The New Tone Thread

I still love the Beatles - but mostly their slightly proggy, avant-garde stuff from the later albums where they were really experimenting and George Martin wrote all those genius string sections etc.

Hendrix, I acknowledge his complete mastery of his genre. Did music begin and end with him? no it didn't, at least not for me. Punk rock was my rebellion, but for my part I latched onto the more intelligent proponents like the Clash, The Stranglers, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Magazine - not the mongoloids that followed on its coat tails. It was obvious that three-chord thrash missed the point and to carry it on past the first flush of media recognition was a total cul-de-sac.
 
Lt. Bob said:
I don't think anyone does ..... we like what we like because of how it connected to us and different things communicate differently to different people.
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I don't know. I come across people that claim to like certain things, and then you talk to them about it, and they can't name any songs besides the greatest hits. They don't want to be mocked for not liking or being familiar with something, so they claim fandom. Whereas for me, people can mock me all they want for not liking the Beatles.

No matter if I live out my life in Fl .... I will never be a fan of any Florida team ......... I will ALWAYS be a Saints and LSU fan .....
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Amen! I live in Texas and can't give one single fuck about any Texas teams. Well, I do like the Astros, only because there was no baseball team to pull for in New Orleans.
 
Bubba po said:
I still love the Beatles - but mostly their slightly proggy, avant-garde stuff from the later albums where they were really experimenting and George Martin wrote all those genius string sections etc.
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Haha, I'm just the opposite! I hate that trippy self-indulgent beatles era. Blech. If I have to hear some beatles, I much, much prefer the early girl-pop "she loves you yeah yeah yeah" shit.
 
Greg_L said:
I don't know. I come across people that claim to like certain things, and then you talk to them about it, and they can't name any songs besides the greatest hits. .
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well, that's just because they're like most people about music ..... not really that interested. It's just a background thing for many people. They only know greatest hits because the only time they hear music is on club soundsystems or DJs or radio where the hits get played and that's all that gets played.
Even then they just have it in the background of their thinking.
 
Greg_L said:
It's hard to describe sound with words. Some people use shit like "woody", and I'm like, WTF does that even mean? Sounds like wood? WTF does wood sound like?
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When people use the word "woody" to describe a tone they are more than likely describing the tone of vintage arch top guitars, vintage flat top guitars, or vintage mandolins. I have 3 mandolins, the oldest of which is 40 years old. The tone of my oldest mandolin has a tone that I consider to be a near "woody tone" but not the same "woody tone" that I hear when I listen to someone playing a 40 or 50 year old Gibson mandolin. There is something magical that happens to the wood and the tone of an acoustic instrument as it ages.

Ten years ago I was visiting my uncle in south Virginia. He asked me to take a look at an old guitar that he had bought (50 years ago) from a friend who was in need of cash at the time. I don't remember the model, but it was a 1945 Gibson 6 string acoustic guitar. It had very old strings on it, but as soon as I touched it I said...."Take me to your nearest GC or some other music store". I bought new strings, put the new strings on it, adjusted the truss rod. I strummed a few chords and I was satisfied. An hour later, one his guitar playing sons came home, saw the guitar, picked it up and began to play. That old Gibson had that "woody tone" that only old wood offers.

I was just passing through and the words "woody tone" caught my eye.
 
I quite like Beatles pop rock, was underwhelmed with the music hall aspects of most of the pepper LP, but wasn't a "fan" of them generally. Liked stuff & didn't like stuff. Stones - more interesting to me but, because of my age - being a teen through the 70 onward - I was/am much more of a rock dog.
On the other hand I still have almost every LP I bought and most still get an airing - though tat takes time.
The guitar tone I grew up liking most in my teens was an LP into a big amp. It's a tone I've not tried to achieve though as I've not actually wanted an LP and my BIG amp doesn't sound like anything but ferociously loud when cranked. Later I developed an hankering for Ricky jangle but that was more through the "indie" scene that brought REM, Teenage Fan Club and such to my frontal lobe.
I can get a Woody tone with a Toy Story guitar.
 
zed32 said:
I don't like the Beatles at all.


