Psychology of Tone

[Andy_Chandler]

Thanks for the link, a great article!

[DarcyPerry]

Hey Andy! Welcome to the forum.

[Andy_Chandler]

Hey Darcy,

Cheers, nice to talk to you the other day

[Tsuken]

Cheers for the link

Yes. Yes it is.

[thehenderson]

How could anyone think it's not exactly like that??

[Tsuken]

Zigackly

[Hot_Grits]

I often think about this stuff, as I tend to be either fairly solidly retro or quite 'is that even a guitar any more?' when it comes to making sounds. When I have my weird sound hat on I do find myself thinking about my retroism.

That quote is exactly correct, so why does it occur in many people, including myself?

Part of it is hearing those classic tones over and over for many years, both on old songs and in new bands who would rather sound like those old songs than the contemporary stuff they hear.

But it can't just be about conservatism or socialisation. I think a big part of it comes down to what individuals find pleasant to actually stand in front of and listen to. It's just a fact that the overwhelming listening and music playing public don't want to stand in front of a dude blasting a tele on the bridge pickup into a thin sounding amp amp run on full treble and no bass. That's not weird at all, that's just human nature.

Simply put : some sounds sooth and some don't, and although individual reactions will always vary, I reckon much of the retro tone thing is simply people naturally gathering toward a comfortable middle point for themselves and their listeners.

What breaks out from that middle? - one could argue that post-pantera chug tone and 80s widdle tone are now retro sounds, so the question becomes: what is truly is new? -to which the answer is quite a bit, particularly in the area of using guitar as a signal for extreme sound processing in the way one would approach any sonic source. But even that is becoming an accepted norm in some genres.

But in large chunks of modern popular music, very little is new in guitar sound. And folk who often lambast the retro thing simply ironically can't spot their own retro-ism. Y'know, guys who like 20 year old guitar designs poking fun at guys who like 40 year old guitar designs.