Is our tone in our fingers?

roberty · January 2023

The right gear helps bring out the right qualities of your playing. But your playing has to be right for this to happen

GavRichList · January 2023

No, you’re thinking of *bone. It’s bone that is in your fingers.

Roland · January 2023

LastMantra said:

Roland said:

Now I’m not going to dispute that equipment has a big effect on sound, but put any two of us in the same room with the same equipment, and get us playing the song, and we will sound different, even without changing any settings.
Could you not also say that even though the two would play differently you'd technically be using the same guitar tone? As in amp/guitar settings.

Like a "tone" control on a radio effects the tone of the radio no matter what is playing.

Tone controls on guitars and amps affect the static EQ. With a guitar’s control you can roll off treble frequencies, limiting the upper frequencies which you can produce. What I’m talking about is changing frequencies dynamically as you play. Partial muting can take out upper frequencies for one note, or part of a note. Pinch harmonics take out selected lower frequencies. Hammers, pull-offs, and slides, and how you play them, each have an impact on which frequencies are heard.

Barney · January 2023

stickyfiddle said:

Barney said:

Iff tone is in the fingers why do we all go mad for new guitars ...FX pedals ...amps .. ??

Because those things are fun? And certainly much easier to go get gear than to focus on the “finger stuff”

I mean.. you definitely need the right gear to get in the ballpark - you’re unlikely to play Sultans of Swing on a Les Paul and EMGs into a screaming Dual Rec and have it sound authentic.

But once you have a setup that will roughly get you there, it’s far more important to focus on style, timing, phrasing and aggression (sounds like robot wars!).

It’s this stuff why most folks who play Comfortably Numb sound somewhere between terrible and middling. It’s not that the gear is desperately critical and if they only had those final few molecules correct inside their diodes they’d be able to get it perfect.

I really like nice gear and have been lucky enough to have some really good kit. But it’s how I use it that makes me sound good

God knows the other guitarist in band has a Silver Sky and Quad Cortex and still sounds like ass…

Yeah I agree ...but the comfortably numb solo for example is more about phrasing and dynamics the way he bends the string...iff any one of us could get on Dave Gilmour rig and just play one note ..same pick same place I reckon the tone would be very similar ....after that it comes to phrasing ...dynamics ect .....that's really why I struggle with the tone analogy...
you can hear good guitarists playing through very average gear and still sound similar but the tone will be different but all that will be lost because the guitarists phrasing and way of playing will be that good

LastMantra · January 2023

Roland said:

LastMantra said:

Roland said:

Now I’m not going to dispute that equipment has a big effect on sound, but put any two of us in the same room with the same equipment, and get us playing the song, and we will sound different, even without changing any settings.
Could you not also say that even though the two would play differently you'd technically be using the same guitar tone? As in amp/guitar settings.

Like a "tone" control on a radio effects the tone of the radio no matter what is playing.

Tone controls on guitars and amps affect the static EQ. With a guitar’s control you can roll off treble frequencies, limiting the upper frequencies which you can produce. What I’m talking about is changing frequencies dynamically as you play. Partial muting can take out upper frequencies for one note, or part of a note. Pinch harmonics take out selected lower frequencies. Hammers, pull-offs, and slides, and how you play them, each have an impact on which frequencies are heard.

I just think you could argue that that is technique, you could also strum an open e chord and not move your hand at all and still say ooh that amp produces a nice tone, as well as saying a player has nice tone. It is a mixture of technique and eq, guitar/pickups, amp, speaker, cab etc. that is the complete "tone".

Everything, basically.

Sporky · January 2023

"Tone" gets redefined in each and every post that uses the word.

LastMantra · January 2023

Sporky said:

"Tone" gets redefined in each and every post that uses the word.

I think it's any sound really, and you can say what produces it has/produces ___ tone.
If a sound has a characteristic that is pleasing to your ear it has a nice tone?

How a certain speaker moves air and how a guitar player moves their fingers appear to be very different things, but they both have an impact on the end result.

Roland · January 2023

LastMantra said:

I just think you could argue that that is technique, …. they both have an impact on the end result

Yes. I agree. The way you move your fingers is part of your playing technique. Both technology and technique are part of producing the sound.

Roland · January 2023

Sporky said:

"Tone" gets redefined in each and every post that uses the word.

Hopefully we are working towards a definition of the word.

stufisher · January 2023

Funky Cold Medina

Sporky · January 2023

Roland said:

Sporky said:

"Tone" gets redefined in each and every post that uses the word.

Hopefully we are working towards a definition of the word.

That would be useful.

Flippancy aside I have enjoyed your posts on the topic.

stickyfiddle · January 2023

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Is our tone in our fingers?

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