where does tone from?

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Elmo89m

Elmo89m

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I can learn and play almosta any solo but when i play it it just sound like notes, not like the solo im listening to. THis is going to sound likea walters post but i am being serious.for instance when i play the alive solo by Pearl Jam i hit all the notes and do the bends right but it just doesnt sound the same. it sounds flat and boring instead of raw, round, and that american rock sound the PJ has. In another instance when i play TIMe by Pink Floyd the same goes, it just doesnt have the spacey crazy gilmour feel. Where does this come from becaouse i have adjusted my amp to no end and i cant get it. does this unique tone come from the uniqueness of their amps,effects, and guitars or what?
 
really? the difference between sounding like PJ and Pink floyd is just about your fingers?
 
.......what I mean by that is that a great player will sound great on anything.
It's about the subtle nuances of the phrasing, the vibrato, etc....
There is no secret to tone other than that.
 
Yeah, there are tonal differences, but what seperates a plain jane dull sound from an exciting and expressive one is generally all about the player rather than the equipment.
 
The main difference is that you are attempting to imitate whereas they were in the process of creation. Theirs is going to feel more real because it **IS** more real.

Stop copying, start creating.
 
It's in the way you attack the strings. You use of vibrato. Amp setting will certainly have some effect as will guitar type and pickup selection. Any effects you use will also play into the equation as well. But it does start with the way you play the guitar.
 
A case in point: I rarely use a pick, I use my fingers 90% of the time, and I have become obsessive about my fingernails on my picking hand. IF they are too long, it sounds like ass, if they are too short, I have no attack. It is literally in the hands.

Ditto for my fretting hand, I keep my nails filed right down on the left hand to give me full control over vibrato, release, etc. My wife jokes that I spend more time on my nails than anyone she knows (and I do not have Estoban nails, by the way......yuck)
 
Yep, beating a dead horse, but it is in the feel. It's the reason that you can imitate a shredder solo better than a guitarist like Clapton. Shredder solos are blazing fast and all about technique. Once you get your fingers to move that fast, it's relatively simple because they don't do as much bending and such, and tend to stick really close to the scale. Someone like Gilmore plays to where he gets his notes to sound like a singing voice adding in the vibrato at the end with the slight pause that someone who sings that note will do.
 
I believe what you seek is the interaction of your setup and your fingers. It's not enough to merely say that Gilmour would sound like Gilmour no matter what. Truth is if you gave Gilmour a crap setup, he would probably put down the guitar because 1) he knows a good setup and 2) he doesn't need to put up with that.

So if your tone is lacking, that's probably a sign you need to revisit your setup. A good signal path will make you play better, because it will reinforce your technique. Then all of a sudden, you fingers will get better too, because your self-confidence will increase, forming a kind of positive feedback loop.

This is not to say that great gear makes a great player, because it doesn't. But great players do tend to use great gear, and there's a reason for that.
 
Rokket said:
sound like a singing voice adding in the vibrato at the end with the slight pause that someone who sings that note will do.
Click to expand...

That's considered a flaw in classical technique ;)
 
One of my co-workers told me about a documentary-type thing he had seen on Jaco Pastorius (think that's how it's spelled). Anyway, legendary bassist. So the band Jaco was playing with at the time was doing a pre-show soundcheck and Jaco was just stunning everyone with his warmup. Not just the speed or precision, but the emotion he was able to pull out of a single note, or a whole phrase, or whatever he was playing. The bassist for one of the bands that was opening the show walked up to Jaco and asked him how he got such an amazing sound, and started asking about bass and amp settings and stuff like that. Jaco just said "I'll show you how to get that sound", and then promptly took the other guy's bass and started playing through THAT rig...and it sounded almost just like it did when he was playing through his own rig. There were very minor tonal differences, but what made it so amazing was still there.

It's not just about what amp you have, or what guitar, or what processor or stompbox or strings or whatever, although those can have an effect. It's about being able to put emotion into it. The notes themselves are nothing without the emotion they should be played with. That's why the shredders at the local music store annoy me so much. They can play ridiculously fast, but there's no soul to it! It's just a note-fest, with no other redeeming qualities.
 
It all started with Steve Cropper it's called "Cropper Tone"

Booooooooooo!
 
Elmo, you'll have to study the guitarists to learn their set-up to get their sound. You can find lots of details on the internet. You'll never have all that equipment that Gilmour had but you can get close with a multi-effects box. Gilmour used a 24 fret Lewis guitar on Time. NOT because of the special tone but because it had 24 frets to get the high notes. I cannot understand the how this whole tone thing with the fingers. There are lots of people who include everything in the word tone. I can't see how you insert deep reverb and echo into a guitar phrase with your fingers unless your fingers are moving the Lexicon knobs.
 
sile2001 said:
One of my co-workers told me about a documentary-type thing he had seen on Jaco Pastorius (think that's how it's spelled). Anyway, legendary bassist. So the band Jaco was playing with at the time was doing a pre-show soundcheck and Jaco was just stunning everyone with his warmup. Not just the speed or precision, but the emotion he was able to pull out of a single note, or a whole phrase, or whatever he was playing. The bassist for one of the bands that was opening the show walked up to Jaco and asked him how he got such an amazing sound, and started asking about bass and amp settings and stuff like that. Jaco just said "I'll show you how to get that sound", and then promptly took the other guy's bass and started playing through THAT rig...and it sounded almost just like it did when he was playing through his own rig. There were very minor tonal differences, but what made it so amazing was still there.
Click to expand...

Didn't I read that same story in Guitar Player years ago but with EVH and Ted Nugent as the main characters ?
 
vestast said:
Didn't I read that same story in Guitar Player years ago but with EVH and Ted Nugent as the main characters ?
Click to expand...
Wouldn't surprise me...I'm sure that many guitar greats have had similar experiences.
 
SBax said:
Elmo, you'll have to study the guitarists to learn their set-up to get their sound. You can find lots of details on the internet. You'll never have all that equipment that Gilmour had but you can get close with a multi-effects box. Gilmour used a 24 fret Lewis guitar on Time. NOT because of the special tone but because it had 24 frets to get the high notes. I cannot understand the how this whole tone thing with the fingers. There are lots of people who include everything in the word tone. I can't see how you insert deep reverb and echo into a guitar phrase with your fingers unless your fingers are moving the Lexicon knobs.
Click to expand...
We're not saying that you bring echo or reverb out with your fingers. I wouldn't tell anyone to try to get a phaser effect with their fingers, or try to replicate the Edge's delays on "Where the Streets Have No Name" without a delay unit. What we are saying is that the fingers is where it all starts. It's a whole chain of events. Have you heard the saying "Garbage in, garbage out"? It just makes the point that if you don't start off with something good, you're not likely to end up with something good. The fingers is where it starts.
 
I few years ago I did some gigs with a guitar player (I gig mostly as a drummer - but I have guitar & keyboard chops) who had the best tone I had ever heard - and I've worked with a few hundred good players (and a few bad ones)

I commented on his tone and asked what he did to get such good tone (like everyone who plays guitar I am insearch of that holy grail).

In response to my question he held his hands in font of him and wiggled his fingers - which is indeed the true secret.
 
You'll never accomplish that feelingful toneliness unless you put a mic in front of a tube amp!All the pros'll tell ya that!
 
see, if only they made one of these for tone....oh some sweet day ..
 

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