Does your sound change over time?

[WEDGE]

I have gone through more guitars than I can count over the years, and while the number of amps isn’t nearly as ridiculous I have been through a bunch of them too. What has never ever changed is my tone goal.

Other than the occasional Strat type guitar and Deluxe Reverb type amp, my main and unwavering tone goal is a saturated 80’s hard rock/metal tone. Marshalls, Bogners, Mesas, Kemper, etc. have all come and gone but I always turn the knobs till I hear a facsimile of the tone in my head, no matter the amp I try to make them all sound like my idealized version of a Marshall, not necessarily what they deliver best. I have had some good/great guitars and amps over the years that I was hugely satisfied with but they never stuck. I may have more problems than just tone….

I am almost 59 and still want the same exact tone I wanted way back I was 19. I can live with a one trick pony setup forever if it does that trick perfectly. Not sure if that makes closed minded and/or non adventurous, or true to my vision?

Has your tone goals and sound stayed the same over the years, or have you shifted gears completely?

 

[Texas_minor_blues]

I have gone through more guitars than I can count over the years, and while the number of amps isn’t nearly as ridiculous I have been through a bunch of them too. What has never ever changed is my tone goal.

Other than the occasional Strat type guitar and Deluxe Reverb type amp, my main and unwavering tone goal is a saturated 80’s hard rock/metal tone. Marshalls, Bogners, Mesas, Kemper, etc. have all come and gone but I always turn the knobs till I hear a facsimile of the tone in my head, no matter the amp I try to make them all sound like my idealized version of a Marshall, not necessarily what they deliver best. I have had some good/great guitars and amps over the years that I was hugely satisfied with but they never stuck. I may have more problems than just tone….

I am almost 59 and still want the same exact tone I wanted way back I was 19. I can live with a one trick pony setup forever if it does that trick perfectly. Not sure if that makes closed minded and/or non adventurous, or true to my vision?

Has your tone goals and sound stayed the same over the years, or have you shifted gears completely?

I find that my tone ideas have been pretty consistent since I started playing. What does change is that I will periodically find myself going back to old iterations of tone I had and I find I have a new appreciations of it, if that makes any sense. I am finding that the longer things go the more simplicity I seem to prefer. Right now my rig is so straightforward. guitar -> MojoHand Extra Special, Strymon El Capistan, Strymon BigSky and thats pretty much it other than the occasional use of an Xotic Ep Booster. I feel that is really the sweet spot for my ears.

 

[Greywolf]

I've found the older I get the more simple my signal path

 

[László]

I've gone through quite a bit of change over the years. I started on a pretty clean amp, an Ampeg Reverberocket II in 1967. At some point in 1968 I moved to a black panel Fender Bassman that I cranked pretty hard to overdrive it a little and get a good blues tone, and added a Maestro Fuzz and a Vox wah to get that late '60s psychedelic thing going for certain songs.

The '70s were kind of my 'lost years'. I played mostly acoustic guitar, rarely touched an electric. I don't know what I was thinking. OK, I still like a nice acoustic, but it's kind of a secondary thing for me.

In the '80s I had a couple of super-Strats (that looking back sounded super-horrible, and looked worse - looking at you, Jackson and Floyd ), but what did I know, I hadn't discovered PRS), and my trusty SG Special, and got into using rack-mount pretend amps. The pretend amps were truly awful, but they served the limited purpose of getting me into electric guitar again. So I sounded terrible, regardless of style, but at least I got in some practice.

But I also bought a grand piano and spent a lot of time rediscovering my classical piano chops. That was good.

In the '90s I got into PRS Guitars and real amps - Mesa, Bogner, Egnater's early stuff, a few others. I went for a focused, saturated, crunchy gain sound, and had rack gear for effects. I still use PRS Guitars and have a couple of Mesas in the studio. They're great for certain things.

The '00s started by adding Brit-Pop tones, with a Bad Cat, and I was into recording with the U2 delay thing (which I still like).

By 2003 I drifted into my Two-Rock obsession. I was after the ever-elusive focused Dumble overdrive tones, and sparkling cleans. By this time I had also switched to a pedalboard when I needed pedals, but that wasn't often. It really was a great sound.

2014 brought me back into vintage 'edge of breakup' tones, with the HXDA, DG30, etc. I use the word 'back' because it's a more refined version of what I was doing back in my late '60s Fender Bassman days, though much more refined. I may still add a Matchless for those U2 delay tones, as I still like them, find them useful in my work, and hate having to drag my ass to my buddy's studio to use his vintage Vox.

 

[bodia]

I mean, my main tone that I strive for is still what I was after back in the 80s. At that time it may have been 97% that tone. Now, I like to play in different styles/genres and find myself looking for more "range". Now maybe I'm 60/40 original tone to "expanded range." I still fall back to my old ways more often that not.

 

[veinbuster]

My late night sound is pretty much what it has been for years, though the speaker is now a bit further from my ears.

Afternoons are more varied, but I might be trending cleaner.

 

[JasonE]

My tones have definitely changed over the years. In the 80's I was playing solid state amps with a lot of gain. Now I play clean, low and medium gain tones. I switched over to tube amps in the 90's. I have used many different pedals over the decades as well. The guitars I play now have lower output pickups. The ones I used to play decades ago had a lot higher output. It seems like things are always evolving with my tone. I find something that I like just a bit better than what I was using and switch over to it.

