Let the Flames Begin! A Very Unique Tone Demo

I noticed how the tone was different between the instruments before he started changing things to match each other. And then how specific components, once matched, the tones were pretty much identical. Further reinforcing my belief of tone being found in the gear, while it's technique, not tone, that's found in the fingers.
 
mcblink said:
I noticed how the tone was different between the instruments before he started changing things to match each other. And then how specific components, once matched, the tones were pretty much identical. Further reinforcing my belief of tone being found in the gear, while it's technique, not tone, that's found in the fingers.
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See my signature!

(The second line!)
 
mcblink said:
I noticed how the tone was different between the instruments before he started changing things to match each other. And then how specific components, once matched, the tones were pretty much identical. Further reinforcing my belief of tone being found in the gear, while it's technique, not tone, that's found in the fingers.
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I fully agree with tone is in the fingers and ill use the simplest example: EVH

From the most cheapass guitar ever built and a busted up Plexi, to custom made Musicmans and Peavey Wolfgangs with Peavey 5150s, to his own EVH Wolfgangs and EVH 5150s: it always sounded like Eddie. People have literally used those same exact rigs trying to copy him and it gets close but never perfect. You could also go buy his exact setup and give it to a beginner and it will sound like pure poop despite technically being a perfect matchup. His tone was all within.

Gear can shape the tone, but its the fingers that do the magic and give it that signature
 
Clockworkmike said:
I fully agree with tone is in the fingers and ill use the simplest example: EVH

From the most cheapass guitar ever built and a busted up Plexi, to custom made Musicmans and Peavey Wolfgangs with Peavey 5150s, to his own EVH Wolfgangs and EVH 5150s: it always sounded like Eddie. People have literally used those same exact rigs trying to copy him and it gets close but never perfect. You could also go buy his exact setup and give it to a beginner and it will sound like pure :poo: despite technically being a perfect matchup. His tone was all within.

Gear can shape the tone, but its the fingers that do the magic and give it that signature
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I still maintain that tone is in the gear, otherwise Eddie would have had no need to tinker and experiment. If it was all within his fingers, he could have just used a cheap Silvertone guitar and a Gorilla amp to invent his signature sound. But, that would not have yielded the tonal results that he eventually became renowned for. It would have still sounded like Ed, because of his styling, techniques, and musicality, in other words, Ed being Ed, but tonally, it would have sounded like Ed playing through a cheap Silvertone and Gorilla. Wouldn't sound anything like his own rig, tonally.
 
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mcblink said:
I still maintain that tone is in the gear, otherwise Eddie would have had no need to tinker and experiment. If it was all within his fingers, he could have just used a cheap Silvertone guitar and a Gorilla amp to invent his signature sound. But, that would not have yielded the tonal results that he eventually became renowned for. It would have still sounded like Ed, because of his styling, techniques, and musicality, in other words, Ed being Ed, but tonally, it would have sounded like Ed playing through a cheap Silvertone and Gorilla. Wouldn't sound anything like his own rig, tonally.
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^^^This.
 
I had the idea once to build a guitar, with the exception of the fretboard, only from wood I could get from a Home Depot or Lowes, just for kicks.

I never tried that. This video kind of made me think about that again.
 
Clockworkmike said:
I fully agree with tone is in the fingers and ill use the simplest example: EVH

From the most cheapass guitar ever built and a busted up Plexi, to custom made Musicmans and Peavey Wolfgangs with Peavey 5150s, to his own EVH Wolfgangs and EVH 5150s: it always sounded like Eddie. People have literally used those same exact rigs trying to copy him and it gets close but never perfect. You could also go buy his exact setup and give it to a beginner and it will sound like pure :poo: despite technically being a perfect matchup. His tone was all within.

Gear can shape the tone, but its the fingers that do the magic and give it that signature
Click to expand...
The style sounded like Eddie but the tone changed. Van Hagar does not sound like VH1. Eddie sounds like Eddie as he would on any guitar, you know it's him. But tonally a Fender Deluxe Reverb ain't gonna sound like his TONE.
That said, the combination of gear and style made him sound like him.
Take his studio setup and a beginner can't play like him granted, but if they played an A chord and let it ring the tone would be the same as EVHs.
STYLE is an entirely different thing
 
Clockworkmike said:
Lol alright, i guess im out on an island here with that belief but that's cool. I thought that buying an SG and a Marshall would make me sound like Angus Young and I've only continued to fail for over 26 years. But hey, on paper its the right tone right?
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Style or tone? One needs to use his wireless, a stack or 3, turn em up the same and compare to live performance not a recording and I bet tonally it would be close. Just not style wise. Recordings have so many other factors includkng your playback speakers that it is impossible to sound the same.
But live shoild be close with all that. You just wouldn't have his style. If you each played an A chord I bet it would be very similar.
 
Clockworkmike said:
Lol alright, i guess im out on an island here with that belief but that's cool. I thought that buying an SG and a Marshall would make me sound like Angus Young and I've only continued to fail for over 26 years. But hey, on paper its the right tone right?
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You could go and buy Angus's rig, but that doesn't automatically make you play like Angus. If you could replicate all his techniques, you'd sound a lot like him through that rig.

But, on the other hand, if you could play like Angus, and you played on some crap gear, you might still sound like Angus, but you wouldn't really have his tone.

I'm afraid in this case, IMO, it's all too common for folks to use the word TONE like it's synonymous with TECHNIQUE.

Technique most definitely has a major influence on the tone of the gear used. Things like pick attack, pressure applied and how quickly or sharply, during a hammer-on, etc...playing dynamically in general, those things are techniques that directly affect how the tone sounds.....and that is what a player is identified by. Angus sounds like Angus regardless of what he's playing, exactly because it's Angus playing like Angus.....That doesn't mean that some n00b can grab all his gear and sound like Angus though.

But, at the end of the day, if tone was in the fingers, then why do we even have different brands of amps, or all the pedals in the world, or different guitars at all? If it's all in the fingers, why don't we all just play the same poop? Why didn't Eddie and Angus play the same stuff if all they had to do differently, was all in their fingers?


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I've known for quite a while that it's the wood.

Parts sellers want to convince me that the wood has nothing to do with it...
but I know that's bullshit.

Of course they want to sell me all kinds of parts....
And I fully realize from experience that the parts don't significantly change the underlying sound.
 
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