The Tone Thread

[JD01]

That seems to be roughly the consensus.

Yes, absolutely I'm coming up with lots of ideas. Going to start recording one this weekend. Actually wrote it on acoustic but sounds really nice with delay & vibrato via pedals and just a touch on the vibrato arm on the guitar. And some palm muting on the low strings.

(I'm trying to not call it a "trem arm" seeing it's not tremolo. Probably best stick to "whammy bar" )

It won't surface as a song for a while though. Not really very lyrical just at the moment, so I'm trying to get some music sans words bits ready.

Interesting. You write instruments first and vocals second? I’m the other way around.

It's actually very rare for me to come up with lyrics while writing music. I often end up with many completed songs with no lyrics before I come up with lyrical ideas.

[rayc]

It's actually very rare for me to come up with lyrics while writing music. I often end up with many completed songs with no lyrics before I come up with lyrical ideas.

I used to have a handy file of lyrics waiting for music.
Now I get a song idea - musically - and have it almost finished before I remember I need lyrics and have to sort some fresh ones.
Things change over time and methods vary...that fact that so many folk in this forum can do any of these things AND perform and record says the species is still fresh.

[JD01]

Just doing some recording today and was thinking, in a mix you can get away with well weird tones can't you

[Greg_L]

Yup. Tones that might not sound great on their own can and often do sound perfect in a mix.

[JD01]

Yup. Tones that might not sound great on their own can and often do sound perfect in a mix.

I little while back after chatting to @Bubba I was listening carefully to one of his favourite guitarists, a bloke called John McGogh. (sp?) he died a few years back. Some of his tones were really really odd... but they worked in the context of the mix.

Then the other day, I was listening to Fantastic Planet by Failure, great album, but again there's some really aggressive tones on it that you wouldn't normally think would work, you certainly wouldn't sit in the room just jamming away with that sort of out it would fucking kill your ears, but it works great in the mix.

[JD01]

Here you go, check this out.

Weird Tones Working.mp3

There's a normal bridge humbucker into a crunch amp with nothing else on one side... and then there's all sorts of delay, flanger and phaser.
I find the whole thing kind of "blooms" for want of a better term.

[rayc]

McGeoch...I think it'd be fair to say the banshee's built their mix around his tones & playing.
That sample reminds me of Steve Lillywhite's productions more than anything - which is a time capsule of the late 80s early 90s.

[JD01]

Yeah, I've been writing a fair bit of stuff over the last year, none of it finished yet, that had this kind of 80s alt.pop sound.

[Greg_L]

Sounds like pretty typical post punk sounds. It works for sure.

[JD01]

Sounds like pretty typical post punk sounds. It works for sure.

Cool. This song is fairly complete now, just needs lyrics and a few things perfected. But there's a few other songs that I think will get reworked in a similar style.

I'm really enjoying building up parts using different chord inversions all over the neck.

[rayc]

An old college friend visited on Monday, he drove three hours south to have a jam and record. He brought with him the same Ibanez 12 string (Hummingbird) he had back in 76-78 as well as a nice Epiphone Les Paul and his two year old black Gibson Les Paul Studio. It has chambering as well as pull pot selectors for single coil.
He also brought his Zoom multi FX thing.
After plugging the Epi into my Modded Marshall he heard that he didn't need the Zoom. After plugging the Gibson in he realized he needed a Marshall.
I'd not heard an LP through this amp before - yes, they are made for each other. Sadly I couldn't turn it up as he has an ear problem but it was loud and the "in the room" tone was unreal.
I don't think his wife will be happy.
Not a snap f the guitar - just me tuning my Squire. It was the 1st time we'd played guitars together since 77.

264937040_440416620827962_4726493451735383332_n.jpg

[JD01]

They really are made for eachother.

[Greg_L]

Haha that's great.

[WhiskeyJack]

An old college friend visited on Monday, he drove three hours south to have a jam and record. He brought with him the same Ibanez 12 string (Hummingbird) he had back in 76-78 as well as a nice Epiphone Les Paul and his two year old black Gibson Les Paul Studio. It has chambering as well as pull pot selectors for single coil.
He also brought his Zoom multi FX thing.
After plugging the Epi into my Modded Marshall he heard that he didn't need the Zoom. After plugging the Gibson in he realized he needed a Marshall.
I'd not heard an LP through this amp before - yes, they are made for each other. Sadly I couldn't turn it up as he has a ear problem but it was loud and the "in the room" tone was unreal.
I don't think his wife will be happy.
Not a snap f the guitar - just me tuning my Squire. It was the 1st time we'd played guitars together since 77.
264937040_440416620827962_4726493451735383332_n.jpg

That is awesome ray!! Gotta love those long overdue hangs!!!

