Tone you love, even if it's not really "good"

[hamo]

I was listening to ...And Justice For All on the train this morning, and reflecting on the guitar tone. I love it. But I don't know if you could call it "good" by any stretch. Similarly with Anthrax and I Am The Law. It's got a kind of *whump whump" to the chords that I really dig.

Another is Megadeth's Holy Wars. To me it's really treble-y, and that's a good thing for me as I always hear stuff kinda muffled and "dark".

So what tones do you like that maybe aren't strictly "good"?

[jeremyb]

Holy wars is hot shit for sure, hmmm, I admit I like Keith Richards overly trebly twangy tele clang tone that he has on a lot of recordings, half of me is annoyed by it and the other half loves it, odd...

[Michael]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kkQDB7pTK3I[/youtube]
Love it.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VtBSuD4Qc8w[/youtube]
Solo around :50 or so. Kinda harsh and noisy, but great.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uo-4hXWghmg[/youtube]
The tone that starts around 1:05 and what follows for the rest of the song.

I'll stop now.. but yeah, basically anything from JF's SFTSYH album. Really lo-fi and not particularly great.. but I really love it.

[sambrowne]

Justice's tone is awesome, but the bass sucks. And the drums suck. The guitars sound choice!

[Hot_Grits]

Loads of stuff.

Robert Fripp's tone for the solo on Bowie's 'fashion' isn't something I'd want to use very often at all, but it's perfect for that moment. Some of Tony Iommi's tones on later Sabbath sound like an electric kazoo, but I love a lot of those tunes. Many would disagree with me, but I don't find Slash's tone on appetite particularly nice, but it works great for that record.

Then there's all the rare soul and African stuff I have where dudes were using whatever they could find. Weird and primitive tones and approaches to intonation abound, and I love that stuff.

As mentioned in a recent thread, I'm not a fan of Ed's tone post=84. But I can still listen to and appreciate that music.

Every tone has it's day.

[Some Bozo]

East Bay Ray

[Hot_Grits]

East Bay Ray

totally.

I wouldn't want Kurt's tone on Nevermind, but it works good on that record.

[Vorbis]

Malmsteen. Awful, amazing tone.

[Tsuken]

The question pre-supposes the existence of some objective standard of "good" and "bad" tone, without reference to context. - And I don't really think that's the case.

That notwithstanding, quite a lot of Billy Gibbons' various tones would for me fall into that bag of obnoxious and harsh, and really kind of wtf ... but they're perfect when he uses them, in the particular song. Jeff Beck has had a few tones which are pretty grating - or would be were it not for his amazing touch and playing. Brian May's had some weird ones as well, which just work in the song.

[sambrowne]

Malmsteen. Awful, amazing tone.

I actually really like his tone!

[Aquila Rossa]

I really like Tony Iommi's lead tone on the Technical Ecstacy and Never Say Die albums, I think it sounds great, but other people tell me it's horrible and I have "unique ears". I can't for the life of me understand what is wrong with it, it sounds great to me. I think in this era he had switched to Mesa Boogie until going back to Laney after Heaven and Hell, although in his instructional video that came out after Live Evil he was using Mesa Boogie and a scalloped BC Rich Mockingbird. I'll have to look it up, but I sure the Heavy Metal Willow-pedia knows and can tell me before I get around to it..

[twistedthoughts]

Many would disagree with me, but I don't find Slash's tone on appetite particularly nice, but it works great for that record.

Yeah, I've often though that too. Like if there wasn't the association with the great songs, would his tone stand up by itself? Probably not. It's quite bland really. As much as people like to bag him, he really was one hell of a guitarist in his GnR days.

[Pakehendrix]

+1 on Billy Gibbons. Also really like a lot of Matt Bellamy's tones, which would sound terrible in most other contexts. Also Neil Young, and a lot of the guitar work in Portishead.

[Hot_Grits]

I really like Tony Iommi's lead tone on the Technical Ecstacy and Never Say Die albums, I think it sounds great, but other people tell me it's horrible and I have "unique ears". I can't for the life of me understand what is wrong with it, it sounds great to me. I think in this era he had switched to Mesa Boogie until going back to Laney after Heaven and Hell, although in his instructional video that came out after Live Evil he was using Mesa Boogie and a scalloped BC Rich Mockingbird. I'll have to look it up, but I sure the Heavy Metal Willow-pedia knows and can tell me before I get around to it..

I'm pretty sure he was using solid state amps during this period.

[Tsuken]

Yeah, I've often though that too. Like if there wasn't the association with the great songs, would his tone stand up by itself? Probably not. It's quite bland really. As much as people like to bag him, he really was one hell of a guitarist in his GnR days.

Slash's tone - at least with GnR - stands out for me as one I really really dislike intensely, and cannot fathom why anyone likes it. It's scratchy and thin and fizzy/buzzy, and ... generally unpleasant (as the gaoler dude in Alien3 might have said )