A band's tone, some great, others not.

[mikey383]

Friday night I watched a few local bands at a club nearby. The opening band had the best live tone that I've heard in a long time. The guitarist was using a 2 channel Dual Rec through a Marshall cab ,and an Ibanez 7 string with EMGs. Pretty sick sounding. The other two bands were using Crate solid state amps (not kidding), so you can pretty much guess the outcome.

Then Saturday, my band decided to go watch one of the best cover bands in the area. I've seen them several times before, and they always sounded good. But last night, something was amiss. I think it was because they replaced a guitarist, and this guy was using a SG into a Fender Blues Deluxe into an Orange 4x12. Not that it's bad gear, but he was using a distortion pedal of some sort, and he had the worst distortion I've ever heard. The two bands using Crates sounded better. I didn't get the chance to look closely at his pedal board, so I have no clue what it was, but it sounded more solid-state than an actual solid state does.

The other guitarist was using a Tremoverb into a Marshall cab, and he sounded great.

Just goes to show that some people know how to get a good tone, and some don't have a clue.

 

[AustinK]

Wow do i hear you. I saw a local band once and the guitarist was using a tele into a ac30. I don't know if his treble was maxed but it felt like an ice pick was digging into my ear.

Also my school does a show for the students to play with their bands and i am always surprised to see what some peoples idea of good tone is. It is almost sad. The best examples were a guy was using a beginner ibanez into a peavey of some sort or a guy who plugged his strat into a fender frontman 2x12. I don't know why everyone feels the need to dime their treble and presence. Also why do bands that have the worse tone and no talent feel that playing louder will make them sound better? :lol:

 

[highwaynine]

The search for a unique sound can be a real enemy to good tone. I've been called on this one by my bandmates a couple of times.

"I like your other overdrive better. This just sounds harsh and messy."

Me: "But I wanted a different feel for this song."

"Well, it's different, allright.

Me:


I also wonder whether the common use of earbuds, small computer speakers and other low-freq impaired playback is causing people to forget that songs and even individual parts need a foundation? :?

 

[Chickentown]

I bought the Wilco live album, Kicking Television recently. My goodness that band sounds like a million bucks. The songs are pretty awesome too. Always fun to read the tech section of their guitarist, Nels Cline:

http://www.nelscline.com/tech.html