What's the secret to your tone?

[Kinki fuzz]

Beer

[LaceSensor]

Digitech XP-300 space station
or more used these days, a modded xp-100 for all models
My vintage yellow Space station lives in the cupboard now

Heres the overall landscape though

[marmaliser]

Being tone deaf... I always sound good (at least to me)

[Cortexturizer]

Well, I could achieve my tone anywhere I go, on solid state and tube amps, but I strongly prefer the latter.

I don't like a lot of bass in my tone, I'd say I am putting the middle knob on half even lower, and I usually go high on treble. Still, no one ever told me that my tone was thin.

I usually stack overdrives and boosters to get some compression, sustain, and obviously gain going on. I officially hate compressor pedals, although I'm gonna build the Bearhug out of respect for Jon. That being said, I love it when let's say Pete Thorn does a video on em, like some Empress stuff, or the Philosophers Tone, but when I play one I am not there with the guitar.
Regarding the stacking I was mentioning, it's always the Sunking + 69 FF with fuzz on zero + SHO [with Zetex bs170 that make a real difference to my ears].

Along with that I use a lot of hybrid picking, so plectrum and fingers, I don't do alternate picking at all. I use chords that utilize open strings A LOT, that's almost my favorite thing about the guitar. That, and the volume and tone knobs on the guitar, I guess a lot of my sound starts from there [and the aforementioned combo of stacked pedals reacts awesome to that].

Humbucking guitars. SG for Gibsons, wide range humbuggies for Fender tones. As to the WDRH I had them custom made to vintage specs, what Fender uses on todays tele deluxe models are just very weak alnico 2 humbuckers [7-8K] similar to the ones you can find on extremely cheap Epiphone made LP copies.

Oh..and I love and use heavily any kind of modulation except for chorus. Chorus is just for sissies.

[Gledison]

Im still on a endless journey to find my best tone..

[raulduke]

A tiny bit of delay is usually always on (I'm using a Catalinbread Belle Epoch at the mo).

Playing with fingers can add something different to playing too (as Jon mentioned).

I think there are benefits to both approaches though. I don't think either is necessarily 'better'.

[muddyfox]

I just can't stop looking at those Strymons... 

[micromegas]

Digitech XP-300 space station
or more used these days, a modded xp-100 for all models
My vintage yellow Space station lives in the cupboard now

Heres the overall landscape though

You should do a demo of this board...

Little delay and a Quasar built to RC specs. And volume and tone on my guitar. Eq is important, although it always depend on were you're going to play. I have a Mesa Boogie MKIII and is quite hard to dial in the aproppriate eq settings to the room you're playing, therefore the Quasar.

I still have problems to get a pleasing overdrive tone in stage... although my zendrive and a Firefly a recently built sound awesome at home

[Kinki fuzz]

Beer

And also, my approach to every piece of gear a use is "What would Tony Iommi do with this?". No joke.

[raulduke]

Beer

And also, my approach to every piece of gear a use is "What would Tony Iommi do with this?". No joke.

Ha ha. Iommi's tone on the early Black Sabbath albums is awe inspiring IMO.

[hoodoo]

Toadworks meat jnr, always on effect, second in chain after tuner and sonic stomp last in line . I bought the meat jnr years ago on a whim, has never been off the board since, have never even opened it up, just in case the magic gets out.

[Smugtronix]

Biggest secret in short is a compressor and a lot of power. I've found on bass, the more power you have the clearer your tone. Doesn't have to be loud, just a lot of watts into a speaker that can handle it.

I agree with the compressor. I don't really consider a compressor to be an  effect  as much as a necessity on bass (I never turn mine off).
Finding a good compressor has been tricky. I'm using Mictester from FSB's Really Cheap Bass Compressor. It's perfect for slap, but the attack envelope is all wrong for fast fingerstyle stuff.  I used to use a BYOC 2-knob comp, which was too noisy and seemed to suck lows and highs out.

[jimilee]

Biggest secret in short is a compressor and a lot of power. I've found on bass, the more power you have the clearer your tone. Doesn't have to be loud, just a lot of watts into a speaker that can handle it.

I agree with the compressor. I don't really consider a compressor to be an  effect  as much as a necessity on bass (I never turn mine off).
Finding a good compressor has been tricky. I'm using Mictester from FSB's Really Cheap Bass Compressor. It's perfect for slap, but the attack envelope is all wrong for fast fingerstyle stuff.  I used to use a BYOC 2-knob comp, which was too noisy and seemed to suck lows and highs out.

Right now I'm using a souls preacher from EHX wither the release knob set to fast. I have about 10 different compressors because it has been a search for sure. I really like this one though.

[Rockhorst]

Stratocaster position 4 (mid and neck) and position 5 (neck)

[Willybomb]

Generally, it's probably the mutt guitars with aftermarket Dimarzios and Duncans.

Specifically these days it's the Blackstar HT-Dual pedal and the Hulk Snot.

Digital effects and 'special' effects suck all the life and personality out

I tend to agree with this statement. 

For a long while I used just my guitar and wah into a Marshall VS102r (yeah, tube/ss hybrid thing), and when I chucked a DS-1 in front of that and used just the DS-1 for dirt..... it just felt flat, lifeless, and relatively lo-fi.  Maybe that was the DS-1, but further experience leads me to feel that multis/ampsims/COSM/ect just make everything a bit too cookie cutter and what comes out of the box is all you'll get out of the box regardless of wood, pickups, or gauge.  I think they're probably well suited to recording - you'll get a great usable sound no matter what.

I'm not purveyor of tube vs ss or anything like that, but I think the simpler the signal chain, the more nuance or differences between guitars can come out.  Again, bury it in dirt and it'll sound much like anything else anyway.  Interesting article from a local builder here:

https://www.facebook.com/notes/searls-guitars/tonewood-myth-and-magic-or-complete-bullcrap/582133191868519