So considering the tone is in the fingers..

[NextInLine]

do you like your own tone?

I mean we've decided that the tone is in the fingers, so do you like how your fingers sound? And what can be done to improve it, have you ever considered?

[Endrik]

And what can be done to improve it, have you ever considered?

tone improves after years and years of playing... that goes for any instrument... guitar, horns, strings, percussion etc.
there's a fair amount of people who can learn to play a musical instrument pretty well but there are very very few who develop a significant tone wich is instantly recognizable... and that's because of their enormous talent... their ears are so good that they know how to get every little nuance out of the instrument... there are no rules how to develop that kind of tone... if you have that kind of ears of doom then you'll realise what needs to be done.

[levantin]

I'm going for a finger transplant

[åron]

My 2¢: Practice with a nice clean tone for everything; scales, arpeggios, songs. I decided to leave my dirty amps and modelers at the practice space. I solo practice with a Strat through an old Fender champ at home. It was torturous for a while, missing the sweet grind and searing lead of the other stuff, but the benefit is clearly there. When I get back to my rig, I really notice the difference this simple discipline has taught me and my digits.

Without the security blanket of distortion, one must reckon with the truth. For some it might take away from the enjoyment of playing, but for most I reckon the constant scrutiny will do them, and their fingers, some good.

[KevinDguitar]

When I was in maybe my early 20s/very late teens.. I noticed a significant improvement/difference in my tone after working on developing a vibrato..listening to players whom I thought had a great vibrato..mimicking those in the beginning and experimenting with different vibrato techniques using both fingers and the bar and really treating it as its own area to improve upon altogether. I think time developing vibrato and phrasing are incredibly important to developing a "tone".

[z1n]

My 2¢: Practice with a nice clean tone for everything; scales, arpeggios, songs. I decided to leave my dirty amps and modelers at the practice space. I solo practice with a Strat through an old Fender champ at home. It was torturous for a while, missing the sweet grind and searing lead of the other stuff, but the benefit is clearly there. When I get back to my rig, I really notice the difference this simple discipline has taught me and my digits.

Without the security blanket of distortion, one must reckon with the truth. For some it might take away from the enjoyment of playing, but for most I reckon the constant scrutiny will do them, and their fingers, some good.

+1

For me, I practice on an acoustic that has very high action and is very tough to play, but when I jump to my Soloist/Randall, It's that much sweeter!

[Cygnus X1]

I was happy my my tone, just not my technique.
Finger vibrato, false harmonics, string bending...no problem.
But too much of it was also developed from a very heavy picking attack, which
I have to change in order to build consistancy.
I practice distorted and clean. I rarely practice on the acoustic.

[Endrik]

I think playing with clean isn't the best idea to develop tone, clean is great if you want to archive super clean and precise technique.
Some mild distortion ala Larry Carlton or Jeff Beck is excellent... distortion really shows you how good your intonation and feel is.
Lots of gain is a bad idea though... lotsa players hide their shitty playing behind ridiculous amounts of hi gain... don't have any clue how your dynamics are that way

[shredmonster]

Lot of good advice above. I would just add that its a combo of both picking and your finger hand along with the little extras like muting, sliding etc...

There are so many possibilities and combinations of what you can do on a guitar.

But yeah years of practice of developing every aspect of your playing and as said above phrasing and vibrato. You have to vary your finger pressure, picking attack and be able to control your harmonic overtones using both hands.

Good tone is very very hard to develop and when you hear a player that has it you just know they practiced their ass off to get it.

Good equipment does not hurt either. You sound like you no matter what you play on but nobody goes around saying "give me the shittiest guitar and worst amp you have."

Also you have to have your stuff set up so you get dynamics in your sound. Too much processing and distortion ruins dynamics and nuances in your playing. I have just enough to give me sustain. I use distortion and reverb and that is it. Sometimes I don't use the verb.

[Newc]

+1 against practicing clean to improve tone. Everyone of the "shred kings" I've heard who used that "technique" sound identical. They're clean and articulate, but I don't consider their tones to be "unique".

Of course, if the music you play has no distortion, or minimal at best, then you'll want to practice in that element, but for the nature of this board, I say gain is good. Obviously too much is too much, though.

To answer the initial question: Yes, I'm happy with the tone of my fingers.

As for what it takes to "improve" your tone: first, it takes honest self-scrutiny. You have to define what is lacking yourself. Then you can proceed to obtain that which you lack. How you go about it is not as important as the end result - did you get to where you were going?

[NextInLine]

Thanks for the replies I wanted to know what you guys think about this and what you guys are doing..

I personally am kinda happy with my tone, I just don't like the way my bends sound sometimes and recently I'm practising with an up-tuned guitar (0.10-0.48 strings tuned to standard E, I normally play at standard D) to make my fingers more powerful but when I down tune it takes sometime to get used to it, my tone loses its tightness, I know it's a bit normal when I down tune but I thought it could be the way I'm picking (too heavy) or maybe too heavy palm muting

[horns666]

I couldn't be happier with my tone.

I test drove 4 amps at GC last night..they all sounded exactly like me..for better or worse.


I don't want to sound like Yngwie, Eddie, Randy, Vai and ect ..I just want to sound like a better version of me, and I'm constantly working on that!

[Bigfknbang]

i like my tone. i sound pretty much the same thru everything i plug into. line6 spider,peavey xxx, line 6 xtlive. boss metal zone,crate gx130c...some sound lil better than others but always pretty close

[Dreamland_Rebel]

i have small fingers that do not soak up much high end at all.

if i cradle the neck i get even more high end.

if i use my thumb on the back of the neck like my guitar teacher always wanted me too it will roll off more high end.

[JC_Denton]

I think playing with clean isn't the best idea to develop tone, clean is great if you want to archive super clean and precise technique.

I agree but it is even more difficult to play clean and precise with low gain imo.