Transparent, Gritty, Fizzy, Smooth (TGP Dummies)

[lars]

You can get a great booster/dirt tone simply by running through the preamp of an old reel-to-reel. Somebody should build an overdrive directly cloned off one of these circuits and then encase it into a 10x5x4 black resin brick. Call it the Flufengurgen and mention that Mike Growtherly used it to record the Fathom Miser sessions, and watch it go for $3,004.00 on Ebay.
For a description, mention that, "it sounds....good."

How woodsy is that?

[juansolo]

I think the most valuable analysis I've heard on how things sound involves discrete and specific areas of playing. I.e. a drive's note decay, or attack, and clipping characteristics. Other than that, I think that "transparent" "organic" and "touch sensitive" are not very good descriptive words for guitar effects.

I just got an EHX B9, that's organic

[juansolo]

Being from Yorkshire I can describe anything using a maximum of two words; 'shite' or 'not shite'.

I truly believe you should start a talent show called "shite or not shite."  I would watch it.


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It'd be short. Imagine the pace of it with a panel of flat cap wearing maungy bastards.

Contestant1: I'd like to sing a song #Somewheeeeere....#
Judge1: Shite, next
Contestant2: I'm going to juggle these...
Judge1: Shite, next
Contestant3: I'm have a performing animal...
Judge1: Shite. What a load of bollocks. Pub?
Judge2&3 (in unison): Pub.
Contestant4: Hello...?

Then the judging continues at the Pub.  The show could go in the wee hours of the night until the judges were completely pissed. 


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LOL Guy Martin (who someone down south thinks I sound like):

I am drinking a pint of tea as I watched that.

[mgwhit]

I am drinking a pint of tea as I watched that.

My wife brought home PG tips for me the other day, but I thought it was, well, shite.  How do you feel about Yorkshire Gold?

[juansolo]

Nicest stuff by far is Punjana.

Yorkshire tea or Tetley's works when Punjana isn't on offer.

[midwayfair]

Do we need a tea thread?

[Muadzin]

I do wish we had a more agreed upon vocabulary for this sort of thing, though.  I know someone mentioned earlier that "transparent" is just false -- it is, yes, but I was under the impression that we used it to mean "no Tube Screamer-style mids hump" or "no significant EQ change other than the added harmonics you would expect from an overdrive".

Gritty, fizzy, smooth -- I would like to think that those are terms we can agree on.  You know them when you hear them, right?

Never be too sure about that. One man's fizzy is clarity to another. One man's smooth is bassy to another. Even if you can agree that one term covers a certain spectrum there will still be disagreement over which area of the sound spectrum these terms cover exactly.

But do we have further terms that can define them so that we know we mean the same thing?  Is it the quality of the distortion or a function of the EQ or both?

Just thinking out loud.  We should have a common vocabulary to discuss tone -- not everything about sound is subjective.  What terms can we agree on?

Nothing really. Like I said, in the end its all about personal taste and there is nothing more subjective then personal taste. We can recommend our favorites, we can try do describe them, but in the end there is no substitute to trying it out. And a good sounding pedal demo on youtube will say a 1000x more then a thousand comments trying to describe a pedal. And even that is suspect due to youtube audio compression.

[juansolo]

Do we need a tea thread?

Nah, I pretty much sewed it up in that reply

[mgwhit]

Do we need a tea thread?

Nah, I pretty much sewed it up in that reply

Yes, thank you!