When I was growing up, devouring guitar magazines and scouring internet forums, it was a truth universally acknowledged that good guitar tone could only come from a tube amp. End of discussion.
But our definition of what makes a ‘good’ guitar tone has changed dramatically in the past 10 years. Heck, it’s changed in the past 10 days, after revered tonesmith John Mayer ditched the amp and plugged directly into JHS Pedals’ latest offering – you know, the one designed to sound like a Tascam Portastudio.
Not too long ago, this kind of behavior would have got you booted out of any self-respecting studio or rehearsal room. But the next generation of guitar heroes is changing our relationship with guitar tone. Or, as Mayer puts it, “There is a revolution taking place right now in guitar playing.”
Mk.gee, of course, is the poster boy for this particular uprising, running a baritone-strung Fender Jaguar into a Tascam 424 and cranking it into the red for a splatty overdrive that would have Klon owners’ monocles popping into their bourbon.
But with Mk.gee’s viral success (not to mention Eric Clapton plaudits), it’s become a sought-after tone – to the point that multiple pedal companies have been rushing to bring their own take on the 424 circuit to market.
And that’s hardly the first traditionally ‘bad’ guitar tone to catch fire recently. It was a similar story with the Peavey Decade. After it was revealed as Josh Homme’s ‘secret weapon’ several years ago, used prices exploded, boutique pedal companies issued their own versions, and now Peavey – the once derided, blue-collar amp brand – has released a signature combo and its own stompbox version.
Yet when those amps were widely available for sale, guitarists couldn’t wait to ditch their buzzy solid-state practice combos.
In the mix
Back in my day (God, I feel old), bad tone was once considered to be that buzzy, ‘wasp in a jam jar’ tone that came from tiny combos, budget multi-effects and the Line 6 Spider II’s infamous Insane channel. Anything boxy, lacking in low-end or tube-like dynamics wouldn’t cut it.
So what gives? Does ‘bad’ guitar tone no longer exist? And, star power aside, how did we get here?
The turning point might be when every young guitarist also became a producer. When previous generations first picked up the instrument, they were developing their guitar tone in isolation – they didn’t have the ability to record themselves without booking an expensive studio. For me, good guitar tone was dialing in a usable sound on the Marshall MG in my bedroom.
Anyone picking up the instrument now, however, could be recording their playing from day one. They’ll be used to hearing the sound of a naked guitar running straight into an audio interface, slotting those recordings into tracks on their laptops, and tweaking plugins that model most of the guitar gear ever made.
And, as any engineer will tell you, the guitar tones that sound best in isolation often don’t work in a mix – but the ‘bad’ tones can burst out of the speakers in the best/worst way.
The good, the bad and the ugly
The other overriding factor is the democratization of ‘good tone’ – we live in an age where anyone can get a studio-worthy guitar sound with cheap amp modelers. So much so that you could make the argument that we’re approaching ‘good’ guitar tone overkill.
How do you stand out when everyone is using the same high-gain Soldano-voiced preset in the same Neural DSP plugin as everyone else? You break the rules.
Mark Speer runs a wah pedal all the time for his dreamy sounds in Khruangbin. St. Vincent and Matt Bellamy are die-hard fans of the sound of fuzz pedals straight into the board. Record an entire album on your phone, like Steve Lacy – then stick a fuzz circuit in your Fender signature model.
Stu MacKenzie snapped up $10 transistor amps for King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard’s latest record. Heck, Instagram guitarist Emi Grace has amassed over 200,000 followers with her ‘Trashy Tone Thursdays’ video series.
Of course, unconventional tonal practices like this have been around forever. John Frusciante, Nile Rodgers and the Beatles used to record direct to the desk. Dimebag Darrell’s solid-state rig flew in the face of all high-gain tonal wisdom. And when Dave Davies slashed his amp’s speaker cone, he lit the touchpaper on guitar distortion as we know it.
All these approaches were technically wrong, but they worked because they fit the material. And that’s the thing we don’t talk about enough when it comes to guitar tone: everything is contextual. The ugliest tone can work in the right spot of the right song – and that is, in part, why it’s so hard to give out bad reviews to guitar gear these days. Every sound has its place.
Tone is where the heart is
All of which provide yet more reasons why it’s such an exciting time to be a guitarist. We’ve never had access to more gear or more music, and as old tonal judgements die out, fresh blood comes along and reassesses what they want to hear.
Music is being experienced without any sense of time, place or scene – one playlist can take you around the world, explore every genre under the sun and span a century of popular music. The next generation of players is picking and choosing the sounds that stand out to them and that makes for a more colorful guitar landscape.
We’re also way beyond the ‘pros only play tube amps’ argument. Fender is remaking its classic combos as new digital offerings. Boss Katanas are being played in stadiums. And pros like John Mayer are playing direct into Akai MPC samplers, and letting producers decide what the tone should be.
That’s no reason not to covet the same Fender Vibroverb that Stevie Ray Vaughan used to use, but as Mayer points out in his JHS demo, different tones make you play differently. It forces you to rethink your relationship with the instrument when you’re playing with less gain or different dynamics.
With that in mind, let’s be real: very few guitarists will make the 424 Gain Stage or Peavey Decade the center of their tonal universe. But the fact these tones are now not just acceptable but downright desirable indicates a full-circle moment for the way we perceive the sound of the electric guitar.
Maybe it’s no longer a case of ‘bad’ tones, just ‘different’ tones. And in the guitar world, that really is a revolution. So put me down for the inevitable Line 6 Spider II Insane pedal. I’m sure I’ll find a use for it…
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