What's Your Tone Limitation?

Do you jive with your equipment? Do you say I got what I have and I'm going to make it work, whatever you have guitar amp wise? Or has your equipment limited you? Do you get frustrated cuz the OD's not right or the cleans aren't right, the whatever isn't right?

Do you keep pickin' along to press through whatever your percieved limits are, believing this will do you until...quot;Xquot; happens?

Have you given up or became so frustrated that you just blew everything up and gave it the Townsend treatment?

Or are all our questions on the forum simply fine tuning adjustments?

i can be fine with anything honestly.......as long as i like to play my guitar and like the way it feels......my strats neck feels better than any strat ive ever played

so, i can be fine with the tube amps i play, or i can go over my buddies house, and all he has is a POS old Crate solid state amp......doesnt sound very good, but i can make do just so i can play some real music, and not think about tone so much


Originally Posted by Guitar ToadDo you jive with your equipment?

Yes, 100%
Do you say I got what I have and I'm going to make it work, whatever you have guitar amp wise?

When it´s not my rig, yes.
Or has your equipment limited you? Do you get frustrated cuz to OD's not right, the cleans not right, the whatevers aren't right?

Can´t say I do

Do you keep pickin' along to press through whatever percieved limits you meet, believing this will do you until...
What Limits?

Have you given up gotten frustrated and just blew everything up and gave it the Townsend treatment?

Answering this question would get me arrested, but I will say that no guitars have ever come to harm at my hands

Or are all our questions on the forum simply fine tuning adjustments?

Probably, at least for many... but some are much farther away from bliss, for them it could be a major change that they seek

My attitude used to be quot;I'll make do with what I havequot; until one day I realized I could sell something I didn't like, and replace it with something I did like

Now, if it's not exactly what I want, and I can't modify it to be, it's replaced ASAP.

I used to think that only my hands were a limiting factor. Then I tried a Diezel VH4S... And then I saw Robben Ford playing his Dumble... I'm totally hopeless now.


Originally Posted by Guitar ToadDo you jive with your equipment?

I think I do. Having a guitar with two humbuckers and another with three single coils, I enjoy playing both through my SS practice amp, which is admittedly enough for my needs ATM.

Do you say I got what I have and I'm going to make it work, whatever you have guitar amp wise?

Yep... it's necessary to upgrade - but it's also necessary to get as much mojo as you can out of what you've got. It makes me more well-rounded.

Or has your equipment limited you?

Sure it has, 30W SS, doesn't give me what I want... I would love to own a tube - I have high expectations.

Do you get frustrated cuz to OD's not right, the cleans not right, the whatevers aren't right?

With a fair selection of channels, and a decent ear for tone - I can muster up something worthwhile. Props to Roland.

Do you keep pickin' along to press through whatever percieved limits you meet, believing this will do you until...

I find myself discovering new things all the time, even though the possibilities don't seem to be all that much compared to the long time I've had the amp.
Have you given up gotten frustrated and just blew everything up and gave it the Townsend treatment?

I'm a bit of a pu$$y when it comes to volume. When I used to play with these other bunch of guys, I'd be the only ones who would wear earplugs. They said it was uncool... lol.

Or are all our questions on the forum simply fine tuning adjustments?

Not in my case. The next amp I get will be worlds apart.Good thread GT!

I can't play if the tone isn't right to me. Between my Warmoth and my Cube 60, I get by, but I'd love a Flextone or a Vox AD60VTX, or less realistically, a Marshall Silver Jubilee. There's always that one element of tone that's lacking for me, regardless of the gear - even when I played a Les Paul Standard through an original JCM 800. However, I plugged into my friend's Flextone the other day (with my Warmoth), turned some knobs, and there was absolutetly NOTHING lacking in the tone to my ears. I had found exactly what I've always wanted. Now I just need another $600...

1. Sometimes. It all depends on what I'm playing; if it's jazz, I need a tighter clean, but if it's blues, rock, or metal, my equipment is near perfect.

2. Most of the time, yes, but sometimes I'll say to myself quot;it's almost impossible to work with thisquot;.

3. No, only my skills are limiting me right now.

4. I rarely ever use my Double Drive, unless I need it as a booster for a solo or lead line. My amps OD is good enough for me, but it's not the tube-driven tone I want.

5. Yes. I'm always going down the road of finding new GASes

6. Never.. No, once. I kicked over my crappy little bass amp 'cause the cab was rattling inside.

7. Maybe for the rest of them, but not for me

Dunno have stopped worrying along time ago, got enough crap to get any need covered, if it does not work...well I can look at myself and think...gods I suck at this

Do you jive with your equipment?

Yes

Do you say I got what I have and I'm going to make it work, whatever you have guitar amp wise? Or has your equipment limited you? Do you get frustrated cuz to OD's not right, the cleans not right, the whatevers aren't right?

If you have a strong tone to build on everything else is gravy. I made a decision to sink alot of money into a great amp, so I can play without effects and still have great OD and cleans.

Do you keep pickin' along to press through whatever percieved limits you meet, believing this will do you until...

