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Post subject: TONE Time
Posted: Mon Jul 02, 2007 11:58 am
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Tone seems to mean different things to different folks. It can be no more than sound alone, or as complicated as including vibe, feel and sound. It can be the result of gear alone, or derived from the combination of gear, skill, and even the 'feel' the player brings to the table. Is a players tone the same as their 'signature sound', or is it more elusive than that?

If we want to capture another players tone, is it as simple as having the same gear and the ability to play their songs, or is it impossible because we can't also play with the same emotion that they play their own songs with? Is Muddy's, or Jimi's or Stevie Ray's tone something that can never be recaptured regardless of the gear? How much of tone is equipment, and how much is ....mojo.

I am curious to hear what the Fender Faithful have to say on this. Tone is a word we see all the time in ads for amps and pedals etc, it's a word that is open to a lot of differing interpretations don't you think?

n.


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Posted: Mon Jul 02, 2007 12:02 pm
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I think it would be impossible to have someone else's tone. Amp and guitar tone you can get close too, however a player's heart and fingers play a role on his/her tone as well.

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Post subject:
Posted: Mon Jul 02, 2007 12:27 pm
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Tone is in the fingers!


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Post subject:
Posted: Mon Jul 02, 2007 12:57 pm
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i think tone is unique to everyone, there are endless possibilities or guitars, amps, effects, strings, string gauges, pickup heights and such which can be adjested to give each and every person their own unique tone.... you may come close to others tones, but i don't think exact tones are accomplished very much considering its in how you play the guitar, not just what guitar you have


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Post subject:
Posted: Mon Jul 02, 2007 5:03 pm
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You might get it so that you sound like someone else, but you can never have someone else's tone. Your tone is defined by how you play, and no two people play exactly the same. Tone is the reason you can turn on the radio in the middle of a song and without even having heard anyone sing and just having heard some guitar, you can identify who is playing the guitar. Sound can be copied, tone cannot.


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Post subject:
Posted: Wed Mar 05, 2008 10:05 am
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I thought this was a good discussion, so i am bringing it back to life!!! TO me tone is as indiviaul as fingerprints. no to guys sound the same, i can make any rig sound like me to a certain extent!!! But i can listen to a song and some times tell that is a strat or a lp or somthing, but it still sounds like the player!!!


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Post subject:
Posted: Wed Mar 05, 2008 10:14 am
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"Timbre" - the actual frequency composition of a given sound, or the response of a given instrument - can be purchased.

"Style" - the phrasing, touch, pick attack, note choice, vibrato, etc that make up a given players readily identifiable sound - can't.

These two elements together create what musicians loosely call "tone."

I can buy or borrow Larry Carlton's Dumble and 335 and get a timbre very much or even exactly like his out of it. I cannot, however, play with his style... my pick attack will b harder or more inconsistent, my vibrato less varied and studied, etc. Therefore, I won't get Larry's "tone."

When you define your terms, there is no "either/or" aspect to this question. You can buy timbre, but not style. Therefore, tone really is "in the fingers."

In my experience, electric guitar players seem to be the only musicians who don't think of tone this way. Sax players know it, cello players know it.. only electric guitar players seem to think there's a question to be answered here. Maybe it's the electric thing: perhaps the gear gets the the way of our understand that we're playing a musical instrument that is dependent on our interaction with it.


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Post subject:
Posted: Wed Mar 05, 2008 10:17 am
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chris63 wrote:
Tone is in the fingers!


I agree 100%!!!

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Post subject:
Posted: Wed Mar 05, 2008 11:38 am
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To me tone is kinda magic. Like describing love or why a song touched you. There's no real words to define it. It's just the totality of a musicians expression.

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Post subject:
Posted: Wed Mar 05, 2008 12:19 pm
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chris63 wrote:
Tone is in the fingers!

not in mine...


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Post subject:
Posted: Wed Mar 05, 2008 12:51 pm
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as most of you said its in the fingers and emotions

stop trying to SOUND like...so n so

change your attack and make the song yours

jimi changed so many songs and made them
HIS because of HIS style.


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Post subject:
Posted: Wed Mar 05, 2008 12:57 pm
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Your tone comes from Your heart, mind and fingers, good musical
instruments can help alot imo.

Peter


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Post subject:
Posted: Wed Mar 05, 2008 2:31 pm
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lostindesert wrote:
good musical
instruments can help alot imo.

Peter


Yep. You've heard the saying that "your as only as good as the tools you've got to work with". This is true, no doubt about it.


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Post subject:
Posted: Thu Mar 06, 2008 7:53 am
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OPINION:

NO two people have the exact same tone....even if they sat and used the exact same pieice of equipment.

Now granted, you can get a general tone, but how often do you find 2 people who play...exactly the same?


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Post subject:
Posted: Thu Mar 06, 2008 8:34 am
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lostindesert wrote:
Your tone comes from Your heart, mind and fingers, good musical
instruments can help alot imo.

Peter


Agree completly, that is why you can never really match someone else's tone.


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