“Tone is in the fingers” my ass. (RANT)

Donnie B said:
Walks in to see him playing an early Steinbrenner prototype
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Markedman said:
I play an amplifier, not a guitar.

It matters more to me what my amplifier is! I need to have a good guitar, but tone is in the amplifier.
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I understand where you are coming from. And I think we are all spoiled because even the cheapest guitars are pretty damn good these days. But i have played some cheap stuff with pickups so bad they killed the tone before it ever made it to the amp.
 
I get the expression but when someone makes a post on a gear forum asking; "What gear would you suggest for <insert guitar hero>'s tone?" there will always be those guys that post 'toan is in the fingers'. It is kind of irritating.

I say tone is everywhere. Change your pick, your tone changes. Change the weather, your tone changes. Change your wall voltage, your tone changes. Change your battery, your tone changes. Tone is everywhere...including fingers. But context, a Tweed Deluxe is not a VH4.
 
japetus said:
I think this is how onlyfans started...
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No joke, onlyfans was started by two British teenagers who asked their dad for a loan…

His final words were “ok, but this is the last time”…

And then they all had a multibillion dollar enterprise

@Smashedguitaris⸸ follow your dreams!
 
Smashedguitaris⸸ said:
I understand where you are coming from. And I think we are all spoiled because even the cheapest guitars are pretty damn good these days. But i have played some cheap stuff with pickups so bad they killed the tone before it ever made it to the amp.
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I don’t fully agree here. I think today we can get cheap guitars that are very solid in functionality and playability, but if you try the majority of guitars made before the ‘70’s (even most cheap underrated ones) they generally will have tone that is better (at least more alive, raw and warm sounding) even if the playability and other aspects of it suck, while today you have so many pricy, sleek looking guitars coated in poly or oil (PRS, Suhr, Anderson, Mayones, etc) with with no good tone to it, sterile as hell, despite being excellent in most other areas. I personally think this is a really bad direction and really bad priorities for a musical instrument of all things. I have come across a handful of recent made guitars that I enjoy as much in their own way as best vintage ones, but the journey has been like finding the needles in the haystack. I think it’s the same way with the players and music today. Much of it is technically very sound, but sterile, but here and there you find ones that both and will probably be the ones that get remembered
 
Markedman said:
I play an amplifier, not a guitar.

It matters more to me what my amplifier is! I need to have a good guitar, but tone is in the amplifier.
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We play it all, but I agree the amp and speakers are probably most important to the overall sound, but the pickups, guitars, etc all shape it, so why cut corners in those places. Just my opinion
 
braintheory said:
I don’t fully agree here. I think today we can get cheap guitars that are very solid in functionality and playability, but if you try the majority of guitars made before the ‘70’s (even most cheap underrated ones) they generally will have tone that is better (at least more alive, raw and warm sounding) even if the playability and other aspects of it suck, while today you have so many pricy, sleek looking guitars coated in poly or oil (PRS, Suhr, Anderson, Mayones, etc) with with no good tone to it, sterile as hell, despite being excellent in most other areas. I personally think this is a really bad direction and really bad priorities for a musical instrument of all things. I have come across a handful of recent made guitars that I enjoy as much in their own way as best vintage ones, but the journey has been like finding the needles in the haystack
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I have played a lot of vintage guitars. My ear may not be as discerning as yours, but I feel like there is no debate on acoustic and semi hollows. My dad has a 335 copy that has a clean tone that makes me think of getting a black face and playing blues.
 
Smashedguitaris⸸ said:
I have played a lot of vintage guitars. My ear may not be as discerning as yours, but I feel like there is no debate on acoustic and semi hollows. My dad has a 335 copy that has a clean tone that makes me think of getting a black face and playing blues.
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Yeah some of my favorite guitars I have actually are actually ‘60’s semi-hollows, but my vintage solid bodies of that era sound just as good imo both acoustically and plugged in (just not as loud). My ‘64 Epiphone Rivera is one of the most aggressive, nasty, ballsy sounding guitars I own. I play metal on it, but it cleans up just as well when I play classical fingerpick type stuff on it. I had a very good ballsy, growly sounding 1984 Charvel San Dimas I sold recently that weighed over 9lbs and this ‘64 Epi Semi-hollow Rivera destroyed tonally in every department including balls and growl (it weighs 8.5 lbs)

And there are recent made guitars I enjoy as much as the best vintage stuff I’ve tried, it’s just much much more far and few between IME and they sound great in their own way. They don’t have that raw, organic, mature, warm thing in their tone
 
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