O judgment! thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason. Bear with me;
There's my dirt, there's your dirt, and ne'er the twain may meet, ladies and gentlemen - however, we're all dirty.
Even our cleans have dirt! The tube amplifiers we base our tones on (even modeled ones) have about 10% distortion even in their clean tones; back in the day they discovered it's the dirt and other tube artifacts, like compression, that give electric guitar tone complexity, and make it more interesting.
"But I like the dirt in my amp, and I don't like the dirt in your amp."
That's the 'judgment part' of the equation, and I get it. I'm that guy who'll hard pass on germanium dirt-making stuff. Wrong texture for me, for whom dirt preference is partly about texture.
Ever notice that an EL34 sounds different from its counterpart, the 6L6, when it breaks up? The 6L6 has a gravelly grind in the very low mids, and the EL34 has a sandier grind at a bit higher frequency? I'd rather hear an EL34 pushed to breakup than a 6L6, but I love the bouncy, cleaner tone of a 6L6 when it's not being pushed hard. Lots of factors at work here.
There's fuzz and there's overdrive. Both make dirt. People have differing opinions on them, because the texture and type of waves that are formed at clipping are different.
I'm calling those kinds of differences texture.
We hear the differences in the texture of our breakup, but each of us responds to those component differences individually. Different dirt making stuff that goes inside amps and pedals sounds unique, and the pieces-parts blend in different ways.
I could go on and on about texture, and I'm sure I will later on, but I'll make this observation:
Texture is a matter of context. That blatty, harsh accent played by the bass trombone at the high point of an action scene makes a different point solo'd in the room than it does in the context of a full orchestra playing a unison note hard.
You show me your dirt, I'll show you mine. Let's talk about what we like and dislike when it comes to distortion. Post pictures of your gear if you must, but this one's not about what the dirt-device looks like. It's about what it sounds like. So clips would be a lot more useful than pics.
And men have lost their reason. Bear with me;
There's my dirt, there's your dirt, and ne'er the twain may meet, ladies and gentlemen - however, we're all dirty.
Even our cleans have dirt! The tube amplifiers we base our tones on (even modeled ones) have about 10% distortion even in their clean tones; back in the day they discovered it's the dirt and other tube artifacts, like compression, that give electric guitar tone complexity, and make it more interesting.
"But I like the dirt in my amp, and I don't like the dirt in your amp."
That's the 'judgment part' of the equation, and I get it. I'm that guy who'll hard pass on germanium dirt-making stuff. Wrong texture for me, for whom dirt preference is partly about texture.
Ever notice that an EL34 sounds different from its counterpart, the 6L6, when it breaks up? The 6L6 has a gravelly grind in the very low mids, and the EL34 has a sandier grind at a bit higher frequency? I'd rather hear an EL34 pushed to breakup than a 6L6, but I love the bouncy, cleaner tone of a 6L6 when it's not being pushed hard. Lots of factors at work here.
There's fuzz and there's overdrive. Both make dirt. People have differing opinions on them, because the texture and type of waves that are formed at clipping are different.
I'm calling those kinds of differences texture.
We hear the differences in the texture of our breakup, but each of us responds to those component differences individually. Different dirt making stuff that goes inside amps and pedals sounds unique, and the pieces-parts blend in different ways.
I could go on and on about texture, and I'm sure I will later on, but I'll make this observation:
Texture is a matter of context. That blatty, harsh accent played by the bass trombone at the high point of an action scene makes a different point solo'd in the room than it does in the context of a full orchestra playing a unison note hard.
You show me your dirt, I'll show you mine. Let's talk about what we like and dislike when it comes to distortion. Post pictures of your gear if you must, but this one's not about what the dirt-device looks like. It's about what it sounds like. So clips would be a lot more useful than pics.
