- Jun 14, 2005
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I've noticed a couple of well known bands who's guitar tones have taken major steps in what *I* consider the wrong direction recently, and it confuses me.
Being that I just discovered the value of tube gear a few years back (I played a solid state rig up until about 3 years ago) I find it astonishingly weird that some well known bands are going the other direction.
The two examples that come to mind are Fear Factory and Bolt Thrower. F.F. went from a good tube [marshall I believe?] sound to the Pod. Not to say that the pod is worthless, but to my ears the last couple of FF albums have just sounded harsh and thin, and especially live, one guitar of Pod noise sounded horrible.
Another example is Bolt Thrower. Although I can't confirm that they're using S.S. gear now [Boss GX700, Marshall 9040 200w power amp-I did a little research on these but couldn't figure out if they were tube or SS...sorry], their tone for the last couple of albums has been quite thin compared to The IVth Crusade and ...For Victory which had crushing, thick tone. Although the newest B.T. album sounds kind of S.S.-ish but still decent, the two before it sounded extremely weak to me.
I don't mean to comment on the musical merit of these groups, nor do I intend to impose my concept of "good tone" on the rest of the world; but it simply seems odd to me that there are bands who appear to be going to S.S. gear and getting weaker recordings as a result.
Being that I just discovered the value of tube gear a few years back (I played a solid state rig up until about 3 years ago) I find it astonishingly weird that some well known bands are going the other direction.
The two examples that come to mind are Fear Factory and Bolt Thrower. F.F. went from a good tube [marshall I believe?] sound to the Pod. Not to say that the pod is worthless, but to my ears the last couple of FF albums have just sounded harsh and thin, and especially live, one guitar of Pod noise sounded horrible.
Another example is Bolt Thrower. Although I can't confirm that they're using S.S. gear now [Boss GX700, Marshall 9040 200w power amp-I did a little research on these but couldn't figure out if they were tube or SS...sorry], their tone for the last couple of albums has been quite thin compared to The IVth Crusade and ...For Victory which had crushing, thick tone. Although the newest B.T. album sounds kind of S.S.-ish but still decent, the two before it sounded extremely weak to me.
I don't mean to comment on the musical merit of these groups, nor do I intend to impose my concept of "good tone" on the rest of the world; but it simply seems odd to me that there are bands who appear to be going to S.S. gear and getting weaker recordings as a result.
