One guitar sound for all covers?

ICBM · June 2023

I'm entirely of the opinion that 'nailing the tones' of covers is completely unnecessary, and you can do the job perfectly well with just one guitar and one amp, but using *the same tone* for every different song and style whether it's appropriate or not is bad musicianship in my opinion, no matter if he can play the notes. I would probably even think so if he was playing originals - music needs dynamics and variety. (And you can do those with an acoustic guitar.)

It's like a drummer who only has one tempo or a bass player who only plays root notes.

Dominic · June 2023

Truth is ......
Nobody Cares
In reality ,if it sounds vaguely like the song and the vocals are about right then that's all the public know or care about

stickyfiddle · June 2023

Dominic said:

Truth is ......
Nobody Cares
In reality ,if it sounds vaguely like the song and the vocals are about right then that's all the public know or care about

I simply don’t believe this.

Regular punters won’t be able to articulate why a given band isn’t as good as another but they will absolutely know that they’re different.

hollywoodrox · June 2023

fastonebaz said:

flying_pie said:

fastonebaz said:

flying_pie said:

I use only the green channel of a Victory Kraken.....

This covers everything from Talking Heads to REM to ACDC to Green Day/Whitesnake and beyond. Perhaps it's a bit more rocky for the cleaner tones but it fits with how we play.

Ooh which Whitesnake songs do you play Mr Pie?

At the moment just Fool For Your Loving (1980 version but with more of an 87 guitar tone)

And I'm sure you'll approve that we do it with two guitar solos seeing as there are two of us on guitar

Splendid song, bet it sounds great. We play Crying In The Rain and I muddle through about 50%of the notes in John Sykes' solo

“Muddle through “ I’ve seen videos of you playing & it was quality widdling not muddling at all

midiman1962 · June 2023

Rowby1 said:

Played a local community/family day gig this weekend. Back of a wagon job. Was a lovely day and we had a great time. We played during the mid afternoon, a couple of other bands on.

Last band on were doing the usual rock/soul/classic covers but what was odd was the guitarist used exactly the same guitar sound for every single song, from Proud Mary to SCoM to Alright Now to Uptown Funk….full on metal grind. Pretty odd really.

Anyone else on here use the same sound for every cover they do??

Maybe he’d forgotten his pedal board?

guitarmangler · June 2023

I use one moderately distorted guitar sound from the amp for everything, with a boost in front (always on) so I can turn my volume up and down without losing treble and a tubescreamer for more.
I turn down for a cleaner tone. If need to swap between clean and distorted tone quickly,I use the selector switch on my guitar to go to an out of phase sound which drops the volume and adds loads of treble for a sparky tone.
I constantly change my volume and tone control and pick attack. I rarely play on the neck. Bridge single coil 80% of the time. No reverb or delay either, live.
This is possibly because I'm lazy and cant be bothered to plug pedals in and switch them on and off.

fastonebaz · June 2023

hollywoodrox said:

fastonebaz said:

flying_pie said:

fastonebaz said:

flying_pie said:

I use only the green channel of a Victory Kraken.....

This covers everything from Talking Heads to REM to ACDC to Green Day/Whitesnake and beyond. Perhaps it's a bit more rocky for the cleaner tones but it fits with how we play.

Ooh which Whitesnake songs do you play Mr Pie?

At the moment just Fool For Your Loving (1980 version but with more of an 87 guitar tone)

And I'm sure you'll approve that we do it with two guitar solos seeing as there are two of us on guitar

Splendid song, bet it sounds great. We play Crying In The Rain and I muddle through about 50%of the notes in John Sykes' solo

“Muddle through “ I’ve seen videos of you playing & it was quality widdling not muddling at all

Very kind and generous of you sir

Evo · June 2023

Danny1969 said:

The way I see it is, if this is true then why are some bands pulling in 1.5K a night and some struggling to pull £500 ?

Good social media and promo.

The truth is, often the £1.5k and struggling £500 bands are actually the same band. I really wish it were just based on ability and quality, but most high paying gigs these days are locked up tight with either agencies or “brand-bands” which will happily send out four or five different acts in one night under the same name.

I’ve had plenty of weekends where Friday night we were the 1.5k and Saturday we were the £500, just depends on what comes your way or who throws some work your way that week.

fastonebaz · June 2023

I've never gotten close to £1.5k for a gig

Danny1969 · June 2023

Evo said:

Danny1969 said:

The way I see it is, if this is true then why are some bands pulling in 1.5K a night and some struggling to pull £500 ?

Good social media and promo.

The truth is, often the £1.5k and struggling £500 bands are actually the same band. I really wish it were just based on ability and quality, but most high paying gigs these days are locked up tight with either agencies or “brand-bands” which will happily send out four or five different acts in one night under the same name.

