Joe Bonamassa on Eric Clapton’s “woman tone” Trick

[@davidmayguitarsolotutorial4366]

That Outside Woman Blues phrase at the start is bang on for that great sound. The vibrato is really conttibuting too. Great.

[@benrios7902]

Man the epiphone sounds greats

[@P1nkman]

This guy will sound good on anything.

[@martingoodwin8884]

That is 5k amp

[@Nightwinflyer]

I had an Epiphone 1956 Les Paul gold top with P-90's that I stupidly sold. I miss that guitar.

[@ethanraley9067]

@@martingoodwin8884that’s a Fillmore amp

[@japerlm8150]

thanks. Woman tone explained very fast.

[@gibson]

Welcome 😊

[@HuhWaitWhatNow]

Hey Gibson

[@joshkaye9723]

I find this really interesting. How much of this is how you feel while playing, it's like a mental thing when you find that exact spot on the guitar and amp messing around with the settings till you find that perfect spot and then everything flows from there. There's definitely a mental thing with it too when you think rights perfect and you play better afterwards

[@greham]

Trent Crimm, The Independent.

[@fviannaval]

I knew he reminded me of somebody, hahaha.

[@northshorenick]

Hahhahahaah

[@phenixreturns]

i want Steve Hackett with Gibson ! What an underrated genius !! (No Hackett no EVH, remember that !)

[@bobsbigboy_]

we need to make this happen. His Goldtop tone on those early Genesis albums is fire! Also saw him live in July. He was still on top of his game with a black beauty custom Les Paul

[@NINEWALKING]

P90's are compressing less. Still, they have enough signal to add to overall compression and drive. So Potentiometers do work there nice to. Though, Les Paul, with humbuckers in the hands of a player that hits hard all of the time, has nowhere to go. It will lose dynamics and will be compressing nonstop. That's the sound of its own and who loves that, nore power to you. People get the action on the Les Paul's very low and rize pickups high and then play without a soft touch can'tbring the dynamics out of the Les Paul. That's, for me, killing the tone. Neck pickup shouldn't be too high, or it will start killing sustain and sound woofy. You can get bridge pickup to high, but it is way more forgiving. Rolling the volume pot just gives you some of the dynamics back. Having everything from the soft touch to hard hit in your skill book will give you the best out of the Les Paul. Once you master playing Les Paul, you will open a new book when playing other types of guitars.

[@kantina4765]

P90s can be hot and hum buckets can be damn weak. There are single coils that hit the amp harder than your average les paul.

[@NINEWALKING]

@kantina4765 Well, everything is possible. Though nowadays, I go for low turn vintage scatter wound pickups anyway. I do not need a single coil that has more signal than any P90.

[@kantina4765]

@@NINEWALKING I'm just saying your generalization is wrong here. Generally les pauls have low output pickups. Although, epiphone pick ups are usually hot as balls and he pulls it off just fine here.

[@NINEWALKING]

​@kantina4765 I have no clue what you are talking about. Your generalization about the Epiphone is completely wrong in my experience. See? There were so many models you can't make any generalization at all. I have had tins of Epiphones for repair and for upgrades and still I own few od them. Lot of them have had lower output pickups accept some that were not replicating old guitars but were made for metal. I even own Zak Wylde model with active EMG. Although the first gen came with hot passive once. Ptofogy had hot output passive pickups as well. Midnight version of black LP Cudtom had two active EMG 81 pickups. But even more have had Epiphone's pickups that were suppose to emulate early PAF's. So saying they are hitter or they are lowe is both wrong. You read into it. I suggest try reading the original post again and understand what I meant. Then you see I am not wrong. Try it and you will see it.

[@gattaca9287]

Epiphone, please restock this Copper irridescent edition soon !

[@Glensully]

A lot of moms basement players hating here. The hate and jealousy , it’s strong

[@patrickharvey6310]

I learned a lot.

[@richat1691]

Is this sarcasm 😂

[@amslu]

What’s Bonamassa tone?

[@JohnSmith-in1tt]

Bonamassa tone is literally playing anything, but with the confidence of a guy who owns like 10 bursts 😂

[@phenixreturns]

@@JohnSmith-in1tt I think the same, he plays fast but the tone is nowhere.All his years with GAS is not so normal

[@NERDOFUNK]

​@@phenixreturns "not so normal" for whom!? People do what they like thats all....

[@RobPerelman..]

it’s 100 000k tone

[@robertfields1964]

I recently discovered the P90s and I really dig them. Like Toaster Tops and most Fender pickups they are single coils, but with a special kind of authenticity that harmonizes so well with a lot of mahogany in the guitar.

