how important is individual tone to you?

[chris ivey]

there are so many incredible steel players now that it's hard to pick out just one, and sometimes how to tell them apart.. but it used to be obvious when you heard a new record that you could tell specific players by their unique tone.
john hughey
ralph mooney
buddy emmons
sneaky pete...not my taste..but unique
jaydee maness
...tom brumley..had a definite spitting zb tone that just was so cool with rick nelson.

paul franklin...definitely 'his' tone but became somewhat common since so many other good players have had to cop his licks to work.

but that's what grabs me more than mind blowing technique. when someone plays a soulful phrase or a fun hot lick with their own tone dna...that's what i remember...and it helps set the artist apart and get more notice.

[chris ivey]

...of course i should mention curly...
and i can always tell norm hamlett apart...love him.

but you get the idea...these are only a handful, and there are 'how many' others out there working and playing??
tone...the key to the mystery school.

[Doug Beaumier]

I agree! The masters are stylists and have their own unique sound. A few others that come to mind:

Santo Farina
Lloyd Green
Jerry Byrd
Curley Chalker
Speedy West
Alvino Rey
...and so many more.

[Ken Campbell]

I have to say that as I listen to players you guys turn me on to that I haven't heard before the one thing that jumps out at me is tone. That and vibrato. Each is so unique and personal.....

[Richard Sinkler]

I've always wanted to sound like Chris Ivey.

[Tony Glassman]

Tone trumps everything else....

[Jim Cohen]

Tone trumps everything else....

Well, maybe after intonation... IMHO, there's a whole range of "acceptable tone" but not much range of "acceptable intonation", if ya know what I mean.

[Ray Montee]

TONE is my dominate thought when I play. I've got to hear that 'special' sound or I can't play at all.

I get the same great thrill by making a perfect three string forward slant or a reverse slant smoothly and accurately........

as I did when I used to make my touchdowns so smoothly one couldn't tell when the wheels actually touched the ground, or said another way, was when I could drive my long, double trailer rig around a city corner without scraping the tires on the last axle on the second trailer.........on a cement curb.

[b0b]

The music is what's important to me. The steel player's tone isn't even a close second. It's way down the list. The groove, the mix, originality, chords, harmonies, arrangements - there are a lot of things more important than the individual steel player's trademark tone.

A singer with an annoying voice turns me off a lot quicker than any steel player's tone. I mean, even bad steel guitar tone sounds better than a lot of singers I've heard.

[Dave Grafe]

I've got to hear that 'special' sound or I can't play at all.

I'm with you there, Ray, that's the long and short of it...

[Stuart Legg]

Good tone is tone you get used to.

[Bill Duncan]

My problem is no matter what I do, I always sound like me!

So I'm with Bob, get the music right first.

[Richard Tague]

I have worked 35 years to find "my" bass tone...and pretty darn proud of it, too. Nothng makes my smile more, than when I peek at the FOH board and see my channel eq flat. Being new to psg, I'm still searching for my psg tone. I hope it don't take another 35 years to find it!!!

[Donny Hinson]

The music is what's important to me. The steel player's tone isn't even a close second. It's way down the list. The groove, the mix, originality, chords, harmonies, arrangements - there are a lot of things more important than the individual steel player's trademark tone.

The same goes for me. If the song sucks, or the players aren't together with a somewhat cohesive and balanced sound, I don't care what the tone is...I'm gone. Also, "tone" isn't some fixed parameter, like so many will try and tell you. It's a variable and dynamic thing, and for most all players, it changes many times. Buddy's tone changed over the years, as did Lloyd's, Pete's, Curly's, Tom's, and even Paul's. Listening to all the great players through the years make this painfully obvious - one "tone" just doesn't do it.

And IMHO, it doesn't matter how good you are, what you're talking about, or what it is you're doing. Stuck in a rut is stuck in a rut.

[Barry Blackwood]

Quote:
I've got to hear that 'special' sound or I can't play at all.


