Tone is in your hands

[DanF]

Hi Guys,

I've been hanging out and lurking for awhile. I've decided after reading some other posts in the archives here that I wanted to try to get a comprehensive answer: What aspects of your "touch" affects your tone?

I am pretty happy with my "tone" but I've always wanted to tinker with it. I've heard people say things like "It doesn't matter what Eddie Van Halen plays he still sounds like Van Halen" Etc. So what is it about the way you play that establishes your tone and do you have any ideas on how I could "tinker with my tone?" (That sounds dirty to me). Thanks guys :)

-Dan

[Sentinel]

It can be things like how hard you press the strings, how you pick, how light/heavy you mute.

If you want to change your tone, you could try doing things differently. If you fret the strings with lots of pressure, try fretting them lighter. I don't really know what else to say. I have a friend who can play through anything and sound incredible. For years, I tried to sound like him, because I love his tone, even by playing through his gear. I was never able to sound like him and to this day, I always sound like me. :)

[EricV]

Yup. It´s factors like:

- Attack ( how hard you pick the strings, WHERE you pick the strings, whether you use hard or soft picks )
- Vibrato
- Left hand touch ( this is kinda tough to define... it has to do with what Eric Johnson calls the "sweet spot" )
- Phrasing

You know, you can sound convincing with a cheap plywood-guitar through a 10 W practise amp. It depends on your tone.

It´s tough to give an example, but lemme try:
Last week, I gave a "101 workshop", which is some kind of a "Q&A" guitar lesson which lasts for quite some time. I sit down with the student and he can ask questions about several things, and there really is a LOT of time to work on everything.
When it came to topics like "tone" and "phrasing", I used one of my favorite examples:
I played the melody of "Amazing Grace". I tried to play it with the least amount of expression and phrasing possible. Just fretting the notes and picking the string.
THEN I did it again, this time, adding vibrato and slides in between the notes.
Then AGAIn, this time with different kinds of vibrato ( circle vibrato ), bends between some of the notes, pinch harmonics, different attack on some of the notes. At that point, I was really trying to "take that simple melody and make it BREATHE"
I know this sounds weird. But that´s what I was trying to achieve... to take the melody and squeeze everything out of it.
I did not really add any notes ( like playing sweeps in between or something ), I was just trying to squeeze everything out of it.
And it was quite obvious what a difference that makes.

How can you "tinker with your tone" ? Well, listen to yourself, and be all honest. Do you like what you hear ? Take a simple melody and play it a bunch of times, trying to add little details, try to make it sound "puhrdy" :)
A lot of the personal tone is developed sub-consciously, it comes with time. The longer you play, the more you´re usually able to play whatever you play with confidence.

Another thing you could do is go to a guitar store, pick up any guitar, plug it in and try to kinda "get in sync with it"... try to play and make it sound good. Sometimes, it requires playing slightly different than on your own guitar.
Sometimes you have to compensate some things ( i.e. if the guitar has really low-output pickups, or sounds muddy, you might have to play with a harder attack or pick in a different position )...

Just some things that come to mind...
Eric

[Rock_Rocket]

Hi there,

Eric, it's probably our workshop you're talking about (thanks a lot, some progress already shows!!!):D.
You really made me think about that whole phrasing issue. I started to pay attention to it, playing and listening.
If you play a simple melody with an interesting phrasing the listener will probably like this much more than listening to you shredding like crazy with a bad tone. Perhaps you wanna listen to Abi von Reininghaus (www.abi-r.com), DanF. He knows how to phrase.

Regards!

Rock_Rocket

[Koala]

I think another great example of a great phraser is David Gilmour, apart from that his tone is also pretty personal so you might want to check him out. (He´s Pink FLoyds frontman, i guess you already know this but heck no harm done in clearing it up right?)

[yingski]

I agree totally! David Gilmour is totally awesome!!! He can take something that seems relatively simple and make it really impossible to sound like him!

[DanF]

I appreciate the responses. I have to confess that I had already thought of just about everything that has been mentioned but I've gained some insights into little nuances that I hadn't considered or ideas (like playing on different gear).

-Dan

[Wyll_Watts]

I may be completely full of BS and may repeat others here but just a few thoughs on touch and tone..

there are alot of really, really, smally minute things involved in your touch and tone that are really hard to objectify or describe in any sort of quantitative analysis.. many of these things you may never even be conscious of.. so an interesting way to change your tone, touch, phrasing style, etc is to try and play a favorite chord progression, lick, or whatever in different mental, emotional, and physical states.. don't think about what you are doing too much, just let it flow.. for example.. take a lick and just play it sitting there.. you know, just in an average, boring state of mind.. lol ok, now thing of the worst thing that has ever happened to you, really try to relive that experience, get your mental state totally into it.. now play that lick again.. did it change any? phrasing, attack etc? ok, now thing of one of the greatest things that has ever happened to you, and play it again.. does it sound different again? try this with physical states too.. maybe something as simple as playing standing up versus sitting down, or playing in a really hot room versus a really cold one.. the reason EVH sounds like EVH is because, well he's EVH.. the whole big lump of experiences, physical traits, practice times, interestests etc.. all this mysterious stuff linked to being human.. by changing you mental state and playing stuff accordingly you can develope that crucial link between tone and who you are......
didn't Vai write some articles on this sort of thing? I'm pretty sure he did, was it the Martian Love Secrets or something, I think.. check those out, I'm sure he said all of this alot better than I did..

Best Wishes,
Wyll

[metaljustice83]

the first person I thought of when you said tone was, david gilmour, then satch. Both have amazing tone, IMO


I feel gear does affect your tone. Not nesscerly about what gear you use. But in how it affects you. I'm not gonna be happy playin on a guitar with one string. (a bit extreme but you get the point) So I'm not gonna be blazin up and down the neck very much (although up and down the necks about all I'll be able to do with one string) if you play on crap, your not gonna feel great about playin. IMO

metaljustice

[Bizarro]

If you want to tinker with your tone, you might want to try playing different styles of music, and then juxtapose the styles with one another. This is sort of hard to explain...

Try play some SRV, then some Dave Matthews, then Scorpions, then Metallica. When I play each of these styles, I subtly alter the way I play and it comes out in my tone. (Note that I've spent thousands of hours studying and working on each style and I can play each one with some proficiency...)

Now try playing with your SRV technique/tone in a Metallica song, or maybe Dave Matthews tone over a Scorpions song. It's hard to get your fingers to maintain the "odd" style!

If you can successfully fool your fingers into "playing like Stevie" while playing a Metallica song then you have definitely tinkered with your tone!! ;)

Another thing is to borrow from other instruments. In my band I usually play all the "non-guitar" solos (sax, trumpet, harmonica, etc) on my guitar. It's a real challenge to pull this off convincingly, but it is well worth the effort. This really adds to my tone vocabulary as well.

[Bongo Boy]

My ability to coordinate the left hand with the right hand, especially in descending scales, is amazingly bad. But it's improved from totally missed notes to where now it's just an irritating, I'd-like-to-smash-this-guitar clunky sound.

Anyway, timing and placement of the left fingers is almost more than I can concentrate on at one time, but the effect on tone is astounding. When I occassionally do it right, it almost sounds like a guitar.

[Oakleaf]

i agree in that i feel gear is the leading ingreedient in how you play. it effects two things, your confidence, and the physical sound. dosent the more expensive wine always taste better? lol

but really, tone is for the player, not the audience. if you feel you sound good then you will play good. and that's how i've always thought of tone.