Hot answers tagged tone
14
It's in their fingers, by which I mean the way they attack the string, the way they use vibrato, the inflections they use. All of these things contribute to tone in subtle ways.
Picking: Where and how you pick makes a huge difference: picking close to the bridge makes the guitar sound bright and sharp, closer to fingerboard makes it sound rounder and ...
10
Those terms mostly describe the frequency characteristics of a given sound and how the person feels about those characteristics. For instance, an emphasis on lower frequencies can be characterised positively as "warm" or "mellow", or negatively as "muddy". Likewise, an emphasis on higher frequencies can be characterised positively as "bright" or "crisp", or ...
10
The main advantage of neck-through construction is better sustain, achieved through greater stiffness. It's all about maintaining the string's energy as long as possible.
Why does a guitar string lose its sustain? Why doesn't it keep vibrating forever? When you pluck a string, you impart energy to the string, and that energy keeps it vibrating. But some ...
8
What influences a player's tone is a lot to do with the equipment they use. A Strat sounds slightly different to a Tele, and a Les Paul sounds drastically different to a Rickenbacker. The construction of the guitars and the pickup used has a big effect on this. A Semi-Hollow body guitar on the neck pickup is going to sound worlds apart to a solid body guitar ...
8
Basically, we use the vast amount of recorded guitar music as a guide. We listen to the guitarists who have come before us and use their tones to help us to make educated guesses as to how to achieve the tones we want. A lot of the times, certain gear is closely identified with certain players and certain sounds. Here are some examples of pieces of gear ...
7
EXCELLENT question!
The answer actually rather like "Why does stopped french horn sound up a half step when closing the bell lowers my tuning?"
Horn players routinely adjust their hand position to close or open the bell of the instrument, thereby changing the tuning. When they need to adjust themselves down, they close the bell, and when they need to ...
6
Sounds to me like exactly the same principle.
The first rhythm gets faster and faster until it becomes a blur of noise and is removed from the sound, but over the top of that is superimposed the same rhythm at half speed. While you're listening to the first rhythm get faster, the second does the same, and eventually becomes the main focus of attention. By ...
6
First, of course, is to play single notes. The Sax is a single-voice instrument, and double stops will not sound sax-y.
Next, you'll have to change the attack-decay-sustain-release characteristics of the guitar to match the saxophone. The sax has sustain as long as the player has breath, and there are techniques like circular breathing that expand that. You ...
6
I have read much about the Telecaster, but I still don't know what Leo Fender was thinking. I know that Seth Lover was thinking the same thing, as PAF humbuckers had covers too. It was only into the 70s when you started seeing pickups with their covers removed. Even Strat pickups are covered, albeit with plastic.
In part, the nickel cover was to make the ...
5
Fourier analysis allows you to take a waveform, and translate it into a graph of frequency against amplitude.
The graph for a sine wave is at zero everywhere apart from one frequency.
The graph for white noise shows the same amplitude for all frequencies.
The graph for a single note played on, say, an acoustic guitar shows a big peak for the frequency of ...
5
They're almost purely aesthetic. By far the most important tone woods on a solid body are the back of the body and the neck (not fingerboard) wood. And there's no real sonic difference at all between different types and grades of maple. Flamed maple sounds the same as quilted maple, and the number of A's is irrelevant to sound. I'm always amazed at ...
5
"Mark Tremonti's Guitar Gear Equipment and Rig" mentions his amp's settings, and amp types. That's a starting point. Note that it says he uses a "Bogner Uberschall for low end", so on your X3 try setting up a dual-patch with a Rectifier head and cabinet, and a second stack using the Bogner amp model. I don't remember which one it was, but I'm pretty sure ...
5
"Tone deaf" is a bit of a misnomer -- if someone truly wasn't able to understand relative pitch, it would show up in their speech patterns.
So, usually the term is applied to people for whom discerning differences in pitch is difficult, at least with the precision that is required for music. The fact that you must multitask this process with the act of ...
4
Equipment plays a significant role in a guitarists tone, as does technique, but another important factor to consider is post-production. For example, if I take a pair of Metalcore bands, hand them all PRS SE 245's and a Boogie Triple Rec and tell them to go nuts they will sound very close to alike. They won't sound exact due to inflection and expressiveness ...
4
I have an Epiphone 335 copy (they call it a "Sheraton") and a Warmoth-parts solid-body with "tone chambers" in it. I wouldn't describe either as having a "mellow" sound, per say.
The Epiphone does have a sound I'd describe as "open" and "woody", though not as much so as my all-hollow archtop. You've heard 335's a thousand times, I'm sure, and you know how ...
4
The fundamental problem you are struggling with is that human language is inadequate to describe sounds and the timbres of instruments. This goes back to the maxim "Writing about music is like dancing about architecture."
Any time anybody tries to create written descriptions of sounds, that person has to apply their own subjective vocabulary.
So no, there ...
3
Use a shallower mouthpiece. On any brass instrument, a shallower cup on the mouthpiece will allow the player more range (it's easier to switch partials; I'm actually not sure why, but I think it has to do with adding backpressure), but the tradeoff is a "blattier" sound; less mellow, harder to blend in with a large group (because that backpressure makes it ...
3
The tone quest is very ellusive. I too went down trying to get Andy Timmons sound several years ago. It is damn near impossible to get the exact sound without the exact equipment.
PU's matter but the amp and effects are just as important. Each variable in the equation interacts with all the others to create compound effects that are impossible to determine. ...
2
For all woodwinds, plastic mouthpieces are generally "starters" that come with student clarinets. Professional mouthpieces are usually made of a hard rubber called ebonite.
How difficult the mouthpiece is to play depends entirely on the design and shape of the piece (largely on the tip opening and how that is matched with your reed strength), not on the ...
2
I've had several Les Pauls, a handful of Strats, and an ES-335 and a ES-345.
Those two ES bodies are technically semi-hollow bodies, but definitely have a softer, mellow, more acoustic sound, somewhere between a Strat and a Les Paul.
The ES guitars I had have dual-humbuckers, and a solid maple block that the humbucker's mounting rings are attached to, ...
2
I came across your post today and I think you have identified the same problem I have with my Peavey Wolfgang. I hear the warble on my guitar at frets 16-19 both plugged and unplugged - suggesting that it's nothing to do with amplification or electrics. And there is no string buzz.
My research on Google suggests that it is magnetic pull on the strings from ...
2
The problem may lie with the guitar itself. If you haven't already, have the guitar checked for any type of warpage. It may not look warped but that means your warp just isn't visible. Also have it check for fret bore, which is uneven or 'bored' frets and check for any cracks, pits, blemishes, or damaged spot on your fretboard. I sympathize with these ...
2
Just wanted to add I've been trying to eliminate what appears to be the same issue on a custom Warmoth Strat using YJM Fury pickups. I've cranked the action up (and the pickup height down) to absolutely absurd settings and it doesn't help. I don't hear it unplugged, nor do I hear it if the amp is "clean", but hear it with any kind of overdriven sound (both ...
2
Good question and an important one --rather than offering my own personal views I suggest that one start by listening widely to other players, and not only bassoon players. For example, the fluctuation in pitch that is so characteristic of vibrato on the cello or violin may not be as attractive on the bassoon ---listen to terrific players and start to form ...
2
In simplest terms, guitars and basses have specific frequency ranges defined by the typical lowest and highest notes on the fretboards.
Amps AND speakers tend to be designed and/or chosen for their performance in these frequency ranges.
So yes, "guitar [combo] amps filter the lower registry" in that they are not generally intended to be as responsive in ...
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