The Pursuit of Tone
I'd love to hear from Jim, and others, about how you found your tone. I know people talk about this or that equipment, and that's certainly part of it, but the best music is often made by discovering/cultivating your own voice and I'm curious about each person's process in discovering theirs. On acoustic guitar, which is where I have spent the majority of my time, I feel like I've found out more about my voice then the electric (which I played as a teen and then started again a few years ago). You know, I've got the guitars, and the PRRI amp, pedals, etc., but in the end those are just part of the deal. Charlie Parker once played and recorded on a plastic saxophone when he didn't have his regular horn. And he sounded just like Charlie Parker. Ornette Coleman played a plastic sax for years (by choice, or economics) and sounded just like Ornette, and continued to do so after he switched to a more conventional horn. Jim sounds like Jim, Duke Levine, like Duke Levine, Bill Frisell, etc. I am reminded of a quote from Eisenhower: "Things are more like they are now than they have ever been before." That seems to capture the essence of many things (I'm sure Ike wasn't referring to music!). In any event, I would love to hear people's stories.
Comments
I spent some time thinking about this. My setup is pretty much a total rip off of Jim's and while certain stuff is idiosyncratic to the gear (behind the nut bending is much more fun on a tele than a les paul etc.) I think it has a lot more to do with making you feel happy before you even play.
I think 90% of it is the bone tone and how you like to play. The bigger thing for me with gear is that it makes me feel comfortable. It is really cool to see folks who can pick up any guitar and plug into any amp and play really well but I have learned that I get a little nervous when I try new stuff and the playing suffers. When I sit down with my stuff I am excited before I even play a note, maybe it is because it is gear just like my hero's play or because it is old stuff or because it is expensive but that feeling to me is worth it.
Aside from comfort I think knowing your gear well is just as important as having expensive gear. I see people all the time playing with "bad" gear but they have used it for so long and know how it performs in different situations that they make it sound amazing.
For me, it was just staying with one thing and eliminating effect pedals forced me to find sound effects manually and concentrate on touch and dynamics. And I will adjust to whatever set up I have. In other words, play the music your sound dictates and discover what unique sounds your guitar will give you. Obviously practice is the foundation the house is built on.
Hmmmm - at 0.30 Nick Jonas has "good tone"...
At 2:35 Prince borrows a guitar that is unforgivingly clean (and it looks uncomfortably low) and he forgoes the Santana-like lead, slams out some funky rhythms and then he takes his shirt off. THAT’S working with your tone and the cards one is dealt!
Then there's Ted Greene playing a wedding...
The "pedals thing" for me has been tough.... some days, I want to throw them all out and use just guitar and amp- like Jim usually does. Other days, I want them at my disposal, but use them only sparingly for "spices" to "sprinkle in" once in awhile... I have a delay, a tremolo, and a leslie/vibratone pedal (which can double as a chorus)... even the guys I love who DO use effects, use them sparingly, and are quite often just guitar into amp. But then you've got the Nels Clines and Bill Frissells.....
I found this quite interesting... Eric Johnson, playing Zakk Wylde's guitar through Zakk Wylde's rig and sounding like... Eric Johnson.
As they say, "tone is in the fingers"... and I have yet to hear one of my "favorite pros" disagree with that, regardless of what, or how much, gear they use....
I just wanted to add that there's a ton of truth in this... altho I wouldn't say "bad" gear, because if it sounds good, it's not "bad"... but DIFFERENT gear. Some of my favorite players over the years have changed their gear with almost every new record/tour, but they always sound the same. ALTHO I will also say, some of my favorite players found one "formula" that works for them, and they stick with it: Jim, Guthrie Trapp, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Brian Setzer, just to name a few.
I haven't found "the one" setup yet... I have found "the one" guitar, a '93 MIA tele that I bought new, but have not yet found "the one" amp FOR ME.... I can make any amp "work", but I'm still looking for my "desert island amp". I THINK, if you can find that- the ONE guitar and ONE amp, then the pedals fall by the wayside, for the most part.
I guess some aspects of "tone" are in the fingers, like note articulation, dynamics, attack, but in general tone is very much dependent on the gear.
For example, I seem to lean toward semi-hollow electrics. I seem to like mahogany, on both electrics and acoustics. I can bond with single coils or humbuckers, but either needs to be fairly low output. I've gone through a lot of amps over the years, and now I have 3 that have managed to stick around over time. And they're all 6V6 amps, so I guess there's something to that, too.
I guess my point is that I've made more progress with my tone when I started to see what feature I liked about my favorite guitarist's tone, rather than trying to copy rigs exactly.
I do have quite a few pedals, which I use very sparingly these days, but that's a whole 'nuther story.
I am finding that, with a good guitar and amp, regardless of what they are, "tone" really is in the hands. I don't think I could get Jim's tele + Princeton tones out of a Gretsch and a Peavey Bandit, for example. There are limits. LOL
Chasing tone is a wormhole...kind of like the internet. I'm guilty of going down it myself. But I try to remember that it's generally just a waste of good practice time.
That being said, good tone can definitely inspire me to practice more. So there's that.
What I really mean is, I have no idea.
Even Joe Bonamassa, reigning king of GAS, is now playing a very stripped down rig: 2 tweed Twins, 2 tweed bassmans, 1 overdrive pedal, and a wah. While is his tone IS a LITTLE different form his previous rig (4 amps, switching system, enormous pedalboard, etc)... it's not THAT different.
For those interested, in the beginning of this video he talks about the freedom of his new rig as compared to his old behemoth:
I'm also a huge jazz fan- mostly pre-bop, everything from Louis Armstrong to Charlie Christian to Louis Jordan to Lester Young up to Johnny Smith. Ditto for blues- T-Bone Walker, BB King, Albert Collins, Freddie King, etc. Whether you're talking horns or strings, all those cats needed was their instrument. (and in the case of the electric guitar players, the amplifier IS part of the instrument). No wah pedals or gizmos; just the music and the tool needed to make the music. You can't improve upon Armstrong. One man with a horn = perfection.
[on a side note, I'm not sure exactly where all this "hillbilly jazz" fits into the timeline; but I like ALL that stuff as well... Jimmy Bryant, Jimmie Rivers, George Barnes, etc]
All of this talk has reignited my desire for another Princeton (I sold my last one, but I was in a slightly different "place" then, asking the PR to do what it wasn't really meant to do). But one of the most gorgeous sounds I've ever heard is a tele plugged straight into a Princeton (and the same could be said for the Deluxe Reverb, Vibrolux Reverb, Pro Reverb, Super Reverb... all depends on your volume/headroom needs).