“Tone is in the fingers huh?” Make an acoustic guitar sound lke Hendrix’s Strat. Right, so I call BS. As far as making a Hunbucker guitar sound goid through a clean amp, I get that, I am working at that, but this has little to do with tone, it has everything to do with playing clean and dynamics more than anything else, but that is delivery NOT tone. I don’t sound the way I sound because of whether I decide to play a Strat with OD, or a humbucker through a clean amp. I sound the way I sound because of my rythyms, my dynamics my pick attack or strumming, but that isn’t tone. We need to be a bit Socratic here and define “tone”. That is why this “Tone is in the fingers “crap” won’t die. When I speak of tone, I mean the sonic quality of the produced by the physical sound production apparatus, not counting the human being. I can make my guitar sound like John Mayers, or Jimmy Page, or tons of other peoples with the right gear. Cover bands do it all of the time. Pedal companies make a ton of money based on this idea. If you as guitarists don’t believe it, why are you spending so much money on gear? Sure pinch harmonics is a picking technique with a characteritic sound, but I can change it’s “tone” just by twisting my “tone” knob. Get real.
Interesting thoughts. “Tone” is more than one thing. But, the dexterity in the human hands (especially certain humans) is the main driver of what sound is brought forth from the strings. I used to bang away on my guitar, then I played without a pick and only acoustic for about a year. Things changed. Then I found this channel and Tom has helped be understand how to really play an instrument.
I will tell a story to counter. I played with Warner Hodges of Scorchers fame for years. He was in the audience for a show that I was playing guitar, acoustic and electric. The singer invited him to come up and sit in. I switched to acoustic. He borrowed my pick, didn’t touch a knob anywhere and played a tune. His tone has always been violently different from mine (his hands are very spikey, notes stick out, mine is blendy) as it was that night. With zero adjustments, a total difference because of hands and NOTHING else. So my personal experience says you’re incorrect at best.
9:57 Two students approached Uncle Larry and said, "we are having a disagreement, master. Is tone in the fingers, or in the gear?". Uncle Larry smiled, took a swig from a Rolling Rock, and replied, "tone is in the mind."
One of my favorite things I learned as a french horn player was, rather than trying to control everything, just listen until you make a sound you like and then pay really close attention to that. It's your whole body and mind and everything else making that tone. Too much to try to control by thinking. Just make that sound and tell yourself, yeah, like that. Your whole body will remember it but you can't really describe it. If you don't like the sound you're making, just ignore it until something better happens. Then pay attention again.
I've studied saxophone for a while and they do this thing called "tone imagining"... you really need to give instructions to your larynx which is really impossible unless you take an approach like you describe. Tone imagining. Look it up. I read it in a Dave Liebman sax book, can't remember which. If guitar players did this a bit more they would advance their "tone quest" in heaps
My father's grave is a few yards from John Younger's grave in an old country cemetery in Missouri. Younger's grave says, " John H. younger born 1851. killed by Pinkerton detectives in the Roscoe Gun battle March 17, 1874". Whenever I visit my father's grave, I stop by John's. :)
what i really love about you is that, whenever you have a guitar on your lap, you always play something meaningful. No faffing around with stereotyped licks and inexpressive, lazy clichè, like most of us. I'd like to be that free one day. Much love brother! Always a pleasure listening you.
Thanks Tom, Awesome video! Now I'm no Uncle Larry, but I think what helped me develop "touch" was actually playing my electric unplugged. That forced me to learn how to draw everything I could out of my hands while playing. For me that worked great. Just a suggestion, might not be for everyone....
Hey Tom, "endless shades of tone" - that's the point. That is why the guitar is so fascinating, all these possibilities to influence the tone and to express yourself like no one else does, even when playing a simple melody or chord...and it never stops. I've been coming to your videos for about four months now and - what can I say , it is kind of strange - it is like meeting someone I have known for some time and who gives me joy by sharing music - the guitar - thoughts about life - so please keep on what you are doing and being yourself.... Greetings from Germany, Jochen
My wife and I are both guitar players. I was playing a little Uncle Larry inspired solo on my Strat before practice the other day and she said “Record that and send it to me, I want to build on it.” Uncle Larry, the secret weapon…….
