I never really use effects, I want to hear what my guitar sounds like without them. I just want a natural sounding tone.

I did recently buy an overdrive that I really like and would recommend, but even still I haven't turned the gain up past 10 o'clock yet because I like the nice creamy tone it gives off at that level.

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Blues with a feeling.

GUILD GUITARS: MADE TO BE PLAYED!

"Why all the distortion?"

It's been decades, and still beats the ever-living eff out of this picker.

Distortion is just that, the absoluteness, the purity of the essence of anything being deliberately "distorted," mutilated in the name of "art."

To this mind, distorting a series of musical notes or copositions MAKES ABSOLUTELY NO MORE SENSE THAN:

Smearing paint or with permanent markers on your favorite photos, books, clothing, walls...

..."painting" your vehicle's or dwelling windows or light or eyeglass lenses...

...screaming or rasping or gagging, rather than speaking coherently...

...deliberately misspelling or mispronuncing spoken and written words...

...scratching or mutilating your home, vehicle, furniture, artwork, self...

...not tuning any stringed instrument, let alone group, ever...

...maybe someday deliberate distortion of music may make sense to this mind, but until the possible "then"...

...playing those nice guitars and amps clean.

It really depends what I am playing whether or not I use a super distorted sound. Metal music sounds better with heavy distortion, blues sounds better with little to no distortion, but I also play smooth sounding ballads that use no distortion what so ever. You just have to weigh the needs of the song as to whether distortion is warranted. Just my opinion.

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RK

2007 Fender Highway 1
2012 American Deluxe
2015 MIM Dave Murray HHH
2010 Fender Blacktop
1987 Fender Avalon Acoustic
2012 Marshall DSL 15 watt head

All boils down to "to each his own" I guess. I like all kinds of music, from classical and folk to very heavy stuff. I find mozart just as pleasing and relaxing as the precision of the rhythm patterns going on in say, Damage Inc. by Metallica off Master of Puppets (great album) or The Enemy Within from Arch Enemy. Then I can just switch over to Mike Campbell and just enjoy some great smelly tone. I'm not a fan of the blues but do LOVE some of tone i've heard from many blues player... The style just isn't my cup of tea just like metal isn't for everyone.

that's what makes music and especially guitar playing so great... there's so much out there you really can't go wrong.

The key resolve to this issue is balance and know-how.

You have to know how and where you should balance things out, how to use the different tones, what needs to work with what ... that is, if you consider yourself to be a versatile player.

Most guys out there right now want to play only what's popular, i.e. guitar tone like a running chainsaw in a rusty dumpster full of rusty wrought iron lawn furniture, vocals that sound like a bear woken up out of hibernation, SKS-style double bass on the drums ... that sort of thing. Don't get me wrong, I like some of it, I can most of time find some sort of redeeming value in most any kind of music. But when you're that sort of player, i.e. the "like, do what's popular, man" guy, you limit yourself and ultimately hinder yourself.

... Okay, end of rant.

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2006 Fender AVRI 70s Stratocaster: Natural Ash | Sovtek MIG 60 & A No Name Cabinet | Pedals & Junk

well if we are still talking about the type of music that requires the heavy distortion, a clean sound is never needed. its not the tone called for in that style of music. its very simple to understand really.
pretty much every style of music has a tone requirement
to come across the way the band or player should.
for the blues, its totally different than heavy metal. you cross styles and use the others tone, it just wont sound right. heavy metal tone is even different than death metal tone.
thank the Lord we have it, just wait until rap gets guitars.
what will that sound like? a turn table with a guitar neck?

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63supro
"The good thing is in a club situation, most of the patrons are trashed and really can't tell the difference."

I used to be all about the distortion years ago but to extreme. These days I love the tone! Although I do still use a mild distortion and an overdrive in order to get a nice crunch when needed.

With the Blues Jr dialed clean, a Hardwire CM-2 tube overdrive gives me a second option to a BJ alone with it's own crunch. To much distortion and I miss the subtle sounds of the pick on the strings. Gets messy sounding to me.

Some of the comments I see really lead me to believe that some of you guys have not experienced a high quality high gain tone. It should not cover up all the nuances of your playing.

Again, I did not know what a good distortion was until I got a decent high gain tube preamp.

All those that hate distortion should consider the fact that distorted guitars have been the preference for rock music since it was first used. It by far the most popular guitar sound, but comes in many flavors.

Also, there is really no such thing as a perfectly clean guitar, that is without distortion. Frankly if all you heard on any guitar was an exact replication of the string vibrating and amplified, it would sound terrible. It is the overtones produced by the vibrating wood and the many other factors that distort that tiny sounding string vibrating into something that is pleasing. Even acoustics distort the sound of the vibrating string.

Just because something sounds clean, does not mean that sound is not distorted from its source, which is the vibrating string. The bottom line is that every guitarist likes distortion of some type, and none of us would choose the unaltered sound of a string vibrating. I have found sounds I like from clean as I can get to almost as distorted as possible, and everywhere in between.

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Guitars:
1. mid 70's Ventura MIJ Gibson l6-s clone (Pre-lawsuit) in Black with Rosewood FB and EMG 81 BR/ 85 Neck
2. ESP KH2 Neck Thru
3. 2008 Am Std Strat in 3 tone sunburst

Exactly. I have a high-gain tone (not a modern "buzz saw" tone, though...), but the tone of my guitars is still very much present ... as it should be ...

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Laughing out loud with fear and hope, I have a desperate plan ...

I often use the hi gain tone of my JCM 800s to get extra crunch as a matter of fact my 4210 has a seperate "boost"channel that gives gobs of hi gain.When I'm using my Blues Jr. or other amp on clean I get lots of gain/distortion with my old Marshall Guv'nor.As I do a lot of Hendrix covers some form of distortion is a necessity but it's getting his clean tone that's the real challenge.

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'65 Strat,65 Mustang,65 Jaguar,4 more Strats,3 vintage Vox guitars,5 Vox amps,'69 Bassman with a '68 2-15 Bassman cab,36 guitars total-15asst'd amps total,2 vintage '60s Hammond organs & a myriad of effects-with a few rare vintage ones.

A lot of peple use distortions and heavy OD's to cover up their actual playing. I use a slight tube breakup from my amp for blues and rock but for anything else i want it squeaky clean.

lol ya think? you can tell good playing no matter how muddy the distortion is.

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63supro
"The good thing is in a club situation, most of the patrons are trashed and really can't tell the difference."

That is one thing I look for in an amp is the quality of its distortion. If I like the distortion, I start playing with the tone, toggle and volume controls on the amp. If I do not hear major differences when I toggle between the bridge and neck pickup, and be able to clean the sound up some with the volume knob, and warm the sound with the tone knob, then it is not a quality distortion to me. Some distortions make everything sound the same, and that is not a good distortion to me. Even if it sounds good at first.

Generally, tube preamps are the only things that I use for distortions. Many of them exibit some diode clipping in high gain settings, but you can adjust that out or at least to an acceptable level.

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Guitars:
1. mid 70's Ventura MIJ Gibson l6-s clone (Pre-lawsuit) in Black with Rosewood FB and EMG 81 BR/ 85 Neck
2. ESP KH2 Neck Thru
3. 2008 Am Std Strat in 3 tone sunburst

I use all effects with extreme moderation. If it starts to take away from the tone I back off. I always prefer overdrive over distortion and still need clean sounds mixed in. Maybe a clean channel and a slight overdrive channel at equal volume. I am especially fond of over driven tube preamp sounds. Just like the dynamics of your voice; when you speak at a normal volume it is a normal tone but when you raise your voice your tone changes a little.