so if you could absolutely nail down one player's technique/tone...

hobster wrote:

caucajun wrote: ANGUS!

Beef??

EXACTLY!!

As in "where's the....??"

AC/DC RULES!

He's not really that great of a player, but I like Adam Jones' (Tool) monstrous tone and quirky style as well.

And how does that Les Paul get so bright when he turns the volume down? I know how but still don't exactly sound like him. It's a combination of the treble bleed circuit on his tone control, a graphic EQ with a spike up pretty high, and pick placement and technique. I have the same poop DOD EQ and treble bleed circuit - through a dual rectifier boogie and 4x12 recto cab - and I'm pretty close. I guess I need a silver burst Les Paul and a Diezel head.

hobster wrote:

Iceman wrote:

hobster wrote:Tone wise i'd have to go with Stevie Ray - no question.

Sweet. Be ready to string up with the heaviest gauge you can lay your hands on. His fingers were freakishly strong...

Yeah, he used 13's and that had something to do with it but man did he have an amazing tone!! Sounds so thick and powerful, he was one of a kind. David Gilmore is right up there also, like i've said before, i'm a strat guy.

For that Stevie Ray sound, you have to turn both of your amps all the way up!

colt933 wrote:

hobster wrote:

Iceman wrote:

hobster wrote:Tone wise i'd have to go with Stevie Ray - no question.

Sweet. Be ready to string up with the heaviest gauge you can lay your hands on. His fingers were freakishly strong...

Yeah, he used 13's and that had something to do with it but man did he have an amazing tone!! Sounds so thick and powerful, he was one of a kind. David Gilmore is right up there also, like i've said before, i'm a strat guy.

For that Stevie Ray sound, you have to turn both of your amps all the way up!

Been thinking bout SRV lately, he tuned down 1/2 step with those 13's. Makes those cables more managable to wrestle around! If anyone's tried 13's before let us know whatcha think of them.

I'm on 11s and thinking of going back to 10s on my strat, although they're fine on the thunder (shorter scale length 'n' all that). I agree that heavier is best for a strat, but have you tried to convince all your bandmates to also tune down a semitone? Drummer's still tryin' to retune his snare!

IanO wrote:...Drummer's still tryin' to retune his snare!

Drummers are funny that way. Mine always played in the key of R.

The Chad wrote:

colt933 wrote:

hobster wrote:

Iceman wrote:

hobster wrote:Tone wise i'd have to go with Stevie Ray - no question.

Sweet. Be ready to string up with the heaviest gauge you can lay your hands on. His fingers were freakishly strong...

Yeah, he used 13's and that had something to do with it but man did he have an amazing tone!! Sounds so thick and powerful, he was one of a kind. David Gilmore is right up there also, like i've said before, i'm a strat guy.

For that Stevie Ray sound, you have to turn both of your amps all the way up!

Been thinking bout SRV lately, he tuned down 1/2 step with those 13's. Makes those cables more managable to wrestle around! If anyone's tried 13's before let us know whatcha think of them.

He didn't always play with .013s. After he kept having to superglue his fingertips back together, Cesar Diaz got him to try .011s and he stayed with them from then on. .011s sound great on a strat no doubt. You start to lose some sustain if you go bigger and of course they're impossible to bend 2 whole steps.

I went thru a 13 phase pretty much because of SRV. Man, they are tough to play, very hard to bend but they do have a different sound. I love heavy strings, i can't even play 10's anymore because they feel too light, and pretty much stick to 11's these days. The sound does thicken up with heavier strings.
As for Stevie, if any of us played through his rig with his guitar it still wouldn't sound like him! Its in the fingers baby, its in the fingers.

"Its in the fingers baby, its in the fingers."
Couldn't agree more!

IanO wrote:"Its in the fingers baby, its in the fingers."
Couldn't agree more!

Certainly is, when you watch guys like Jeff Beck and Nils Lofgren they seem to be able to majorly transform the sound without touching any settings.
Been listening to Santana a lot this evening and he has a great sound, very LP based.

In terms of technique it would have to be Ron Jeremy (Who bears more than a passing resemblance to Iceman's sig pic .... and you never see them in the same place at the same time!!)

From memory, Ron could always go on for hours without a rest and always got the prettiest girls.

So Ron gets my vote.

Hoax

Aftet thinking about this for a while. I have decided George Lynch. So after that I can win the lottery also.

hoax wrote:
In terms of technique it would have to be Ron Jeremy (Who bears more than a passing resemblance to Iceman's sig pic .... and you never see them in the same place at the same time!!)

