Favorite guitar tone in a song

[Eric]

Hey good people,

I remember some thread on another forum I saw once about your favorite guitar tone in any song. I was wondering what all of you would list as your faves.

I was listening to some Oasis recently, and I realized that I really love the guitar in Don't Look Back in Anger, particularly the first two little blurbs of guitar (first 12 seconds):

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What is that tone, anyway?

So...how about it? What's your fave?

[Ch0jin]

Haha no love for Eric's post huh :)

OK off the top of my head, one I've always loved is the sound of the guitar solo in "Love Removal Machine" by the Cult. Go to 2:19....


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qaK81oUmbbs


That tone at the start of the Oasis song could be fuzz with the guitar tone rolled back?

[oldguy]

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Don't know as I have a fave, but this one I like.
The first 2 minutes or so are the best part, IMO.

[Lev]

U2 The Fly

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[Commodore 64]

Right now I'm really diggin' Robbie Robertson on It Makes No Difference. All you gotta do is listen to the intro here:
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Also should mention that I really love Rick Danko's vocals in general and especially on this song.

[R_of_G]

C64, excellent choice. :thumbsup

One of my favorite song-specific tones...

Marc Ribot on Tom Waits' "Jockey Full of Bourbon"
It was how he first got my attention.

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ps. Good thread Eric.

[wingsdad]

Being a Strat enthusiast, early Skynrd's Ed King's original 'Sweet Home Alabama' work...captured live in Germany here in '74. Of course, you prolly hate it, Eric, since you don't care much for Strats, especially pup positions 2 or 4. but I've tended to use them about 90-95% % of the time:
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4tLkf7muaM4

Long before Skynrd, King got my attention in the mid 60's as a kid with this cool fuzz tone that prolly sold a ton of early fuzz boxes...that's the younger but as burly King in the upper left of this decent but out-of-sync audio, crappy quality video clip of a tv appearance:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qhYLz63csS0

[Commodore 64]

Well, I hope Eric will remember...Ed King don't need him around anyhow.

[wingsdad]

Well, I hope Eric will remember...Ed King don't need him around anyhow.
Maybe if his conscience bothers him, and he tells it true... :)

[marnold]

This video makes it sound buzzier than it actually is.
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[Tig]

Edit: I just remembered my most favorite tone of all...
Pretty much every note Hendrix plays here.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kKbf5xxfaVE


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rf-Mtd2A1DI

[Monkus]

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starts from about 0:21...solo from 2:04

[pictoratus]

I always liked the guitar tone in this song. Starts in at about 00:40

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[deeaa]

I would have to say my favorite tones...are mostly on my own recordings. Of course, because I made them the way I like 'em. I pick any of my old tunes, I like the sounds really well. Let's put up this one for instance:Ashes and Bones (http://www.mikseri.net/artists/d-a/ashes-bones/132537/)

That said, I do love for instance the Cult Electric tones by and large; ACDC's *remastered* Powerage is superb, as most of ACDC is especially via a boombox rather than HiFi systems; some of Angus Young's tones really can make my hair stand up on my hands. Black Sabbath Mob Rules has insanely good sounding guitars. Iron Maiden's Piece of Mind etc. never fail to please.

BUT if I'm pressed for one song, well, really hard to say. On the latest Spookbox demo I got pretty much exactly what I strive for in the first song intro. One really old recording of mine from the 90's where a buddy of mine plays leads has probably the best lead sounds I've heard; despite the rather lo-fi recording quality they always make them small hairs stand up. But, one single song...impossible. It depends so much on the mood. Some day it could be the rhythm guitar on Faster Pussycat's 'Where There Is A Whip' and the other day Skid Row's Monkey Business gives me the chills. Or Pearl Jam's entire 'Vitalogy' album. Oh yeah Metallica pretty much perfected the metal guitar sound on 'Garage Days'...that one has sounds to die for. But sometimes Tool's industrial buzz sounds superb too, like on 'The Pot'. Acoustics can sound nice too; I once recorded and produced a folk artist's entire CD release for whose guitar I got a terrific, wooden and natural sound I really liked. Just impossible to point out one song I'd like.

[kidsmoke]

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solo at 3:10
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[kidsmoke]

Right now I'm really diggin' Robbie Robertson on It Makes No Difference. All you gotta do is listen to the intro here:
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Also should mention that I really love Rick Danko's vocals in general and especially on this song.

:applause

[t_ross33]

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[Jimi75]

Almost all of the last 3 albums Andy Timmons recorded have that perfect sound. Woody, clear, sparkling tones, overdriven but articulated. That's what SRV and Hendrix initiated soundwise and Timmons carries on that torch, although he's not the most well known player. I picked a live clip, because it shows best what I mean :-)

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[guitarhack]

Santana's playing always takes me to another place.

