Tone Doesn’t Come From Your Hands Or Gear

[@Slothclawcolseslaw]

For real. Number of people who complain it’s too bright but don’t touch their tone knob. THATS WHY ITS THERE!

[@betetete6072]

annoying fucking with a tone knob

[@donbishop6994]

Stop it. You're not supposed to tell tone snobs the truth about the tone knobs. It hurts their little feelers. 😂😂

[@ramencurry6672]

Not really. I have the same pickup. It’s a great pickup but many PAF style pickups were designed to sound similar to single coils and it’s an unpotted pickup giving it extra clarity. He’s probably better off with a wax potted pickup like a modern Gibson type or maybe Seymour Duncan 59….For me, I love the extra clarity so maybe he’s just not into pickups with the extra high definition clarity

[@CenterThePendulum]

A top-end rolloff taper isn’t always the same tone as a less bright guitar. You lose note separation and detail, something that doesn’t necessarily happen with evenly darker pickups.

[@Durkhead]

If i turn the tone knob its all scratchy

[@elenbrandt290]

These clips re worth their weight in gold! Thank Phil!

[@benjaminlin6524]

On an old music instruction video, I remember Robben Ford saying that one of the things contributing to tone is the sound one hears in one's head. That will determine how one plays, how one uses the guitar volume and tone controls,, pickup selections, and amp settings, etc. I thought that was helpful.

[@mojoe9096]

Great advice. Another thing to try if your guitar tone is too bright is the B.B. King trick - roll the tone control on your guitar all the way down and then slowly bring it up until it just starts to come out of the mud. Usually around the 1-3 mark depending on your pot, cap, guitar, etc etc YMMV

[@strumbum946]

One thing “some” players don’t consider often enough when talking about tone is Strings. Different “brands” and different “gauges” can make a huge difference in tone. Also round wound vs flat wound strings affect tone.

[@Durkhead]

The gauge doesnt effect the tone as much as you think the difference is very minimal

[@strumbum946]

@@Durkhead - But you agree it affects tone! Play a set of 9s on your guitar, then try a set of 11s…

[@Durkhead]

@@strumbum946 i have i went from 9s to 12s big difference in playablity cause of the tension on each gauge but the actual recorded tone is very similar can barely tell them apart

[@strumbum946]

@@Durkhead - I respectfully disagree. The difference may/may not be that significant to you, but without a doubt, string gauge most definitely affects tone. Why don’t Bass guitars use the same string gauge as 6 string guitars?

[@Durkhead]

@@strumbum946 cause its hard to play a 12ft bass im not talking to you anymore

[@77pearcearrow]

As a Jazz hollow body player I keep my volume at around 5 to 7 on my guitar and use my amp volume and tone to mitigate sound for the room. I find the tone is a lot more manageable and sweeter sounding. Plus it keeps feedback in check to a certain point.

[@DigitalChemistryBand]

The reason i changed speakers was Glenn ... g12m70s to Eminence Texas Heat... very different tone, faster response, bigger and fatter... more 3d, if that makes sense.

[@sole__doubt]

The EQ pedal has been my secret for a while now, I learned that lesson from Kerry King. Thanks Phil for telling everyone, just kidding. Love your channel.

[@WilliamHaisch]

I’m loving these podcast clips! 😊

[@theoversouls]

Perfect advice, Phil! ~Phil in New Mexico

[@JuanJaim]

I used to be puzzled about things like this until I started playing with the knobs. I would use the Tone ones mostly, volume is important as well (especially if you have a treble bleed installed). Also, I finally added an EQ pedal (the Behringer one) to my pedalboard and realized I should've added it a long time ago and would've saved some cash I spent in different types of ODs 😅

[@zyxwfish]

About tone. I’ve found my tone and have only 1 amp that gets my tone. I’ve owned a few different amps and tried a lot over the years. There are a lot of subtle things that go into tone especially distorted tones. Tightness, response, gain quality, gain structure. How the amp reacts. How the amp reacts to different pedals. The sound in my head only comes out of one amp with certain pedals working with that one amp and I’ve found the perfect speaker for that amp by accident but there is only one right speaker too. I couldn’t ask for it to be any better. The next hardest thing is micing properly. I’ve found the perfect microphone too with lots and lots of experimentation. I’ll tell ya my favorite speaker isn’t a vintage 30 and my favorite mic isn’t an SM57.