From memory, Ron could always go on for hours without a rest and always got the prettiest girls.

So Ron gets my vote.

Hoax

However Ice's Ron's "tone" could be a bit off hand at times as I seem to remember him referring to ladies as hot bitches or something like that and I didn't really think that was very nice.

..... sheesh, save it for Tuesday evening already Graham....

Perhaps this Ron Jeremy fellow (whoever he is) could not cut it as a musician in his younger years and had no choice but to follow other pursuits in order to eek out a living?

Sorry Ice - I couldn't help myself - you know how it is!! For the record Tuesdays and SATURDAYS are for drinking and I hadn't let a sip past my lips when The Jeremy family resemblance hit me square on the forehead !!



Hoax

In all honesty Graham I am surprised it took this long for the resemblance to be remarked on.

Ok Ice

Its true - I had noticed the resemblance a long time ago and I know full well that you are playing on it or you would never have allowed a signature picture which shows you in your shorts with a zappata moustache.

I have a form of Tourettes syndrome (self diagnosed) which exhibits itself in me saying what I think. I simply must say what I think regardless of the consequences and, to be honest, I am pretty relieved to let that one out of the bag.

It was like a long car journey after Thanks Giving having eaten too much cold chicken with maple sauce and Mom's pancake with hog, with no prospect of a stop when you are absolutely bursting for a sh.. !, then suddenly, the car comes to a stop and someone says, "Sh.. time for anyone who needs one!" and you think, thank the Lord 'cause I was touching cloth about 10 miles back!!

So I am purged, relieved and content and ready to move on to the next piece of utter nonsense that happens to drift into my head and then I will go through the whole process again.

Love you all

PS - In answer to the original question:

Tone - Paul Kossoff
Technique - any number of fast idiots with stupid names, but I would choose not to play like them even if I could.

Hoax

hoax wrote:...or you would never have allowed a signature picture which shows you in your shorts with a zappata moustache.

Actually, I thought I was looking pretty sharp back there in '79...

IanO wrote:"Its in the fingers baby, its in the fingers."
Couldn't agree more!

Agreed.

In the early nineties, I toured as monitor engineer and back-line tech with HWY 101, a has-been country act from the eighties. Aside from a small string of hits, they had been the opening act for The Judds during their heyday, and they still had a pretty good following. While I was with them, their lead guitar player was George Marinelli, of Bruce Hornsby and the Range fame. He played for Bonnie Raitt also - recorded with her while touring with HWY 101 and then toured with her later.

George had that tone that came from the fingers. One week, he would show up with a '62 strat and a Fender twin. The next week he would show up with a Yamaha double-cut LP clone and an Engl (I think) amp. His tone was the same.

I have noticed that my own s h i t t y technique sounds much the same through various guitars and amps as well.

colt933 wrote:...I have noticed that my own s h i t t y technique sounds much the same through various guitars and amps as well.

True dat. Kinda negates the spousal argument for more than one guitar, " 'cuz they all sound different".

colt933 wrote:I have noticed that my own s h i t t y technique sounds much the same through various guitars and amps as well.

I, too, have noticed this phenomenon.....

That's weird, all my basses sound noticeably different (except for the Rails).

Thought long and hard about this one and I have to say its Pino. Was a contemporary of mine, the main up and coming kid/young man playing the bass, he created a great sound. I like to think I was on the cusp but probably a completely delusional thought. Anyway heres a live version which exagerates some of the sounds he made with Paul Young. Here is Pino Palladino

Just came across this on youtube. Stick with it cos it gets better and better.link

Hi Fells
Why not check out the French offering of Ritary Gaguenetti. He has some style. Fantastic speed & dexterity. Very similar sound to George Benson. Now there's another one for you to consider!!!

Warrn wrote:That's weird, all my basses sound noticeably different (except for the Rails).

Sure, but they all sound like you playing them, right?

Micro wrote:Ritary Gaguenetti

Yeah, like this, has an unusual style with his little finger, buries it in his hand then comes down from height onto the frets. Works for him, a poor technique on my part and a struggle to overcome for me, seeing this perhaps will just forget the technique advice and get on with it.

My sound, no joke, the cat leaves the room after about 5 mins.

