Welcome to yet another column devoted to helping you deal with and shape your tone. Hopefully by now you are getting some definite ideas about the tones your equipment will produce. Any guitar, pedal, amp or person all have their own individual stamp that they leave on the sound. How hard you hit the strings and how loud the volume is has a huge effect on the sound, as does your selection of which pickup or tone setting you use on your guitar. Hendrix actually flicked the pickup selector back and forth as an effect and so did Pete Townsend. Stevie Ray Vaughn, when imitating Hendrix, picked the strings up past the nut, then pressed the whammy bar down. He’d then rap his knuckles on the neck and press the bar down the rest of the way to imitate a thunderstorm. Now these guys had the same 6 strings, Strats, and Les Pauls that we use! What made them unique was their great vision in extracting sounds from their gear that they heard in their head, or that the gear presented them with. They absorbed these sounds into their musical vocabulary and thus created a part of their style.

 

I had the privilege of seeing Stevie Ray Vaughan four times, and believe me, when he grabbed a handful of strings, they had no choice but to follow his will. Indeed, he was the most physical player I’ve ever seen. Your heart is something you can put into the playing. The notes and tones are really just tools for expressing emotion and you should never forget that. With great performers, the line between instrument and performer are blurred. They know each other well and it is a living, breathing relationship. Start on that path today by learning your gear inside and out. Learn to send your gear commands, to create the sounds that you hear in your head. It will respond to you and even give back more then you expected. I encourage you to try this approach and guarantee that your tone can change if you take it to heart. The only limit to your tone search is your imagination and your physical ability. Take charge of both and you won’t be sorry.

The Tone Ranger

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