"My sound is just pure chocolate. I especially like that low b-flat. Sound is what it's all about."
I've had the pleasure of hearing world-renowned double bassist Gary Karr in musical performance and lecture - and the above is a slight paraphrase of something he often says. The older I get, the more I agree - it's all about sound.
These days, I'm happy to say that the epitome of good tone for bass and drums happens to be generated by my two bandmates, Curtis and Trevor. For guitar tone, something dark and warm and on the brink of breaking up tends to be my favourite these days (I was pretty happy with my tone in 'Very Best Knives', for example - that 's on the site jukebox now. For gearheads, I believe that's an SG special through a Traynor Custom Special 90), but I also have a soft spot for the mostly-clean sound of a Fender blackface turned up. Like a 200-year-old violin, it's essentially primitive, yet elegantly inspired, and capable of so much unique expression. When something sounds so authentic, it tends to get an audience's attention better than all the electronic trickery in the book. Ironically, Leo Fender sold off the Fender company in '65 in part because he thought he wouldn't be able to keep up with the new solid state technology that was revolutionizing electronics. It turns out he had nothing to fear - solid state fizzled in guitar amps. We (guitarists) still use vacuum-tube equipment, and nobody's improved significantly on Leo's 50-year-old designs, tho' some companies have taken things in different directions.
I have noticed a funny phenomenon, though, as a teacher and having grown up playing guitar - boys love fuzz. That heavily distorted guitar tone fascinated me from an early age (and I've seen that same fascination with many a guitar student). It sounded modern, rebellious, dangerous and debauched. Best of all, all the sustain brought on by distortion made it easier to play! My first amp - a Canadian-made Garnet sold through Eaton's under the 'Vagabond' label - wasn't capable of much distortion, even when cranked to maximum volume. It did electrocute me and a few of my friends, tho'. I got around the over-clean sound by replacing one of the 8" speakers with a tiny 4" speaker from my little turntable unit. Fuzz at last, even if I was probably frying the transformer with that arrangement. When I finally forked out $90 for a Boss DS-1 distortion pedal in '83, I was in heaven. I had to play everything with maximum distortion (including the Police's 'Every Breath You Take') to the point that my bandmates started calling me Dr. D. I'd probably ralph now at some of the tones I was making then, but it sure inspired me to keep the guitar in my hands in my formative years.
A few years later, I began a long stint as a salesperson at Pamus Music in Victoria, and had opportunity to get to know hundreds of guitars, amps and effects pedals. After I'd closed the store down for the night, I'd sometimes pick up a guitar and plug into a bank of dozens of effects....but after a few minutes of wild experimentation, I'd almost always find my way back to no effects at all - just guitar into amplifier. To my ear, there was always something irresistibly real and immediate about that approach.
These days, the context for guitar tone is rather different than it was when I was growing up. A distorted guitar tone is just as likely to be employed by a band of middle-aged bankers in their garage band, and genres like death metal try to stay 'dangerous' more through rhythm, screech/growl vocals and lots of tritones. You can only distort a guitar tone so far before it turns to mush, after all. The tone of the electric guitar, though still ubiquitous, runs a greater risk these days of fading into the background. We've all been hearing it since we were kids. What now?
I tuned into Much Music (Canada's version of MTV) yesterday for the first time in years. The program of new videos featured lots of dancing, outrageous costumes, rap, a catchy melody or two, tons of auto-tuning on the vocals - but mighty little guitar. A half-hour of observation is not enough to pronounce sweeping new trends, but I wasn't surprised. It may well be time for a major freshening-up of guitar in pop music. It may already be happening among some mostly-unknown indie bands out there - and I'd welcome it. Even Dr. D eventually retired...
I've had the pleasure of hearing world-renowned double bassist Gary Karr in musical performance and lecture - and the above is a slight paraphrase of something he often says. The older I get, the more I agree - it's all about sound.
These days, I'm happy to say that the epitome of good tone for bass and drums happens to be generated by my two bandmates, Curtis and Trevor. For guitar tone, something dark and warm and on the brink of breaking up tends to be my favourite these days (I was pretty happy with my tone in 'Very Best Knives', for example - that 's on the site jukebox now. For gearheads, I believe that's an SG special through a Traynor Custom Special 90), but I also have a soft spot for the mostly-clean sound of a Fender blackface turned up. Like a 200-year-old violin, it's essentially primitive, yet elegantly inspired, and capable of so much unique expression. When something sounds so authentic, it tends to get an audience's attention better than all the electronic trickery in the book. Ironically, Leo Fender sold off the Fender company in '65 in part because he thought he wouldn't be able to keep up with the new solid state technology that was revolutionizing electronics. It turns out he had nothing to fear - solid state fizzled in guitar amps. We (guitarists) still use vacuum-tube equipment, and nobody's improved significantly on Leo's 50-year-old designs, tho' some companies have taken things in different directions.
I have noticed a funny phenomenon, though, as a teacher and having grown up playing guitar - boys love fuzz. That heavily distorted guitar tone fascinated me from an early age (and I've seen that same fascination with many a guitar student). It sounded modern, rebellious, dangerous and debauched. Best of all, all the sustain brought on by distortion made it easier to play! My first amp - a Canadian-made Garnet sold through Eaton's under the 'Vagabond' label - wasn't capable of much distortion, even when cranked to maximum volume. It did electrocute me and a few of my friends, tho'. I got around the over-clean sound by replacing one of the 8" speakers with a tiny 4" speaker from my little turntable unit. Fuzz at last, even if I was probably frying the transformer with that arrangement. When I finally forked out $90 for a Boss DS-1 distortion pedal in '83, I was in heaven. I had to play everything with maximum distortion (including the Police's 'Every Breath You Take') to the point that my bandmates started calling me Dr. D. I'd probably ralph now at some of the tones I was making then, but it sure inspired me to keep the guitar in my hands in my formative years.
A few years later, I began a long stint as a salesperson at Pamus Music in Victoria, and had opportunity to get to know hundreds of guitars, amps and effects pedals. After I'd closed the store down for the night, I'd sometimes pick up a guitar and plug into a bank of dozens of effects....but after a few minutes of wild experimentation, I'd almost always find my way back to no effects at all - just guitar into amplifier. To my ear, there was always something irresistibly real and immediate about that approach.
These days, the context for guitar tone is rather different than it was when I was growing up. A distorted guitar tone is just as likely to be employed by a band of middle-aged bankers in their garage band, and genres like death metal try to stay 'dangerous' more through rhythm, screech/growl vocals and lots of tritones. You can only distort a guitar tone so far before it turns to mush, after all. The tone of the electric guitar, though still ubiquitous, runs a greater risk these days of fading into the background. We've all been hearing it since we were kids. What now?
I tuned into Much Music (Canada's version of MTV) yesterday for the first time in years. The program of new videos featured lots of dancing, outrageous costumes, rap, a catchy melody or two, tons of auto-tuning on the vocals - but mighty little guitar. A half-hour of observation is not enough to pronounce sweeping new trends, but I wasn't surprised. It may well be time for a major freshening-up of guitar in pop music. It may already be happening among some mostly-unknown indie bands out there - and I'd welcome it. Even Dr. D eventually retired...