I'm with you there, Ray, that's the long and short of it...

I'm in this school..

[Curt Trisko]

Can you guys bring me up to speed. When you say tone, are you just talking about vibrato, string attack, EQ, and what amount of effects to use?

I don't understand why tone should remain the same across different songs and genres.

[Willie Sims]

Okay fellas, what do you mean by tone? Is it a tone you prefer for your own style of playing? Are a tone that sounds like someone else. That you really like, I have heard so many players that sound like Jeff Newman's clones, that you have no idea who you are listening to. Develop your own style and tone, and learn to live with it.


Willie Sims

[Stuart Legg]

Oh Boy! now you've done it! you pooted in Sunday School asking a question like that from folks who deny knowing anything about music you might learn from a book.

[Ken Campbell]

Does Jay Dee sound like Paul? Does Tommy sound like Jay Dee? Nope. I try real hard to sound like me. My tone/vibrato. That said I am probably an amalgamation of the players that I listen too.....

[b0b]

Can you guys bring me up to speed. When you say tone, are you just talking about vibrato, string attack, EQ, and what amount of effects to use?

I don't understand why tone should remain the same across different songs and genres.

Some bandleaders have told me that they really like the way I change tones based on the song. The variety of sounds coming from the steel guitar is one of the main reasons they hire me. If I used the same tone on everything, I wouldn't get as much work.

I remember seeing Merle Haggard once. He came out and and strummed a few chords on his Tele. It sounded horrible. I thought sure he was going to go back and adjust his amp, but he didn't. The band started playing and suddenly Merle's guitar sounded perfect. His tone was crap without the band, and gold with it. It cut through everything like a knife, and you knew it was the man himself whenever he took a solo.

[Jerome Hawkes]

i remember something the great John Hartford said once regarding this -
"you can not manufacture a style - it comes from accepting your limitations" - this was referring to his failed attempt to sound just like Earl Scruggs on banjo - somewhere along the way, he developed his own unique style.

everyone has heroes they attempt to emulate early in their study of any instrument - yet some develop their own style as they either fail, or realize its a fantasy. some try to buy the tone with the exact gear of said heroes and others embrace their uniqueness.
there is way too much cloning going on - & i'm as guilty as any...
i think the adapting of the same copedants is part of it. I remember starting out on Winnie Winston's book and being bewildered at the vast differences in copedants and tunings of the early players - yet that gave them each a unique character...Red Rhodes did not sound like Curly who didnt sound like Mooney who didnt sound like Emmons..etc

[Bob Hickish]

He came out and and strummed a few chords on his Tele. It sounded horrible. I thought sure he was going to go back and adjust his amp, but he didn't. The band started playing and suddenly Merle's guitar sounded perfect.

Nothing like being in tune with the band !! works every time .

[Curt Trisko]

i remember something the great John Hartford said once regarding this -
"you can not manufacture a style - it comes from accepting your limitations" - this was referring to his failed attempt to sound just like Earl Scruggs on banjo - somewhere along the way, he developed his own unique style.

I think the music that touches me the most is born out of musicians who have accepted their limitations and improvised around it. Usually it has to do with voice limitations, but sometimes artists overcome their limitations with their instruments by taking it in a different direction or else just focusing on becoming very fine at what parts of their instrument they do well. It makes it sound deeply human and interesting.

[Ray Montee]

Lloyd Green and Sarah Jory both have "a sound" that is unlike any other of the multitudes of steel pickers.

Give some of their stuff a good DEEP listen, then....

compare THAT SOUND to all of the others that are discussed here on the SGF

I classify TONE........as the largeness of full bodied sound on all strings rather than that high shrills whiney cat wailing sound so often heard.

Another comparison for study is the difference between JERRY BYRD and Don Helms.

[b0b]

Most of the difference that I hear between Lloyd Green and Sarah Jory is in their choice of notes and their technique, not their tone. Same with Jerry Byrd vs Don Helms.

Maybe I'm just tone-deaf, Ray.