[@Vicandiers]

Mahogany? Wtf are you talking about. I would bet my house you wouldnt hear the difference between mahogany and fricking bamboo on an electric guitar

[@robertfields1964]

@@Vicandiers I'm not interested in your house unless there's American mahogany electric guitarbodies in it.

[@vaportrails7943]

Joe playing through a M/B is something I haven’t seen before. Must be strange for him.

[@mossstephen1066]

Description says Joe is playing the gibson falcon. But cannot be true!

[@BrianDeBolt]

That amp cost more than everything else they have out, combined!

[@DougErapps]

Your tone pot was free!!!!???? Perks of being a rock star, man......!

[@phenixreturns]

I feel some obsession and GAS woman tone by Clapton is not so complicated

[@lasersauceretroarchives6544]

i wonder if joe is also collecting lawsuit guitars? i have a tokai from the 80s and it sounded incredible, in fact it sound and feels much better than my Gibson standard lol

[@ItsJustRyan89]

Can’t remember the model number, but my Tokai Ls something or other is unreal

[@Ottophil]

No, hes not

[@RF-uz3qu]

Yeah man some of those lawsuit guitars are legit. (Ironically 😂)

[@TJJJJJJJJJJJ]

Shhhhhh! 🤫 🤐 don’t let the others catch on ! This is true for some acoustics too. I scored a 1970 MiJ humming bird copy a few weeks back and it stands up to my real 71 Gibson H-bird. If you get the chance to pick one up do it ! I “A vs B”ed them to a few friends and no one has been able to tell them apart Tokai’s are such sleepers too. Even today they make decent guitars for the $$

[@xsamitt]

What amp is this that joe is using?

[@ItsJustRyan89]

@@xsamitt Mesa boogie

[@fpcawolff]

@@ItsJustRyan89 he asked the amp, not the amps brand

[@ItsJustRyan89]

@@fpcawolff so it’s not a Mesa Boogie?

[@donmccann2885]

I think the woman tone is more the neck tone knob on zero, toggle in the middle and rest full up….funny enough, I just demo’d Marshall and an old SG like that yesterday.

[@DimitriFrondizi]

you have to add also a wha-wha with a fixed position about halfway to regain some middle frequencies lost due to the lowering of the tone. EDIT : At least for what concerns "Sunshine of your love" I correct myself, I had confused the generic woman tone with the other specific tone. I have a signature pedal Digitech Crossroads and it is explained that it is achieved this way but other than that, there is a video interview of Eric from the time in which he explains well how he was achieving it.

[@DavidOakesMusic]

So Joe how do y... " _Just roll the tone and volume to 7 and move it a quarter of a mm every 3 seconds_ "

[@DS-yg4qs]

20 years since he talks about that. Just stop it. 😅

[@aznsensation44]

I don't know what the use case is in rolling the tone down for any guitar it just reduces clarity and makes the guitar sound muffled. Is Clapton's woman tone even that great? Its honestly a muffled sound and whenever u roll down the tone control you're just going to get a more muffled sound period

[@dalenixon1947]

I am not a clapton fan, but I tried the woman tone and really liked it. On an SG, the neck pickup is a little closer to the bridge than on a les paul, and with the tone rolled back it is not as muddy and dull as on a les paul. It produces a really mellow, slightly honkey nazal tone, that is very easy to play and makes quick playing sound very flutey and effortless with a bit of gain. I know that's alot of adjectives, and tone is subjective but the woman tone has its uses beyond classic blues rock. Other tone rolled back tones are Bruce Springsteen 'She's the One' and Buddy Holly 'Peggy Sue'. They sound dark and muffled for sure, more like what you describe, but the woman tone is different.

[@klextacy]

It is one of the most useful controls.

[@TJJJJJJJJJJJ]

It can be used a bunch of ways but essentially all it’s doing is cutting out the high end. I use it a lot to blend in when playing rhythm, or at the other end when I’m running into a fuzz pedal. Paired with a good eq or even just running dry it gives you a good enough range to switch between rhythm and lead without needing to touch the amp when gigging.

[@aznsensation44]

@TJJJJJJJJJJJ I see. I don't like cutting my highs. So for rhythm / lead I usually just switch between neck and bridge for that

[@wadeband10]

​@@aznsensation44hey what guitar/pickups you using ? Thats a huge factor most guitars sound worse when you roll it down but traditio al les pauls with pafs are different they sound ok with the tone down a little cuz they can get bright especially with a marshall with everything dimed...

[@jessegreeson8177]

Who decided this goober is the guitar god now?

