Favorite guitar tones.

[kpunk56]

List some of your favorite guitar tones on record. And the equipment used if you have knowledge of it. And describe why you like it.

Cheap Trick - Lost Steve Albini recording of In color - For one , when there is an amazing punchy drum sound , as long as you have a good warm tube amp, the sounds are pleasing. I also like alot of the tones that Rick Nielsen had on alot of their live stuff back in the 70s, Kind of warm and fuzzy, I always felt that it blended well with the 12 string bass sounds that Tom Peterson had.
On recordings I am not sure what Rick uses, but I know live he uses Rivera modded Fender deluxes, and Fuchs Train 45s I think.


Sex Pistols - Never mind the bullocks ---- Simple riffs but blend very well with the bass tones and drums, The record is just a basis that good over all tones should be judged by. Fender Twin reverb was used, there is never tell of overdrive, but it sounds sort of too smooth to be a Twin by itself.


Murder City Devils - In name and blood, Just a well mixed sound of everything --- one guy uses an Orange 90s OTR either an 80 or 120 ...... one guy used a Soldano SLO I believe.

Sometimes you hear a recording that has a great guitar tone, but then the drums and or bass or even the vocals do not sit well in the mix. When everything is meshing together correctly it is pleasing to the ears. The items that I mentioned above. To me are just some examples of that.


These are just some that I am thinking about at the moment I am sure that I will think of more, I just wanted to spark conversation.

[Wendigo]

ZZ Top - Brown Sugar Solo guitar...sounds like an angry woman throwing you out of the house for good.

Van Halen - Drop Dead Legs...when the main riff kicks in, it sounds like being bludgeoned with a mallet

Eric Clapton - solo on Bell Bottom Blues...sounds like a Strat being played through a vintage amp

JJ Cale - solo on Cajun Moon... sounds like an old guy living in a trailer playing guitar with a compressor

[Les Paul Lover]

I'm a big fan of Muse's matt bellamy's tone.

His lead tone are pretty sick in some songs (fuzz factory I think) and in others he has one of the warmest richest recorded guitars tones I know of.

I still love slash lead tones from the use your illusion albums.

Mark knopfler never seems to sound bad... The Live dire straits recording have incredible guitar tone too.

[kpunk56]

ZZ Top - Brown Sugar Solo guitar...sounds like an angry woman throwing you out of the house for good.

Van Halen - Drop Dead Legs...when the main riff kicks in, it sounds like being bludgeoned with a mallet

Eric Clapton - solo on Bell Bottom Blues...sounds like a Strat being played through a vintage amp

JJ Cale - solo on Cajun Moon... sounds like an old guy living in a trailer playing guitar with a compressor

Yes Billy Gibbons tone from ZZ top is always pretty great.... Oddly he uses really light strings... like 7s or 8s on the high E. which seems insane. I think his guitar techs hate it, because they won't hold tune well. Still a great tone...

Some other mentions -----Mountains Leslie West on mississippi queen... huge lp jr tone on leads.

I like the lead tones on early Kiss records from the 70s. I think the rhythm tones could use improvement sometimes, but the leads sound cool.

Early 70s Alice Cooper, T Rex and Bowie (Mick Ronson ) Sweet, and Slade. Also an unknown early glam band called Silverhead.

[FleshOnGear]

Jimmy Page - too many tones to list, but especially the older Supro tones

Mick Ronson - Bowie stuff

Alex Lifeson - the first Rush album

Santana - early stuff

Michael Schenker - on UFO's Phenomenon

Pete Townshend - Live at Leeds and Who's Next

Neil Young

Ritchie Blackmore - Deep Purple In Rock

Weezer - first album

Slayer - Seasons In the Abyss

Greg Brown - Cake's Fashion Nugget

Radiohead - Bodysnatchers

Weekend Nachos

Josh Homme

David Gilmour

That's what I've got for now...

[Randy Bass]

I would have to put "Black Magic Woman" near the top even if it's not a very original or obscure choice. I also hold "Blue Sky" in high regard. "Working Man" and "War Pigs" are both incredible (and strangely similar). The Use Your Illusion albums have some amazing stuff too.

[Ronnie Robinson]

Crikey sooooo many....Here's some not mentioned

Gary moore - Parissiene walkways

Joe bonamassa - Sloe gin, just got paid

Steely Dan - reelin in the years

[Kfunk666]

Josh Homme - Songs For The Deaf album

Doyle - Famous Monsters and American Psycho albums.