I’ve had plenty of weekends where Friday night we were the 1.5k and Saturday we were the £500, just depends on what comes your way or who throws some work your way that week.

I do see a bit of that. I've mixed a corp band over the last 6 weeks under 3 different names .. same guys. I'm not sure about social media though. The bands I play in are terrible at social media but are very good earners ... all word of mouth, repeat bookings or ticket sales work. Being older we started out long before social media was a thing.

Looking at my own view though, across a lot of bands I know (and running a studio for 5 years means I know a lot of bands) the best earners are generally very good muso's ..
Then again to a lot of us this is a hobby and those with proper jobs aren't as keen to gig in london on a school night even if the money is great.

Evo · June 2023

I think that's a valid point, the best earners are indeed good musos.

It's easy to forget when you're surrounded by great musicians that certain things shouldn't be taken for granted, and not everybody can jump on a function gig last minute and have it go well.

I guess I can only really offer the experience i've had in the area of function work. Up until the end of last year, I'd been with the same function band for nearly 12 years. We started on the regular pub covers circuit, and worked our way into the functions, weddings, and corporate stuff. However, we definitely hit a ceiling.

It definitely wasn't the quality of the musicians, we had some of the best musicians in the country (...and me), and we would each individually often dep with some of the bigger earning names quite regularly. But for some reason, our act seemed to be stuck at that ceiling and couldn't break through it.

Eventually we found that many (but admittedly not all) of the high paying gigs just go to the same act or agency every year, so unless they get let down last minute then breaking that cycle is a very difficult thing to do.

At least, that was my experience.

Stratavarious · June 2023

I got clean, slightly dirty, more dirty, then chaos with pedal options for chorus and delay or wah… but basically it is the one amp 4 Channel switching and usually one guitar all night,

So the tone base is common,, not like a modeller with completely different sounds and EQ. It works for hundreds of tunes.

You get a lot of variety in the touch dynamics and guitar controls esp, with clean and crunchy.

Roland · June 2023

Stratavarious said:

So the tone base is common,, not like a modeller with completely different sounds and EQ. It works for hundreds of tunes.

You get a lot of variety in the touch dynamics and guitar controls esp, with clean and crunchy.

I think those are the key points here. You’re not the only one to mention them. A decent guitarist can get a lot of different sounds from a few pedals, and the way he/she plays the instrument. In fact it’s in the audiences interest (and the bands) that the guitar sound doesn’t leap all over the shop. @Rowby1’s gripe, if I read him right, is that the guitarist didn’t vary his sound or his playing style from song to song.

Rowby1 · June 2023

Roland said:

Stratavarious said:

So the tone base is common,, not like a modeller with completely different sounds and EQ. It works for hundreds of tunes.

You get a lot of variety in the touch dynamics and guitar controls esp, with clean and crunchy.

I think those are the key points here. You’re not the only one to mention them. A decent guitarist can get a lot of different sounds from a few pedals, and the way he/she plays the instrument. In fact it’s in the audiences interest (and the bands) that the guitar sound doesn’t leap all over the shop. @Rowby1’s gripe, if I read him right, is that the guitarist didn’t vary his sound or his playing style from song to song.

@Roland absolutely correct.

The same sound for every song. No variation at all. A sound that (to me anyway) felt appropriate for maybe 20-30% of their material at best.

I just found it an odd way to do it…….and wondered if anyone else on here would have done that.

ESBlonde · June 2023

I do mostly cover bands and use a Hot rod deluxe set clean and a pedal board with set and forget effects. Chorus, echo, tremolo, Wah, drive and klone clone. Always on mild comp plus reverb on the amp. FX are either on or off no time to faff and no one notices anyway as long as the tone combination suggests the song. I do suffer from too many guitar swaps though but that’s for my entertainment typically a strat or tele and 335. As I say a suggestion of the sound is all that’s required and in respect of drive, we’ll less is more if you’re doing pop/commercial material.

davros · June 2023

I saw a band in my local where the guitarist had a different patch for every song on his Line 6 POD. While they may have been carefully matched to the record, it sounded rubbish live, some dripping in reverb, some dry, while the drums, bass and singer stayed the same throughout.

The scenario from the OP is worse though, unless all the songs are very similar styles a single tone won't work for everything.

Like others above, I have clean, crunchy and overdriven sounds, with a Tube Screamer to add a bit of oomf for solos and a booster in the loop. Enough to suit different styles but keep an overall consistent sound. I think that's the way to go.

slacker · June 2023

I tend to have a base clean sound that's on the edge with pedals to add gain reverb or delay. Also it depends on the song.

A metal grind for all songs is a weird choice. Good evening ladies and gentlemen our first song is ain't misbehaving...take it away Johnny...rarrgh clang whooo!!!

