If "Tone" is in your hands

Rick Garrett · From: Tyler, Texas

Then surely the "fatness" of the tone is in your equipment. Any thoughts from the pro's on this?

Rick

Webb Kline · From: Orangeville, PA

I would say that having tone in your hands is more important than tone in your equipment, but having both really brings it all together.

Case in point: This fall, I went to a Trace Adkins concert. Randy Hess, Trace's steeeler, plays a JCH through a couple NV400s. The warmup band's steeler played an Emmons Legrande III, I believe. If you were to gauge tone by guitars, the JCH would have won hands down. Randy's tone simply made you melt.

Randy stuck around for a few days and we put a jam together. Randy played my old Fender S10 3X1 student guitar through my Pod and direct to the PA. The tone he got out of that Fender still blew everyone away.

He showed me a few tips that have transformed the tone I am able to get from my hands. So much so that, although I have always been primarily a pianist and guitarist, all I have been playing at home for the past 3 months is the steel. That tone is almost like an addiction. Now if I can just figure out how to play like Randy...

Anyway, Randy was home for Christmas and we always have a jam for his dad's birthday. Randy was playing Jack Michael's S10 push-puller with a BL705 through an NV400 and if there was some way to bottle that tone, I swear it could heal about any disease. It was smooth, it was warm, it was bright enough to cut through the mix, yet incredibly fat and clear through the entire range of the guitar. Everyone was talking about it.

So, in my opinion, yes equipment can fatten up good tone, but the good tone has to be there to begin with.

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ZB 11/10, MCI D10, 1931 Dobro, Harmony Lap Steel

[This message was edited by Webb Kline on 06 January 2005 at 09:39 PM.]

Brad Sarno · From: St. Louis, MO USA

Hey Webb, you wanna share some of those tips that helped you transform the tone you could get from your hands?

thanks,
Brad Sarno

Donny Hinson · From: Glen Burnie, Md. U.S.A.

IMHO, the equipment is important, but everything starts with the player! The guitar, the amp, and the effects, they're just his "tools". You can only amplify and enhance (with these tools), what's already there. I liken it to an artist who paints. While his brushes and paints are important, it's his talent using these "tools" that actually creates the thing of beauty.

There's a saying in the computer world..."garbage in, garbage out", and it's the same way in music. I'm not a violinist, and were I to play a Stradivarius in front of anybody, the beauty the instrument is really capable of would be entirely lost in my inept, unschooled hands. Often, beginners think that if they have the very best equipment, it will help them sound their very best. But, as in my "violin example" above, most all of the instrument's capabilities would remain untapped until the player reaches at least a modicum of proficiency.

I've seen players who could not do an admirable job playing any simple song go through a plethora of guitars, amps, speakers, pickups, effects, and other "gimmicks" (never to be satisfied with how they sound), without thinking that their problem may be, both literally and figuratively, in their hands.

Webb Kline · From: Orangeville, PA

In trying to put it into words, I think that what we are calling tone here would be better called, proper technique. In watching Randy, his picking was much lighter, his fingers much looser than mine had been. And he seemed much more attentive to hand placement depending on the kind of song he was playing. By picking lighter, it gave him a lot of dynamic headroom, whereas I had none. Also, I had been playing too much on the edge of my picks without realizing it. Simply making those adjustments and becoming more attentive to the tone my picking was producing, has performed wonders to the way I hear myself and this new-found tone has been a tremendous catalyst in inspiring me to take this whole steel guitar thing to the next level. Believe me, I have a long way to go. Of all the instruments I have attemped to play, the psg is the most challenging and rewarding of them all.

I once played with a guy who played a Tele through a Yamaha twin 12 solid state amp. The closest thing I could describe the sound to would be perhaps a cat caught in a fan. One day at rehearsal he got called out for a bit and I determined to see if I could get his guitar to sound better. As much as I tried, I could not make that guitar sound as bad as he did. It actually sounded nice just the way he had it. That was 25 years ago. Today, as we are doing our 25th anniversary tour, he has the same gear, but has improved quite a bit. It still leaves a lot to be desired though. Fortunately, he doesn't play lead and usually is playing acoustic. He proved to me a long time ago that technique has a lot to do with it.