Right on uncle Larry is into combat sports I've played guitar since I was 8 or 9 but when I started Brazilian jiujitsu It really helped me learn how to practice or drill techniques
"Long Riders" is a GREAT movie! I still have my vinyl soundtrack album because Cooder's music is so damn good! We went to the early show when it came out so we'd make it to the gig on time. (Don't miss gigs starting at 9:15 and going til 2...) Them old boys shoulda never gone up to Minnesota!
Awesome intro and sage advice on developing your tone/voice. That’s what I have thought over the years, as you develop your voice on the instrument, your tone naturally improves.
I have a few hundred voice memos, played on acoustic, single coils, hum buckets, solid bodies, hollow bodies, gypsy guitar, od, fuzz, delay, phaser, etc. After listening to myself in all those situations, I know what my fingers and pick technique sound like regardless of the gear. That’s touch, which isn’t tone, but it is the root of tone. That being said: tone can either unfold from or get in that way of what my hands are doing. When the tone just blooms out of my touch, it inspires me to play more: harmonics and grit from overdrive, balanced and warm trails of echo or reverb. Tone inspires touch to do its thing.
The key is mindfulness! Once you start paying attention to minute details like that you can start to adjust based on what you hear. Granted I'm just a beginner...
Been a minute since I’ve commented on any of these videos. Loved this vid and the question the guy sent in about tone. I loved what you said about continually changing your touch as you go along and I’ve totally done that while I’m playing live. I’ve thought that maybe I make too many adjustments while I’m playing and but after watching this video, I feel better about what I’m doing while I’m playing. Great video. Killer guitar playing (as always). Oh and the two live shows you posted were so badass. Loved seeing that Chris McHugh was working on your album with you guys too. Been a fan of Chris since his days of being in Whiteheart. He took over for David Huff, once he left. Rock on, Tom!! 🤘🏼😁
You my Friend are by far one the most tasteful Cats on the planet. THANK YOU for your life and joy you bring so many including myself . Long live the Long riders ! ... absolutely the best ... just like you 😎
Holdsworth had a gorgeous clean sound for playing chords. Just gorgeous. People know him for the lead sounds, but his clean chordal work was epic. I've just been getting back into humbucker-loaded guitars after years of playing strats. The thing about single coils is you can leave them full up for all the output, and strum as hard as you want, and still get a good sound out of a clean amp. That's funk 101 right there. With humbuckers, you really have to address how you hit the guitar, and where the volume and tone are at. It's just different.
Loved what you were playin' off the top Tom. Killer tone! I'm with you regarding westerns. Another favorite is Unforgiven (1992). Eastwood at his best, along with stunning cinematography.
I didn't realize how I could change my tone until I really started working on my picking hand technique. I always let my right hand do what felt right without thinking about it until I ran into things I wanted to play but was getting tripped up by it. As I changed the way I touch the strings with my right hand I started discovering different sounds.
Ways to improve your tone with your fingers: Practice having a soft touch so you’re not gorilla gripping the neck and fretting everything sharp. Watch how you finger chords and make sure you’re not pulling any strings out of tune. Practice muting with your picking hand palm so the notes ring clean without unwanted string noise. Work on playing with pick (both pointed and rounded end) and fingers. Coax different sound from pick technique. Practice bending in tune . Work on your vibrato- really work on it: slow, fast, wide, narrow... Work on your timing- practice with a metronome and develop a good pocket. Work on phrasing and playing notes with intention. Learn new chord voicings. Work on picking dynamics, and not just hard or soft, but all the shades in between. Figure out what makes your playing sound like “you”, even if it’s not perfect, and learn to love it.
I can remember getting Live Bootleg -I must have been 12- and pouring over all those pics of Perry with a dozen different guitars. Putting that album on, hearing Back In The Saddle for the first time? Man, the rush of that build... It felt as if the roof was going to come of our house.
Speaking of missing the money train: my college age son has a buddy (who caught the train) with a Tesla truck on order paid for with his Game Stop stock money. Great playing, great commentary/thoughts. Thanks LTB.
this thing about small amps and single coils is soo true. I've been struggling with my 335 and 1x12 15w amp ( i only play small clubs... without mic )and i found that for clean tones i pick close to the bridge. Sory for my english cheers from Poland Tom
Hey Tom sometimes I think we've lived a parallel life but at different levels. I started learning country guitar and playing guitar in a local country band in the early 90's after ten years of playing in rock bands with humbuckers. My Les Paul is one of those "choppers", mini HB in the neck and a coil tapped HB in the bridge. I figured with those options I could get all kinds of clean, twangy tones with ease. I was wrong, it took a lot of work in the woodshed for me to get to the point where I was satisfied with the clean HB sound.
