2. You don't have to have a Dumble or Trainwreck amp with vintage guitars from the 50's and 60's with a pedal board that consists of Keeley electronic effects with a Eventide delay, Klon Centaur Overdrive, Xotic preamp, Z-Vex something or other, ect... to have great tone and sound like you.
You don't have to spend thousands of dollars to get "that sound."
We'll talk about good sound and smart shopping. Whatever topics you guys want to talk about we'll do that. I've just noticed that I keep having the same conversations with people and maybe we could streamline some info to be informative and helpful to each other.
When I came to Cincy I was playing a Fender Hot Rod Deluxe amp (not bad- just not that interesting) and some store bought cheap-o pedals I threw together. It was a massive improvement on the solid-state amps with on-board effects I had before that but I was needing a major over hull. Thanks to the amazing guys here I had a new world opened to me and started learning about electronics, building and modding pedals, amps, guitars, ect... I started learning there is musical life outside what you see on the shelves at Guitar Center and Sam Ash.
The quest for tone is pretty personal so--- lets just help each other find what works for us.
A couple of very interesting amp-related topics you've posted thus far, because they seem to relate to some of my experiences of late. I have been through a plethora of amps through my guitar playing journey. I've sold several that I could kick myself for letting go. I've also bought a few that I could kick myself for being associated with too. I could ramble on forever on this topic, as amps to me are the most interesting aspect of electric guitar (many times overshadowed by the guitars themselves). I just got back together with my longtime gigging band Outlet, after a nearly 2 year hiatus. Our first show back was being hyped relatively well; word of mouth traveled, newspaper article about us, and signs posted months in advance at the venue. Because of the promotion and anticipation surrounding our comeback gig, I wanted my tone to be as perfect as it could (in spite of my playing :)). A month or 2 before the show, I started wondering what amp I should play through for the gig. I started off by convincing myself that I would play one of my Vox Ac30's for it. At the time I had 2 of these. The one I selected had celestion blues in it, which is a heralded combo for Ac30s. I put a fresh set of preamp and power tubes into it, along with a few minor mods and was ready to roll. I liked the sound, but wanted to give the other viable options a whirl. I played around a bit with my Reverend Hellhound, and it certainly sounded "good enough," but I was still searching. A similar test involved a Dr. Z Carmen Ghia head with matching cab. The Ghia has to be one of favorite amps, and despite it's size, it's plenty loud enough. I tried my other Ac30 with a celestion gold installed, experimented with the Bogner Alchemist, and then tried my old USA made V-series 30 watt head into it's matching cabinet. Because I kept going back and forth (involving annoying my wife with questions as to which amps sounded best to her), I decided to do a shootout. 2 weeks before the show, I set all of the mentioned amps (i even involved a Roland Cube 60) in the same room and ab'd a clean and dirty for each of the amps...I even had a friend play a few chords while I wasn't in the room. Much to my suprise, the V-series (made by Crate when they were with St. Louis Music who made Ampeg) won out of all of them. It was my old gigging amp from before, and I got caught up into feeling like I needed something more because of reputation and online forums. When I bought the V30, i did a similar shootout...I tested a handfull of amps, including several much more expensive amps. I actually took back a Mesa Boogie Nomad 100 watt combo because I felt that I ended up not buying the amp that truly won me over- the V30. It beat out several Fenders, a Mesa Nomad, a Mesa F-50 and 30, an Ampeg Reverb Rocket (nice amp), a few modeling amps and several others. It was kinda funny that I was back trying to beat out what had won me over with tone. So, I ended up playing the show with the V30 and it seemed to come through with flying colors. It's cool when you truly let your ears judge what sounds best to you, and even cooler when it's something attainable. I thought this related somewhat to what you were writing about (which I have certainly enjoyed reading, because you seem to be into gear like myself) and had some spare time to share my experience. Take care ~ Phillip
ReplyDeleteYou always need an eventide delay though surely!!! :-)
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