Tone is in the hands...

[John_C]

I just thought i'd open this up for discussion, it's always good to take a step back from all the talk about gear and settings.

As far as guitars go, i think a lot of players seem to think that if the sound they're getting isn't tight enough or powerful enough, their first thought is that they need new gear or they need to change some settings.

Ofc the perfect tone requires the perfect gear set up perfectly, but a nasty sounding palm mute sounds nasty whatever you put it through.

 

[ahjteam]

I think Mr. Sneap summarized it nicely: http://www.ultimatemetal.com/forum/8222996-post79.html


edit: but I do agree. My ex-schoolmate Erno could just make almost any guitar sounds good, even my cheapo Ibanez Artcore thru Roland Microcube with exact same settings as I use.

 

[axeman720]

Definitely in the hands. People write and ask me all the time how i got a certain tone on a certain record and if they buy that amp and cab will they sound like that? Of course im nice and tell them what i used, mics etc...

But really i just wanna say SHUT UP AND PRACTICE!

 

[Chryst Krispies]

It's all in the hands. I always sound the same no matter what I play through, my buddies sound the same on my gear and vice versa. Chasing tones is retarded.

 

[Torniojaws]

Try and get those house shacking palm mutes recorded from a 10 W practice amp. It's not all in the hands For leads, yes I agree, but rhythm? Hell no.

 

[ze kink]

Most definately true. I also know some great players who seem to know nothing about gear. E.g. one guy who bought a Marshall JCM halfstack, probably just because it was a Marshall, and then just used his first generation Pod into the clean channel, never bothering with the settings on the amp...

 

[ze kink]

Try and get those house shacking palm mutes recorded from a 10 W practice amp. It's not all in the hands For leads, yes I agree, but rhythm? Hell no.

I'm actually about to try this today I borrowed a Sennheiser e606 to experiment with the e606 & sm57 combo, and the only amp I've got here is my Vox DA5 5w practice amp with a 6.5" speaker...

 

[thedonutman]

Try and get those house shacking palm mutes recorded from a 10 W practice amp. It's not all in the hands For leads, yes I agree, but rhythm? Hell no.

I agree with this to a certain extent. Tone comes from the gear, but the "feel" comes from the way you play.

 

[Metaltastic]

There's only so many ways to play a power chord and chug on an open string! Tone is in the hands to a certain degree, but with all the distortion in metal, I feel like simple rhythm is simple rhythm, so tone chasing really isn't that futile! Of course, when we're talking like Dino/Jon Schaffer right-hand monstrosity status, then yes, that's far above anything I could hope to touch, but I'm pretty sure if I were to have been at the Clayman session, I could have played the "Bullet Ride" intro riff indistinguishably from Jesper/Bjorn (except for that pinch harmonic, I still can't figure out what fret they did that on)

 

[kev]

There's only so many ways to play a power chord and chug on an open string! Tone is in the hands to a certain degree, but with all the distortion in metal, I feel like simple rhythm is simple rhythm, so tone chasing really isn't that futile! Of course, when we're talking like Dino/Jon Schaffer right-hand monstrosity status, then yes, that's far above anything I could hope to touch, but I'm pretty sure if I were to have been at the Clayman session, I could have played the "Bullet Ride" intro riff indistinguishably from Jesper/Bjorn (except for that pinch harmonic, I still can't figure out what fret they did that on)

playing at the moment on the 7-string tuned half a step down, that pinch harmonic takes place on the fifth fret of 6th string turning it into a pinch in the pitch of E I think dude!

 

[John_C]

There's only so many ways to play a power chord and chug on an open string! Tone is in the hands to a certain degree, but with all the distortion in metal, I feel like simple rhythm is simple rhythm,

Its precisely the rhythm sound i'm talking about. A strum is one thing, but a mute has so much more to it. Some people mute so far away from the bridge that all they get is a strangled squelch

 

[Chryst Krispies]

Its precisely the rhythm sound i'm talking about. A strum is one thing, but a mute has so much more to it. Some people mute so far away from the bridge that all they get is a strangled squelch

Hhaha, I believe that's the same technique a bunch of cats on this board piss themselves over...what's it called again uh.... DJENT????

 

[beyond dead]

tastic: the pinch is on the 3rd fret on the "a" string. its like dun dun dun squeeel so like open, open, open, squeal on the third fret

 

[Fox Mulder]

They gotta eat healthy as well. I hate tracking malnourished players with hands the thickness of that of a slim 8yr old kid.

 

[kaomao]

lol sound is really in the hands of the player! if you don't think so, you never recorded enough bands.
My ltd through my rectifier sounds totally different if I play it my self or, let's say, my guitarist plays through the same gear, same settings.
I recorded many player over here, goddamn that ltd never sounded the same really.
On the other hand I had a great guitar player (really tight) here that had a bad sound compared to some other who were weaker players.
No matter how I reamped, his tone sucked always, this is common with shredder like Vai and Satriani, I love their playing but their sound is always shitty... always.
Just petrucci had a great sound once, now has that muddy sound.

 

[::XeS::]

Absolutelly in the hands...or better the 80%/85%

 

[Fox Mulder]

I guess the problem lies mostly with "self-taught" people.
But I won't generalize cause I'm self-taught myself and I can get away pretty easily when it comes to tracking rhythm. But I stay the fuck away from solos. I'm not gonna call myself a lead guitarist for a pretty long time.

 

[John_C]

Hhaha, I believe that's the same technique a bunch of cats on this board piss themselves over...what's it called again uh.... DJENT????

the funny thing is that if you listen to say meshuggah, who can probably be considered the kings of djent sound, they still know how to mute and how to pick, not just slam the strings really hard while choking any traces of pitch out of the string with the side of your hand

 

[ATLA]

i think that some people's hands just work better with certain characteristics of some amps..

some guys just really know how to control their muting and distortion..ex dime,vogg, others im to lazy to name..

alot of people try so hard to search for the best gear because when they learn to play there playing through some shit 15w crate with all the settings maxed.

what i did to focus on the tone coming from my hands was take my recto and turn the gain to about half way on the red channel, take off the ts and play pretty loud.. that way you have to push yourself pretty hard to find the so called "tightness and clarity" in the amp.

not to say this would work for anyone its just how i like to focus on my hand sound..

 

[John_C]

I think learning to play with shit gear is an important step. If you can sound tight and have a real personal identifiable voice through some piece of shit 15W combo then you have a great starting point to learn how to work with higher quality gear.