[@richat1691]

Ha, he is a bit much for a guy who hasnt had a hit. Tbf though there isnt really anyone else

[@weronikazalewska2098]

You arnt beating the old man guitars accusations with this

[@sebastianrutkowski4590]

A ja przepraszam bardzo, czy Joe jest jakimś ekspertem od Claptona?

[@MikeO-p8l]

Is that a real les paul ? He should make music for the radio to play .

[@Janine.Najarian]

I'm tired of hearing about the goddamn woman tone. The brown sound is so much more interesting and not discussed nearly enough

[@G.S.W.SewmesomeMusic]

Has dude ever had a hit?

[@chriscampbell9191]

He's sold a lot of CD's, had some minor 'hits', but he' mainly a concert player. Played Royal Albert Hall. Excellent player, and has been a good ambassador for classic British Blues Rock guitar when a lot of other post-2000's guitarists are mindless shredders who often sound like Yngwie without the tone. But yeah, Joe's not for everybody. I get it. He doesn't bother me at all, though.

[@jessegreeson8177]

No. Boring yngwie bulshitt. No soul

[@richat1691]

Basically us guitar nerds have no one else to listen too

[@CameraLaw]

What I heard was crank the guitar, tame the amp, then tame the guitar a tiny bit. Yet with woman tone, cut the hell out of the neck pickup tone pot. Which all says to me his system is no system. Maybe I’m wrong.

[@bruceburns1525]

What in God's name are you going on about?

[@CameraLaw]

@@bruceburns1525 Sorry. Nothing really. I’m the kinda guy who puts knobs at 5 and twists to taste. So I have no system either.

[@bruceburns1525]

@@CameraLaw Hey sorry, I was in a weird mood when I wrote that. No excuse to be rude though. What I should have written was: I don't think it's a system really, it's just a description of various things you can do to get didn't sound out of your amp and dust without using pedals

[@CameraLaw]

@@bruceburns1525 No need to apologize. We all have to find sounds that are pleasing some way or another. Today was a great day for jazz with chorus and delay. Last night with the same pedals was a feedback horror fest. Sometimes the magic works …

[@EliasGraves]

Perhaps the worst guitar tone ever.

[@richat1691]

Its not great is it.

[@tonyz4292]

Overrated tone if you ask me

[@CashCurran]

Nobody did 😋

[@chriscampbell9191]

It has its uses, I suppose. I preferred Clapton's more trebly bridge pickup tones. Had more punch.

[@StratsRUs]

Clapton 1976 Birmingham Odeon. F him

[@GerryBlue]

48 years ago, you hadn't even been born yet, get over it 😂

[@richat1691]

Have u seen state of uk and europe..

[@Eric-l7x]

Sounds like you should get out

[@Gabriel49718]

Please. Enough with this guy.

[@ItsJustRyan89]

Couldn’t agree more.

[@sixslinger9951]

nah, more JB please! Haters get lost.

[@Gabriel49718]

@@sixslinger9951 Please. He is EVERYWHERE talking about and slapping his name on anything. We don’t need a gatekeeper of vintage guitars or tone.

[@RockToneRevelry]

@@Gabriel49718a gatekeeper?? Please. Joe is trying to keep kids interested in learning the guitar, offering great models based on super cool and rare vintage examples that are far more accessible to your average player. Joe loves guitar and shares that enthusiasm with the world. He’s worked hard to be able to enjoy the vintage collection he has, and has offered on numerous occasions to sell them for exactly what he’s paid for them. Most people rag on him because they simply can’t afford a real Klon let alone a 59 Les Paul 🤷🏻‍♂️ Let the man be.

[@dizzyred1390]

😂😂😂

[@jasonzajac1819]

Of course J would change the name from brown sound. His ego has no height

[@jeremythornton433]

Brown sound was a Van Halen thing. Woman Tone is a Clapton thing and they're totally different.

[@TJJJJJJJJJJJ]

🤦‍♂️ Clapton’ woman tone has nothing to do with VanHalen’s brown sound champ + you have clearly never met the guy because JB is genuinely one of the nicest guys in the music / vintage guitar scene.

[@chriscampbell9191]

It was Eric Clapton that called it 'woman tone'. Stupid name for it, really, but it stuck.

[@gregorywall7586]

Guitar nerdery is really boring. I used to be so into it but the nerdery became far bigger than the talent or skills, except in Joe's case. His skills warrants the nerdery. The other 95% of low-skilled, wealthy players that just collect gear for the sake of it, albeit that their abilities are shite, with no band either. Nah.

[@jerrymander1492]

Why does Joe come off as arrogant and better than the rest of us?

[@sprontos]

He’s not arrogant. He’s better than us, but he’s not arrogant.