I Fret, Therefore I Am
Trying to find an achievable balance—one in which I offer my critique of modern apostolic recordings without sounding like I’m piling on, is I guess better found by my making this disclaimer here, than in trying to calibrate my every word and inference.
There are a fair amount of contemporary, and pseudo-contemporary/choir recordings out there. For the most part, these albums sound fine to me, as much of their strengths lie in many years of our historical cache files—if anyone can nail a passionate choir—we can.
But somewhere along the lines, the electric guitar began to be subtly introduced. Unfortunately the concept of “tone issues” with regards to them never made it into the platform.
First, let me explain who I am a bit. I am a guitarist/vocalist, primarily. I’ve played for 27 years. Through the years, I’ve played in about very kind of club you can imagine. I’ve done the hair-farm/eyeliner years. I spent most of that time copying the world of others for pay, also known as playing “covers.” These endeavors forced me to consider the relationships between my guitar and the amplifiers and pedals I chose to employ. While the need for my skills to be high was a given, the holy grail of “tone” was always the unattainable-yet-always-improvable issue. If your tone was annoying, you’d lose the room.
Guitar tones are still the primary focus of even all the modern magazines devoted to electric guitar (actually, even the acoustic-related magazines obsess over it). Interviews with icons, from rock finger-flingers Yngwie J. Malmsteen, Steve Vai, John Petrucci, to blues giants like Buddy Guy, Robben Ford, and Jonny Lang, all eventually include the questions about “how you achieve your signature tone.”
When the electric guitar first made itself a prominent part of music, this was not the case. One only need to listen to the majority of early 60’s music to know this—that ridiculous “broken speaker” sound is as hard for me to take now as it was when I first heard it.
Unfortunately, a majority of the apostolic recordings I’ve heard that employ an electric lead guitar demonstrate that the assumption that any amp, fuzz pedal and guitar are always synergistically perfect—is alive and well. I hear a small guitar cadenza—either in the intro to a song, or in an actual solo section—and I hear what would otherwise be impressive chops being forged over an amplifier tone that has that distinct, kazoo-like rattle to it. A tone that masks your pick attack is a bad tone, no matter what you’re playing.
This is in no way a screed against distortion, and high-gained leads. I do them now. I currently do them with PAVE for their live events, including this upcoming concert. I just happen to believe, like anything else, that while we should not seek the world’s advice about the spirit of our music, we could take a few technical ques from those who’ve already macheted through these weeds.
There are a fair amount of contemporary, and pseudo-contemporary/choir recordings out there. For the most part, these albums sound fine to me, as much of their strengths lie in many years of our historical cache files—if anyone can nail a passionate choir—we can.
But somewhere along the lines, the electric guitar began to be subtly introduced. Unfortunately the concept of “tone issues” with regards to them never made it into the platform.
First, let me explain who I am a bit. I am a guitarist/vocalist, primarily. I’ve played for 27 years. Through the years, I’ve played in about very kind of club you can imagine. I’ve done the hair-farm/eyeliner years. I spent most of that time copying the world of others for pay, also known as playing “covers.” These endeavors forced me to consider the relationships between my guitar and the amplifiers and pedals I chose to employ. While the need for my skills to be high was a given, the holy grail of “tone” was always the unattainable-yet-always-improvable issue. If your tone was annoying, you’d lose the room.
Guitar tones are still the primary focus of even all the modern magazines devoted to electric guitar (actually, even the acoustic-related magazines obsess over it). Interviews with icons, from rock finger-flingers Yngwie J. Malmsteen, Steve Vai, John Petrucci, to blues giants like Buddy Guy, Robben Ford, and Jonny Lang, all eventually include the questions about “how you achieve your signature tone.”
When the electric guitar first made itself a prominent part of music, this was not the case. One only need to listen to the majority of early 60’s music to know this—that ridiculous “broken speaker” sound is as hard for me to take now as it was when I first heard it.
Unfortunately, a majority of the apostolic recordings I’ve heard that employ an electric lead guitar demonstrate that the assumption that any amp, fuzz pedal and guitar are always synergistically perfect—is alive and well. I hear a small guitar cadenza—either in the intro to a song, or in an actual solo section—and I hear what would otherwise be impressive chops being forged over an amplifier tone that has that distinct, kazoo-like rattle to it. A tone that masks your pick attack is a bad tone, no matter what you’re playing.
This is in no way a screed against distortion, and high-gained leads. I do them now. I currently do them with PAVE for their live events, including this upcoming concert. I just happen to believe, like anything else, that while we should not seek the world’s advice about the spirit of our music, we could take a few technical ques from those who’ve already macheted through these weeds.
posted by Ron Giesecke at
Friday, July 13, 2007
2 Comments:
Ron,
I used your last sentence in a discussion in my post on retained identity. Good insight. As for you guitar discussion, where does on go to get or glean an understanding of good tones?
KB
Bro. Kevin,
To me, it's a combination of things that should come into play here. One being that any guitarist who presumes to understand playing that uses pentatonic-based runs should have already come into contact with the work of others that demonstrates tones far more euphonious than their own.
Another side of this rests on the producer--at least to a point. The one with the presumed "ears" should be able to spot something terribly thin and egregious before it ever hits the open air. Of course, there may be someone out there with an audiological preference for thin, flappy guitar tones, but not many. Thus, the "self-produced" albums carry an inherent danger in assuming that the tone generated from the first setting of an effects pedal is the optimum one.
As far as resourcing goes--it's pretty easy these days. The internet can provide snippets and crossections of music to apostolics, without them ever having to buy or support the work of the artists from which they wish to glean.
But the magazines can provide much here, as most of the world's known guitar players seems to have no mystical, clandestine silver-bullets that give them their tone. Most of them are more than forthcoming about their equipment, and combinations--most even go so far as to have their rigs photographed--for those who are derailed by nomenclature and schematics.
-R
Post a Comment
<< Home