What is Tone? The guitar culture in general is pretty vocal about tone. Certain wood types and electronics give you this sound or this sound etc etc. you hear about guitar players swear on one product giving them something special they never had before and there’s a lot of talk about frequency range and all this other stuff. Many guitarists are absolutely snobbish and anal about tone. But just how much of tone is in the equipment? Here’s my perspective and mine only. So take it or leave it.
My journey on the tone world began as soon I realized what kind of guitarist I was and that took a while. I went through several phases of playing styles and equipment before never truly knowing myself and only wanting to express myself musically.. I realized initially that I needed more sustain. I also realized that I was more of a legato player than picker. In my ears I wanted my lead sound to be cello like. Smooth and rounded. I have two pedals. A Wampler Slostortion and a Zoom G3xn. I have used these pedals for a long time and they suit my needs. For the lead sound and sustain I knew I could use a compression pedal to achieve more sustain but I also wanted the pick attack to be less intensified, and on my zoom pedal I had a compression effect so I used that. I also had cabinet emulators which helped shape my sound too. Then on the Wampler pedal, I remember reading that the mid knob on 0 was actually 12 o clock. So I turned everything else off but the mid I put more at 7 o’clock just to boost a little mid. All this helped, but I still wasn’t quite getting what I wanted. I noticed that my technique was fine but I noticed when I played a note with a specific kind of touch and approach (thinking more in terms of connecting the notes) the sound in my head was achieved.
For me, gear was only part of the equation. And when I realized that, I became more intuitive with my sound and what I needed my gear to give me. Does tone come from the hands or gear? I’d say both and then say either yes or no. I really feel like it’s a personal discovery and a process. If you’re true to yourself and persistent with getting that sound in your head out of your speaker then I’m sure you’ll get what you’re after. Thanks for reading!
Jared Lowery 