Tone: Lost your way or found yourself?

[Chugalug]

Recently I started messing around with pedals and adjusting some mic/cab and EQ settings in my OX box app. While adjusting them it sounds great. I come back the next day turn it all on and I’m not stoked like the prior time playing with adjustments. Perhaps this is my journey to finding my tone to what is appealing to my ear, but it seems to be changing almost daily and I wondered if anyone else has had this happen? It almost feels like a road block to finding what’s tonally acceptable to myself or perhaps it’s just option paralysis.



For me it started after tweaking my OX app settings and then getting my first fuzz pedal. I like and try to emulate a few different tones(Deftones, Slipknot, Pantera, Rammstien, Slayer, Static-X, High on Fire) so I always thought my lead channel, most liked ENGL Savage channel was the way. Now I find myself much preferring the boosted fuzz tone from my clean channel. That boosted Fuzz from my clean channel almost feels like my music can be shaped and moved with my hand/movement far more and I still get clarity, but the forgiving factor of the fuzz. Now I’m wondering if I should look at different amps, since maybe I finally found a tone with this fuzz that perhaps I was actually looking for out of the amp alone, but might’ve been missing this entire time. I get that music is art and we all have our own taste, but can’t always put our finger on it or maybe my ear is finally learning what it’s been looking for or I’m just chasing something that I’ll never catch?

 

[Deadpool_25]

Happens.

All.

The.

Time.

 

[jaxadam]

The biggest reason I haven’t pulled the trigger on a speaker mod for two 2x12 cabs I have laying around is because overall I’m pretty happy with what I hear.

That may be worse than not finding your tone!

 

[Werecow]

This happens to me. Seems to be a few things i've narrowed it down to, but the main things seem to be... how long i've been using a particular tone, how my mental health is doing, if i'm tired either the day before when setting up a new tone or on the day when i hate it.

I used to be someone seeking that "one tone" , but now i have a few tones in my head that really please me. It sounds simple, but just having that in my head has stopped this happening so much to me. I know a lot of people can't do this, but having two or three very different sounding and feeling amps (but that you still love) helps a great deal in this situation. So now, when i'm having that depressing shit tone day, my first action is to change to a different amp, and that often helps. I still have the odd day where i think the only option is to just put down the guitar for that evening, and let it sort itself out, and that's a valid tactic as well.

 

[Choop]

You'd probably dig an Orange.

But yeah, same. Aside from just hearing something differently or having a different reaction when coming back to a sound you had, our tastes just change for any number of reasons. I used to always want a good amount of gain from the preamp, but lately I'm playing more music where I want an edge of breakup kind of sound and the amps I currently own don't do it like I want without pedals.

 

[Chugalug]

You'd probably dig an Orange.

But yeah, same. Aside from just hearing something differently or having a different reaction when coming back to a sound you had, our tastes just change for any number of reasons. I used to always want a good amount of gain from the preamp, but lately I'm playing more music where I want an edge of breakup kind of sound and the amps I currently own don't do it like I want without pedals.

You know I wondered if I would like an Orange. The rockerverb was on the list, but at that time I didn’t want an OX and just wanted a good amp that still sounded great at lower volumes and had numerous options for clean, crunch, the heavy chugs. I got the OX to record, but the attenuation was a major value add. Might be worth revisiting the Orange now that I can attenuate. Many years ago, sadly like 15 years ago, my favorite Amps were Diezel VH4, Rivera K-tre and KR-7, Framus Cobra and Mesa Mk4.

Thanks for the replies! You know the saying more money more problems, well it seems true. My broke ass before didn’t care as much haha. Appreciate everyone and how they feel, glad I’m not alone in this.

 

[Kosthrash]

I've noticed that if I play in different volume, I perceive differently my tone (fletcher-Munson?) and i dislike it if I don't adjust the eq every time, so I try to keep in same dB 😉

 

[wakjob]

I simply stopped caring... about tone and gear and everything that goes with it, and just started concentrated on practicing and improving my playing.

...and wouldn't you know it, I sound better regardless of what rig I'm playing through.

 

[HoneyNut]

Recently I started messing around with pedals and adjusting some mic/cab and EQ settings in my OX box app. While adjusting them it sounds great. I come back the next day turn it all on and I’m not stoked like the prior time playing with adjustments. Perhaps this is my journey to finding my tone to what is appealing to my ear, but it seems to be changing almost daily and I wondered if anyone else has had this happen? It almost feels like a road block to finding what’s tonally acceptable to myself or perhaps it’s just option paralysis.



For me it started after tweaking my OX app settings and then getting my first fuzz pedal. I like and try to emulate a few different tones(Deftones, Slipknot, Pantera, Rammstien, Slayer, Static-X, High on Fire) so I always thought my lead channel, most liked ENGL Savage channel was the way. Now I find myself much preferring the boosted fuzz tone from my clean channel. That boosted Fuzz from my clean channel almost feels like my music can be shaped and moved with my hand/movement far more and I still get clarity, but the forgiving factor of the fuzz. Now I’m wondering if I should look at different amps, since maybe I finally found a tone with this fuzz that perhaps I was actually looking for out of the amp alone, but might’ve been missing this entire time. I get that music is art and we all have our own taste, but can’t always put our finger on it or maybe my ear is finally learning what it’s been looking for or I’m just chasing something that I’ll never catch?

Yes,

How I hear things in the morning differs how I hear things after a full days work and being out in traffic.

When its quiet, I overcompensate for treble, and when its noisy, around rush hour, i tend to dial in more treble.

That said, your ears will always be chasing. Now, if youre going to want master making tone and setups, or rather spend that time music, thats on you.