"hell, we played a rough game, we lost..." David Carradine OWNED that movie. Saw that in LA at Grauman's Chinese Theatre - when he gets his brother bob on the horse after bob is shot, the whole audience stood and cheered. incredible moment. Best western i've ever seen. Tough to measure up against Butch Cassidy but I might give it the edge.
Watch old western movies and shows every day bout all I watch besides the weather. I'm late commer to home skoolin. But I'm digging the channel man. Lot of catching up to do. 🤟🍻
Watching Kate Winslet specifically ordering and downing Rolling Rocks in HBO’s Mare of Easttown always makes me chuckle. Gonna have to get me a crate somehow, see what all the fuss is about.
Steady slow rain here. Texas exemplified! I love being in the middle of a climate and the music that comes from the climate! The Sky Is Crying constantly where I live!!!!
The first electric I bought was a BC Rich Mockingbird in 1977...mine was all dark wood. Ebony fingerboard. I'm from Atlanta and the last thing I wanted was to play was a Les Paul - which every Southern Band played...I would love to have some of those old Les Pauls I could have bought for cheap in 1978.
If you like westerns, check out 'Lonely are the Brave' from 1962 starring Kirk Douglas, Gena Rowlands & Walter Mathau. Fantastic film. From IMDB: "It stars Kirk Douglas as cowboy Jack Burns, Gena Rowlands as his best friend's wife and Walter Matthau as a sheriff who sympathizes with Burns but must do his job and chase him down. It also featured an early score by composer Jerry Goldsmith. Douglas felt that this was his favorite film."
A wise, ol’ Cleveland friend of ours, Billy Morris, taught me the same thing when I was a kid. He used a Line 6 spider II amp every night and his tone was always great (for the style of music he does). People would ask him “how do you get that sound out of a Line 6 amp?” And he’d say “it’s in the hands.” Cant really disagree. The definition of tone and where it comes from is all subjective. Cleveland boys know the deal! 😎
Neck through with a stop tail, my fav! In the 70's I had an ES325 w/mini HB's. My tech routed out the holes and put Di'Marzio PAF's in it, shortly after the neck twisted, ended up garbage. Never again! LOL
Really interesting to hear your take on the difficulty of getting a good tone from humbuckers on a small clean amp. I have the opposite difficulty. I can plug my Tele or any of my other single coil guitars into any amp with any level of gain going on, from clean to fuzz, and it’s just effortless to get good sounds. Like, it would actually take some effort to make tones that don’t sound good to me. But plug my 335 in, and it sounds absolutely gorgeous from clean to edge of breakup, but the more dirty I go from there the more work it is to get sounds I like. To the point where I simply will not run through a fuzz with it. Fuzz with my Tele? Gorgeous. Fuzz with the humbuckers? Can’t stand it. But the 335 plugged straight into my 1966 Princeton Amp (not the Princeton Reverb - the Princeton Amp is a clean high-headroom machine for a 12 watter), and that is just glorious sounding, especially on the neck pickup.
Whoa man! You’re kicking out some serious riffage!….Bit coin will rebound, patience is the key…..I started out w/the Les Paul and migrated to the Strat
What the F Tom... I, also 52, think I've heard most guitar tricks/riffs/tones there are and yet you kick my ass EVERY SINGLE VIDEO. Inspiring/depressing all at the same time. Off to go practice ;)
I got the BC Rich Seagull that came out before that one, same features. Try this trick , where the neck joint would normally be, lay it in the palm of your and it's perfectly balanced or at least this seagull is. Cool guitars.
That BC rich kinda reminds me of my old Les Paul Artist. It had Bob Moog active electrons, with 3 brass switches that gave dramatically different tones. When it first sold in the late 70’s early 80’s it was the highest end guitar Gibson had ever sold. Thing is, it bombed, nobody bought them. They can be had now for under 3k. Find one. Buy it. Really regret selling mine. Guy I sold it to said it was his favourite studio guitar. Im guessing for its tonal variety. Really interesting piece of Gibson history and still relatively cheap.