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[Eric]

Almost all of the last 3 albums Andy Timmons recorded have that perfect sound. Woody, clear, sparkling tones, overdriven but articulated. That's what SRV and Hendrix initiated soundwise and Timmons carries on that torch, although he's not the most well known player. I picked a live clip, because it shows best what I mean :-)
I only discovered him maybe a year ago from the Mesa Boogie website, but yeah I agree -- I love that tone. Makes me want to go buy a Mesa.

[Eric]

Santana's playing always takes me to another place.

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I think this should help.

[deeaa]

I think thread goes to show very well how diverse people's tastes are. There are some sounds I also find really good here, but some I pretty much loathe too and it's hard for me to believe someone likes that kind of sound. But then again, my wife for instance just hates any guitar sound wailing.

Matters of taste, for sure.

[Eric]

I think thread goes to show very well how diverse people's tastes are. There are some sounds I also find really good here, but some I pretty much loathe too and it's hard for me to believe someone likes that kind of sound. But then again, my wife for instance just hates any guitar sound wailing.

Matters of taste, for sure.
Yeah, I totally agree.

[kidsmoke]

Almost all of the last 3 albums Andy Timmons recorded have that perfect sound. Woody, clear, sparkling tones, overdriven but articulated. That's what SRV and Hendrix initiated soundwise and Timmons carries on that torch, although he's not the most well known player. I picked a live clip, because it shows best what I mean :-)

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I dig this. Lots of sonic flash, without the sonic showboating, if that makes sense. Thanks for sharing,
Nice thread, Eric

[NWBasser]

My favorite guitar tone ever is the acoustic Little Martha.

For electric, I'd say pretty much any song by Warren Haynes.

[Retro Hound]

Wow, a lot of variety here. It's pretty hard for me to decide, there's so many I like.

In high school it was Van Halen,
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And I've always loved fuzz with wah pedals. There's band called The Oxford Circle that had one album of covers. I LOVE the sound, but couldn't find a youtube vid of what I wanted. Starting at about 32 seconds.
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I like reverb drenched stuff like Chris Issak's Wicked Games,
Here's Ashley Cleavland with guitarist Kenny Greenberg
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I also love resonator (Dobro-style) and almost anything with a slide. Music starts at 45 seconds
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Acoustic guitar gets to me also. I'm sure I could keep going.

[Ch0jin]

+1 on the Black Keys Tio. I LOVE those guys. That guitar sound is 100% brilliant.

[Blaze]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mqW0_voRpY

[Rockermann]

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[Tig]

Blaze, thanks for reminding me how good that song is. "Diamond Dust" is one of those rare, perfect songs. Outa' this world tone, too.

I haven't listened to Blow By Blow in awhile. I think this album was the biggest single musical influence for me growing up.

[Pickngrin]

Santana's playing always takes me to another place.

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+1000! I experience Europa viscerally.

[Blaze]

Blaze, thanks for reminding me how good that song is. "Diamond Dust" is one of those rare, perfect songs. Outa' this world tone, too.

I haven't listened to Blow By Blow in awhile. I think this album was the biggest single musical influence for me growing up.


The Blow by Blow album is a Classic with all kind of great guitar Tones..but also was produced,arranged and directed by Mr.Georges Martin ..the 5e Beatles

Diamond Dust is some Tune , i agree..

[deeaa]

Seriously? I'm really blown away by this thread and people's likes and dislikes. Diamond dust? Sounds like someone used a Behringer 1st generation D/I emulator and played some random pentatonic c**p over a really annoyingly jazzy elevator music background :-) horrible, completely sustainless and screechy buzzy tone with ugly ovetones and the song itself is even more horrid...but, I guess, to each their own...

[Eric]

Seriously? I'm really blown away by this thread and people's likes and dislikes. Diamond dust? Sounds like someone used a Behringer 1st generation D/I emulator and played some random pentatonic c**p over a really annoyingly jazzy elevator music background :-) horrible, completely sustainless and screechy buzzy tone with ugly ovetones and the song itself is even more horrid...but, I guess, to each their own...
Making lots of friends there, Dee. :poke

Not that I disagree, but I just chalk it up to me maybe not getting the music or something. I dunno. I have my tastes, others have theirs. But this thread has been eye-opening, to say the least.

[Tig]

Amazing.
So Jeff Beck, considered to be the best living guitarist by almost all of the other best guitarists, records an album in 1974 produced by George Martin (who also arranged Diamond Dust), using all analog recording and tube amps, sounds like some POS Behringer that is years away from being created??? Maybe he should have taken lessons from Angus on the fine art of playing and tonal variety.

