Tone

[David Houck]

Tone is technique mediated by equipment, modulated by hearing loss, and manipulated by the brain trying to make up for the hearing loss.
 
Tone is what I had last night but can't find for the life of me this evening.
 
Tone appears to be why the people listening to me play seem to be wincing in pain.

[jazzyvee]

This is such an interesting subject with echoes of a previous conversation here on the lines of, if I was to play Stanley Clarke's bass or Marcus Millers bass for example, would sound like either of them. I think the consensus there was that in reality is we would sound like ourselves playing their instruments.  
 
Which brings to my mind that a large component of what we consider to be our tone is ourselves, our fingers, muscles idea's. So maybe what we consider to be tone isn't exclusively the just the note quality .... I think it could be that when we listen to stanley or marcus for example we recognise phrasing note choices and techniques that we have associated with their sound and so we recognise their tone by association with all of those things.
 
That said we can't take away the fact that certain musicians choose certain instruments for a particular tone that they want to identify with.
So for the way that Stanley plays he possibly feels that an alembic allows him to access a range of sound options that combined with his note choices, techniques and articulation give him a Sound that he prefers most of the time. ( cos we know he has other basses and instruments).
 
I tend to think we really mean sound rather than tone. For example A clavinet sound on a keyboard is a pretty basic sound and pretty much every one who plays it has the same tone. But if you were to hear Stevie Wonder play Superstition, that somehow has a very distinctive Sound although it sounds pretty much like every other clavinet tone. It's stevie's note choices and rhythms , articulation etc that give him an exclusive sound.
 
I guess the next thought is , if I was to get Stanleys bass & rig and plucked just an open A and he then plucked an open A how similar would the sounds be? Would we sound the same?
 
ps:In my home country of St Kitts & Nevis Tone is a slang word for a certain part of the male anatomy.
 
Just thought i'd share that information with you.
 
Have a great day.  
Jazzyvee

[slawie]

Jazzyvee,
 
Are you trying to tell us your big on tone?
 
slawie

[slammin]

Tone or sound, I still think the instrument itself plays the biggest role in 'what you hear'.  For instance, string bending on a 35 scale is not near as effortless as on shorter scale instruments and technique, strings or setup can make up for that, at least in my experience.  Also, even modifying technique, it's difficult, if not impossible for me to mimic the 'sound/tone' I get with my Alembic with any other bass that I own.  Just can't do it.  I can get everything from rubber-band attack to piccolo/piano articulation with my 32 Persuader, and I have not played any other bass that allows such a range of technique, resulting in just as big a range in sound/tone.
 
So, I think the instrument itself can be the biggest determining factor when it comes to tone and sound.

[jazzyvee]

Slawie, my Alembic tone is MASSIVE..... !!!! and I can go from 25.5 to 34  depending on needs...... ;-)
 
Jazzyvee....

[bigredbass]

The most unnerving thing is I can sound GREAT today . . . then come back tomorrow to the exact same place, settings, amp, etc., and it sounds different.  Or the same thing happens in the course of a five hour gig.  I will never understand or conquer the physical and psychoacoustic aspects of this.  This happens to me a lot and I'll never understand it.
 
J o e y

[slawie]

mas?sive
   
?adjective  
 
1. consisting of or forming a large mass; bulky and heavy: massive columns.  
2. large and heavy-looking: a massive forehead.  
3. large in scale, amount, or degree: a massive breakdown in communications; massive reductions in spending.  
4. solid or substantial; great or imposing: massive erudition.  
5. Mineralogy . having no outward crystal form, although sometimes crystalline in internal structure.
 
slawie

[jazzyvee]

Yes..... and.... :-)
 
1) There is a large mass of Cocobolo in one of my basses and mahogany in most of the others. To carry them all at the same time would be bulky and heavy.  
 
2) My Europa is large and at around 12.5lbs is also heavy ( yes anyone headbutting it is likely to develop a massive forehead)  
 
3) My Europa is a larger scale bass than my SC Deluxe, there is a greater amount of wood in it too and the angle it hangs on the strap is a few degrees different. ( Also since my last alembic purchase there has had to be a massive reduction in my GAS spending after the breakdown in communication between me and my bank balance.)
 
4) The Alembic construction is solid and very substantial... just check out the bridge with sustain block... very substantial indeed.
 
5)  I do believe that brass has a crystalline structure which cannot be seen by the naked eye externally however with a microscope it can be clearly viewed
 
Have a great day Slawie,
 
Jazzyvee

[benson_murrensun]

My theory: Tone is a product of technique, equipment, and the sonic environment (or lack thereof, in the case of headphones or direct input!). I would venture to say that technique has the most profound effect on tone.

[epicowner]

David's theory is sound to me, I might add that humidity affects hearing, playing, wood, speakers, and most certainly electronics as well as vibration isolation.

Every acoustic event I can quantize seems to be directly affected, and every event certainly has a variance of humidity and atmospheric phenomena, within nominal parameters.

[dtothec]

Do you hear what I hear?

[pauldo]

Jazzyvee's post made me think of this

Hail Space Warriors
You have come along way
Our flight for freedom has taken us through many arenas . . .
We have weapons and vessels but now I choose the sound       of      a      plucked      string.

Stanley Clarke

[5a quilt top]

Speaking of Mr. Clarke - rhetorical question - do any of you honestly think his tone would be remotely close to what he gets from his Alembics and stage rig if he used a stock Squire P-bass copy strung with flats and set up with action so high you could drive a truck under it through a 20 watt practice amp with a 6" speaker?


Another case in point: I just saw Brian Setzer for the 12th time last week. Through the course of a show, he'll typically use 4-5 different Gretsch hollow-body guitars that have more or less the same technical spec's and similar set-ups. Admittedly, he sounds like himself (= amazing) on all of them, however, when he plays his #1 1959 orange 6120, his playing and tone go to another level. There is a warmth and complexity to the tone of that guitar that is not matched by the others and it responds to his touch by delivering more of the nuances of his technique. All of this is clearly audible through a PA system and clearly audible to him through his rig and he delivers a more inspired performance as a result.


Gear is part of the equation and when the proper gear for the purpose enhances and responds to what the fingers (and heart and head) are doing, it is an inspiring experience for both the player and the listener.