[@stug5041]

I consider EQ pedals essential. I have a boss GE-7 in the loop of my two main amps so I can get the amps just how I like, and a Behringer clone for each of my other amps. IMO they unlock the true potential of any amp, particularly if playing with any amount of gain. The Behringer pedal is an amazing way to experiment with EQ pedals if you’re unfamiliar. Noisey relative to the boss but does the same thing for a fraction of the cost if you want a low risk way to experiment

[@metricdeep8856]

Tone comes from your ear drums. If you plug your ears...the tone sounds different. So ya...I guess the tone comes from your hands....and your ear drums. My ear drums are from the early 70's. Golden era.

[@woofcity6307]

You can play with the tone capacitor value to darken the pickup if you want. I adjust these or the volume pot ohms on every guitar depending on the pickups or guitar. If you are a builder you’d do this, I do. Its only a few dollars.

[@BigDancin]

I touch my tone knob repeatedly during shows -- always to make sure it is all the way at 10! If the sound is too bright, the eq in your effects unit, pedalboard or amp are much better places to address that than a tone pot in a guitar, which typically is an imprecise modifier of the eq curve and quickly renders your sound muddy and dull. I play primarily hard rock, so I recognize the story may be different for other styles, like jazz. But I recently saw Alex Lifeson say in an interview that they could just chop the tone knobs off on his guitars - he doesn't use them. It was validating to hear because I never have either.

[@jasondorsey7110]

As a bassist I couldn't agree more, it gets muddy real quick, I'd rather just have a pickup blend knob if that's an option

[@BigDancin]

@@castleanthrax1833Sure! I was careful to denote only my experience, and acknowledge it may even just be a function of musical styles. For me, I would only reach for the tone knob if I had not done a good enough job preparing my sounds or adjusting to the venue in soundcheck.

[@HowlinTubes]

I tend to agree. A single tone knob across multiple pickups and possibly amp channels, pedals, etc is a rather blunt tool. If I need to mess with the tone knob during a song, then I am usually compensating for some other issue or simply a failed three-way marriage between the guitar, amp, and style. The exception for me is the Gibson 4 knob electronics. Under this configuration, I find that I can be quite surgical in my tone quest.

[@paulsmart5199]

my gretsch electromatic is fairly bright, i keep the volume on the guitar rolled down to about 80% and adjust as needed

[@AdamGarrett72]

One of the coolest things about filtertrons is the versatility . I find myself dialing back the bridge pickup if it's sounding too bright. and rolling off the neck pickup if it's too muddy

[@CenterThePendulum]

My humbucker pickup selections follow mass. More mass in the guitar, lower output. Low mass like a 335, 8.0-8.5 output. After that, asymmetrical winds all the way.

[@b.rodclark334]

Do what I did with my Golden Age Parsons Street rhythm humbucker also with an A2: swapped the 500K volume pot for a 250K; that'll mellow it down a bit. This was the best thing to happen to my LPX 7yrs ago.

[@wikolib6821]

Good advice. My Mustang LT50 practice amp models are either clean or too overdriven distorted. Thinking I'll get a pedal to get that nice "clean" overdriven sound. I'll try programming some as well.

[@FransvandenBergeMuziekschuur]

Brightness will come apparent on a tube amplifier just before they wear out. So if the person who asked that question complains of a bright guitar, check the wear of the tubes.

[@PatrickGeneLeBlancHardy]

Thanks for sharing 🎸🎶🎶🎶

[@ramencurry6672]

I have the same pick up. It’s an amazing pickup and I love it but it’s not for everyone. You might be better off of the Seymour Duncan 59 which is an all around crowd pleaser

[@Bogmore1]

I've found that the vast majority of pickup sounds are very similar on the edge of breakup or distorted. They only thing that makes a difference apart from their volume is single coil or humbucker for me, Spectre sound has a good video on pickups and the difference they make distorted. Clean tones are affected more than distorted tones but not as much as you think, tones are like food, they are affected by how they look and more importantly, how much you pay, a lot more than the actual taste. I know I'm gonna get hate for this but I have quite a number of cheap and expensive pickup in guitars and they only make a small difference when clean, playing nearer the neck or bridge makes more difference to me. Go watch Spectre digital's video on pickups.

[@roywarriner8441]

Tone comes from your brain, your hands are just part of the signal chain.

[@williamdevlin366]

Interesting stuff to chew on. Thanks again!!!

[@youKnowWho3311]

The music coming from your channel is what comes out. You are like a filter cap for the cosmos. This affects touch, feel, speed, note selection, everything.... Thusly, you are a snowflake. Same way all guitars/bursts are slightly different sounding/feeling. So what is the realm of possibility you ask........ INFINITE. You are also an AMPLIFIER. Consider when certain people walk into a room. The room can burst with energy or fall dead silent. The net aggregate of those combinations is the sound of the universe.

[@Mpcoluv]

I have owned a bunch of semi hollow bodies like 335s. I have never had one that was two bright. In some ways it’s all about expectations.

