Bad Tone

[64Firebird]

I went out to hear some bands play last night and everywhere I went, every guitar player sounded like he was playing a Telecaster with his amp on bright and the highs all the way up. Some of them were painful to listen to.

What's up with this? Have they all gone deaf and can't hear the high end anymore?

Most of them were good players, but the tone was awful! I couldn't stand to stay for more than one set for any of them.

Tone is everything!

[Track Rat]

Hey, I play a Tele. The neck pick up is tone city.

[JR#97]

maybe the FOH guy deaf and mixed it bright.

[M.Brane]

I think the problem that a lot of players fall victim to is tweaking the amp while standing directly in front with their head above the speakers. You really have to get out in front a ways and down a bit to where the sound of the cab develops, especially with a closed-back 412.

[64Firebird]

M.Brane that makes a lot of sence.


No offence ment Track Rat, for some kinds of music, a good Tele can't be beat. But, it is a very bright sounding guitar.

[M.Brane]

Don't forget though that most of Zep's 1st album and the solo in "Stairway" were cut with a Tele.

Just goes to show how much the right fuzz can warm things up.

[jimistone]

i think the problem is that most of the guitar players i hear don't know how to set an amp....because...they don't know what good tone is.

....you have to know what good tone is before you can tweak an amp to get it. the most common tone flaws i hear are: too much distortion or too bright (those ear splitting highs....and thats while the dude is playing rythem)

then theres the god awful shoot me in temple before my ears bleed combination of.....too much distortion AND too bright

add to that a phaser that is making the amps hum go "shhhwssssssSHHHWSSSSSshhhwssss" and you have about as shitty a tone as can be obtained.

well..i dunno....they may make a distortion pedal that has a "hyper-bright" switch on it that could be added to the signal chain .....extra shit in the hole so to speak.

[M.Brane]

The only controls on my stuff that ever see "10" is the master volume on my Super Reverb and my guitar volume/tone. I'd love to be able to put the master vol. on my JCM800 on 10 but it's just too freakin' loud to do that inside any building I've played in!

[64Firebird]

I like to set my Bassman amp with everything on 5 except the treble. I like to set it around 8 or 9. Then I roll the highs off at the guitar. This way I have just a little fuzz to make it sound nasty (my amp doesn't have a master volume, it's old), but not so much that the chords sound muddy. By twisting the tone knob on the guitar and changing pickups I can get a bright or a mellow tone.