The overused and redefined word "Tone" what is it to you?

[Heritage Softail]

Heard lots of interesting uses of the word tone. Most are far from a music school dictionary defenition of semi-tones, half step, whole step type of things. Lots of equipment manufacturers are selling 'the tone'. When some marketing douche bag gets involved things usually go to hell. I am thinking 'the sound' is the sum of technique in fingers + tone characteristics of the gear.

Here is one of my observations.

Lets compare the emo douche bag salesboy terms tossed about at every Guitar Center concerning tone to a nice dog turd. The clump of dog **** curled up on my side walk in the morning will be organic. And yep, it will be round, maybe a bit chunky, probably is thick, maybe even grainy, could be dark or bright, probably some depth, I would bet it's chewy, but I'm not trying. So tone, as newly defined, could be the hunk of dog **** the Boston Terrier down the street leaves for me every morning. :lol:

 

[Riff Blister]

That's funny H.S. :lol:

I'll try not to step on your tone. :shock:

 

[Heritage Softail]

The whole "Tone" thing is crazy. Looking at the back of my guitar mag this morning.... "Fender, the soul of tone"

So now tone has a soul....and it's sold by Fender. :lol:

 

[MrMarkIII]

"Tone" is sold to you by gear makers as an empty promise that you will be one-up on the next player because only YOU are smart enough to buy this or that piece of "Tone Heaven".
It's all in the fingers anyway, them geetars don't play themselves.

 

[kiff]

Us guitar players get our tone from our amps and have it in our fingers. Madonna has it in her arms :lol:

I prefer this tone though

 

[Old BF Shred]

Heard lots of interesting uses of the word tone. Most are far from a music school dictionary defenition of semi-tones, half step, whole step type of things. Lots of equipment manufacturers are selling 'the tone'. When some marketing douche bag gets involved things usually go to hell. I am thinking 'the sound' is the sum of technique in fingers + tone characteristics of the gear.

Here is one of my observations.

Lets compare the emo douche bag salesboy terms tossed about at every Guitar Center concerning tone to a nice dog turd. The clump of dog sh!t curled up on my side walk in the morning will be organic. And yep, it will be round, maybe a bit chunky, probably is thick, maybe even grainy, could be dark or bright, probably some depth, I would bet it's chewy, but I'm not trying. So tone, as newly defined, could be the hunk of dog sh!t the Boston Terrier down the street leaves for me every morning. :lol:

But can you plug a guitar cable into it? And will it run off 115vac or battery? And will anyone tell you it sounds like $#!T? :lol: (and I thought some of my posts were on the edge....keep up the good work, HS!) :lol: :lol:

 

[domct203]

Boy I hope that nobody leaves a flaming bag of "tone" on my doorstep!

Dom

 

[Heritage Softail]

Angelina Jolie......

I have a pedalboard, but I always will stop and look at a nice rack :shock:

 

[Turumbar82]

I think tone has been marketed as something we can achieve just by buying the right stuff and if you have a good tone then that means you are good. For instance, on the Rig Talk forum or even this forum...how many times are there posts about playing, practicing, or even basic music theory? People don't talk about those things as much because you can't buy them. Companies don't market those things in magazines because you can't buy good playing technique.

Like Heritage Softail said,

the sum of technique in fingers + tone characteristics of the gear.

The second half of that equation which is buying gear is available to anyone with money for immediate satisfaction that eventually goes away. We see people jumping from amp to amp because they are not happy with their "tone" when they are really probably not happy with their playing.

Now the first part (technique in fingers), is available to anyone willing to put in hours woodshedding and takes patience and discipline. The satisfaction of achieving this isn't immediate but when it happens it's life long.

 

[stephen sawall]

The whole "Tone" thing is crazy. Looking at the back of my guitar mag this morning.... "Fender, the soul of tone"

So now tone has a soul....and it's sold by Fender. :lol:

lol

 

[kiff]

^^ yea, I chuckled when I read that too

 

[gummx97]

I think tone has been marketed as something we can achieve just by buying the right stuff and if you have a good tone then that means you are good. For instance, on the Rig Talk forum or even this forum...how many times are there posts about playing, practicing, or even basic music theory? People don't talk about those things as much because you can't buy them. Companies don't market those things in magazines because you can't buy good playing technique.

