Guitar Gear

Like many other guitarists out there, I’ve spent countless hours and tens of thousands of dollars in my quest for “Tone,” that magical, elusive unicorn that guitarists seem to get so close to but can never touch, as it bounds away at the slightest disturbance, drawing the unwary deeper and deeper into the gear forest. “Maybe this will work to catch the unicorn,” says the intrepid tone-seeker, “and maybe this will work, and this, and this and this…” Get the picture?

Finding Your Sound

We’ve all chased the unicorn, tweaking our rig here and there, thinking that we’ll experience this parting-of-the-skies, mystical event where our tone is revealed to us. And while the metaphor of the unicorn and its associated mysticism is certainly appropriate, the discovery of our sound tends to be so much more mundane.

So then, what really is finding your sound?

Finding your sound is simply the realization that no matter what you play, you sound like you. Sure, different gear will give you different sounds. But fundamentally, the music you make will be all you. For some, like me, that realization takes years. For others, they get it a lot quicker. And then there are others where it never comes.

And as much as I like his overall sound, The Edge from U2 seems like a classic example of never really finding your tone. Word has it that his touring board has 250 pedals or something like that, and to get just the right delay, he runs hundreds of feet of cable. Don’t get me wrong, I have no judgement either way. But it was a telling thing to hear him talk about it in “It Might Get Loud” where he said something to the effect that it was difficult for him to fathom not getting his sound from pedals, whereas Jimmy Page and Jack White were minimalists with respect to their gear.

For me, the realization came one afternoon several years ago. I was gassing real bad. I already had 25 guitars, and I wanted to get a Gretsch Brian Setzer arch top. So I went to a local shop, plugged it in, played it through a nice PRS amp and thought to myself after awhile, Shit! Doesn’t sound all that much different from my clean Les Paul.

Of course, the sound of a Gretsch is totally different from a Les Paul. But how I was making music with the Gretsch was no different from what I did with a Les Paul. So I put the Gretsch down, took an R8 off the shelf, plugged it in, then played what I was playing on the Gretsch. 

This guy was in the shop tooling around as I was and had gone into an adjacent room to try out other guitars. He peaked his head around the corner when I switched to the Les Paul, and simply said with a knowing look, “Yeah man, that’s you.” 

I smiled and replied, “You know, I guess no matter what I’m playing, I sound like me.” He nodded, sat down next to me, picked up the Gretsch and we just jammed for a while; not trying to show each other up – his technical acuity was much more advanced than my own. But we traded solos over a bunch of different progressions, and just enjoyed ourselves. 

And while we were jamming, I came to the realization that I had found my tone. I always thought that it would be like finding the Holy Grail; that I toiled long and hard and came to the end of my journey. But in reality, it wasn’t some monumental discovery. It was a matter-of-fact reply to a random dude with whom I just happened to jam.

Truth be told though, driving home (sans the Gretsch Brian Setzer), when I finally did think about it, I was kind of blown away. And I asked myself: Now what?

I used to think about what it would be like to find my sound. Considering I had made huge expenditures of both time and money acquiring gear, I thought I’d be like a boat cast adrift without oars.

But what really happened was reality sunk in. I realized that there was so much gear that I just didn’t need, so I started selling off a bunch of stuff. I went from 25 guitars and pared it down to four electrics and two acoustics. And honestly, I only use three of my electrics with any regularity: ’58 Les Paul Reissue (“Amber”), Slash L “Apache” (“Katie May”), and my trusty MIM 60th Diamond Anniversary Strat (“Pearl”). My main acoustic is my 1990 Simon and Patrick PRO. I still have my Yamaha APX900, but I let my kids use it for practice and recording. 

As for amps, I only sold off a couple. I love my tube amps, so they’ll probably stay in my stable. But I sold off several of my smaller tube amps and solid state amps.  

And I actually lost my taste for writing this blog for a while. I created this blog as a diary for all the gear I’d get. But I figured that I had all the gear that I needed and was selling off a bunch, so I didn’t really feel the need to keep writing. Sure, I’d get stuff here and there, and I’d review them, but the drive I had to keep the blog current was kind of lost. So admittedly, up until recently, I’ve been taking a break.

As for what I was playing for gigs, I also reduced the number of pedals I use. I have this gorgeous board made of scrap cabinet wood. It has room for 12 standard pedals and an expression pedal. I now use just 4 pedals at any one time (make that 5 now that the T-Rex Quint Machine will always be on my board). I used to stack overdrives, but I now just use my EHX Soul Food. It gives me what I need. 

So not only have I trimmed my stable of gear, I seriously trimmed my performance rig. Now, that said, I didn’t sell any of my pedals because there are times when I get in the mood to get a cool sound, and all I have to do is go in one of my pedal drawers and pull the pedal I need. Also, I may start gigging out with a band again, and for that, I’ll need a few more than what I’m currently using. Or maybe not. But it’s nice to have the flexibility.

And yeah, I’ve gotten some pretty cool things since I found my sound. But my approach to gear has completely changed. I’m no longer experimenting with different gear to discover my sound. So instead of looking at gear to help me find my sound, I now look at gear to help me explore different things I can do with my sound; or, in the case of the BOSS Katana 50 that I just got, making it easier on me to play my sound. 

All in all, getting gear is now a much more measured affair for me: Instead of the thousands of dollars I used to spend on gear, it’s now in the low hundreds. And last year, with the exception of a pickup for my Simon and Patrick, I didn’t make any major purchases last year, and NONE the couple of years before.

Like I mentioned above, finding my sound wasn’t a major event. But the effect of finding my sound was pretty huge. As an amusing aside, my wife was pretty happy that she was able to reclaim some major garage space. 🙂

ROCK ON!