FWIW, Eddie changed his tone over the years as well. If you listen to the first two albums, his tone actually had less gain to it than in the later years. I think this is a normal thing for all guitar players. I have seen some of my friends go through different tastes with gain.

 

[WEDGE]

I play much more through my clean setup lately since my dirt rig is a 100 watt head into a 4x12. Considering grabbing a nice gain pedal like a Friedman BE-OD for the office setup. Anyone have a favorite 80’s rock tone pedal they like?

 

[Texas_minor_blues]

I play much more through my clean setup lately since my dirt rig is a 100 watt head into a 4x12. Considering grabbing a nice gain pedal like a Friedman BE-OD for the office setup. Anyone have a favorite 80’s rock tone pedal they like?

BK Butler Tube driver

 

[markd21]

As the years have progressed, my tone has evolved. It's more about using the equipment to create a "voice" for the piece I am tracking. Each guitar offers a "vibe". I will gravitate to playing a certain way on different instruments.

For instance, my Fender 51 has been modded with tele pickups. I pretty much go for twang/americana tones with that guitar. Usually it gets plugged into an amp that is rootsier - a Bassman, Vox, Plexi, etc.

For rock tones I grab an Ibanez or my EBMM JP15. Any amp goes, really. Though with the JP I gravitate towards a Diezel VH4 or Suhr PT100. Ibanez guitars gravitate toward Marshall or Mesa.

Fusion playing happens with my PRS or EBMM guitars. The MEV has become a case queen. It's not really floating my boat anymore. I prefer my modded SE245 and JP15 for lead/fusion playing. The JP is great for more fluid saturation. The 245 is great for blended tones and picking dynamics. For those approaches I tend to go with a Fuchs Overdrive Supreme.

In the past I had one tone. I sound like me no matter what gear I'm using. These days, however, I'm making more effort to have different sounds for different apications.

 

[WEDGE]

Hard to deny the JP15 can do rock and metal…..

 

[WEDGE]

BK Butler Tube driver

I always thought that was a blues pedal, will it get dirty?

 

[SinSir]

My tone has definitely changed since discovering PRS.. my playing style and tone has changed even more over the past couple years and multiple surgeries. I'm still a hack but the best compliment I've ever recieved is my GF told me she can always find me in a music store because of my sound. Pretty cool. I've been searching for my voice on the guitar for longer than I'd like to admit. It's nice to hear I'm somewhere near there...

 

[gush]

My tone has changed a bunch over the years. My first amp was some sort of jacked up fender amp with music man 4x12 cab.

When I joined my 2nd band I had a marshall super lead 100 with marshall 4x12 cab and boss HM2 distortion pedal.............yup......wish I still had it.

Went through several small amps but bought a peavey 5150 half stack. Played that rig for a long long time and sold it right before EVH passed. Ugh

Bought a Mesa Stiletto head and I like it a lot. Pretty versatile. Last year I bought a jcm800 studio head and have been liking it. I just put a 7025 preamp tube in it to tame down the highs and that made a huge difference. My complaint would be that it sounds so much different at low volumes than it does at higher stage volumes. Makes it really hard to build a setup. Right now I use comp, delay, wah and EP booster. That's it, no more rack mount stuff.

I have several cabs to play through to change things up which is kind of nice.

My tone is getting cleaner for sure.

 

[AP515]

What I hear in my head hasn't changed. It took me a while to find the equipment to get me that sound. I've had it for around 10 years now, and it hasn't changed and I don't want it to. But it's a pretty wide pallet. I want a single coil quack and a humbucker punch. I play the neck and the treble pups. I move the tone knob around a bit, it's not just dimed. I play a lot of gain and I play right at break up. I play electric and acoustic. But what I have within that pallet hasn't changed in 10 years.

 

[dogrocketp]

I’m firmly in the simpler is mo’bettah camp. All my guitars went from G to PRS, except a bass and an old school archtop. I was never a huge amp guy. I’ve only owned a handful, and it’s been pretty much Tech 21 for 22 years. I have a beautiful 2 channel 30 on consignment. It weighs 60 pounds, and at age 70 it’s just too friggin heavy to carry up stairs. The solution was a 4 input tweed clone with an interactive tone and a volume. A soul food pushes it beautifully. Now guitars on the other hand…..unfortunately I’ve never seen a PRS I didn’t love.

 

[sergiodeblanc]

Barely. I mean, all the tones are belong to me, but my ears usually always wind up in a similar spot.

I justify buying different amps by how easy or convenient they are to getting me to the same place. Lol.

Oh! And how they look, of course.

 

[FragileThunder]

The tone I hear in my head hasn’t changed much over the years. The things I think I need to chase it have though.

 

[GADonis]

My tone appears to change on a daily basis. Whether I want it to or not.

 

[Gtrbldr]

What changed mostly is the amount of gain, but the signature is - relatively speaking - the same. Rather mid forward, relatively little bass and clear but not shrill. If that makes sense. Used to play with classic boogies, but greenback-ish speakers and somehow still do, but more brit flavoured (voxy, matchless etc)