Tone hunting eats up a lot of my practice time.

 

[budda]

Set and forget. You cant get used to a tone if you change it every time you turn on your rig.

 

[c7spheres]

Sounds like you're still learning that gear a little. Fuzz's and distortions into clean usually are more dynamic like you describe because cleans are fuller and have more headroom usually. Maybe you're finding your own tone since you prefer that. Keep going and eventually things sill start to settle down. I'd try out but maybe not jump on another amp quite yet. If you're still diggin the tones you're getting then it's probably in there somewhere.
Our ears do change a lot. It could be even just due to temperature, congestion environmental noise etc. Hearing through this is a constant practice.
One thing to maybe try is to reset your ears in a way. Right before you start tweeking knobs try turning each knob all the way up then down slowly, quickly etc while listening to the noise floor. I find it kinda resets the ears I'm guessing probably because it establishes a familiarity and a sort of baseline to go by. It seems to stick in the short term momory/feel of what you're adjusting, ime.
Also try smaller tweeks too. Sometimes all you need to to turn the treble or mid's up an hour or bass down an hour etc. small tweek I think make you more in tune with what the amps doing too.
- Maybe if there's a way to bypass the IR's in the OXBox, adjust buzzy tone best you can, then maybe find an IR that suits it best rather than trying to force an amp to fit an IR. IR curves are more flexible and available than what's in the amp since it's got fixed curves. It's more likely to find an IR that fits the rig than making the rig fit an IR, imo. Full disclosure. I'm not into IR's yet. haven't found 'the one' haha. A rabbit hole I'm not sure I'll ever find the bottom of.
- If you can get your rig soundnig how you want while using a real cab, then capture several IR's of it and see how they fit or belnd to try reactreatig your rig. I think that's really the purpose of an IR is to catpure an existing setup and I think post production IR's and trying new IR's on for size in modellers and such are more of an experimental thing that can sometimes yelid good results, but I don't think it's how they're really techincally meant to be used, imo. It's probablky why a lot of people hold on to Kempers and such as it's capturing a rig/tone rather than trying to create it from. IR's are a caputre tool not reall a tone tool, imo, though not used that way by many in practice.

 

[cthsqd]

Finding your own perfect tone is one thing, some sort of holy grail that people seek if they don’t have experience with music production, while the overall impression is achieved in composition and at production level.
The tone itself matters, but not much more than the rest of elements in the track.
Also we learn constantly, and the tone we think is great now may sound like crap after a year.
Searching for the perfect tone is fun, but in the end not that important.

 

[dmlinger]

Your ears do get tired from listening. Many many years ago when I mixed and even when I’d do live FOH work, I’d have to take breaks. When you come back after even a short break, you’d notice a difference in how frequencies sound.

It happened all the time where I’d go home and sleep and the next day at the studio my mix would sound different.

Right now I run 3 different patches on my AxeFx. A Friedman, 5150, and a Dual Rec sound. I prefer a different one every day but it’s as easy as stomping until I hit the one I’m in the mood for.

I think it keeps it fresh and fun.

 

[sleewell]

I don't really try to sound like other bands. Just have ideas in my head I try to achieve. I'm more happy with my sound now than I've been in a while but it's definitely been a journey over the years. finally getting tones I'm happy with day to day w very little tweaking is very rewarding. Helps you just focus on playing with your band mates and writing more.

 

[Chugalug]

Your ears do get tired from listening. Many many years ago when I mixed and even when I’d do live FOH work, I’d have to take breaks. When you come back after even a short break, you’d notice a difference in how frequencies sound.

It happened all the time where I’d go home and sleep and the next day at the studio my mix would sound different.

Right now I run 3 different patches on my AxeFx. A Friedman, 5150, and a Dual Rec sound. I prefer a different one every day but it’s as easy as stomping until I hit the one I’m in the mood for.

I think it keeps it fresh and fun.

Thanks! I had originally thought about going the Axe Fx route running off a VHT power amp…at least that was an idea I had many years ago. Still wonder if that could help and be more cost effective vs numerous pedals, an Ox, amps, cab etc.

 

[Chugalug]

I don't really try to sound like other bands. Just have ideas in my head I try to achieve. I'm more happy with my sound now than I've been in a while but it's definitely been a journey over the years. finally getting tones I'm happy with day to day w very little tweaking is very rewarding. Helps you just focus on playing with your band mates and writing more.

Exactly what I’m after. I find myself getting frustrated after realizing I spent my daily hour or so time tweaking tone…still playing, but then part way into playing I think, man this would be better with a touch more low end growl. I mess around with things and then I’ve spent the rest of time messing around vs working a riff or song idea I had in my head.

 

[budda]

Exactly what I’m after. I find myself getting frustrated after realizing I spent my daily hour or so time tweaking tone…still playing, but then part way into playing I think, man this would be better with a touch more low end growl. I mess around with things and then I’ve spent the rest of time messing around vs working a riff or song idea I had in my head.

Like I said, set and forget.

 

[TheBlackBard]

I found my tone with my Orange Rockerverb Mark III 100 or got 90 percent of the way. As soon as I boosted it with a Walrus Audio Iron Horse? I haven't touched a thing since.

 

[LCW]

Sort of found it. SG into a high gain EL34 amp. Got the Badlander for a sweet deal so price of entry wasn't too bad. After a major journey with Les Pauls, an Eclipse, various super Strats (various Jacksons) and an actual Fender Strat, I'm firmly back to an SG as my main axe. Just feel at home on them.

 

[Screamingdaisy]

I have a strict rule where I won't touch the amp's EQ for at least 20 minutes after powering it up. I found once I started doing that I spent a lot less time chasing my own tail.