The circuit in that Eagle is the same as the one in a Mockingbird. It was designed by Neil Moser. It's completely different from the circuit that comes in a modern, Korean made, BC Rich. However.... Neil Moser still stocks N.O.S. circuits and the holes on the new guitars line up perfectly. Ask him install one plus a DiMarzio PAF and Super 2, and you'll get a great guitar set up by "the man" himself.
“Tone is in the fingers huh?” Make an acoustic guitar sound lke Hendrix’s Strat. Right, so I call BS. As far as making a Hunbucker guitar sound goid through a clean amp, I get that, I am working at that, but this has little to do with tone, it has everything to do with playing clean and dynamics more than anything else, but that is delivery NOT tone. I don’t sound the way I sound because of whether I decide to play a Strat with OD, or a humbucker through a clean amp. I sound the way I sound because of my rythyms, my dynamics my pick attack or strumming, but that isn’t tone. We need to be a bit Socratic here and define “tone”. That is why this “Tone is in the fingers “crap” won’t die. When I speak of tone, I mean the sonic quality of the produced by the physical sound production apparatus, not counting the human being. I can make my guitar sound like John Mayers, or Jimmy Page, or tons of other peoples with the right gear. Cover bands do it all of the time. Pedal companies make a ton of money based on this idea. If you as guitarists don’t believe it, why are you spending so much money on gear? Sure pinch harmonics is a picking technique with a characteritic sound, but I can change it’s “tone” just by twisting my “tone” knob. Get real.
Hey Wayne , how about "toning it down" ? Ever done that ?
Well Played Uncle Larry. 🤘💯
Interesting thoughts. “Tone” is more than one thing. But, the dexterity in the human hands (especially certain humans) is the main driver of what sound is brought forth from the strings.
I used to bang away on my guitar, then I played without a pick and only acoustic for about a year. Things changed. Then I found this channel and Tom has helped be understand how to really play an instrument.
I will tell a story to counter.
I played with Warner Hodges of Scorchers fame for years. He was in the audience for a show that I was playing guitar, acoustic and electric. The singer invited him to come up and sit in. I switched to acoustic. He borrowed my pick, didn’t touch a knob anywhere and played a tune. His tone has always been violently different from mine (his hands are very spikey, notes stick out, mine is blendy) as it was that night. With zero adjustments, a total difference because of hands and NOTHING else.
So my personal experience says you’re incorrect at best.
Ol’ Uncle Dan and Little Tommy…can’t get anymore real than that!
9:57 Two students approached Uncle Larry and said, "we are having a disagreement, master. Is tone in the fingers, or in the gear?".
Uncle Larry smiled, took a swig from a Rolling Rock, and replied, "tone is in the mind."
Uncle larry was a jedi after all
That’s why he is using the best gear in the world and the best guitar tech to set up his guitars because the tone is in the mind.
Uncle Larry smiled, took a swig from a Rolling Rock, and replied, "tone is in the mind." -> Grasshopper
I could have sworn I saw Uncle Larry floating......
Dude
“Endless shades of tone”
That could be the name of your movie!
We love you Tom!
One of my favorite things I learned as a french horn player was, rather than trying to control everything, just listen until you make a sound you like and then pay really close attention to that. It's your whole body and mind and everything else making that tone. Too much to try to control by thinking. Just make that sound and tell yourself, yeah, like that. Your whole body will remember it but you can't really describe it. If you don't like the sound you're making, just ignore it until something better happens. Then pay attention again.
Fuck dat is deep.
This is so good. Yes! Muscle memory is a powerful thing.
Thank you!
I've studied saxophone for a while and they do this thing called "tone imagining"... you really need to give instructions to your larynx which is really impossible unless you take an approach like you describe. Tone imagining. Look it up. I read it in a Dave Liebman sax book, can't remember which. If guitar players did this a bit more they would advance their "tone quest" in heaps
For later
0:00 intro jam
2:49 greetings
5:21 VCB 1 singers
6:22 VCB 2 tone
11:28 VCB 3 What do you watch?
13:22 ’78 BC Rich Eagle
Thank you so much for answering my question and saying you liked it, much appreciated. I get inspiration to play for several hours thanks to you!
These videos seriously make my day... and I actually started practicing again because of you Tom 🤗
blessing us with 2 uploads in a day
He is the Lord.