Saw this guy in London on Sunday evening at a very intimate jazz club called Le QuecumBar - Just a stunning show. He was playing with a top gypsy jazz Brit called Gary Potter - no relation to Harry. Also another French gypsy called Aurelien Bouly. Minding blowing stuff. They played from 8.30 until 12 midnight.
They finished off with my request for 'Minor Swing' - Perfect end to a perfect evening.

Nice one Micro, must keep my eyes open for these guys.

Westbone wrote:My sound, no joke, the cat leaves the room after about 5 mins.

When I used to play violin my cat would shout at me then if I didnt stop climb up me, stand on the violin and gently bite my nose. When that didnt work she would go out the room and shout some more.

Cats are intuitive and funny lil' critters.
Over the years while with guitar, I've had them sit in the open case, bite the strings while changing, sit on the guitar, sit on me, bite me, curl up on my feet, meow, howl, and when plugged in, give a dirty look over a shoulder then leave the room.

These days they just laugh at my flopping fingers and shake their furry lil' heads.

Our cat "left the building" last fall after 22 years of shenanigans. Really I am a dog person but for Patch I made one big exception.

When my wife plays our pups usually lay down and are asleep in 10 minutes. Less than 5 if she is fingerpicking. It is extremely relaxing listening to her acoustic.

many years ago i had an irish setter/malamute doggie.
while my playing is not anywhere as good as these guys, my dog reacted in much the same way....

https://youtu.be/BdFOgLyk6Qs

gittarasaurus wrote:many years ago i had an irish setter/malamute doggie.
while my playing is not anywhere as good as these guys, my dog reacted in much the same way....

https://youtu.be/BdFOgLyk6Qs

Awesome, my dog loves when my daughter plays the harmonica and howls just the same. At least i think he loves it, its funny as hell and i can't tell if he is enjoying it or in pain. Great video by the way, thats one of my favorite movies of all time.

colt933 wrote:

Warrn wrote:That's weird, all my basses sound noticeably different (except for the Rails).

Sure, but they all sound like you playing them, right?

Of course they all sound like me playing them! I'm fairly decent with them and can tell their tones apart though.

I can tell a big difference in tone between my guitars, unless we mean "tone" by differing definitions. I refer to it as the pure sound quality it possesses, as opposed to any stylistic properties (vibe) that I or someone else may impose. So in one case it's true, tone is in the fingers, yet in the other case it's not so much, in that each guitar will have a different voice due to the make up of it's components. I can't make my SG sound like my Vandenberg, it just isn't there, and I doubt that anyone else can make them sound the same either, right?

Back to the pet topic, my Maine Coon kitty Sir Lancelot hates it when I sing. REALLY hates it. He finds me wherever I am, jumps up as close to my face as possible, arches his eyes in an evil fashion and screams in my face till I stop. Then he walks away slowly still murmering. Little jerk.

Barry wrote:Cats are intuitive and funny lil' critters.
Over the years while with guitar, I've had them sit in the open case, bite the strings while changing, sit on the guitar, sit on me, bite me, curl up on my feet, meow, howl, and when plugged in, give a dirty look over a shoulder then leave the room.

These days they just laugh at my flopping fingers and shake their furry lil' heads.

my cat liked playing with the strings.. she plucked them....never ran away from me while jamming would sit and watch.

back to the topic....if you nailed someone's technique and style it would just make you a copy cat... that's it. Take for instance Allan Holdsworth...apparently he hates the fact that others try to imitate him. speaking with him many times he has said trying to imitate him just makes posers out of themselves.. they aren't testing new waters so to say, "what is to be achieved by sounding just like him, there already is one of him" many companies have produced items like Digitechs 2101 processor, which has the "Holdsworthian" setting...Allan thinks it's ridiculous. He abhors them.
I have had my "sound" for a long time... I can usually get it from most any amp with some knob turning...find your own sound.. stop posing..unless of course you are in a cover band..then I suppose imitate away! I do alot of Robin Trower so I do go for his sound when doing those...right now I am in a Detroit/Garage style band.. MC5, Wayne Kramer, Alice Cooper, old KISS, with some Judas Priest and Thin Lizzy thrown in for good measure.. and for that I have my own sound.. nice raw Marshall Plexi tone. I use different guitars for what they do...I mainly use hardtails like my 94 SG or my 11 ESP EC1000.. but when I am playing thin Lizzy or Priest.. I use my trem guitars like my ESP MH-250 or my Westone Trevor Rabin SS III.. or the USA made B.C. Rich Stealth or Ironbird.. there's so little difference in tones though.. since it's a raunchy distorted sound.