[@fatalmove1550]

Been using EQ in my chain since the 70's.

[@stratcat3216]

Yes it does come from my hands. If I didn't have them there'd be no sound whatsoever.

[@carlosm08]

Random question but what guitar is that teal single cut with the tele control plate?

[@cnilecnile6748]

Words of wisdom.

[@greenguitarfish]

Thanks for the videos ! Great advise. Question, I grabbed a cheap Chinese Ephiphone SG Jr. with a missing bridge for $50.00. I put in a tune o madic bridge, and tried it. Very harsh brittle sound, so l installed a P-90. Still sounds harsh. Do you think swapping out the pots is the answer? If so, what pots do you recommend ? 250- 500 k? Are there any other possible causes to account for why it sounds like that ? Thanks again !

[@strumbum946]

greenguitarfish - What brand of pickups are you using? What type of magnets? If it’s an inexpensive guitar, it probably doesn’t have very good pots/caps, which may be the first things you need to replace. A “usual” rule of thumb for pots is 250k for single coil pups, 500 k for humbuckers.

[@greenguitarfish]

@@strumbum946 Thanks. I’m out of the USA till summer, and the guitar is there, so I don’t have access to check, and can’t remember off hand what brand it is. For what it’s worth, I do remember the p.u. was rated highly on EBay by costumers, but not an expensive one. Ok, 250 for singles. Thanks again.

[@strumbum946]

@@greenguitarfish - OK. Something else to consider besides pots, is ceramic magnet pickups tend to be brittle and harsh compared to alnico magnets…

[@phildohogne1970]

Otherwise the Les Paul movie wouldn't be called Chasing...

[@skinny0ne]

Tone is in your head is brilliant! For me, I can’t make a Gibson Les Paul sound good. Too dark and fuzzy. But hell, some of the best music was recorded using a Les Paul. So lesson isn’t Les Paul’s are dark and fuzzy. Lesson is Les Paul is not the guitar for me for the tone that I want in my head. Brilliant!

[@JuanJaim]

I've a friend who played Strats and had a thing against Les Pauls for being "too nasal". I just realized his point of reference was Gary Moore playing Greeny out of phase 😂 and I don't think he's realized that's not a standard sound in Les Paul guitars.

[@GreatPlanet-n7n]

a tone comes from...your strings.

[@scott4482]

Good luck creating tone without using your hands.

[@DigitalChemistryBand]

Speaker... 😊

[@jerrymckenzie1858]

So what you’re trying to say is that your tone comes from your gear and your hands.

[@kaekayyy2554]

whats that blue tele on the back

[@TheRange7]

I didn't watch, I'm busy. Tone clearly DOES come from my hands. My picking dynamics or what part of my fingers I use when playing wit them effects the end result 100%.

[@vorpalblades]

So, how do you add treble using only your hands?

[@TheRange7]

@@cbsaulren You can feel however you want. The simple bottom line is, the top pro players in the game have talked about tone and hands for decades now. It's not rocket science. I don't care what your signal chain is, the most critical input to the chain is what your hands create on the strings. If you don't understand that, it's time to switch the panflute

[@ramencurry6672]

No it doesn’t. Put a Boss EQ pedal after an overdrive pedal and it makes a massive difference in shaping the frequencies

[@cbsaulren]

@@TheRange7 Apparently my comment was vague. I was trying to agree. I think tone has many contributors

[@RobertSaxy]

Maybe watch before commenting and you can get where he’s coming from, also if you’re using a pick then the tone is not coming from your hands at all. As a horn player we are told to imagine the sound and then recreate it I find guitar to be the same and I can do that on any horn at any price point and like he said in the video some horns fight me more but I can still get there. Your hands, pick or in the case of horns your mouthpiece there to help you achieve the time you created in your head

[@greenmonster9913]

Don't change your pickups or your amp until you've changed your cab/speakers/mics/mic position. Your pickups make a miniscule difference compared with those things, and the higher your gain, the less your pickups matter. Cab design (open back, closed back, etc), speakers, mics, and how the mics are positioned make massive differences re your tone

[@michaelogden5093]

Hmmmm, EQ the amp. Oh...

[@patrickmaline4258]

❤

[@vanhalen5150jhs]

Yo 5150 time

[@guitarplayer6565]

Yeah pick attack can effect tone your wrong

[@guitarplayer6565]

Think about saying pick attack doesn’t effect tone and then learn how to do harmonics

[@luigigetsu]

Tone is in the speaker, not in the pick-ups. Maybe too many Glenn videos, but all I hear in these kind of videos now are lies!

[@cbsaulren]

Click baity title. Tone is most certainly a factor of your hands