Question:
The post about smaller vs. larger pedalboards got me thinking about how different everyone's needs are. I think the biggest dividing line (if you can call it that) is between players who play primarily in cover bands and need to nail a specific tone vs. players who really only seek their own sound.

Its funny, but I just realized that I tend to think of versatility in gear as a negative and place a higher value on "one trick pony" done amazingly well over a piece of gear that can do a bunch of stuff "pretty well". I also never try to match a sound off a record, so I (oddly?) place a higher value the opinions of people who do. I have a friend who can nail nearly any player's sound you can think of and knows more about gear than anyone I know (in person), but for the life of me I can't think of what he sounds like.

What do you think???

Choices:
PISS OFF, I only play with MY sound
I AM the zen master of disguise and can tone shift at will
I'm trying to believe I can master both...REALLY!!

 

While I am constantly chasing "my" sound, I am heavily influenced by other players/tones. No one lives in a vacuum...

It's not so much "tones" that I try to copy/emulate but more of a feel. I try to get my own tones and throw in some recognizable licks in for good measure. But when playing someone else's material it does make it more convincing to cop the tones as well as the chops.

HMM, i think you get paid to do both. unless your in a Satanic Country Prog band.OR your in a band like Mongoose Eyeball where you have UH distractions. like a hot singer chick,and people wantin to steal your gear,while your usin it

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Originally posted by D.G.:
While I am constantly chasing "my" sound, I am heavily influenced by other players/tones. No one lives in a vacuum...

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I think this is where I fall. My love of Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin & Jimi Hendrix effected my sense of value far too much to buy a Nu Metal rig, but I have spend a serious amount of time trying to create my own sound. We have a black African girl singer who kills it and we cover a few Black Sabbath & Metallica tunes for the fun of it, but I really don't try to imitate their tones. Maybe its more Iommi than Hammet if only because I drive power tubes for distortion, but I don't change a singe EQ setting or pedal to do the tunes. We do them as though we wrote them (to some degree).

Moe, I'm curious what you mean by "I think you get paid to do both"? Do you mean in an originals context or a cover band context? I was always impressed by the way the Allman Brothers, Led Zeppelin or Judas Priest covered tunes...like they were theirs (in Zeps case, they sometimes took credit for writing them too! )

I just constantly try to find the tones in my head...I'm getting there...I bought the 5150 because it's a high gain amp that does more than a marshall...doesn't sound overcomressed like a mesa...and is comparitively cheap for it's high production values....plus I got it used so it was even cheaper.

I love EVH but I'm not trying to rip off his tones...in fact the guy who influenced my rhythm guitar tones the most was Matthew Caws from Nada Surf with their second record "The Proximity Effect" (it's a great album that anyone on here looking for newer music should really check out. If they love great new wave meets punk rock sounds and they have one the best damn drummers I've ever seen.)

Even then Matt basically just showed me that I primarily like the way a real Les Paul sounds...and That I like various amp sounds *he always uses two different amps live A/B'd....*

So...yeah...I think finding your own tones...is more like finding your own take on what you love.

I beleive that getting a few of your own sounds is the best way to go. I play in a tenpiece funk cover band and two rock bands. I've been useing a Strat into the Vox Tonelab SE into a Carmen Ghia and a Marshall TV cab loaded with Greenbacks. I have programmed one good clean sound, one crunch, and one lead sound. I have programmed the wah pedal so I can switch it on for the clean and leadsound plus I can switch on the univibe with the crunch sound, but that's all. I have spent hours finetuning my patches and I'm very satisfied right now.

One of the best local guitar players plays with a rock cover band and they play pretty much anything. I have seen him play with a Marshall JCM 800 half stack a wah and a tubescreamer and noone in the audience was missing the chorus effect in "Purple Rain" for instance.

Conclusion: I'd rather have a couple of good classic or original sounds that make me recognisable as a musician, than change a bunch of presets every song.

i fall into the ignorant category. i don't know most of the names you guys mention when talking about someone's tones. i don't know many people's songs, and i don't think i can emulate anyone's tones. i just do what i think sounds good. like someone said, we don't live in a bubble. i still hear a clean tone and want to figure out what they're using etc. but it tends to be because i have an idea of how i could use that tone, not necessarily wanting to copy how they did. what does this all amount to? an alright player with tones that he likes, but that everyone else would probably consider alright. fortunately i don't have to cover any songs, so my tones is my tones, and that's all they need to be.

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Originally posted by Richard Groff:
...players who play primarily in cover bands and need to nail a specific tone vs. players who really only seek their own sound.

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I think you nailed it.

I try to not worry about what other people like and try to go for what sounds and feels right to me. However, I definitely have learned a lot about what works and what doesn't for certain sounds from the approaches and tones of other players.