" Who are you trying to sound like ? "

[wattybluesman]

Hi Charlie,
i go a phone call from a friend of mine tonight we had a wee blether and he said he had downloaded my " Help the Poor " track which he enjoyed.
He then asked me.
Who are you trying to sound like ?
I said I'm being me,
I've been playing for almost fifty years and I'm influenced by everybody so all their playing has bound to have affected me and made my style and sound the way it is.
He then said -- I knew it was you playing but I couldn"t work out who you were trying to sound like.
That's friends for you.

WattyBluesman.

[Charlie Hall]

Hi Watty,
I think all of us sound like ourselves especially those of us who have played various styles over the years. I know I tend to sound like myself no matter what gear I use as long as it is reasonably well set up. I have been influenced by many different players and not mostly by Hank.
It could be that those of us who concentrate on one style might get closer. I wonder how true that might actually be.
Regards,
Charlie

[twang46]

Hi

I try to sound like Duane Eddy when I feel in the mood, but surprisingly I seem to get closer to his recorded sound with my strat through a couple of pedals than with Charlies patches on my Zoom's (G2 & G7)

I have a very nice DeArmond Starfire iv with USA DeArmond pups that should easily be closer to the "Twang" but am still looking for the right combination of Reverb, Tremelo & Echo. It may just be that at home I can never get the Pro Junior amp up to a decent level to sound right ?

Shadows type sounds are now easy enough to get with the Zoom's & other effects units that are available. And there are a multitude of distorted/overdriven/modelled sounds in the effects boxes to play with when I'm in the mood.

Be interested though if anyone has any ideas for the "D Eddy" sound ? in theory it's a touch of echo, mixed in with some delay/reverb & a hollowbody guitar (with some "drop" tuning on occasion) into a valve amp that has good bass performance. If only it was as simple as that

However I still sound like me when I play & I even hold the plectrum different to everybody else I've seen ( thumb & 1st two fingers)

Cheers

Dick.

[Charlie Hall]

Hi Dick,
It does have a lot to do with the amount of bass, but it has to be a tight sounding bass and very controlled, there aren't many amps that have that quality. One idea to get closer might be to reduce bass on the amp and use a separate EQ to boost the area around 100 to 120Hz.
Regards,
Charlie

[twang46]

Thanks Charlie

I really must get an EQ pedal, it seems to be a very useful addition

Cheers

Dick.

[Deleted]

HI Dick& ALL ,, Dick try on your strat to put the bridge & neck P/up's in ''SERIES'' & then the ''twang's-the-thang'' .. or at least mostly there ,, let's know how you get-on-mate,,
It requires some wiring mod's & a double-pole mini-switch [google strat wiring-mod's']
THAT position is great for ''THE-GOOD-THE-BAD-THE-UGLY'' ,peter,gunn. etc etc..THE-SOUND starts from the guitar ''FIRST'' !!!!!!!!!!!!!![Fresh-String's-Help]
CHEERS FROM A LITTLE-BIT-''COOLER'' ''OZ'' thank-goodness...................barry..

[spikestevens]

I think we all of us subconsciously try to emulate the guitarists who have influenced us over the years.

But it's not just other guitarists who influence us. Personally I find certain songs have helped me find my playing style. As a kid I was always impressed by the pizzicato strings in the early Adam Faith numbers, and I distinctly remember trying to get a similar sound out of my guitar, and that's how I stumbled across palm-muting. I then realised there were loads of songs with this particular aspect of guitar playing and so it became a part of my style.

[specky]

interesting subject and really interesting replays --

i totally agree with all above
those of us over 30 ;D ;D ;D
learned to play (one way or the other good or bad) by the sounds of the guitar players at the time )
Hank,Buddy Holly, Chuck Berry etc and then flopped into our own styles -for better or worse -- ;D ;D


Tommy

[grip]

Hi Watty,

There are many that I would like to sound like - Marvin, Clapton Vai, Pertrucci, Atkins etc. but they are all unique and there are very few that get their actual "sound".

I've abandoned (for the time being) the frustrations that trying to achieve someone else's "sound" brings. I've decided the one I should concentrate on sounding like is me and I have no difficulty in achieving that


Kind regards,


Chris

[twang46]

Hi Barry

Your right about the series pup mod, it does add "something" to the twangy sound I'm looking for as I have 4 way switching on the Tele (BBC 1 & 2, ITV & CH4 )

I've got a reverb pedal sorted & need a tremelo pedal now to go with the little Behringer delay, [only cost £14 new & works great as a delay up to 1500ms (no multi tap)]. I think that is the way to the "twang"

Anybody got a Trem pedal ?

I'll let you know when I get there (if I ever do !)

Cheers

Dick.

[Deleted]

In Short
I sound like me. I will add that I sound like me influenced by the greats, Hank Marvin, Freddy King, BB King, Peter Green, Stevie Ray Vaughan and early Eric Clapton. Also Charlie Byrd, Joe Pass and Jimmy Rosenburg (Jazz) and quite a few more here and there.
My teacher in the early days was a guy called Louis Gallo, the best player I have ever heard. I still talk to his son Ray who himself is a pro player and teacher in North London.
Anyone remember Louis ?

George

[Pittnuma]

For me depends on what mood I'm in when I pick the guitar up!

So many different sounds I love that to just emulate 1 would leave me in sooo much trouble thus I get a sound I am happy with and play around with that.

DC

[malcolm]

I personally agree with you Chris, for a long time i tried to sound like my favourite players and even if i say it myself with quite a degree of success, but i think it's as much a burden as well as an achievement as i seem to be permanently "stuck" in a style of playing that i find very hard to try to get out of.
I remember long ago someone asked Hank if he could sound like Eric Clapton to which he replied: I really don't know, but even if i could what would be the point it's already been done. I suppose another way of looking at it is to think was Hank really looking for THAT sound in the early days himself or did it just happen, after all he was using the first strat in the country, running through an echo box borrowed from Joe Brown into a "standard" at the time valve amplifier as there were no transistors then, really it wouldn't take too long to come up with "His" sound.
I have been trying for ages to play "my sound" without much success, i just think that while we are all playing strats through echoes even when recording our own compositions as i like to do, at some point or other our tunes will always have a Shadowy flavouring.

Malcolm

[Jan]

I think when we all have the same gear, or when we play over the same gear on stage for example, we all sound different, with other words we sound like ourself.

It's not only a gear thing, but it's all in the mind and comes from our fingers.
Pete Korving is my inspiration, sound-wise It's possible for me to sound like his sound, but never like the man himself. (not even when I reach the age of 100)

Give him a broomstick with strings and he still sound like Pete Korving, so it's the style of playing and talent IMHO.

But do we all like to sound the same? Guess not because that would be very boring, so I also totally agree with Chris, don't struggle to much with that sound only, we have to focus more on our playing and to sound like ourselfs....that's hard enough.

Regards Jan

[petercreasey]

At a Club recently one of the members broke a string so I lent him my strat, I thought that I would find out what it sounded like, my wife then said it sounds different to when you play it! Only goes to show that most ( or at least some) of the sound is in the playing.
Take care
Peter
PS By the way she didn't say who sounded better!!!!!

[Deleted]

Interesting Stories.
I was practicing the other night.
My wife popped her head around the door and told me I was driving her mad keep playing the same thing over and over.

I had just practiced 7 different number is a row. 3 Shads on the Strat 2 blues on the Telecaster and 2 Jazz Samba's on a Macaferri Acoustic

Thats what I call "inspiration"
Dont you just love the girls sometimes? I think I shall take up the Banjo. ;D
All the best
George