It seems to me, no matter what gear, pretty much every guitarist keeps changing their tones all the time. Usually gear too, to achieve that end.

Why is it that we strive for some 'gold standard' which is nothing but make-believe _on record_ and not what you would get playing that studio rig live?

I'll say this much: I believe I have better or as good a tone out of my gear as _anybody_ ever did. And I mean NOBODY ever, any artist, got better tones (for the type of tone of course).

Now, that's what _I_ think. You may not think my tone the greatest. But why don't you make your tone what YOU want it to be, instead of striving to get 'the tone he and he got on that album' etc.

I admit it, I cannot record my tone as well as I'd like. I don't have a multimillion studio or production crew and mixing wizards to use. Thus I do hear tones on record that are better than what I get on record. But not hugely better. I'm sure my sound is as good as they were in the studio.

Besides, tones are always per song. Money For Nothing may have a great tone to guitar, but it can't be used for many a song.

Then there are some artists who never change their basic tone...Angus and Neil Young have never changed their gear and tone throughout their career - they sound completely different on each album, because the studio and producers were different.

Why do people fall into the trap of trying to achieve with gear changes, what actually is like 48% studio magic and 48% in your fingers and mere few percent to do with the gear used?

Let's discuss!