Hendrix - Machine Gun

Tony Iommi - Psycho Man

Mike Conte (Early Man ) - Closing In album

Ron Asheton - I Wanna Be Your Dog

[kpunk56]

Of course Early Van Halen stuff is always awesome. I think that EVH tones are always inspiring to anyone into any type of rock.

The brown sound is a thing that most people like regardless of genre.... although I am not a fan of the EVH amps. They are not bad , but they dont come close to Orange.


Boston had cool guitar tones.

I am a huge Johnny thunders fan too, some of his tones were great some not so great... I dont like how he loved reverb so much.

[kpunk56]

Oh yeh.... Stooges for sure, I am more of a James Williamson Raw power man myself...

Although i like the first two also...

[yossarian83]

The only guitar sounds I've ever become infatuated with were pretty typical. Metallica, Morbid Angel (Covenant), Dream Theater, Neil Young, but mostly Tim Sult from Clutch. That guy had massive tone back in the 90's consisting mostly of Marshall+OR120 run side by side. Nowadays I'm more into basic 5e3 tweed deluxe sounds. It's surprisingly OR120-ish with the right speaker and cab combo.

[snickerpuss]

David Gilmour on Dogs. Telecaster with a raspy big muff into a Hiwatt and Yamaha rotary speaker. Love it, especially the first and second to last solos. Oh, and check out this live Fat Ol Sun tone.
https://youtu.be/2yOVTF5gTXM?t=3m24s

Elliott Randall's lead work on Reelin' in the Years is what made me want to learn guitar. It's a 69' Gibson humbucker in the neck position of a Fender Stratocaster played through an Ampeg SVT bass amp.

Thin Lizzie. When I think of rock, I think of Scott Gorham and Brian Robertson. I hate playing les pauls, I just can't make them sound like what I'm after, but I love what others do with em, especially these two. Les Pauls into Marshalls with WEM copicat and Echoplex boosts. Classic.

[bclaire]

Yes Billy Gibbons tone from ZZ top is always pretty great.... Oddly he uses really light strings... like 7s or 8s on the high E. which seems insane. I think his guitar techs hate it, because they won't hold tune well. Still a great tone...

Some other mentions -----Mountains Leslie West on mississippi queen... huge lp jr tone on leads.

Actually, I've never heard Elwood complain (BFG's guitar tech). (Article and video: http://www.guitarplayer.com/artists/101 ... ideo/53503

Leslie West's early Mountain tone is what got me into guitar. That and many of The Beatles' guitar sounds. Great stuff...

All-around rock tone, I think AC/DC guitar sounds are pretty great. Johnny A. has some good sounds, too.

The first Aerosmith album has great guitar tones from Joe and Brad...

Sterophonics' guitar tones are pretty great as well... and Billy Duffy from The Cult is a tone monster... Syl Sylvain has some great guitar tones in the NY Dolls...

and lastly, Ryan Adams has had a wide variety of incredible guitar sounds over the years. He's pretty much using nothing but Fender Princeton Reverbs these days but he used to tour with an Orange AD30TC combo....

[kpunk56]

Yes Billy Gibbons tone from ZZ top is always pretty great.... Oddly he uses really light strings... like 7s or 8s on the high E. which seems insane. I think his guitar techs hate it, because they won't hold tune well. Still a great tone...

Some other mentions -----Mountains Leslie West on mississippi queen... huge lp jr tone on leads.

Actually, I've never heard Elwood complain (BFG's guitar tech). (Article and video: http://www.guitarplayer.com/artists/101 ... ideo/53503

Leslie West's early Mountain tone is what got me into guitar. That and many of The Beatles' guitar sounds. Great stuff...

All-around rock tone, I think AC/DC guitar sounds are pretty great. Johnny A. has some good sounds, too.

The first Aerosmith album has great guitar tones from Joe and Brad...

Sterophonics' guitar tones are pretty great as well... and Billy Duffy from The Cult is a tone monster... Syl Sylvain has some great guitar tones in the NY Dolls...

and lastly, Ryan Adams has had a wide variety of incredible guitar sounds over the years. He's pretty much using nothing but Fender Princeton Reverbs these days but he used to tour with an Orange AD30TC combo....

Billy Duffy especially on Electric has a great sound.

[Borderline Productions]

Clapton's tone on the Bluesbreakers (John Mayall) album
Gary Moore on BBM album (Bruce, Baker, Moore)
Martin Turner and Andy Powell on Wishbone Ash's Argus album
Anything by Santana