My father's grave is a few yards from John Younger's grave in an old country cemetery in Missouri. Younger's grave says, " John H. younger born 1851. killed by Pinkerton detectives in the Roscoe Gun battle March 17, 1874". Whenever I visit my father's grave, I stop by John's. :)
what i really love about you is that, whenever you have a guitar on your lap, you always play something meaningful. No faffing around with stereotyped licks and inexpressive, lazy clichè, like most of us. I'd like to be that free one day. Much love brother! Always a pleasure listening you.
Thanks Tom, Awesome video!
Now I'm no Uncle Larry, but I think what helped me develop "touch" was actually playing my electric unplugged. That forced me to learn how to draw everything I could out of my hands while playing. For me that worked great. Just a suggestion, might not be for everyone....
Hey Tom, "endless shades of tone" - that's the point. That is why the guitar is so fascinating, all these possibilities to influence the tone and to express yourself like no one else does, even when playing a simple melody or chord...and it never stops. I've been coming to your videos for about four months now and - what can I say , it is kind of strange - it is like meeting someone I have known for some time and who gives me joy by sharing music - the guitar - thoughts about life - so please keep on what you are doing and being yourself.... Greetings from Germany, Jochen
"Don't take that tone with me, young man!"
perfect timing, I needed to hear something good.
Thank you Tom Bukovac, thank you for creating Homeskoolin’, thank you for sharing with us knuckleheads…thank you!
Uncle Larry letting that baby bloom, then goes on to discuss the intricacies of tonal touch. Homeskoolin’ is the golden goose guitar channel.
My wife and I are both guitar players. I was playing a little Uncle Larry inspired solo on my Strat before practice the other day and she said “Record that and send it to me, I want to build on it.” Uncle Larry, the secret weapon…….
Right on uncle Larry is into combat sports I've played guitar since I was 8 or 9 but when I started Brazilian jiujitsu It really helped me learn how to practice or drill techniques
"Long Riders" is a GREAT movie! I still have my vinyl soundtrack album because Cooder's music is so damn good! We went to the early show when it came out so we'd make it to the gig on time. (Don't miss gigs starting at 9:15 and going til 2...) Them old boys shoulda never gone up to Minnesota!
Love the ones where you go "deep" into your pedagogy. Keep em coming, Uncle Larry!
We need a quotes section! Pure gold here.
Love that guitar. Looks so fun to play.
Awesome intro and sage advice on developing your tone/voice. That’s what I have thought over the years, as you develop your voice on the instrument, your tone naturally improves.
I have a few hundred voice memos, played on acoustic, single coils, hum buckets, solid bodies, hollow bodies, gypsy guitar, od, fuzz, delay, phaser, etc.
After listening to myself in all those situations, I know what my fingers and pick technique sound like regardless of the gear. That’s touch, which isn’t tone, but it is the root of tone.
That being said: tone can either unfold from or get in that way of what my hands are doing. When the tone just blooms out of my touch, it inspires me to play more: harmonics and grit from overdrive, balanced and warm trails of echo or reverb. Tone inspires touch to do its thing.
Always a pleasure always great info! Have a great weekend Tom!
The amount of priceless information in this video intense. 🤟🏻
Looking forward to buying that record! Can’t wait!
Morning coffee and Uncle Larry talking guitars and old westerns, just fantastic.
The key is mindfulness! Once you start paying attention to minute details like that you can start to adjust based on what you hear. Granted I'm just a beginner...
I think the best players are also the best listeners.
Getting caught up on your videos. So much great information, and just fun to watch! Thanks so much!
Great tone and phrasing, Tom.
The Long Riders is now on my to watch list. Great to come here for guitar talk and also get good movie tips 👍
Uncle Larry is the Tone King...I love how eclectic he is. This show has keep a light on for me the last year. Love it.
Great great episode!! Thanks so much
Long live the legacy
My daily dose of Guitar talk. Love you Dr Larry.
Been a minute since I’ve commented on any of these videos. Loved this vid and the question the guy sent in about tone. I loved what you said about continually changing your touch as you go along and I’ve totally done that while I’m playing live. I’ve thought that maybe I make too many adjustments while I’m playing and but after watching this video, I feel better about what I’m doing while I’m playing. Great video. Killer guitar playing (as always).
Oh and the two live shows you posted were so badass. Loved seeing that Chris McHugh was working on your album with you guys too. Been a fan of Chris since his days of being in Whiteheart. He took over for David Huff, once he left.
Rock on, Tom!! 🤘🏼😁
Tom, what you do is always OK with me brother!!!!