Like Heritage Softail said,

the sum of technique in fingers + tone characteristics of the gear.

The second half of that equation which is buying gear is available to anyone with money for immediate satisfaction that eventually goes away. We see people jumping from amp to amp because they are not happy with their "tone" when they are really probably not happy with their playing.

Now the first part (technique in fingers), is available to anyone willing to put in hours woodshedding and takes patience and discipline. The satisfaction of achieving this isn't immediate but when it happens it's life long.

This post...are words of wisdom, heck, i have a ball peen hammer next to my metronome in case it goes out of time during practice sessions. :?

 

[screamingdaisy]

Good "Tone" is when I finish playing a song that sounded so good I go "F*ck Yeah!" and throw my pick down (it may seem lame, but it feels good to throw things and a pick is much less messy than throwing a beer and way cheaper than throwing a Les Paul).

Bad "Tone" is when I try to force my settings because I think something should sound good, but it doesn't. Then I start f*cking with everything else trying to make that one forced setting sound right. This usually lasts until I give up and start dialling with my ears, at which point everything gravitates back to where they originally were a week ago...

 

[Heritage Softail]

Mojo, vibe, groove, to me all those are elements of the fun experience of music. The tone is just the characteristic of the sound coming out of the amp. Acoustic guitar players don't obsess about tone the same way. I have played acoustic for a long time. Have a nice Taylor for times beer or firewood or deer blood will not come in close contact. Some nights you just sound better than others. The same acoustic, same old strings. Just more soul gets wrung out of the fingers and into the song.

Going was psychadelic here..... For me the way some use Tone applies to that magic when your amp and guitar sound good enough to let the music in your soul come out, and it sounds the way it does in your head. Bliss. That is good sound to me. Sometimes angry, sad, out to make the women shake their money maker.... It's all good.

No mushrooms were hurt in the making of this post..

 

[stephen sawall]

Dude are you getting small ?

in music, one of the larger intervals in an octave eg between C and D.

(Music, other) Also called Gregorian tone any of several plainsong melodies or other chants used in the singing of psalms.

There it is right from the dictionary.

 

[Heritage Softail]

Dude are you getting small ?

in music, one of the larger intervals in an octave eg between C and D.

(Music, other) Also called Gregorian tone any of several plainsong melodies or other chants used in the singing of psalms.

There it is right from the dictionary.

There are 10 defs for the word in the online dictionary I use. Half are not related to music.

Yes I am getting small..... and the point was small as well, easily missed.

Hey man, that amp has great semi-tone. Is that what you mean? Or is it, "Don't use that tone with me young man"...

Obviously mommy prefers a snarky ENGL over a sarcastic MESA.....

 

[talltxguy]

Where I am in my evolution as a musician, tone is pretty synomous with technique. Not saying it's like that for everybody.

I find that when I play cleanly, performing good bends, minimizing string noise, things sound really good...my tone is good at that point. I find my tone to be above average when I'm hitting the right notes and grooving with the other musicians. Unfortunately, I'm not good enough to groove every time I play. There are certainly nights when I had it going on more than other nights. So maybe for me, it's not just technique but also consistency.

 

[stephen sawall]

Hey man, that amp has great semi-tone. Is that what you mean? Or is it, "Don't use that tone with me young man"...

Semi-tone .... I guess it could mean as big as a truck or less than par ?

I guess for me when I hear the word "tone" .... I think of the balance of the highs/midrange/lows and resonance. At least that would be things I would consider if I was after someone's "tone".

It would seem "tone" has as many unrelated meanings as any other common word. It sure has plenty of misinterpretations.

 

[Heritage Softail]

Oh yeah, and since you brought the truck in with the semi.... Car rags talk about the exhaust note or tone of the exhaust. And when Mick Mars was playing the intro to Kickstart my Heart, he had great tone.

Think "From Dusk Till Dawn", guitar music playing, conga drums in a syncopated beat, and Selma Hayek coming in to view. The great tone of the music, and the dragging beat set the tone for Selma to do one of the best stripping scenes ever. :shock: She knows how to deliver a tequila shot....

I heard a Splawn Quickrod based 1x12 combo vid. Had a great compressed mid emphasized sound with good note clarity while the saturation level was up. That was a killer little amp with gobs thick organic deep tone. Ahh, it felt good to go ahead and let that go... :lol: :lol: