Tone is in the hands?

Paul Matthews · From: Westhoughton, Lancs, England

A little anecdote.

I have played in rockabilly bands for years. We were playing a friend's birthday party. Said friend was a guitarist (punky background), so we thought we would get him up for a number.

Our guitarist had a telecaster available, and had set it up with a nice typical tele sound.

Said friend picks it up and starts to play, and it sounded just like birthday boys nasty cheap guitar!

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Absolute beginner!
Bennet Freshman E9 3+3

Greg Derksen · From: Alberta, Canada

If I practice, I generally sound better, If I can play through my good friends "Original"
65 Twin reverb, "The difference between that and the Reisue still amazes me" I also sound better, Greg

Savell · From: Slocomb, AL

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[This message was edited by Savell on 29 May 2005 at 06:59 PM.]

Pat Burns · From: Branchville, N.J. USA

Richard Gonzales · From: Davidson, NC USA

I believe TONE comes from the brain. The hands are just an implement to do what the brains tells your hands to do in order to acheive the tone your looking for.

David L. Donald · From: Koh Samui Island, Thailand

Tone is in the ears, I reiterate. ( and brain too of course ; processing it and only then manipulating the hands.)

Ever hear a blind person sit down and just make a nice tone the 2nd or 3rd time they hit a string.
Because they are totally focused on the sound.

And then hear a deaf person try it.
They can hit it with a visual and touch related perfection till the cows come home,
and sorry charlie : No Tone.

Bobby Lee · From: Cloverdale, California, USA

Classical percussionist Evelyn Glennie gets great tone out of all of her instruments, and she's deaf. She feels the vibrations of the instruments. She's an incredible musician by any standard.

jim milewski · From: stowe, vermont

yes, music is just vibrations, our ear drum picks it up, Alexander Graham Bell gave a class of deaf students baloons to hold between their hands and put on a recording of classical music, upon hearing the music a big smile came across their faces with oooohs and aaahhhs

Jordan Shapiro · From: Echo Park, California, USA

I've been playing for about three years now, and just recently it has dawned on me how important touch is to this game.

I was told early on, (after playing in front of one of my respected peers) that this is an instrument of touch. I understood, but didn't "get it" right away. I figured if I was "touching" the right strings at the right time, well, that was good enough. Not so.

Recently it has come to my attention that no matter what I am playing or playing through, my feelings must translate to the strings correctly. For me, that involves playing without having to think about what I am doing, and using my picks as a medium to convey what I hear in my head.

Pedal movement has also come to my attention here. I can't just hit the right pedal or lever at the right time and get the right note. It doesn't always sound like I want it to. I always have to remind myself that I am not making "notes" or "chords", I am trying to make or add to "music" or "songs".

I strongly urge anyone who thinks that guitars and amps will solve their tone problem, to buy Lloyd Greens newest cd and play along to it with the same set up Lloyd used to record it.

Touch and Feel

Phrasing and Technique

Dedication to Music

These seem to be the building blocks of a strong steel guitar player.

I could say all of these things about Redd Volkaert on the six string as well.

Touch is quickly becoming my most important goal in playing, and seems to be a permanent solution to my tone problems, where as changing my amp settings, or effects always ends up being a temporary solution.

Now I just have to figure out how to play the damn thing!!
Jordan

David L. Donald · From: Koh Samui Island, Thailand

Evelyn Glennie is an illustrious exception to the rules,
and more power too her.

But the resonances of a drum against your hip is not quite like getting a steel to come to pitch at fret 3 and then fret 19 in a split second.

Nor sensing the infinitesimal changes in touch needed to get "tone" on a steel. It is in a frequency range not nearly as easily felt.

I have musically entertained the deaf, by sitting or leaning them on my bass amp during shows.
It always seemed to be a great source of pleasure too. A transmision to them, of what the room was dancing too.

And I also edited dance music for the deaf for a live dance performance at a deaf school my brothers girlfriend was a teacher at.
She was not toally deaf, but if either hearing aide came out it woud feedback radically.

For this song, the bass was boosted on one channel, and that speaker was placed face down on the wooden stage so they could sense the beat with their bare feet.

It was an extended version of We Are Family by Sister Sledge,
And I had to be super carefull re-doing the sections with a razor blade, pre digital, so the beat was true, but the song made sense.

Again it was th bass frequnecies, and also a few dancers not TOTALLY deaf acting like conductors for the profoundly deaf

Bob Smith · From: Allentown, New Jersey, USA

I think the size and shape, and strenth of your hands have everything to do with the tone you produce. Look at these guys that have huge , fat fingers like Danny G., Redd V., Leslie West, Johnny Hiland, and so on they all produce a killer, big , rich tone!! Big hands are usualy stronger too, which has alot to do with the tone a string makes. Maybe this is just my imagination running wild, but its something ive noticed over the years. I shook John Hugheys hand at the steel show in Conn. last fall and it felt like he coulda lifted me off the ground with that hand!! So, I beleive strong hands produce strong tone. Bob

Terry Sneed · From: Arkansas,

well, after listening to about 12 different steel players last Sat night, each playing different guitars and amps, or amp, I can say for sure, tone has a LOT to do with your equipment.
absolutely positive!

Terry

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84 SKH Emmons Legrand D10
session 400'rd Steelin for my Lord.