Snags · June 2023

@slacker I have no idea what you mean ...

slacker · June 2023

That's so bad it's good

Blueingreen · June 2023

What I've never been able to understand are bands where the guitarist has a pedal board the size of Wembley and uses about 3 sounds.

Rowby1 · June 2023

Snags said:

@slacker I have no idea what you mean ...

But that illustrates my point entirely, the guitars are not making the same noise right through the song, there’s actually some variation.

ScreamingDave · June 2023

Kind of. For the most part my basic clean/crunch/lead sounds come from the amp and most of the time I’m in bridge pup and crunch, with the occasional seasoning from a bit of chorus or something.

thebreeze · June 2023

Can I just ask a few novice questions?

A fair few of you are saying, “I just use my volume control and tone knobs and switch between pickups and pedals”.

I get that that’s how to vary tone/sound/volume but what does it do to the levels that have been settled on in a sound check? I even struggle to know how to level the sound of my general more rhythm stuff as opposed to my cranked lead. I guess on that it’s just fine to have a louder sound whilst your soloing?

Doesn’t it change the balance if you adjust the volume or can you all rely on sound engineers out front to rebalance immediately? We just play in pubs, halls, parties etc. Sometimes I really want to adjust the volume on my guitar because I think the song merits it but I just don’t in case it sounds to loud or too quiet at the front?

chris45 · June 2023

davros said:

I saw a band in my local where the guitarist had a different patch for every song on his Line 6 POD. While they may have been carefully matched to the record, it sounded rubbish live, some dripping in reverb, some dry, while the drums, bass and singer stayed the same throughout.

I play through a Helix in a classic rock covers band with live drums (that is not a digital kit) and a bit like @davros ; says, one instrument radically changing between songs while the tone of everything else is basically the same just sounds weird. So I pick an amp and cab for my guitar and stick to that for the whole set even though I could change them to be “correct” for each song.
Reverb and delay IMHO should be used with extreme moderation live regardless of your setup as it can easily wash out everything else.

Roland · June 2023

thebreeze said:

A fair few of you are saying, “I just use my volume control and tone knobs and switch between pickups and pedals”.

I get that that’s how to vary tone/sound/volume but what does it do to the levels that have been settled on in a sound check? …

Yes, switching pickups and changing FX can change the levels. The trick is understanding by how much, and how to compensate. For example, on my Telecaster there are volume and tone differences between neck and bridge pickups, and also between individual pickups and the “both” option. I change pickups when I want a different sound, and adjust volume and tone knobs to compensate.

When it comes to FX, they’re set with appropriate volume and mix so that the sound doesn’t get too loud or too quiet. Those volume and mix settings are tested in dress rehearsal, and adjusted if needed after a gig.

thebreeze · June 2023

Roland said:

thebreeze said:

A fair few of you are saying, “I just use my volume control and tone knobs and switch between pickups and pedals”.

I get that that’s how to vary tone/sound/volume but what does it do to the levels that have been settled on in a sound check? …

Yes, switching pickups and changing FX can change the levels. The trick is understanding by how much, and how to compensate. For example, on my Telecaster there are volume and tone differences between neck and bridge pickups, and also between individual pickups and the “both” option. I change pickups when I want a different sound, and adjust volume and tone knobs to compensate.

When it comes to FX, they’re set with appropriate volume and mix so that the sound doesn’t get too loud or too quiet. Those volume and mix settings are tested in dress rehearsal, and adjusted if needed after a gig.

Thanks Roland.

fastonebaz · June 2023

I like my bridge and neck pups to have matched output so I don't need to worry about volume differences. I tend to solo on the neck pup for a smoother tone and rhythm on the bridge, Justin Dericco style.

flying_pie · June 2023

thebreeze said:

Can I just ask a few novice questions?

A fair few of you are saying, “I just use my volume control and tone knobs and switch between pickups and pedals”.

I get that that’s how to vary tone/sound/volume but what does it do to the levels that have been settled on in a sound check? I even struggle to know how to level the sound of my general more rhythm stuff as opposed to my cranked lead. I guess on that it’s just fine to have a louder sound whilst your soloing?

Doesn’t it change the balance if you adjust the volume or can you all rely on sound engineers out front to rebalance immediately? We just play in pubs, halls, parties etc. Sometimes I really want to adjust the volume on my guitar because I think the song merits it but I just don’t in case it sounds to loud or too quiet at the front?

I have song specific patches on my Boss GT100 so I can adjust the levels as needed in rehearsal/soundcheck but I tend to find that volume reduction on the guitar is often fine by itself because if your cleaning up the tone then it's for a quieter song and in our case our drummer will take it easier

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One guitar sound for all covers?

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