Most affect on the guitar recording chain?

[nwright]

I don't think there is one single thing.

For me the largest part of the equation past the "good player" bit is the amp/cab and how/where it's miked (as in the mic placement).

 

[slashvanyoung]

Seriously?

Why more people aren't saying the GUITAR is the most important part of the GUITAR TONE is beyond me...

With electric guitar, preferably heavily distorted, you can also take the perspective of the guitar being - more or less - a controller to play the amp.

In opposition to looking at the amp as a mere "extension" of the guitar.

 

[Nauru]

Go get the cheapest crate cab you can find, and then mic it up. Use any amp, it doesn't matter. Guitar's can't sound that bad. The cab's the biggest factor.

 

[zackpennington]

The guitar amp's preamp has the biggest affect on the tone. Period.

Everything else "shapes" or "tweaks" or "enhances" the tone.

A fender twin sounds more or less like a twin regardless if it's played with a Les Paul or Strat or an ESP with EMG's, whether it's played through a vintage 1x12 or a krank 4x12, or mic'd with a 57 or a neumann.

It will still sounds miles apart from an Uberschall on the lead channel with the gain cranked.

Now if you said what is more important in getting a good tone, then I can see arguments for pickups, cabs, mics, etc.

But the poll was (roughly) which component has the biggest influence on the end result? Thus, the guitar preamp is the obvious choice.

 

[Nauru]

The guitar amp's preamp has the biggest affect on the tone. Period.

Everything else "shapes" or "tweaks" or "enhances" the tone.

A fender twin sounds more or less like a twin regardless if it's played with a Les Paul or Strat or an ESP with EMG's, whether it's played through a vintage 1x12 or a krank 4x12, or mic'd with a 57 or a neumann.

It will still sounds miles apart from an Uberschall on the lead channel with the gain cranked.

Now if you said what is more important in getting a good tone, then I can see arguments for pickups, cabs, mics, etc.

But the poll was (roughly) which component has the biggest influence on the end result? Thus, the guitar preamp is the obvious choice.

A fender twin has a built in speaker, which is invariably part of it's sound

 

[Jarkko Mattheiszen]

It's impossible to pick one. If one thing in the chain is total crap, most likely the tone will be, too. I've tracked good players with good axes playing a crap amp through a good cab, and it doesn't sound good. I've also tracked horrible players using great gear, and it doesn't sound good. If all the parts of the chain are of decent quality, it'll most probably sound a lot better.

 

[Dexter_prog]

I voted guitar cabinet, but I just have experience with IRs. Using IRs I found out that changing cabinets was what most affected the tone, as I could get pretty similar tones with different amps using the same cabinet

 

[digitaldeath]

I voted for guitar.
Recently recorded a shitty Epiphone with stock passive pups, the DIs were terrible.
Then compared it to an ESP that had EMGs - difference was huge and it was much easier to dial in a tone.
Best to start with not just the weakest link in your chain, but start at the start of your chain!

 

[zackpennington]

A fender twin has a built in speaker, which is invariably part of it's sound

It's just that, PART of it's sound. It's sound still comes from the preamp and the poweramp.

 

[Terminus]

The ten tacos you ate the night before....uke:

I'll just say strings and not care enough to explain it. d'oh.

 

[topsoul182]

by far the pick

 

[Dexter_prog]

The pick? How can the pick alter more the sound than changing the amp, the cabinet or the guitar?

 

[Omega_Void]

I voted microphone 'cos a ropey/badly-chosen mic will make any rig sound crappy/wrong.

 

[digitalmikey]

Cabs with a good micing technique.

 

[C_F_H_13]

guitar for sure.

aside for the importance of the source, I can make a guitar tone with no amp or canbinet...I can't without a guitar lol.....or can I?

 

[ParsonsMatt]

I have to agree, the guitar preamp definitely has the largest effect on the sound. That is where 90% of the distortion (and other tonal shaping) is happening.

 

[Mikko Vainiala]

Hey Anssi, this is interesting vote and great for overall tinkering. It surely depends what type of tone is in question. Also there are tons of variations of phase inverters and power amps (harmonic, cross-over distortions etc.) and we must remember that it's the power amp which controls the speaker thus giving many type of tones, from loose-wet to dry-tight. But after joining this forum I've pretty much lost my old habits thinking pure guitar tone as such (perhaps only in accurate cover songs). So for me its now the surrounding mix which affects most on guitar tone but I guess that's not included in the guitar recording "chain".

 

[cloy26]

and do you really expect anyone to say cables etc?

fwiw, I just made a 4 foot canare cable strictly for di and reamping... and it's made a pretty big difference. Granted, not as much as an amp or guitar would, but never forget cables... especially recording with di's.

and room plays a really big part too. I've been mic'ing my 5150 for a while now, but only since I made a big speaker cable to put the cab in a different bigger room, my parent's living room , my tones improved tenfold.

 

[zackpennington]

I have to agree, the guitar preamp definitely has the largest effect on the sound. That is where 90% of the distortion (and other tonal shaping) is happening.

Finally, someone who understood the original question.

 

[Omega_Void]

I have to agree, the guitar preamp definitely has the largest effect on the sound. That is where 90% of the distortion (and other tonal shaping) is happening.

But if you're swapping one high-gain amp for another, sure they'll all shape the tone a lot, but they'll all do so in a broadly similar way.

Check out Lasse's amp shootout here:
http://www.ultimatemetal.com/forum/equipment/589606-highgainer-shootout-2010-a.html

Compare the differences to the different speaker cabs here:
http://www.ultimatemetal.com/forum/equipment/556863-4x12-cab-shootout-mesa-diezel-engl.html

Based on these examples, I'd say the speaker cab has a bigger effect. And those are all 4x12 with V30...

However, my experience is that tweaking the dial settings, mic position, and post-eq can bash any not-utterly-stupid amp/cab selections into a useable shape.

If somebody said to me I had to record with a random choice of equipment for every item in the signal chain except one which I could specify, I'd want to choose the mic, but YMMV.