These days, the only band I ever listen to is The Meters! ;)
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then ..... speaking as a Louisianienian .... you need to listen to 'Jon Cleary and the Absolute Monster Gentlemen ' ...... the first two albums .... everyone I've turned onto it has listened to it for 6 months straight.
 
Lt. Bob said:
then ..... speaking as a Louisianienian .... you need to listen to 'Jon Cleary and the Absolute Monster Gentlemen ' ...... the first two albums .... everyone I've turned onto it has listened to it for 6 months straight.
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I love the Meters. I will check out Jon Cleary.
 
Man I love The Meters. My band did Hey Pocky A-Way and Cissy Strut > Love The One You're With tonight. We usually do Ease Back as well. Looks like it's time for me to check out some Cleary.
 
Alright, I originally popped this together really quickly just before Christmas but I've worked on my tone and micing a bit since then.

I'm not trying to copy the tone of the original - I just want it to sound good - I'm pretty happy with this. Any improvements? Unfortunately getting away from it sounding "a bit small cab" probably won't be an option!

View attachment WATRC Tone Test.mp3
 
Sounds good to me JDOD. It's a useful tone that would work in a lot of contexts. I hear a little boominess, but that's for the mix sort out. Small cab/big cab--nobody cares. If a small cab is what you've got, embrace it and make it work in the song.
 
Doesn't sound bad Jdude, I have no idea what "WATRC" is or means, but your clip ain't bad dude...Might notch out just a little around 300hz or so (with a narrow Q), that particular frequency seems to plague a lot of my guitar tones making 'em a little boxy...Not that your clip here sounds boxy, just sayin'....
 
Cheers.

Miner. We Are The Road Crew by Motörhead. I did a one verse and a solo cover of it late last year when the drummer died. Just decided that I wanted to finish it off with a full version, improved solos and vocals. But I wanted to work on the rhythm tone first.
 
JDOD said:
Alright, I originally popped this together really quickly just before Christmas but I've worked on my tone and micing a bit since then.

I'm not trying to copy the tone of the original - I just want it to sound good - I'm pretty happy with this. Any improvements? Unfortunately getting away from it sounding "a bit small cab" probably won't be an option!
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Ey up JD. The tone is ok, if a bit modern metal rather than classic rock. Fizzy rather than meaty. My memory's failing me, but is the fourth note of that riff slurred between two notes like that in the original, or is that your addition? Sounds a bit odd.
 
Robus said:
I hear a little boominess, but that's for the mix sort out.
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:facepalm:
No, get it right before trying to fix it in the mix.



Anyway JDOD, It is a little boomy and boxy. It's not really so bad until the leads come in, and then you can really tell how dark and murky the rhythm tone actually is.
 
I played my Strat today for the first time in about two years. I still hate Strats. I need to fix this one though. I think years of neglect have rotted the pots and switches. It definitely needs new pots at least.
 
This thing. This was my first "good" guitar. A friend of my dad just gave it to me. I think it was his kid's or something and he never played it. I had loads of pawn shop no-name shit before this, but this was my first big name guitar. I think it was about 91-ish? This guitar has had countless beers spilled on it, blood splattered on it, vomit hurled on it, sweat dripped on it, it spent a good portion of it's life bouncing around the trunk of a GTO, it's pickguard has been spray-painted about a dozen times because the original white is hideous, and it's never once that I'm aware of been inside of a case or gig bag. Two of the original white knobs still exist, the other, who knows? The pickup covers and trem spring cover are also long gone. The little mini-toggle is a mod I did for unlimited pickup combinations which I've never used. It's no use to me now, I keep it for sentimental reasons.

 
Bubba po said:
Ey up JD. The tone is ok, if a bit modern metal rather than classic rock. Fizzy rather than meaty. My memory's failing me, but is the fourth note of that riff slurred between two notes like that in the original, or is that your addition? Sounds a bit odd.
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You know what mate, it doesn't. That's my typically lazy guitar playing coming through without me thinking about it and it immediately sounding normal to me. Modern Metal is usually more where my tone is at I tired a DSL40 like miner uses and I just couldn't get myself to like it!

I'll have another fiddle with the tone later. I think I know what to do with this to straighten it out.

That's quite a cool looking strat. Stick a humbucker in the bridge and use it!
 
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