Hello toneheads, is that a word?  It is now.  Anyway, welcome back for the latest update on everyone’s favorite blog, Tinkering with Tone. This week’s post, I feel like changing things up some and attempt to weave two similar concepts together. So, brace yourself for some face-melting awesomeness and hopefully a little audience engagement too.

As most guitarists know and claim the combination of wood, pickups, string type, and even your lowly plectrum make up your sound.  But what about the amp and pedals? There are so many options available today that it is really easy to tinker with tone.   So, this week, instead of sharing out my latest crackpot project and/or idea.  I thought I would take a trip down the signal chain lane and write about the electric guitar signal chain and how this is one piece of a larger puzzle. By the end of this piece, I hope to leave you with the concept of “the Wall of Sound.”   More come on that that later.

First and foremost.  What is the ideal signal path from your guitar to the amp? I don’t claim to have all the answers; however, I typically run straight into my amp, mostly, because I don’t own a lot of pedals. Still, my ideal tone chain when I do get out my distortion, wah, and chorus pedals are typically in this order: distortion – Wah – Chorus.  Why? Simple, pedal order matters, leading with distortion gives your other stompboxes a clearer sound when amplified.  What I mean to say is this, if you lead with your distortion pedal, you are distorting the guitar’s signal and not the effects following the distortion pedal.  In practice, that means you are sending a “cleaner,” less noisy signal to the amp, so if you want a heavy sound with some chorus, reverb, or something else, you are not distorting those effects.

 

Guitar World has a similar take on this as I do and they’ve written an informative article describing some dos and don’ts.  Their point and mine is this figure out what you like and build from there.

Do some research, heck, go out and buy one of those DIY pedal kits; I did, an Electro-Harmonix Big Muff Pi with the op-amp circuit clone and build yourself a stompbox.  It doesn’t appear that the op-amp kit is available any longer, but you can get parts and plans at GuitarPCB.com. So, I guess you get a little bit of a project that I have to start and finish.  Just in case you are wondering, no, my wife does not know I bought this.

Music, like any art, is all about preference and feel.  Meaning you can do what you think sounds best and delivers the tone you want.  For me personally, I love the huge over-driven guitar sounds of the ’60s and ’70s.  Those hard-driving, raunchy, dirty filth sounds are how I like to describe it, and to be honest; I’m probably stealing that from Rob Chapman and the Anderton guy. But my point is, I want you to think overdriven Marshall stack and an overdriven Les Paul.  Funny, because I consider myself a Fender guy, but heck, Jimi had some killer overdrive on my all-time favorite song, Voodoo Child, or at least one of them.  Sorry for the sidebar, but man, he is just heavy on that song.  Maybe, he recorded it with a Les Paul or Flying V; some humbucker-equipped guitar, I don’t really care, that song is just amazing.

That leads to my next topic when you got into music, and I don’t care what your musical tastes are, what was it that drew you into specific bands, singers, groups, rappers.  I mean, just great musicians in general?  Typically, the first thing that draws me to into a song is the rhythm and sound.  That tone can elicit an emotional response like no other; whether it gets you pumped during a workout, or relaxes you, I typically don’t listen to the lyrics at first.  Those layered tones, crafted and created in such a way that you can lose yourself in the music.  That is what I love, how about you?  Please. Comment below.

Obligatory Disclaimer:

Please keep it civil, I do moderate these posts, and I won’t approve “trolls” we get enough of that, and I frankly don’t really care about your arguments based on personal attack.  If you want to change my mind, then make a good argument.

Just think about it, a song is more than just some notes strung together in a rhythmic pattern with lyrics thrown in for fun.  Musicians create this art in a thoughtful and structured way. While they do that, they are continually refining the sound and layering in different elements to craft that unique experience.

What does this have to do with tone?  Have you ever stopped to think about all of the great songs and albums have in common?  Everyone one of the artists used a concept called the “wall of sound.”  What is the wall of sound?  Similar to a carefully designed guitar signal path, the wall of sound is the carefully designed blending of different sounds and tone signals intended to hit the listener with all of the complexities of the piece.  Phil Spector and Larry Levine created and defined the wall of sound concept.  The continually refined the wall of sound theory with a host of session musicians throughout their careers.

Before diving into the complexities of the wall of sound, I want to take you back a moment to the early paragraphs.  You see, when you are creating your tone, it isn’t as simple as just turning everything up to 11.  All you do then is get loud, distorted, noise.  What was so innovative with the wall of sound?  Well for one, it changed modern popular music, Spector and crew, arranged and layered in different instruments and vocalists to enhance the user experience.

Creating the music in this way was a radical departure from what was going on in the 1940s and ’50s.   When you listen to early popular music, there tended to be defined sections of the music; where specific instruments are featured more predominately before moving back into the overall mix. I know this is a generalization, so keep the comments to yourself please.  Anyway, back on topic, Spector and his team threw that formula out of the window and created huge tone and sound.  This concept revolutionized modern music or at least had a great impact.

There are many different approaches to creating a similar effect to what Spector and his fellow musicians did.  What I want you to take away from this post is that music, like all arts, is open to interpretation and experimentation.  I’m sure there was a time when double-tracked guitar parts were frowned upon, but you know what, filling in the gaps can lead to some layers to songs.  In my opinion, that is what the wall of sound wanted to accomplish.  Filling those gaps with nuance, that is why I like to tinker around with my equipment.

What I want to leave you with now is a bit of discussion.  Last weekish, I shared some content, from Guitar World, on their list of the thirteen greatest guitar tones of all time.  Here is my challenge to you, Mr. or Ms. reader, what are your favorite songs?  I’m not looking to debate tone, but songs, yes, I’ll engage you in that effort.  This discussion is supposed to be a fun and safe environment to post.  Remember, I posted a disclaimer above.  If you are a troll, I will not approve your content.

Cheers!