When all is said and done at the end of the day to make a guitar fantastic, to make it truly a joy to play the sound has to come off it well and go through the rig come out the other side and be as each different player wants it to be. Some like it clear and pristine and others like it rough and a big wall of smack you in the side of the head sound. All of that is tone and all look for tone
My impression of tone, its like ice cream every one has a flavor that they like better than others, every once in a while they feel adventuresome and will try something new and maybe like it, maybe not, but more often than not they go back to what they were used to, their stand by and then, then…..every now and then they simply tire of the same old same old and move onto to something new, leaving it behind forever. You talk to a guy from the east coast and he says, “I know this place that makes the best there is old school style then a guy from the west coast will tell you about light fresh fruit etc. you get the drift.
It is important to us, no doubt.
I met Bob Rock here in van a couple of years back , he was getting ready to take the payolas out on a quick tour of canada and we started talking about guitars and rigs and he says he loves the whole deal about finding tone, about how different amps, guitars pickups, strings all of that goes together and makes a tone at the end of the chain. He talked about some old amps he and his compatriots had found and some old cheap guitars, silvertone, and they put those together and were wowed or the distinctive blush of color an ac30 or fender tweed gave a guitar.
Paul Hyde, ( payolas ) he is another that loves finding sound. Last time I saw him he had this old sg playing through a bell and howell ww2 surplus movie projector amplifier, a 50watt beast in drab green, but boy oh boy what a sweet sweet sound that sent off. he ran it through a marshall 78 4×12 cab.
I know of what they speak, I totally dig what you can do with set ups it is a blast.
What we do in pursuing tone, is try lots and lots of ideas and setups and positions and material and it is a fantastic pursuit and something I just don’t tire from.
So, if you like stuff like that, here is a very cool book. It has all the classic guitar and amp combinations right from the start of amplification. The big bands we all know, beatles zeppelin, hendrix , who etc. what they used to get their sound.
If you get off on the little stuff that can make a big difference, read this book.
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phil Books amp guitar combinations, famous rigs, guitar tone
