“That new guitar/amp/pedal/whatever sounds sweet — but will anyone hear my improvement in tone once it’s recorded, uploaded to YouTube, and played back on someone’s phone?” It’s a question we’re frequently asked at Sweetwater, and it’s a fair one. The answer is yes, listeners will notice your improved tone — but maybe not for the reasons you think. Many players will tell you it’s better to improve technique than to chase tone — but the fact is, your tone and your technique are completely intertwined. Your guitar tone is for both you and your listeners, and your guitar tone informs every note you play.
As a guitarist, chasing tone is all about what you want to hear out of your guitar rig. Does your amp break up into overdrive exactly when you want it to? Do your palm-muted phrases have the right punch and impact? Do you have enough sustain to play legato phrases the way you like? When you think about it, almost every aspect of your tone feeds back into you and informs how you play your instrument. In a way, chasing guitar tone is less about what you hear and more about how your guitar rig responds to your playing style. In this way, guitar tone is all about you — if you struggle to get the right sound from your gear, your performance is likely to suffer.
This is where the role of the listener plays into tone — imagine someone who has never seen you perform or heard your music. They have no frame of reference for your tone, and most nonmusicians don’t get too analytical with guitar tone anyway. But we all can easily see whether you’re in the zone, compared to a guitarist that seems to just be going through the motions. Those tiny little tonal improvements you seek may only be audible to you and maybe your bandmates, but they’re the key to keeping yourself in that zone. Said another way, you play better when you’re inspired by what you hear — and if a tiny little high-frequency boost with just a subtle dose of harmonics is what it takes to put you in the zone, so be it. At this point, it doesn’t matter whether listeners notice your new boost pedal or not — they’re hearing you in your element, pouring your heart out through your guitar without being distracted by sonic deficiencies in your tone.
Sometimes you may want to wow your listeners with distinctive guitar tones, but you always want to wow your listeners with your playing. And your guitar tone informs how you play every single note. Anything that helps you play more expressively is sure to ultimately benefit your listeners. Consider yourself a chef, serving up sonic delights for people’s ears. Sure, they probably won’t know all the little things that went into their meal, they may not even notice how you garnished their dish, but you do these things because you want to serve up the best experience you can. By giving yourself better ingredients that inspire you to do your best, you’ll create a better product, and your audience will notice.
If you have any questions about gear to enhance your guitar tone, don’t hesitate to reach out to your Sweetwater Sales Engineer at (800) 222-4700.