Agree or disagree... Guitarists who obsess over tone are nerds and...

i'm pretty OCD about it, and it's frustrating because I'll finally feel like I've got it dialed in, then come back the next time and without having changed anything at all I will think it sounds like pure garbage… Repeat ad infinitum
 
I don’t have time to obsess over tone. But the guy who’s building me a custom 50 watt version of a Sunn Model T does!
 
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Every time I obsess over getting a tone dialed in, I actually play it over the track I'm working on and it sounds like a butt. So I'm trying to move on.
 
Tone 4 days……

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No matter how much time I invest and money I spend my tone still sucks...so I stopped giving a shit...
 
Which Marshall and at which volume?

The Stooges
Z Z Top
Jimi Hendrix
Judas Priest
Megadeth

Which?
 
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There’s nothing wrong with sounding good. If you aren’t happy with the sound it can inhibit your playing.

OTOH the word “obsess” hints at cases where they go way too far. So yeah, go ahead and beat up those losers.
 
tiger roach said:
There’s nothing wrong with sounding good. If you aren’t happy with the sound it can inhibit your playing.

OTOH the word “obsess” hints at cases where they go way too far. So yeah, go ahead and beat up those losers.
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I agree with this. I think most non-musician folks in the audience could care less about your tone as long as it's not icepick-in-the-forehead. But as guitarists, when we like what we hear coming out of the amp, it inspires us to let loose and play better.
 
Learned long ago that chasing the perfect tone is a never ending task. If I can get a rig to sound at least 'good' consistently, then I'm happy to work with that and just enjoy playing.
 
Ive found that obsessing over nuances of tone is for dicking around at home by yourself. Often what sounds good at home by yourself just doesn't work in a band context. And yea, something dialed in sounding great one day often seems to suck the next. Hence my obsession with subtle differences in overdrive tones.
Live, pretty much any old OD will do as long as it boosts some mids and isn't muddy.
At home I pretty much hate bridge pickups. But at yesterdays jam I pretty much stayed on the Tele's bridge the whole time. Was running a small board Tele>TU3>Diamond Comp>Nobels>DM2w>Carr Rambler.
My preferred neck and middle tones were just too bassy/muddy and couldn't be heard over the din of other guitars.
Had to use the bass cut switch on the Noballs as well.
 
Agree and Disagree.


There is nothing wrong with chasing tone or engineering perfection...... between gigs.


Once it's go-time... Shut up and play your guitar.


Guitars are tools... sometimes we have particular needs for a particular gig (silent stage, fly rig, easy-on-easy off minimalist, etc) while other times we're allowed a little more "Tom Scholtz Time" where we explore new sounds or combinations. It's only a problem when there's a deadline, or when it becomes an obsessive spiral. :helper:
 
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