Webb Kline · From: Orangeville, PA

Donny, I guess we must have been posting at the same time. Had I read yours first, all I would have had to say is ditto!

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ZB 11/10, MCI D10, 1931 Dobro, Harmony Lap Steel

[This message was edited by Webb Kline on 06 January 2005 at 09:39 PM.]

Cal Sharp · From: the farm in Kornfield Kounty, TN

Once I get my guitar in tune, the tone just magically appears. Equipment, hands, talent, guitar color don't mean nothin' if you're not in tune. This may sound elementary, my dear Watson, but I think this fundamental is sometimes overlooked in the quest for a great sound. A steel guitar is so hard to get in tune and play in tune that after years of playing out of tune some players' ears get used to hearing it that way and they think they're in tune and wonder why their tone sucks. When you, f'rinstance, excite (whoo-hoo!) strings 5 and 6 at the fifth fret you should hear a definite ringing resonance and feel - and almost see (maybe in color) - the sound waves blending together perfectly, the same thing you get with tight harmony singing like the Beatles or the Louvin Bros.

Other players can affect your tone, too. It's amazin', Gracie, how much your tone can improve when an out of tune guitar owner stops flailing with his plectrum for a moment to take a drink of his beer and light a cigarette. So don't mistake unsatisfactory tone for just being out of tune.

C#
www.calsharp.com

Brad Sarno · From: St. Louis, MO USA

Yea Cal. I remember when I worked in a guitar shop, we knew that the very best way to sell a guitar was for it to be in tune. The simple strum of a D or G chord can make or break someone's first impression. I find that on steel too. If the guitar is nicely tuned, the perception is that the tone is good. I liken the tone in the hands/gear idea to that of a singer with a microphone. No microphone in the world will make you a better singer. That's the human part, like picking. Of course, the right mic or right steel/amp rig can help to bring out the best of the source and enhance its beauty.

Brad

Mark van Allen · From: Watkinsville, Ga. USA

Well, my hands have gotten fatter over the last few years- so maybe I'm onto something...

Scott Henderson · From: Camdenton, Missouri, USA

I do agree tuning has a lot to do with good tone. I personally have to feel the tone and being in tune helps that. I am pretty adiment abuot how my Rig is set up because I want to be comfortable. I always put my amp behind my right ear. I also agree with what was said about touch, hand placement, pick to string contact, and a few other factors. I even raise fingers behind my bar for certain things. I play two different guitars and they have to be approached in different manners(wood neck versus aluminum mainly) It all depends on what I am trying to draw out of my instrument. I never thought I would say this but switching to jagwire strings was also a big help ni my tone. BUT bottom line it starts in the hands!!!!!! Just my opinion FWIW

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Steelin' away in the ozarks and life,
Scott
www.scottyhenderson.com

Mark Lind-Hanson · From: Menlo Park, California, USA

I recently saw Pete Kleinow with Burrtito Deluxe and he was using a bar which looked like an inch (or greater?) diameter. I am using a 3/4 inch Duncan bar & I like it, but Pete's is long enough to cover the entire set of strings, and also the wider diameter must make slipping between frets less of a stretch. Certainly there is more to it than that to get the great tone he gets- I also noticed he does a lot of playing closer to the bar than the changers at times.

Rich Weiss · From: Woodland Hills, CA, USA

Don't forget there's a sweet spot for picking, and it always lies about halfway between your bar and the pickup.

Catus Jack · From: PA, USA

Hi Webb:

Randy did things with my Emmons that I forget it could do. I sold Randy his first steel guitar, a Fender pro 10, built by Sho-Bud, which he still has and uses today. The problem Randy didn't leave that sound on the steel when he returned it. It any of you have a chance to see Randy play, take it. Jack

Webb Kline · From: Orangeville, PA

Hi Jack, It was great to see you out at Al's jam. I've been wanting to chaw with you for sometime. I saw you at a couple of our shows last summer, but never got to talk to you.

My keyboard went south on me so I had to get a new one, so I had to cancel out on a new GFI. But, I got a real dandy of an old guitar coming anyway. Tone that'll melt your sneakers.

Let's get together sometime. I'll bring my new horn over for show and tell.

[This message was edited by Webb Kline on 06 January 2005 at 09:38 PM.]

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