Rhino
05-01-2003, 02:46 PM
Let me start by saying I'm not talking of all guitarists and I'm not pointing at anyone person. This is just a general thing I've seen in my years of playing.
I've been pondering this for quite some time now. I've been a musician since I was born. My dad was a good musician(played drums, bass, guitar, accordian, etc) and he started teaching me to play piano at age 6. I started playing guitar when I got out of high school and now I'm a working musician here in Vegas. I've owned more gear than you probably want to hear about. But I've noticed one thing. No matter how much I spend, or how many stomp boxes I use or how few stomp boxes I use, or if I use rack gear, stacks or combo amps I still sound like me. Yes the gear affects a small amount of what I sound like and obviously playing through a no name 20 watt solid state piece of junk amp will not sound as nice as playing through a Vox AC30(depending on the player). But my thought is that so many guitarist are searching for good tone and all it takes is realizing that how you play is the biggest, most influencial piece of the puzzle. If you don't have the soul and you don't dig into your bent notes it'll sound like junk no matter what you play through. If you have a week picking attack, or sloppy, weak fret fingers your tone will be weak. And if you're a live player your energy on stage is a huge factor.
My problem with this is that amatuer guitarist are seeking for tone in gear and they are undiscplined in their studying and in there technic. It's a terrible distraction. I've had countless conversations with guitarists telling me about this new piece of gear they got or this new guitar that sounds awesome yet the next month they are buying something else so that they can have better "tone". Information here folks, different gear sounds different, not always better. Example... if you are a decent player and you have a mediocre peavey amp and you go out and buy a nice class A tube amp, you will sound different, but not necessarily better. The only way to sound better is to become a better player all around.
I want to let you all know that I'm not a closed minded guy and I'd like to know and hear what you have to say on this subject. Realize that I'm not against new gear, I enjoy a new piece from time to time, but I don't like that people put such a strong emphasis on gear in relation to tone. Thanks for listening:cool:
Rhino
I've been pondering this for quite some time now. I've been a musician since I was born. My dad was a good musician(played drums, bass, guitar, accordian, etc) and he started teaching me to play piano at age 6. I started playing guitar when I got out of high school and now I'm a working musician here in Vegas. I've owned more gear than you probably want to hear about. But I've noticed one thing. No matter how much I spend, or how many stomp boxes I use or how few stomp boxes I use, or if I use rack gear, stacks or combo amps I still sound like me. Yes the gear affects a small amount of what I sound like and obviously playing through a no name 20 watt solid state piece of junk amp will not sound as nice as playing through a Vox AC30(depending on the player). But my thought is that so many guitarist are searching for good tone and all it takes is realizing that how you play is the biggest, most influencial piece of the puzzle. If you don't have the soul and you don't dig into your bent notes it'll sound like junk no matter what you play through. If you have a week picking attack, or sloppy, weak fret fingers your tone will be weak. And if you're a live player your energy on stage is a huge factor.
My problem with this is that amatuer guitarist are seeking for tone in gear and they are undiscplined in their studying and in there technic. It's a terrible distraction. I've had countless conversations with guitarists telling me about this new piece of gear they got or this new guitar that sounds awesome yet the next month they are buying something else so that they can have better "tone". Information here folks, different gear sounds different, not always better. Example... if you are a decent player and you have a mediocre peavey amp and you go out and buy a nice class A tube amp, you will sound different, but not necessarily better. The only way to sound better is to become a better player all around.
I want to let you all know that I'm not a closed minded guy and I'd like to know and hear what you have to say on this subject. Realize that I'm not against new gear, I enjoy a new piece from time to time, but I don't like that people put such a strong emphasis on gear in relation to tone. Thanks for listening:cool:
Rhino