Steel Players Aren't The Only Tone Hounds

Mike Ester · Post by **Mike Ester** » 22 Jun 2007 10:24 am

I found this article to be interesting reading:

http://www.furious.com/perfect/cultofmu ... pment.html

Some of the names cited in the article may not be familiar to a lot of us, but I'm sure the sentiment is still there.

I did like the observation made at the end:

The sad part is, if we get hung up on recreating a particular sound or a particular technology, it tends to retard our growth. Let's not be conservative musicians anymore, dedicated to preserving or recreating the past. In the words of Nicholas Slonimsky, let's try something new.

Leslie Ehrlich · Post by **Leslie Ehrlich** » 22 Jun 2007 1:13 pm

I'm a rock guitarist, and I will admit to being a conservative tone freak when I was younger. But now I'm looking for new sounds, and one of the neatest things I've ever done was add PSG to my arsenel of equipment.

Donny Hinson · Post by **Donny Hinson** » 23 Jun 2007 3:54 pm

The sad part is, if we get hung up on recreating a particular sound or a particular technology, it tends to retard our growth.

I tend to agree. Most of the "greats" I've been exposed to just play the durn thing. I met a straight guitar player at a show some years ago who claimed he was a real tone maven, and talked endlessly about all the factors that affected tone in old guitars and tube amps, and who had used what, where, and why. I was quite convinced he was something of a cross between Hendrix, Clapton, Atkins, Reed, and Flacke, with a little Les Paul thrown in too! After hearing him (some time later), though, the only "famous" players he could probably "hang in there" with would have been Luther Perkins or Mike Mitchell.