Successful Rockers That Were Tone Deficient

[redcoats1976]

I just recently re-read a transcript of a seminar RR did about 6 weeks before he died. He plainly stated that he ran a MXR Distortion +, and except for the quiet/clean parts, it was always on. He also said he had a terrible time with the over-overdriven/cheap pickups howling/whistling feedback, and that he had to ride the volume knobs pretty hard to keep it at bay. He also had an MXR 6 band eq (the blue one without a switch) in his chain that I can only presume contributed greatly to the feedback.

Great guitarist, but the Blizzard of Ozz tone was terrible. Great songs, terrible tone. Same thing with the Tribute album; it's damn near unlistenable. But, your mileage may vary.

yeh,i just wish i could play so badly...

 

[X–Ray]

Good to see you also, had a rough summer health wise but
doing better now

Glad your health has smoothed out

There is balance in The Force now

 

[X–Ray]

An overall comment:

I haven't read any dissing or criticism of any guitarist's actual playing, just varying opinions about their tone

There is what is played versus how it sounds - they are not one in the same and not an attack on the player

Some of my favorite guitarists have had a crappy tone to my ear at times

 

[HenryHill]

An overall comment:

I haven't read any dissing or criticism of any guitarist's actual playing, just varying opinions about their tone

There is what is played versus how it sounds - they are not one in the same and not an attack on the player

Some of my favorite guitarists have had a crappy tone to my ear at times

Exactly. Nor is it an attack on the song(s).

There are and were popular, wildly liked songs that made millions for the artists, but when you just listen to the tone, it is bland or worse.

My example, Segar, did so in the middle of a group of rockers who clearly understood good tone, in a time of easy to sound good options, and Segar had to have known better. And people had to have tried to broaden his tone horizons.

I see some pics of him with a Firebird, too, but I don't hear much for great tone in many of his songs, and I like Segar, I'm not dissing the guy, I'm just noticing that he had a good career of bland and poor sounding guitar work.

His organ work sound was fantastic, so wtf?.

 

[hecube]

Randy Rhoads.

Thread ends here for me. Nobody had worse tone than he did.

 

[MrKensei]

I love Randy's tone. i Zakk's but Randy sounded awesome imo.

 

[edro]

Some consider nuclear distortion reminiscent of a chainsaw notching concrete as guitar tone...

Go figure...

 

[3rdstone]

Didn't read the whole thread, so excuse me if already posted, just wanted to get this off my chest..
Successful Rockers that had terrible tone? Randy R. is a given (obviously).. but beyond that...

Eric Johnson, and by extension, Joe Bonamassa (or however you spell it) Guitar is not my main instrument, but anyone who has good ears should agree...

Too smooth, too processed, too saturated..

Simple rule for electric guitar: "if you ain't got grit, You ain't got shit"

 

[3rdstone]

Boy, did I step on some huge shoes or what?

Disclaimer: all these guys I mentioned can play circles around me, but as far as tone goes, I think I nailed at least the ones I mentioned, and now that I have read more of this thread... CCR had some godawful tone..

 

[hecube]

Boy, did I step on some huge shoes or what?

Disclaimer: all these guys I mentioned can play circles around me, but as far as tone goes, I think I nailed at least the ones I mentioned, and now that I have read more of this thread... CCR had some godawful tone..

You're stepping over the line now mister.

 

[EDS1275]

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.

Let me do some 'splainin' about Pages album tones. The guy was a recording producer genius. He built layers upon layers of guitar tones... orchestration really. Because ya know what? Because doing what he does, relying on stacking the usual 'awesome' tone is a recipe for stagnation and creates boredom, mud and non separation. I pretty much defy anyone to find repeated guitar tones in zeps studio recordings. You know why, cuz its a lot of frikken passion work and its genius

When you go see an orchestra, is it all made up of one instrument... one tonal texture.... no, you don't. If you don't understand that tonal texture is as much a part as harmony and rhythm well...

Ya know what snoozes me... bands/guitarists that use the same tone on everything

 

[EDS1275]

Thread ends here for me. Nobody had worse tone than he did.

he had that bees in a can tone, didn't he

 

[EDS1275]

lol yeah jerry garcai sounds like he's playing through a hi fi kit

 

[edro]

In my book out of tune is shit tone too...

 

[Thumpalumpacus]

That's a lesson I finally learned with my fledgling home recording hobby. In each song something's got to give for a really good mix and often that means guitars will take a bit of a hit. Unless of course your EVH on the first several VH records.

It's like Thumpalumpacus said, "Funny thing is, sometimes a crappy tone is exactly what the song needs given its mix."

I once read an interview with a country guitarist who passed on this bit of wisdom from a Nashville producer: "Son, you're fighting traffic."

Ever since I read that, I've worked to slot my guitar into the freqs that aren't taken up by bass, kick drum or toms, and cymbals.

Keyboards can go to hell!

 

[MikeyTheCat]

Love it, that's sounds like such a Nashville saying.

Keyboards can be a real hassle as they can cover the bass player's freqs and the guitar player's. I've almost always worked with keyboard players and you just learn not to step on each other by working out who has the main rhythm part and who has the pad, when to do unison or octaves, and when one just drops out.

 

[EDS1275]

Bang right off the bat for us home DAW users is to put an EQ on every track with hi pass and low pass filtration happening as part of your template

 

[OldBenKenobi]

Let me do some 'splainin' about Pages album tones. The guy was a recording producer genius. He built layers upon layers of guitar tones... orchestration really. Because ya know what? Because doing what he does, relying on stacking the usual 'awesome' tone is a recipe for stagnation and creates boredom, mud and non separation. I pretty much defy anyone to find repeated guitar tones in zeps studio recordings. You know why, cuz its a lot of frikken passion work and its genius

When you go see an orchestra, is it all made up of one instrument... one tonal texture.... no, you don't. If you don't understand that tonal texture is as much a part as harmony and rhythm well...

Ya know what snoozes me... bands/guitarists that use the same tone on everything

Know what snoozes me? Zeppelin's studio albums. Maybe if Page didn't spend so much time fussing with the orchestration nonsense his albums wouldn't sound dead as a door nail and might even manage to achieve the massive power of their live performances.

 

[EDS1275]

Know what snoozes me? Zeppelin's studio albums. Maybe if Page didn't spend so much time fussing with the orchestration nonsense his albums wouldn't sound dead as a door nail and might even manage to achieve the massive power of their live performances.

so you're a meat and potatoes man

oh well, theres no accounting for taste.

 

[Thumpalumpacus]

Thread ends here for me. Nobody had worse tone than he did.

You clearly haven't heard Michael Angelo Batio.

The boy sharpens icepicks, good lord.