You sure carry some anger around. We all tend to judge musicians who are far superior than we are, but most of us still respect them, even if we don't like something that have created.

[deeaa]

LOL now I feel like I have to explain myself. I do like JB usually, and his usual/more modern tones, and I've all the respect in the world for him as a player and a musician...I jut don't like that song, it's nothing like I'd ever listen to at all, both sonically and musically. Can't say I'd hate it - I don't really hate anything really, I don't believe in hatred - but I sure don't like it. It's just my personal opinion and I have no problem when somebody does like it, and dislike what I like in return, I dunno what'd be wrong with that. Best discussions with my best friends usually include a lot of talk about how someone loves this and that band/player, and the other thinks they/he/she sucks to no end.

But in any case, to me that clip just sounds similarly bad as as a lot of 70's music does. Angus too, on the old albums, sounds horrid quite often BTW...they were mixed and recorded to be heard thru some really dull 70's mono-etc- systems, and as a result, well, Let There Be Rock for instance heard from a CD and a fine HiFi system is completely unlistenable. The guitars sound like freaking circular saws. I sometimes wonder if my ear is particularly sensitive to some certain midrange peak that irks me to no end, and that seems to be present in a LOT of 70's music. It doesn't seem to help they used 'great' tube gear, they still managed to get horrid sound out of them anyway. I guess they didn't even have good drive pedals back then, just fuzzes and such.

Of course for instance Beatles did some groundbreaking driven guitar stuff too, and that's incredible in a historical context, but, come on, out of the context, aren't those sounds pretty damned horrible sounding after all?
How bad does the original Woodstock soundtrack sound, if you compare it to the version they remastered in the 90's? Pretty bad.

I mean, take the remastered versions of the said albums, and voilá the sounds are completely different.

Unless it's a remastered version, I can't much recall any 70's albums that would have really great guitar sounds in my book, unless listened to with a boombox or something. I used to dislike all rock music prior to late 70's quite a lot (Stuff like Steppenwolf, Zeppelin, Purple, Heep, etc.) until I started in a cover band that only played those band's songs...when I heard them with good sounds and such, I started liking the stuff.

But for instance Deep Purple's best album in my book is actually a cover album where other people play Purple's songs :-)

It's weird because now and then I listen to much older stuff too, you know, Buddy Holly, Swing music, Motown, Fizgerald, and I like it a lot, hell, sometimes I may listen to some real weird jazzy stuff too, but something about those 70's guitars and rock sounds very often sound real bad to me, and combined with discoish drum etc. sounds and pseudo-jazz backings, eh, no thanks.

[wingsdad]

The opening track from one of those damned horrible mid-70's guitar sound albums that was recorded essentially on an analog, 12-track tape machine in a basement home studio still harbors some of my favorite guitar tones in the Tom Scholz sound :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SSR6ZzjDZ94

[deeaa]

Ah, Boston is definitely not that early-70's stuff...those sounds I really dig, very nice. The whole album is a great production way ahead of its time despite the way it was done, incredibly good and doesn't sound at all dated even now. Although the music always was a bit too 'hit' music type for me, that's still awesome stuff, superb vocals and production all the way.

[Blaze]

Seriously? I'm really blown away by this thread and people's likes and dislikes. Diamond dust? Sounds like someone used a Behringer 1st generation D/I emulator and played some random pentatonic c**p over a really annoyingly jazzy elevator music background :-) horrible, completely sustainless and screechy buzzy tone with ugly ovetones and the song itself is even more horrid...but, I guess, to each their own...

I can understand that Fans of the Peavey 550 + Multi_effect Rack ,Active Humbuckers Charvel type of sound would prefer some 4\4 180 Bpm Hard Rock song that sound like Firearms Ad than a maybe too complexe 9\8 75 Bpm slow song with some great soloing in it ..

Maybe it is only a Generation conflict..

[Eric]

I can understand that Fans of the Peavey 550 + Multi_effect Rack ,Active Humbuckers Charvel type of sound would prefer some 4\4 180 Bpm Hard Rock song that sound like Firearms Ad than a maybe too complexe 9\8 75 Bpm slow song with some great soloing in it ..

Maybe it is only a Generation conflict..
I think it's just different tastes. Everyone involved in this JB discussion has now started insulting/offending each other, so congratulations.

I for one can't really connect with a lot of what I've heard from Jeff Beck. Is it because it's too complex? Probably. However, I don't think that means that my opinion is worthless. Maybe it does. Whatever.

This thread was initially just to get an idea of what people like, and it has mostly done that. A lot of the tones in here I don't necessarily love, but I think that's pretty interesting; lots of differing opinions on what is basically the same subject.

So anyway, can we drop this argument?

[oldguy]

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I like this.