Can I rant here?

  • Thread starter Thread starter effedupstrat
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effedupstrat

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Hi all,
I was just reading some guitar news groups on Deja.com, and had to post here where its a little more homey. FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, if you play the ELECTRIC FREAKING GUITAR, stop calling yourself a purist! "like dude, I don't play through any of those funny boxes, like man it screws with my tone and stuff, like I'm a PURIST...guitar into cord into amp...I like the natural sound of the guitar. Hello Sasquatch! Its the ELECTRIC guitar, the natural sound is what you hear when you're plinking away unplugged. The instrument that you play is as much the signal path post output jack as it is the wood and strings. ANY sound that comes out of the speakers is as valid as any other sound, and there is NOTHING natural about it. Natural sound is what you hear with your ears when a gnat farts beside your face. There is NOTHING purist about a strat into a Marshall!

There, I feel much better now, now where can I post my rant about the audiophiles who claim to hear subtle soundstaging and bass portrayal differences in those gnat farts as heard through exponential horns and $50/foot cables?

peace.
 
ok, but what if you play strictly with the fingertips (no pick) using strings made of dried caribou sinew with no shoes on after dieting solely on macrobiotic tofu? I would think that puts the mind, body and spirit in harmonious quorum with nature, qualifying anyone to achieve tonal purity. Everything else contaminates the tone with spectral impurities which will degrade any recording.

Deepak Chopra ... on hallucinogens
 
Yeah AlChuck,
I've always wanted a guitar synth, from the time I tried my friend's Casio midi guitar with his Ensoniq EPS. This was some years ago and it didn't track too well, but boy was it cool. I alternately play through piles of stuff or almost no stuff, my point has always been that it is all valid, because as creative artists we are trying to explore new ideas, even if that means just a sonic twist on an old theme. I used to host an open mic and one night this guy was all over my gear saying "why do you play through all that crap?" I told him that that was my thing and I used all the gear to musical effect. He says "just plug the cord into the amp...bla...bla". So when I play the next song, during the solo I hit the hold function on my multiplay 2 second delay and proceeded to put my guitar on the stand and play all my pedals. Afterward I said to him, "see, you play the guitar, and you do play it well, but I can as well, and I can play the electricity too!" Put him right in his place, but thank the lord my batteries held out!

peace.
 
im not into others ideas of purity.personally im of the opinion that whatever sounds right to you is what you should purchase.for instance i use a pod.but, to my ears a number of the pods models fall way short.i still use it, but instead of looking to imitate something i just find what sounds right.sadly their models of a twin reverb and matchless sound horribly wrong to my ears.
and those are the type of sounds i dig...oh well.i have my ampeg to play with.

as for guitar synths SIGN ME UP.im about to get a gr-33 asap. it looks to be a killer tool.i think the purists are purists from the vantage of the sounds that impress theyre ears.and to me you can hear a difference in all these different gadgets.i personally use each thing differently.a screwdriver is a screwdriver and a hammer is a hammer.

to me its not about being a purist but taking what youve got and making it work.all the rules are flexable.

and even if your guitar tone is "pure" what about recording it into your computer and messing with it?i guess im not a purist, but i still have my sense of taste for what works.
 
Hmmm....

...I hear what you're saying, but I think the term "purist" comes from trying to differentiate people who can really play WITHOUT DEPENDING ON EFFECTS.

Any monkey can throw a distortion pedal at high gain in the loop and wank around - that's pretty much where Grunge came from, but the best players can really play the instrument - guitar/amp - that's it. No compressor for external dynamic control, no chorus for fuller sound, no tap'd delay for 16th note fills, etc...

Years ago, I was jamming with a young distant relative (he'd started guitar 3 years prior and was anxious to muck around and jam.) He pulled out some digitech multi-effect floor pedal and started showing me what he could do. He kicked on the "AMP AT 11" setting (high-gain, stereo delay, etc...) and started noodling on Satriani licks. (He actually had pretty speedy fingers...) Then I said ok, let's trying jamming on a standard Blues prog in A... he gave me a blank look... ok I explain the chord progression and tell him to solo over it. I start to play, and he starts noodling on Satriani again!

Although he could play the licks he learned off the CDs, he had no concept of soloing, scales or improvisation. Initially, he certainly sounded like he could play - but you take away that pedalboard and he'd be lost!

Now, I'm not down on using pedals/rack gear at all, far from it - I use 'em myself! But it IS real easy to hide playing skills behind effects, and fooling yourself. And I think that's when the word "purist" comes out!

Bruce Valeriani
Blue Bear Sound
 
Good point, Bruce, but what I'm really trying to get at is that the electric guitar IS an effect. The true test of any player may be to put him on a rusty-strung old Kay archtop and see if he or she can speak with it. What I'm really railing against in the guitar community is this attitude that because I or someone else chooses to usually play through effects must mean that someone who doesn't is allowed the soubriquet of "purist" and therefore is somehow more worthy as a player. A vintage Fender amp DOES contain a dynamics processor, its called a tube rectifier. Notes sag and swell because of the inadequacies of the circuit to accurately reproduce the signal present at the input. It is almost the same as having anything in the signal path. Now plug that puppy into a DI box and straight into a console without overdriving and that's a totally different ballgame as regards the electric guitar tone, but these "purist" guys would never do that because they play through AMPS turned up LOUD. The real proof is really what comes out of the speakers....is it good and musical, or not?

peace.
 
Yup, I agree with ya.... I was simply explaining where I think the word/use of it originates. It is REALLY silly to turn the "purist" concept it into religion it has become though.

If it sounds good, then it IS good! ;)

Bruce
 
I think you've hit on something.... I seem to be bedeviled by "purists" in every venue. Right now I'm playing Dobro & harmonica in a duo [we do everything from Jack Elliot to Jimi Hendrix] and I am tempted to a have a sign painted on my Dobro that says "My other guitar is a Les Paul goldtop". Which it is.... When I play the Dobro, it's the wrong model played in the wrong tuning using the wrong kind of steel with the wrong picks featuring licks that are just plain wrong because Brother Oswald didn't play 'em in 1938! You can't win against the purists. They mistake what is familiar with what is good. With other musicians, of course, it gets into oneupsmanship: I'm better than you because my heart is pure! By the way, when I played Mr Les Paul in a similar duo with a guy who played much the same material, nobody cared what kind of instrument it was. They seemed to have their little purist motors shut down. I'll play my LP through a wahwah if that's what the song needs, or use my Country Gent and wobble the Bigsby all night, if that's what it takes.
It's called M-U-S-I-C.
"Duh."
 
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