How To Get Hand Tone?
I just read an article on Gibson.com about Stevie Ray’s tone. The headline starts with these words: Myth Busters. I assume that’s because the overall point of the piece is that Stevie’s gear wasn’t cut and dried, particularly on the amp side, so his tone being a direct function of his equipment is a bit of a “myth.”
It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see that you could say the same thing about many other legendary guitarists, notably Jimi, Jimmy Page, Alex Lifeson, Billy Gibbons and particularly Edward Van Halen. I’m sure you can think of others. But it doesn’t stop us from trying to get the same stuff to get near the same tone!
It’s pretty easy to say that a great guitarist’s tone is in his hands. But I really believe that all that hand tone couldn’t shine through without the right gear — meaning gear that’s complimentary to the innate “hand tone,” if you will.
Stevie Ray would not have sounded nearly as good using a Les Paul through a Marshall JCM 800 or a Boogie Dual Rectifier. Sure, it still would’ve sounded like SRV, but I bet he wouldn’t have been nearly as inspired and wouldn’t have sounded nearly as good. How about Hentrix playing an ES-335 through a Blackface (well, I guess that would’ve sounded good too!).
I hope you get where I’m coming from, which is that these guys needed the right combination of gear and hands to get all they could out of the music in their souls. So, if we don’t have gear that give us WoodyTone, then we better find it — to free our hand tone.
P.S. That’s a semi-recent photo of EVH’s right hand.
Category: Alex Lifeson, Billy Gibbons, Edward Van Halen, Jimi Hendrix, Jimmy Page/Zep, Stevie Ray Vaughan
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Wouldn’t Eddie’s tone be coming from his left hand? I know he hammers and all but right hand just picks.
THANK YOU! This needed to be said! I let a guy try my axe for classic blues rock but he insisted on shining every chord and note with his picking thumb 80s style. I have another friend who plays the same thing on every guitar. So, with SOME guys, its mostly in the hands, other guys react to their gear