h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: Guitarist and the elusive "tone" - A1054711
Author: ..<alpha>.. - U228296

Anyone else out there feel the same way about "tone" and the elusiveness of the search?

It is not exactly an answer to your question but a statement I have come to love the "Tone" music very much, I think some of the older generation who were and are still in the typical "rock and roll" do not understand the beauty of the music some are not open to change anyway I do encourage you as an artist to continue with your research, recording your and excellent artist and have a natural appreciation for music where it is standard or "Tone".

nokisi

I've got my tone.
It's hard for me to get it with other people's instruments.
I use flatwounds and a guitar I had built for me, with one humbucker in the middle position, near where a soundhole would be on an acoustic.
I use small thick picks, or coins, gripped close to the edge.
I have a .5 capacitor on a linear taper tone pot and a reverse 250+ volume.
The body is an old korean Kramer super Strat style that is slightly smaller than a real strat. It is made of some kind of plywood. It used to have a Floyd Rose and three pickups, but I yanked all that out. The bridge is a later tele six piece that is screwed in place.
The neck is an Allparts Tele copy with a light coat of clear varnish and a graphite nut.

It's a little squirrelly, with divots in some of the frets from the flatwounds and my heavy hands. The circuit is a little scratchy from years of use and abuse.

I play it through a Charvel practice amp with a built in saturation and put an Ibanez digital delay through the effects loop.

When I'm recording, I use an old floor tom with the bottom gone and I put it up next to the amp, with the open end facing the speaker. In the tom is a coffee can with the open end facing the drum head. In the coffee can is my microphone, an old Norelco maraca stereo mike that I picked up years ago with an old beat up big button Norelco reel to reel.

I find that close-miking and attention to my hand position provide a clear and dependable tone on my home recordings. Since I almost never play without recording, the tom contributes to what I and my family hear of my "playing".

Now that I have a tone that I like, I wish that I could learn to play more correctly. Some who have heard me play tell me that I don't play just "right". That it's not music.
They could be right.
But it's what I'm used to.