Always a pleasure to listen to you Tom \m/
The Long Riders is one of my all time favorite movies!
Great video Uncle Larry!
🐉💀👽🎸🎼🎵🎶🧠
What a great lesson! Thanks Uncle Larry!
Thanks so much for wearing my shirt and I love the BC Rich. All The Bess. TPV
Cool shirt, cool band!
@@derwolfenbaron3014 Thanks for the kind remarks my good man.
Once again, Thank you Tom, Thank you!!
You my Friend are by far one the most tasteful Cats on the planet. THANK YOU for your life and joy you bring so many including myself . Long live the Long riders ! ... absolutely the best
... just like you 😎
I agree, The Long Riders is one of the all time great westerns. I might have to watch it tonight!
Thanks for the tip on 'the Long Riders' fantastic film
“All the keys, all the clues for what you need to be playing are right there in the vocal” wish I could time travel and tell my younger self that!
Always wanted one of them old Eagles. So rad.
Great nuggets of wisdom always flow from the fountain of uncle Larry
Re: Bitcoin - HODL - play the long game. Also, Band name...."50 Shades of Tone"
Lol
Always enjoy your show. And .......cool shirt!
Holdsworth had a gorgeous clean sound for playing chords. Just gorgeous. People know him for the lead sounds, but his clean chordal work was epic.
I've just been getting back into humbucker-loaded guitars after years of playing strats. The thing about single coils is you can leave them full up for all the output, and strum as hard as you want, and still get a good sound out of a clean amp. That's funk 101 right there.
With humbuckers, you really have to address how you hit the guitar, and where the volume and tone are at. It's just different.
that western movie that ry cooder did, i have that on vinyl and sortve forgot about it til you brought it up. Nice!
Loved what you were playin' off the top Tom. Killer tone! I'm with you regarding westerns. Another favorite is Unforgiven (1992). Eastwood at his best, along with stunning cinematography.
Hiya kid, top skoolin video, listening to you trying to explain talent modestly ( touch tone) was fun. Respect and stay healthy all
Man, every time I click play on one of your vids Tom, I'm just amazed and lost into your groove...bad ass...!
I didn't realize how I could change my tone until I really started working on my picking hand technique. I always let my right hand do what felt right without thinking about it until I ran into things I wanted to play but was getting tripped up by it. As I changed the way I touch the strings with my right hand I started discovering different sounds.
Ways to improve your tone with your fingers:
Practice having a soft touch so you’re not gorilla gripping the neck and fretting everything sharp.
Watch how you finger chords and make sure you’re not pulling any strings out of tune.
Practice muting with your picking hand palm so the notes ring clean without unwanted string noise.
Work on playing with pick (both pointed and rounded end) and fingers. Coax different sound from pick technique.
Practice bending in tune .
Work on your vibrato- really work on it: slow, fast, wide, narrow...
Work on your timing- practice with a metronome and develop a good pocket.
Work on phrasing and playing notes with intention.
Learn new chord voicings.
Work on picking dynamics, and not just hard or soft, but all the shades in between.
Figure out what makes your playing sound like “you”, even if it’s not perfect, and learn to love it.
I can remember getting Live Bootleg -I must have been 12- and pouring over all those pics of Perry with a dozen different guitars. Putting that album on, hearing Back In The Saddle for the first time? Man, the rush of that build... It felt as if the roof was going to come of our house.
The King of tone and t-shirts!
Sick intro and sick shirt, Tom. Hope you’re doing well.
Speaking of missing the money train: my college age son has a buddy (who caught the train) with a Tesla truck on order paid for with his Game Stop stock money. Great playing, great commentary/thoughts. Thanks LTB.
Drooling over that BC Rich. Wow.
Awesome 👍👍 have a good day uncle Larry
this thing about small amps and single coils is soo true. I've been struggling with my 335 and 1x12 15w amp ( i only play small clubs... without mic )and i found that for clean tones i pick close to the bridge. Sory for my english cheers from Poland Tom
Endless shades of tone! I love it!
Great talk about tone! Thank you.
Hey Tom sometimes I think we've lived a parallel life but at different levels. I started learning country guitar and playing guitar in a local country band in the early 90's after ten years of playing in rock bands with humbuckers. My Les Paul is one of those "choppers", mini HB in the neck and a coil tapped HB in the bridge. I figured with those options I could get all kinds of clean, twangy tones with ease. I was wrong, it took a lot of work in the woodshed for me to get to the point where I was satisfied with the clean HB sound.
