It happens to all of us (I hope its not just me). You get home thinking, "Ooh, gonna jam now and its going to be all awesome and the angels will sing to me.", swith on the amp, plug in old faithful and then, nastiness. What the hell?

I built an amplifier 4 years ago, its currently my profile picture, but here it is again:



It's an 18watt Marshall clone. I LOVE this thing. It sounds like a little big Marshall and I can crank it at reasonable volumes and the cab looks cool and sounds awesome and everything is just great. But it is an unforgiving mofo and you need to play well to sound good. So every so often I play on it and sound like complete rubbish, thinking I must give up this guitar business. Nasty distortion, fizzy brittleness etc. Good way to dampen one's spirits. I even measure the wall voltage to see if there isn't something really wrong somewhere.

Here comes the fix. This has happened to me on multiple occasions now. This nasty sound happens one day (or I notice it and want to sell all my stuff), and one every one of these occasions, the thing that fixed my 'bad sound' was the strings on my guitar. STRINGS! This time it was those Elixirs I put on a month ago. They were still shiny but they were knackered. Changed the strings and there's it, my lovely 18 watt is back, it never went away, it was me all along.


I think I'll put a notice on this amp that reads "If I sound bad, change your strings (and get better plz)"

So next time you are having a Bad Tone Day, think about how old your strings are. It really makes a massive difference in how you will sound or at least, percieve how you sound ?

What's your Bad Tone Day story and fix?

ez wrote: So next time you are having a Bad Tone Day, think about how old your strings are. It really makes a massive difference in how you will sound or at least, percieve how you sound ?

What's your Bad Tone Day story and fix?

There's always a 'bad hair' day stalking me. Usually a good sleep and some fresh air &/or exercise works for perception.

+1 though, NEVER underestimate the power of a fresh set of strings. Elixir's are deceptive - they'll still feel fresh and look shiny, but are in fact - dead. The uber-modded strat had a 9mth old set on which looked and felt like new - the stock SX tele has a brand new set on - and kicked the strats a$$ categorically. Took about 3 days of head scratching to realise the strats strings were dead.

OT : That gold top is stunning!

V8 wrote: OT : That gold top is stunning!

Thanks, I really really love it. Tokai LS92 with Bareknuckle Mule and Blackdog. I've been pretty privileged with gear.

My bad tone day... I was looking at buying an Epi Les Paul to replace my eye gouger.

Went to music connection and asked to play an Epi Les Paul. They gave me one and a tube amp. I had never experienced a tube amp before. The first note I hit just went on and on and onnnnn... Wait you say, where's the bad tone day?

I got home that night and plugged my ibby into my GT8 into my club reverb (SS amp) and proceeded to spend around 4 hours trying to get my tone to sound better. It just sounded so poo compared to what I had experienced earlier that day.

warrenpridgeon wrote: My bad tone day... I was looking at buying an Epi Les Paul to replace my eye gouger.

Went to music connection and asked to play an Epi Les Paul. They gave me one and a tube amp. I had never experienced a tube amp before. The first note I hit just went on and on and onnnnn... Wait you say, where's the bad tone day?

I got home that night and plugged my ibby into my GT8 into my club reverb (SS amp) and proceeded to spend around 4 hours trying to get my tone to sound better. It just sounded so poo compared to what I had experienced earlier that day.

I have the opposite problem, usually. I go to shops and all their amps sound really dull and unresponsive compared to mine ?

warrenpridgeon wrote: My bad tone day... I was looking at buying an Epi Les Paul to replace my eye gouger.

Went to music connection and asked to play an Epi Les Paul. They gave me one and a tube amp. I had never experienced a tube amp before. The first note I hit just went on and on and onnnnn... Wait you say, where's the bad tone day?

I got home that night and plugged my ibby into my GT8 into my club reverb (SS amp) and proceeded to spend around 4 hours trying to get my tone to sound better. It just sounded so poo compared to what I had experienced earlier that day.

This should be stickied for everyone on this forum. One of my little missions in life is to stop this buy a crappy amp -> by a slightly less crappy amp -> buy a way over-powered tube amp -> buy a low powered tube amp and (sigh in satisfaction) road that's so traditional for guitar players.

How about this insead: Take up guitar -> buy a low wattage tube amp. The end.

With me sometimes its room acoustics, or standing in some weird place relative to the amp so that I'm not hearing the high frequencies.

But yes, strings. Was playing my Pacifica into the amp for the first time in a long time, and the strings are ooooooold. Not the most inspiring tone.


[edit] but then again, some wizard is bound to remind us that "tone is all in the fingers" so any difference you hear between a person playing a bullet squier with 2 year old strings into a no-name brand ss amp, and that person playing a '59 LP with new strings into a cranked Trainwreck Express is all completely in our imaginations. ?

agreed.

Had strings on for about 2 years on my Peavey T-60!

D string breaks and I change it and man does that string sound like good stuff. Changing the rest tonight!

Squonk wrote: agreed.

Had strings on for about 2 years on my Peavey T-60!

D string breaks and I change it and man does that string sound like good stuff. Changing the rest tonight!

Tjoekie toe!

Squonk wrote: agreed.

Had strings on for about 2 years on my Peavey T-60!

D string breaks and I change it and man does that string sound like good stuff. Changing the rest tonight!

That's why I love my air guitar... I've never changed the strings and it ALWAYS sounds amazing and stays in tune like a beast!