77 was when i was born. You guys haven't jammed in one WHOLE WJ!!!

[JD01]

Here you go, check this out.
Weird Tones Working.mp3
There's a normal bridge humbucker into a crunch amp with nothing else on one side... and then there's all sorts of delay, flanger and phaser.
I find the whole thing kind of "blooms" for want of a better term.

For some reason I started singing "Echo Beach, far away in time... Echo Beach, far away in time..." as soon as I hit play.

I'll have to look that up later today.

[Tadpui]

I was fooling around, trying to pick a mic to record an idea with, and I ended up with a mildly interesting shootout of sorts.

I was thinking about doing this blind as a "fun" guessing game, but meh...I'll just list what the different snippets were recorded with.

Mic placement is lazy...actually downright careless. I just stuck a mic "somewhere" near center and went with it. I'll break out the flashlight and all that when I start to develop this idea a bit more beyond a boring I/IV/V.

The setup for all of these is the Jazzmaster, bridge pickup, through a TS9, into a '68 Custom Deluxe Reverb. Mics were into a BAE 1073, and I think that I accidentally left it routed through an FMR RNLA...so, bonus compression, I guess? It was so loud, the compressor probably just clamped down and stayed there.

But I enjoyed playing this hard (and the set of .012 strings on the JM enjoy being played hard) and it sounded great in the room. Mic'd up though...it just didn't capture everything that I was hearing. But I'm not totally unhappy with any of the examples. I dislike things about each of them, but I also like things about each of them. I might end up blending a couple together to see if it gets closer to the experience in the room.

Anyways, here's an Audix i5 lazily placed about dead center:

i5 Center.mp3

And here's the i5 slightly off center:

i5 Off Center.mp3

An SM57 somewhat dead center:

57 Center.mp3

And a Cascade Fathead somewhere around center (I think I missed pretty badly because this one has even less high end than usual):

Fathead Center.mp3

[Greg_L]

Cool riff! I liked "i5 lazily placed about dead center"

[WhiskeyJack]

Lazy i5 for me. and the 2nd i5 one as well. But lazy too!!!

Something about the 57 one just doesn't sound good at all to me. Which is odd. usually can't go wrong with a 57.

that JM is sounding REALLY tight though man. I love that sound. I don't know that i have ever paid much attention to those before bit it hasa really ice little snarl and bite to it i kinda like. I might be going down a rabbit hole now!!!

[JD01]

Yeah, I prefer the i5. I mostly use an i5 for micing up my guitars now. I prefer just off centre... which is, not coincidentally, just where I put my mic.
What speaker is that? Just find the i5 is such a nice smooth sounding mic for electric guitars.

The 57 just highlights why I don't use a 57, harsh highs, when I do use a 57 I move it further out across the cone.

I have had some luck getting a really heavy sound with a 57 in combination with an i5 with quad tracked guitars.

[Tadpui]

Thanks for the feedback @Greg_L @WhiskeyJack and @JD01 !

I posted this right before bed the other night, and I totally forgot that I'd done it until just now

I agree with you guys' takes. The 57 sounds really fizzy, although I like the midrange bite on it. I rarely use my i5 for anything, but it was a pleasant surprise here. Upon first listen, I absolutely hated it. But that was right after tracking, and I think I was just surprised at how different it sounded compared to hearing it in person just prior. But by the next day, I have to agree with you guys that it sounds the best of the bunch here. It cuts and has bite, but isn't fizzy sounding.

JD, good question on the speaker. I don't remember what's in this amp. Jensen? Celestion? I haven't looked at the back of the amp in years now

Curiosity got the better of me so I took a quick peek. It's a Celestion G12 70-watt.

Oh and WJ: yeah, I'm in love with my Jazzmaster. It's a noisy old beast, but it gets so mean sounding that I just love it. When I started shopping around for JMs, I got really frustrated because of all of the variants of the pickups that have been in these things over the years (especially in the last 10 years). That's when I decided to get a vintage one from the 60s, because I wanted it to sound like Nels Cline's guitar. Although I think that his is a '59. And I sure as heck can't play like him either. But it's still a terrific guitar.