Is tone important? Of course it is!

BUT…..Firstly, unless you are a truly advanced player…..the last thing you need to worry about is tone.

Don’t put the cart before the horse! You don’t need a Custom Shop Gibson Les Paul with Gibson Custombucker humbuckers or a USA Fender Stratocaster with Custom Shop pickups when you can’t yet play ‘Rebel Rouser’ and ‘Apache’ is still three years away!

First things first. Learn to play first. Before you worry about tone and equipment, the most important thing is to find a great guitar teacher. I have been teaching guitar at Melbourne School of Music since 1983 and I advise all my beginner guitar students to buy reasonable quality guitars and amplifiers. Usually they will need to spend between $1400-$1700 to get set-up properly. In my lessons we cover many topics. Obviously guitar technique but also theory of music, history of music, types of guitars, types of amplifiers and types of pedals. With my advanced students I go into the various aspects of tone, but it is pointless doing this in beginner guitar lessons.

Even IF Eric Clapton or Dave Gilmour…let alone Gary Moore, gave you their entire rig…….would you play or sound like them? That’s like thinking that if Usain Bolt gave you his runners, you too could run the 100 meters in under 10 seconds, or if Pete Sampras gave you his tennis racquet you too would win seven Wimbledon Finals!

These days people who are fortunate enough to live in Western democracies are spoilt for choice with guitars that don’t require you to get a second mortgage to afford……like Epiphone, PRS SE, Yamaha, Ibanez, Schecter to name but a few.

When and if you become a more proficient player, you will need to think more and more about your tone. When that time comes, the first thing you need to learn is that the tone that any great guitarist gets doesn’t  just come from his or her guitar….or the pickups that are in that guitar. The sound or tone that you ultimately hear on a recording is the product at the end of the chain.

The chain is:

What specific guitar you are using?

Not what brand or what model, but what specific guitar? Not all Les Paul Customs are the same! Just as each tree is different, every guitar is different. Some have a lot of sustain, some don’t. There are bad Gibsons, good Gibsons and great Gibsons. Can you tell the difference, or are you just going by the brand, the model and the colour you like?