Successful Rockers That Were Tone Deficient

[HenryHill]

I've tossed this around inside my head, and I don't have a good way to put it.

There are and have been very successful people that had shit for tone, and never seemed to notice, because the music sold, and because it made people feel good.

Sometimes here, we get caught up in wanting, needing, craving that tone that starts somewhere in the middle of your back, and climbs up your spine, and spreads goosebumps down both arms; I get that. Wow, do I get that.

But there's guys out there that have done very fvcking wonderful for themselves, making classic tunes and giga bucks, while having blah, ho hum mediocre tonez.

I get that too; the feel good, simplistic riffs and lyrics that everyone can relate to. Wow, do I get that too.

So I'll say it.

Bob Seegar and his '72 Tele custom sounded/sounds kinda lame, but you can't argue his success, or his feel good popular tunes.

I'd have loved had he had picked up a Lester and ran it thru a nice Marshall or Orange for a few tunes, but he never did that I know of. Or a SC tele, thru a twin or DR. Just a keyboard for change.

There's been a lot of others over the years, but Seegar is sort of the first guy that comes to mind to me.

Just once, I wish he'da kicked out the jams.

 

[335eye]

Alex Lifeson had some crappy tone sometimes. Limelight. Always though they should re-record, and he plays a strat for that one I think. The solo's cool I guess.

 

[John]

To my ears, the guitar tones on the KISS albums were lackluster to my ears. Dressed To Kill and even Alive come to mind.

And for me, I'd like for recordings to have the complete package: good songs, good arrangements, good tones, good mixes, good anything else I missed, etc etc.
On that note, as much as I liked the song arrangements on Metallica's And Justice For All, the guitar tone (along with the drowned out bass and excessively clicky drums) left me hanging in that regard.

 

[EasyAce]

Grand Funk Railroad. To this day I can barely fathom how the original trio became superstars other than reminding myself of the wisdom of P.T. Barnum. The guitar tone was grungy in the worst sense; the drumming sounded as though its performer would run home to mommy at the merest hint of a groove; and, they were about the least funky outfit ever to include "funk" in part of their name. (You almost thanked God that the bass sound of the original trio often threatened to drown out the other two instruments. Threatened but not quite delivered.)

(The one time the original trio pulled something special together was "I'm Your Captain (Closer to Home)," a genuine jewel and about the only lyric among their originals suggesting they actually had two brain cells to rub together.)

 

[stealthelephant]

the beatles
led zepplin
pink floyd
ac/dc
queen
rolling stones
aerosmith
fleetwood mac

 

[Rich]

Randy Rhoads.

 

[WholeLottaIzzy]

Jimmy Page. Seriously. Whole Lotta Love (riff) and the Stairway solo tones are awesome. The rest just sound pretty bad to my ears. Still, a fantastic guitarist, obviously.

 

[AXE]

Carlos Cavazo.

 

[Mordor]

Jimmy Page. Live tone was to die for. Studio tone sounded like a 1940's half-dead radio converted to a practice amp by an amateur. All great songs, from any non-tonal standpoint, but that tone...ugh. That's a great part of the reason why I couldn't get into Zeppelin when I first heard their songs. They seemed to sound interesting, but being used to bands with unique (and imho great) tone, I just couldn't get over the fact that this guy had such a "tone". Quite inexcusable in my opinion, especially considering the fact that he was armed with a Marshall Super Lead. That's an amp that won't sound bad no matter what. He only used it on a couple songs in the studio. All else were amps long forgotten by pretty much everyone.

 

[dsmcl77]

All punk band are tone deficient...

 

[kevinpaul]

Define tone in this situation? It seems no one is thinking alike on this.

 

[Jimmi]

the beatles
led zepplin
pink floyd
ac/dc
queen
rolling stones
aerosmith
fleetwood mac

I think you are insane or deaf.

 

[Sustainamaniac]

Zakk Wylde was definitely the first to come to my mind.

 

[Jimmi]

Jimmy Page. Live tone was to die for. Studio tone sounded like a 1940's half-dead radio converted to a practice amp by an amateur. All great songs, from any non-tonal standpoint, but that tone...ugh. That's a great part of the reason why I couldn't get into Zeppelin when I first heard their songs. They seemed to sound interesting, but being used to bands with unique (and imho great) tone, I just couldn't get over the fact that this guy had such a "tone". Quite inexcusable in my opinion, especially considering the fact that he was armed with a Marshall Super Lead. That's an amp that won't sound bad no matter what. He only used it on a couple songs in the studio. All else were amps long forgotten by pretty much everyone.

In essence, that is what he used much of the time....a "cheap" Supro amp in the studio.

I disagree on your view of his tone though. Anyway, it varied to much to make sweeping statements like this.

 

[stealthelephant]

I think you are insane or deaf.

om nom nom nom nom nom

feedme


nomnomnomnom

 

[SGeoff]

hmm, yeah, I don't agree with all of those..but heres one for ya. a virtual guitar god, nearly everyone agrees...but the crappiest tone of all time...
the amazing, John McLaughlin (spelled wrong?) he used some sweet guitars, like a black beauty, and a double necked sg..played thru some well regarded amps..played like an angel and sounded like shit

 

[MrKensei]

Adrian smith
Dennis strattoon
Kk dowling
Ace frehley

I could go on forever. Most of the music grew up with was great, but now that im playing relatively seriously and I'm listening hard to the guitar sounds I'm noticing that a lot o the great songs have shit guitar tone.

Seriously, the solo to Electric eye sounds like it was played on a kazoo.
Everything pre Powerslave by Iron Maiden sounds flat and farty, with only the bass producing what I consider to be great tone.
Flat, overly compressed yet underdriven guitar tones, undoubtedly due to the equipment of the time not being as good as today.
You listen to the later releases from these bands and irs much better: complex articulate, harmonically rich tones.

A great example of this for me is Manowar. Original studio releases totally failed to capture their blazing live tone, however remastered/re-recorded releases totally own!

I think all of these guys had good tone for the time, but by comparison on more modern acts the tone itself is lacking, even if the overall songs were better.

 

[Brians Evil Twin]

Just about every top 40 band in the 70s had sh!t tone. Not just guitar tone, drum mic'ing technique was terrible and bass usually sounds like a cardboard box. Too bad because some of the musicianship was actually quite impressive. It seems the only thing producers were interested in was vocals out front. Of course it didn't matter much because the average sound system was so horrible (think 8-track tapes and 4" car door speakers).

Some of the massive hits of this era are virtually unlistenable because of it. Here's a couple of examples:

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-9-R9S1m4dA]BTO - Takin' Care Of Business (A Sexier Version)! - YouTube[/ame]

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xc1PHk9FhIk[/ame]

 

[Cpt Matt Sparrow]

I love Randy Rhoads' live tone and Diary Of A Madman is a significant improvement on the Blizzard Of Ozz' tone, but even as a die hard Randy Rhoads fan, I am with Rich, I find 'Blizzard' a hard album to listen to.

Paul Gilbert said he didn't understand what all the fuss was about with RR when he first heard Ozzy's debut album, but when he herd him live said the penny dropped!

Matt

 

[MrKensei]

I lov Randy Rhoads' live tone and Diary Of A Madman is a significant improvement on the Blizzard Of Ozz' tone, but even as a due hard Randy Rhoads fan, I am with Rich, I find 'Blizzard' a hard album to listen to.

Matt

Call me heretic but I tend to prefer Randy's songs when played by Zakk. Live n loud is probably my all time favourite performances of Crazy Train and Mr Crowley.