Iconic bad tone

[Markedman]

Several Iconic songs are getting heavy airplay on the radio where I live and I started to think how much better they could sound with a different rig. SRV - "The Sky is Crying," Cream - "White Room," and The Rolling Stones - "Sympathy for the Devil." The SRV and Cream songs sound like the guitars are coming through a megaphone. Schreechiest lead ever on Sympathy. I've never been a tone chaser but it would be cool to hear someone emulate those iconic bad tones live and really nail it. I had a music-man 130HD and blew the speakers. I replaced the speakers with "pyle driver" brand silver coned crap and could nail that sound. I sold the amp immediately after that. I wonder if those songs were just a bad day in the studio because the Stones and Cream did have outstandingly good tone at times. A lot more personality went into each song back then and ears start to get fatigued at times.
On a side note, The mix for "Mr Fantasy"? Loudest lead ever? Dave Mason, awesome!

 

[Jackie]

The most annoying recorded tone in the world for me must be Santana's lead tone on "Samba Pa Ti". Harsh, honky, nails-on-chalkboard, euch. It sounds like someone took the direct preamp signal from the Send of the FX loop and used a cocked wah-wah as a filter before recording it with no post production at all.

 

[MesaGod666]

Paul Gilbert. That dude is an awesome player with iconically awful guitar tone.

 

[domct203]

Dimebag RIP. Great player, lousy tone, super thin and screechy.

Dom

 

[talltxguy]

I'm not sure which 80s band, but there are quite a few that qualify for this one! While I enjoy listening to House of Hair with Dee Snider, I laugh at some of the tones that escaped that decade. :?

 

[Ben Duncan]

In my opinion, Dimbag and Randy Rhoads. I guess I'd say nickelbacks lead tone, but they're not exactly known as an iconic "guitar" band. They are getting airtime though

 

[Jackie]

Dimebag RIP. Great player, lousy tone, super thin and screechy.

Dom

Uh-uh. Also agree with the Randy comment. That chorused Crazy Train nonsense tone sounds like a Roland Cube.

 

[swbo101]

Regarding bad tone, how about anything that Neil Young did. That tone sounds like a $30 guitar played through a realistic portable radio. Like the ones from the '70s.

 

[Monsta-Tone]

"Keep on Rockin in the Free World."
It's pretty much the only Niel Young song I like, but man does his guitar sound (solo tone)(I kinda like the rhythm tone) like his voice.......


I always thought that Randy Rhoads needed a better tone too!

 

[Markedman]

Heard this one today - David Bowie "Rebel, Rebel" I doubt I'd play guitar if that was what an electric guitar sounded liked. I went to wikipedia - David Bowie played the guitar himself on that one, not Mick Ronson. So when my drummer shows me that 9/8 or 5/4 song he wrote on guitar that occasionally goes to 4/4, I might be missing out on a great song? Not!

 

[ryjan]

The Offspring "Ignition" was pretty bad.

 

[elvis]

Randy's tone always rubbed me the wrong way. I remember an ad in a guitar magazine that showed Max Norman with his cowboy boots up on the console that painted him as a recording genius. I couldn't figure it out.

Transistors. Bah!

Lots of bad '80s tone. Twisted Sister guitar tone was a disaster. Rush during the synth years was meh. Even Geddy still talks about how much he prefers the naked Gibson into Marshall tone from the earlier albums.

Elliot Easton's tone is pretty harsh, but he did great things with it.

Ty Tabor in the Lab days. Yuck. One of my favorite players, though.

 

[Jackie]

A lot of early black metal records have some bad guitar tones, but it's kind of unfair to say that since the entire production is usually bad (I'm talking things like Burzum or old Mayhem), not just the guitars. I enjoy the music nonetheless.

 

[OldTelecasterMan]

Many people have mentioned how bad tone was in the 80s. I do have to agree. I think possibly there was such a new fascination with digital everything that many musicians and producers got caught up in it.

Thoughts?

 

[elvis]

I think the '80s was a bit of a perfect storm. Equipment became more hi-fi, synths came on the scene that had to be mixed in, extending the overall range of music, digital recording became a thing. To me, 1980 tone was thin, 1990 was much fatter with a LOT more low-end. The transition in the '80s was awkward, and created some incredibly bad-sounding music styles and recordings. But out of that came modern rock and pop, which I think was worth it.

The sound of the '80s is also so much linked to the JCM800, which sounds like a herd of angry mosquitoes...

Still, a lot of good sounds were spawned. Interestingly, Ratt recordings still don't sound dated. I think they were ahead of their time. Albums like Hysteria significantly changed the way music is recorded. Rush found their way to Hold Your Fire, which I think sounds amazing (though many disagree). And a lot of folks switched to Boogie. Metallica, Satriani, Brad Gillis, big names.

 

[Markedman]

All time screecher - the lead in Led Zeppelin's "Communication Breakdown," the holy grail of thin guitar tone.