[This message was edited by Terry Sneed on 20 October 2004 at 07:17 AM.]

Danny Hullihen · From: Harrison, Michigan

You're right. "It's In The Hands" Smile

Willis Vanderberg · From: Petoskey Mi

I think it helped me a lot by starting in 1948 with a six string lap steel , a gibson amp with a 6" speaker.Plastic finger picks and a lot of desire. With Little Roy's picking on Eddy Arnold and a few Jerry Byrd records,this gave me an idea of what tone was all about.Now I have the best equipment money can buy One Legrande l11, one MCI D-10, one Sho-Bud and two D-10 p/p guitars.
I still get the old lap steel out and run some ting-a-ling and slants up and down the neck.I can usually pick a few notes on string five or six on most guitars and get the tone I want.My two cents....

Old Bud

Mark Vinbury · From: N. Kingstown, Rhode Island, USA

This is a fantastic thread.To be able to access this info and all these opinions is overwhelming.My own feeling is good players are set up, "wired",to produce the sounds in there heads.The sounds are clear and flow is easier for some and others have to struggle with real or perceived roadblocks.We have those sounds in our heads which is why they resonate for us but we can't all produce them. Most all are good players way before they have good equipment.Look at Jaco, SRV,BB King the list could go on...Most played beaters you wouldn't pay $50 for.They couldn't afford more.I'm new to steel but it seems like the same is true here.Most revered steel players got to be notable before great instruments were available to them.IMHO once a player finds their voice in an instrument then it can be enhanced with money.

Dan Sawyer · From: Studio City, California, USA

"Look at these guys that have huge, fat fingers " Joaquin Murphey had small hands, still he got a pretty FAT tone on those old Cooley records.

[This message was edited by Dan Sawyer on 20 October 2004 at 08:26 PM.]

Corky Owens · From: Owensboro, KY USA

If nothing else comes from this great post, listen to Paul. I've spent 25 years trying to do what Paul,Tommy,Buddy,Lloyd and numerous others do everytime they play. I still work at it every day. Listen and learn from the best.

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Mark Vinbury · From: N. Kingstown, Rhode Island, USA

I have to agree that there is somthing in the strong hands= more tone idea.I think it relates to guitar more than steel.Strong hands wrestling thicker strings equals better tone.I've been checking out guitarists for 40 yrs and have seen a lot of big guys get great tone with less electronic assistance.Seems like the long thin fingered guys like myself do a lot of equipment tweaking.Maybe the grass is just greener--

Mark Vinbury · From: N. Kingstown, Rhode Island, USA

^

[This message was edited by Mark Vinbury on 21 October 2004 at 06:28 AM.]

Charles Turpin · From: Mexico, Missouri, USA

This is a great thread, But a lot of people doesn't realize just what putting these tones out from the brain to the fingers does to even some of the listeners. In the last four years even though i haven't been playing out in the public. I feel i am starting to feel my notes more. The music that we are playing people don't realize is even medically used. Music has a very Mysticaly use to the body.So there is mystical things in making that music. There even has been a study how that music helps control pain in cancer patients.
We develope our tones i think naturaly and they come out on our instruments.
A great guitar player once told me the trick to any musician is to first get it in your head, then the trick is to get it from your head to your hands. I use to play rock guitar when i was young but i never could get the fuzz tones and effects that they had back then to sound just like the big pros. But if i turned them off i could play anything i wanted to there music. I was being me and not someone else. To me there is a line you have to draw. Paul is one of my favorites when it comes to picking so is Lloyd and Buddy. But when i study a piece of there music i don't study how they personaly done the piece. I study the Scales or chords the intervals that they have used. I can't be a Buddy or a Doug. But i can be a Charley. But the pros they have giving me the tools that i needed play a certain piece when i feel it. Or ever need it. We can take those tools and develope our tone ourselves.

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Harold Parris · From: Piedmont, Alabama USA

Yes, a great portion of your tone is string attack and hand placement. You can let 5 different accomplished steel players sit down at the same guitar with the same amp setting and each will get a slightly different tone. Many amps and steel guitars have been bought and sold beacause of this fact. We always are wanting a setup like our mentor has so we can sound like them.

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Sierra Session and MSA Classic Guitars, Nashville 400, Session 400, and Evans FET 500 HiVolt, and Gretsch Nashville Pro Steel Amps, Keith Hilton Digital Sustain pedal and Digital Sustain Box .
Harold Parris email hparris9@aol.com

Bill Stafford · From: Gulfport,Ms. USA

Two more cents----One year at the Joliet, Il. Hawaiian show Jerry Byrd, Master of Touch and Tone, was there. I was programmed on the show just before Jerry. Jerry borrowed someone's double 8 Fender and asked to use my amps since they were already on stage. Without changing any settins on my two Evans 500 amps, Jerry's TONE came through loud and clear from the first string he touched to tune the instrument. And this on a strange steel and amp with the settings I used. ("Strange" meaning not Jerry's familiar steel guitar). Same for the amp and all the "tone" settings. Listening to this tone while he tuned up was a thrill for me. Jerry's sound, touch, feeling, tone and heart and soul was all there instantly.
I can now proudly say that my amp now sounds like Jerry Byrd-but, alas, only when HE plays through it on any instrument HE desires. Just my two cents....
Bill Stafford

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