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Post by Admin on Apr 17, 2014 12:55:06 GMT -5
What do you believe is good guitar tone? How do you achieve it? The choice of guitar essentially comes down to what style of music you want to play. Acoustic guitars are associated with folk, country, jazz and bluegrass music, while electric guitars are used for metal and rock music. For me, it's all about acoustic. www2.gibson.com/News-Lifestyle/Features/en-us/25-secret-ways-to-get-the.aspx
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Post by Steven B on Apr 17, 2014 16:42:27 GMT -5
Good post.........
As for me, I am known mainly as an acoustic picker. To me, tone is most important with those types of instruments. There is not much you can do to modify the tone of an instrument. Of course, keeping it clean----using good quality strings and changing them regularly----how you approach the instrument with your picking/strumming style----and most importantly, the type of plectrum you use can all really affect the sound of a guitar.
Most folks think an instrument should be judged by it's volume. I agree (a little bit). You always want to be heard. However, the tone of the guitar is more important to me than the volume. When you get to the point of playing out live (in a band context), you can close-mic a guitar and fill up the front-of-house with no problem. 9 times out of 10, I would prefer to have a good sounding guitar, use a good quality mic, and let the sound man work his magic. If the guitar sounds like crap to start with.....the overall finished product is going to be "loud sounding crap". I like my acoustic to have a solid bottom end......not boomy. Martins are known for their bassy sounding E and A strings. But I've seen many of them where you don't actually hear the note as much as you hear a low rumble. That don't cut it in a live situation. I also want the high and upper register notes to be clear and have some sustain to them. If you find a guitar with those types of characteristics, more than likely, the mid-range will take care of itself.
On my electric rigs, I always pushed for the same thing. Good bottom---clear treble. I personally prefer single coil pickups over humbuckers. In my opinion, the tone of an electric is affected more by the type of amp used than the construction of the guitar. I'm not much on distortion. I don't mind a little crunch once in a while but I always want to hear the sound of the frets and strings moreso than an amp about to "pee in the floor". Give me a decently set up electric, single coils, a set of good strings, medium action, and that frets true to the 16th fret along with a medium powered amp (tube or transistor) that is clean and clear up to a fairly loud volume and I'm a happy camper.
That's a very long winded way of saying.......I don't know how in the heck good guitar tone is achieved.........hehe
Have a good'un
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Post by Admin on Apr 17, 2014 18:57:10 GMT -5
Great response Steven...I agree with everything you said. Plus, for electric it needs to be a Fender Tele with a fender amp.
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Post by Pistol Pete on Apr 21, 2014 14:17:55 GMT -5
I know it when I hear it! There's so many different 'good' tones - it depends so much on which tone suits the guitarist.
Some of my favourites are: Hound Dog Taylor playing a cheap 70s Japanese Electric through a Sears Silvertone; Tom Rush playing an Epiphone Texan acoustic; Son House playing a National; & Jon Amor from the Hoax playing a Strat with lipstick pickups through a Fender Vibroverb.
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Post by jlhooker on Apr 22, 2014 7:18:54 GMT -5
I like BB King's tone. I try to get mine as close to it as I can.
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Post by steve on Apr 23, 2014 15:02:15 GMT -5
I know it when I hear it. Pretty much my Tele plugged into my Laney VC30 with a boost pedal slightly on and a Saturday evening English pub audience.
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Post by JamesP on Sept 16, 2015 14:21:40 GMT -5
Just ran across an interesting discussion on the Guitar Forum on LinkedIn...
Made me think!
Do you use the volume and/or tone knobs on your guitar, leaving your amp set at the "sweet spot"?
Made me remember back to those days when we didn't have a lot of options to adjust for volume and tone as the particular song called for. Some old honky-tonk ballads need a softer volume/tone setting, and we didn't have pedals back then. So, we had to use the volume pot on the old tele. Now I guess most people have at least a volume pedal, so the only knob you mess with during a set is the tone pot.
But how about it forum?
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