Looking for the perfect tone, whether for electric and/or acoustic guitar has always been a mystery to me. I am always amused - especially at NAMM shows - when I hear people say -
"This sounds JUST like (fill in the blank here)"!! I guess it has always been and always will be the musical "Holy Grail". I have toured and worked with some Artists that don't spend ANY time with their techs - at all - and just expect the guitars to be perfect everyday (and then get PISSED when they are not!). They think that good tone just magically appears and happens in an instance. On the other hand, I have had the great opportunity to work with a few "Tone Masters" over the years and have seen just how much time and effort goes in to getting the perfect sound... which by the way is all relative due to one's own personal opinion and physical hearing loss etc....! (That's another blog!). Two people that come to mind is Jim Messina and Lloyd Baggs. Watching these two geniuses toil over the slightest nuance and feel of what they are playing or building is something everyone player and/or aspiring player should see. I recently spent time with Mr. Baggs comparing two pickups and two preamps. A-B'ing all of them - over and over - and what it came down to wasn't the technical aspect of each, i.e. frequencies/phasing/etc. as that had all been taken care of - but it came down to feeling. I finally looked at him and said "You know.... this combination of gear makes me FEEL like I want to play guitar all day....." It was comfortable and I was wrapped in a big warm blanket of tone! On the other side - in Electric world - I was fortunate to spend two days at the Fender factory with Mr. Messina in 2005 prepping for the Loggins and Messina Reunion tour. We must have tried 30 guitars and I can't even tell you how many amp combinations before we chose 4 guitars and a 3 amp combo system - 2 Fender Bassman amps (later switched to 3 Hot Rod deluxes across the board) handling Right and Left effects from the pedalboard and a center Hot Rod Deluxe that ALWAYS had the original straight guitar tone. This way the effects never changed the original tone - but could be swept up and through the original true unchanged tone of the guitar by a Pedal Steel guitar volume pedal that had 3 outputs on it..... It was AWESOME! The President of Fender and the entire staff poked their heads in, as did the great James Burton (who was there designing his pickup) to find out WHAT he was playing through..... Too much fun ensued when Jimmy and James sat and played together for the next 2 hours...... anyhoo...... back to tone.... I guess what I am saying is this.... if you don't sit down with your gear and actually spend time with it, you will end up like a few unnamed Artists I have had the misfortune of working with throwing your gear across the stage in frustration because "your gear sucks" and your tech is an "idiot". My response --- Your gear doesn't suck and your tech is smarter than you are ya boob!! You just need to sit with it and really get to know it..... I have turned down gigs with Artists that won't allow you to talk to them or look them in the eye..... what a load! If you don't talk to your tech about the tools you are working with and spend NO time with your gear, how the heck are you supposed to sound any good? So....... breathing again - breathing....... Sit and get to know your stuff. I have played heard some GREAT sound through some REALLY crappy gear only because time was spent. Lot's of time..... Have fun and Travel safe!!! Moo
What I would give to have the opportunity to work with a tech just to figure out my own gear. It is so true that it is personal taste but worth a lot to know how to get a particular sound. I'd play electric a lot more if I could figure out how to set up my amp and pedals. Trial and error has been the rule for me my whole life but am still not satisfied with what comes out. Oh well, back to my acoustic that tells me she doesn't need anything fancy to sing pretty. ~Karen T.
ReplyDeleteMoo, i'd love to have five minutes in an otherwise empty room with the douchebag who started this whole "no eye contact" bullshit. ideally, music is supposed to be about connecting with people, and contractually avoiding that speaks volumes about your motives for being in this line of work in the first place.
ReplyDeletesecondly - and i think you'll agree - while our equipment choices have a huge impact on our end result, i think jimmy messina could walk into guitar center and plug a strat into a stock fender deville and still sound like jimmy. :)