No. I keep something long enough to figure out how to use it correctly, and if it doesn't jive with my style I sell/trade it.

Have you given up gotten frustrated and just blew everything up and gave it the Townsend treatment?

I once had a really bad groung loop hum....out of fustration I disconnected all my effects and threw them in a box. Fortunatly, I had that great OD and clean tone with just my amp.

Or are all our questions on the forum simply fine tuning adjustments?

My sounds pretty much set in stone. Most things I buy these days are simply to fine tune that sound.....IE, I'm currently using a DigiDelay for a tape delay sim, and I'll be upgrading that to a Tube Tape Echo pretty soon.

At this point in time, I think I've settled into my stuff (or my stuff has settled around me...?) When I think my most recent guitar was purchased 4 years ago, and the most recent bass was somewhere around 8 years ago... It's not that I wouldn't like other instruments, as much of a gear whore as I am and have been, my gear is great and I realize it. There was a point in time that I was trading around guitars, getting my hands on an awful lot of instruments and realizing what I liked and what I didn't like. A few times it's been love at first sight, more often than not something would go and be replaced with something else.

My amps have gone through a similar quot;trade upquot; scenario. I bought a 100w non-master Marshall and a 4x12 from my uncle, the 4x12 was perfect, but the non-MV got traded for a 100w MV, then that went for a 50w, and that one for another one, and that one for another one... and now I've ended up with one of the finest Marshalls that works for me. (Sort of reminds you of a castle built in a swamp? )

The problem isn't tone, it's volume limitation. I only get to crank up my amps at a rehearsal studio once a week or so. The rest of the time, I'm stuck with the noise restriction of living in an apartment.......try affording a house in Southern California!!

I can play my tube amps at low levels, which doesn't really do them justice, so honestly, I find myself plugged into my Vox Valvetronix 70% of the time. I can only blast my Bogner/Matchless rig once a week....sometimes more...sometimes less.

My rig works for me 99% of the time, once in a while I'll play a room that has bad sound and it sucks. I would like to get a reasonably priced, high quality Les Paul copy for a humbucker tone. Money doesn't always buy a good tone.....a lot of tone has to do with technique.

I can work just fine with my gear until my amp starts popping, hissing, and blasting me in the face with gallons of harsh distorted noise...but by then i've gone thru a few songs and worked up a sweat anyway so it's all gravy.

-X

I don't feel limited or help back in any way with my equipment.

Tone or limits thereof, have little or no influence on your ability. Tone limitations have no bearing on talent and the desire to learn your instrament. Take what you have, or can afford, and learn to play the best you can, even if you have the cheapest outfit made. (I played my first guitar, a real cheap Silvertone acoustic till my fingers looked like shredded wheat.)
The rest will all come in time.
quot;It's a shoddy workman that blames his tools!quot;....The Rev.Billy Gibbons

I feel i have a producers ear without a producers budget
my style is finally taking shape and my ear knows what it wants and when it cant get it it frustrates me and makes me tweak which frustrates me more and makes me research and gas which frustrates me more because i have a very limited budget and then what i usually end up doing is ghetto rigging my gear to do the best i can for the time being while tweaking it till i get enough to get the thing i probably need

I can make due with just about anything but the experience is a lot more fulfilling for me when I have the right tools for the job.
At this point, I have my tonal bases covered: I know the tones I like and can nail them all with the stuff I have. In fact, most of my acquisitions in the past year have been more about expanding my sonic palette rather than getting quot;betterquot; tone. In the year prior to that, my acquisitions were a result of changing taste. Rather than feeling my gear was inadequate, I felt it was inappropriate for what I wanted to play.
Personally, I feel a lot of questions asked here indicate a lack of a systemic approach to tone. First, no pickup/pedal/amp/guitar/speaker is going to help you nail a tone if the other stuff isn't appropriate for what you're trying to achieve. Secondly, there's more than one way to achieve most any tone you want. Some folks use hot pickups to get the brown sound while others use more traditional PAF-ish pickups. Either one works fine as long as it compliments the rest of the signal chain.
But that's just my opinion, I could be wrong...

With a set of Duncans and a POD, I can get pretty much any tone I have a need for at the moment. Sooooooooooooo versatile.

I will likely upgrade to a big amp and countless stomp boxes in the future though. The POD gets me by for the time being.


Originally Posted by alecleePersonally, I feel a lot of questions asked here indicate a lack of a systemic approach to tone. First, no pickup/pedal/amp/guitar/speaker is going to help you nail a tone if the other stuff isn't appropriate for what you're trying to achieve. Secondly, there's more than one way to achieve most any tone you want. Some folks use hot pickups to get the brown sound while others use more traditional PAF-ish pickups. Either one works fine as long as it compliments the rest of the signal chain.
But that's just my opinion, I could be wrong...

i believe that you are right on with those comments aleclee.

Can i take the 5th on this or plead temporary insanity? or just naive stupidity!

BTW, some of you might think this thread is after the same thing as my quot;Gear Chops Tonequot; thread. But, it's not.