Here's a whole new idea...

[roadrunner]

a buddy of mine from Tulsa came over yesterday with his brand spanky new R7... wanted to demo my THD Univalve. Now ol' Jim is one wicked, mean guitar slinger... I was a few rooms away and thought Mr. Gibbons had stopped by for a visit. I walked into the guitar room and asked him what kind of pickups were in that guitar... he said: "it's stone stock". I handed him my '01 R9 with PAF's in it, went into the other room and listened... same deal. I handed him my '00 R9 with modded Antiquities... well, you get the picture.

... maybe it's not the pickups, the guitars, tailpiece, strings, caps, pots, etc...

... maybe it's the player?

 

[justin]

i agree

While gear is definitely an important factor, I really believe it's the player too. Maybe along the lines of 20%gear/80% player. The bass player in my band is a better all around guitar player than I am, and when I hand him my guitar, it sounds beautiful - even when I used cheaper guitars. I still sound like me, which isn't that bad...

BUT, and this is a big BUT! Having cool gear makes me want to play more and get better. It's a psychological thing for me. I don't want to feel "held back" by inferior gear. I try to get the best I can afford and grow into it as a player.

 

[Templar]

Justin,

I totally agree with the second part of your message but it oftens leads to GAS since guitar players always want to improve their playing. Well better spend your money on gear than on booze I guess.

Templar

 

[RobertD]

Roadrunner, what part of Nashville are you in?

 

[Robert Sherman]

Yeah, good sound lives in a players hands. I have had people come up the the stage or friends stop by the house and hear my one of my LPs through my mesa rack. They assume that the vibe is in the gear, until I let them try it out. I've never seen $10K worth of gear sound like crap so quick. Then to make it truely laughable, they accuse me somehow dialing the rig out and that must be the reason they aren't getting "the tone".

I'm waiting for Line 6 to make a digital hand modeler. Then you can just dial in Jimmy Pages fingers and really have at it!

 

[dragon]

Was playing a club 12 years ago and on break this guy comes up to ask if he can sit in. He looked like a street person and had the poor hygiene to go with it but the leader of the group said sure, she had a big heart, he called Sleepwalk and off we went...same gear no knob twiddling. All these sounds were popping out of this Ibanez/Peavey combo..pedal steel, pinched harmonics, ect. I looked over and he was transported somewhere else. Finished the song, everyone clapped and he left. The other guitar player looked at his equipment and just shook his head in disbelief,"That came out of my equipment!". This guy had the touch.

 

[EdA]

I agree, whether I like it or not I sound like me whether Im playing my R9 or a tele. Differences in pickups, I dont think mean much to the people out front who are listening.

But I agree with Justin that having good sounding stuff is more inspiring to play so even if my bass player thinks Im nuts, if I hear a difference and it turns me on, what the hell...

 

[Snags]

Getting there is half the fun.

 

[ElChivo]

I just dropped a couple grand on my gear in the last month because I'm a crappy guitar player. I've always have people come up to me after a show to compliment me on my sound...never my playing.:lol2

 

[60burst]

We all are trying to climb the mountain but we are all going up different sides of it so the view along the way is always somewhat different. I do what I do because that is what floats my boat for me, personally. In the beginning it is good to copy your guitar heroes in every way possible but eventually we all decide what is best for us individually. Gear is important. Period. But it is only a part of the picture. There are no hard and fast, right answers. The joy is in the journey. There is no destination.........


Damn, I am philosophical today!!!:lolspin

 

[DoobieK]

I figure, even if the notes don't sound good, at least the tone will knock 'em dead.

That's why I will keep spending the dough until the sounds coming from my amp match the sounds in my head. As far as the voices in my head, that's another matter.:lolspin

 

[Ed Rafalko]

Very few people, relatively, will notice GOOD tone. LOTS of them will notice BAD tone.

 

[Crazy Carl]

It's kind of a Catch-22 for me. I'm a competent player, but not great & I pretty much always sound like, well, me. Some of my buds who can smoke a fretboard play my stuff & I'm amazed at the sounds they can coax out of my gear that I can't seem to find.

But I love the tone/feel/vibe/mojo etc., that comes with good gear. My Mexi-strat thru my ancient Peavey Bandit?:barf Explorer thru the Recto? :wail: Go figure.

The psychological thing sucks. I'm a hack that can barely hold his own at open jams & the good stuff does make me want to improve as a player & musician. The flip side is that sometimes I feel really self-conscious about all this killer gear, as if I'm 'not worthy'.

Screw it. I like it & I can afford some nice stuff, so what the hell.

 

[Marshallhead]

AMEN EDR

very few people will notice 5 million notes-alot of people will notice one fat beautifully placed and voiced notespin

 

[Dewey]

Well said 60Burst...one approach that I've recently tried is quite similar to one of my spanish classes at FIU. The teacher spoke fluent spanish throughout the class...everything, directions, questions, answers..the whole "enchilada"! She said her approach is the "saturation" method by which the more frequent you hear the language spoken the faster you learn to associate words in communication...

What I have done is just saturate myself with "blues" videos everyday, and even if I'm not watching, I'm recording it in my mind. I've seen the videos many times so I know what the player is doing, and I have many videos. What I've noticed recently is that after I've played for a while and settled down to a point where my mind is still, and I'm not thinking so hard about what I'm trying to do...it happens! The right notes and phrases just come naturally, everything falls into place including vibrato and bends. I'm not sure what takes place, or if it's being in "the zone" with the guitar but it happens, I just feel it rather than think it. Probably most of you seasoned players don't even notice it, but for me, it's a breakthrough. When I get into this "zone" I work my way down my amps till I find the one that fits what I'm playing and then I dial it in...it just somehow falls into place. And for me being on a different path up the mountain that 60's talks about...the saturation method is finally sinking in! It's working for my playing!

 

[fred58]

Very few people, relatively, will notice GOOD tone. LOTS of them will notice BAD tone.

most people will misinterpret bad tone as good tone too.

 

[Ed Rafalko]

Um, Dewey, your Emperorship, sir.... it's spelled 'enchilada'.

 

[60burst]

I agree, Dewey. Your playing style is going to head toward whatever you listen to. Whatever you are spending your time concentrating on listening to, is going to influence your playing.

About tone. I know a very good bass player who told me recently that all he has to offer to set himself apart from other bass players, is his tone. Now this guy is good. He is a pure blues player. His tone is is as near perfect as any I have ever heard. This guy knows how make his band sound good. His big, rich thick bass tone is very important to his playing and he realizes it. I would work with this guy anytime...........

 

[Dewey]

Um Dewey, it is spelled "enchilada"

Thanks Ed...I stand corrected

 

[jono]

Thing that strikes me about all this is like when you record a part in a studio - be it guitar, vocal, whatever - and you listen to it back just on it's own you hear all the nuances and the expression and everything. Then when that bastard engineer brings the levels up all your lovely little bits that you were so proud of get lost in with the snare and the other stuff, or at least partially obscured. The same thing is happening live. So I figure you need as much tone and as much expression as you can get to start off with so that some of it still gets through. Or you could just turn that sucker right up....
On the subject of that one perfectly placed note I'm reminded of a tale - probably apocryphal - about Jimi versus I think Larry Coryell the jazz player who was unhappy about Jimi's sudden status in the Guitar World. He got up first, played through all his chops, modes, super fast runs etc. Jimi sauntered onto stage, looked around, shuffled his feet, hit one impossibly blue note, held it, bent into the statosphere, applied some vibrato, and kind of smiled. Of course he brought the house down. Lesson 1.