"hell, we played a rough game, we lost..." David Carradine OWNED that movie. Saw that in LA at Grauman's Chinese Theatre - when he gets his brother bob on the horse after bob is shot, the whole audience stood and cheered. incredible moment. Best western i've ever seen. Tough to measure up against Butch Cassidy but I might give it the edge.
I like that splangy bendy thing you did there doubling the high B and E with the 3rd and 4th strings - consider that stolen by me, Thanks Tom!
Watch old western movies and shows every day bout all I watch besides the weather. I'm late commer to home skoolin. But I'm digging the channel man. Lot of catching up to do. 🤟🍻
You're just another old soul, my brother.
Watching Kate Winslet specifically ordering and downing Rolling Rocks in HBO’s Mare of Easttown always makes me chuckle. Gonna have to get me a crate somehow, see what all the fuss is about.
Steady slow rain here. Texas exemplified! I love being in the middle of a climate and the music that comes from the climate! The Sky Is Crying constantly where I live!!!!
The first electric I bought was a BC Rich Mockingbird in 1977...mine was all dark wood. Ebony fingerboard. I'm from Atlanta and the last thing I wanted was to play was a Les Paul - which every Southern Band played...I would love to have some of those old Les Pauls I could have bought for cheap in 1978.
If you like westerns, check out 'Lonely are the Brave' from 1962 starring Kirk Douglas, Gena Rowlands & Walter Mathau. Fantastic film. From IMDB:
"It stars Kirk Douglas as cowboy Jack Burns, Gena Rowlands as his best friend's wife and Walter Matthau as a sheriff who sympathizes with Burns but must do his job and chase him down. It also featured an early score by composer Jerry Goldsmith. Douglas felt that this was his favorite film."
Love to see that bc rich! Great lesson uncle Larry, thank you.
A wise, ol’ Cleveland friend of ours, Billy Morris, taught me the same thing when I was a kid. He used a Line 6 spider II amp every night and his tone was always great (for the style of music he does). People would ask him “how do you get that sound out of a Line 6 amp?” And he’d say “it’s in the hands.” Cant really disagree. The definition of tone and where it comes from is all subjective. Cleveland boys know the deal! 😎
The Longriders is superb……great soundtrack 👍🇬🇧👍
Neck through with a stop tail, my fav! In the 70's I had an ES325 w/mini HB's. My tech routed out the holes and put Di'Marzio PAF's in it, shortly after the neck twisted, ended up garbage. Never again! LOL
Long Riders. One of the best, if not best, westerns. Love that movie
Really interesting to hear your take on the difficulty of getting a good tone from humbuckers on a small clean amp. I have the opposite difficulty. I can plug my Tele or any of my other single coil guitars into any amp with any level of gain going on, from clean to fuzz, and it’s just effortless to get good sounds. Like, it would actually take some effort to make tones that don’t sound good to me. But plug my 335 in, and it sounds absolutely gorgeous from clean to edge of breakup, but the more dirty I go from there the more work it is to get sounds I like. To the point where I simply will not run through a fuzz with it. Fuzz with my Tele? Gorgeous. Fuzz with the humbuckers? Can’t stand it. But the 335 plugged straight into my 1966 Princeton Amp (not the Princeton Reverb - the Princeton Amp is a clean high-headroom machine for a 12 watter), and that is just glorious sounding, especially on the neck pickup.
Enjoying night school! Thanks
14:22 , Wow ! I love this tone right here ! I can hear Ronnie James or Sammy Hagar (Montrose years) sing all over that ! AWESOME tonage TB !!
The Long Riders...what a badass flick. Haven't seen that in years. Maybe I'll watch it again tonight as well.
With a fine Ry Cooder soundtrack.
Whoa man! You’re kicking out some serious riffage!….Bit coin will rebound, patience is the key…..I started out w/the Les Paul and migrated to the Strat
For a good laugh, check out The Westerner with Gary Cooper and Walter Brennan. You'll like it. -G
What the F Tom... I, also 52, think I've heard most guitar tricks/riffs/tones there are and yet you kick my ass EVERY SINGLE VIDEO. Inspiring/depressing all at the same time. Off to go practice ;)
So good, you killing me.
Sounds great uncle larry!
Much respect...
I have an 81 Mockingbird. They rock for sure
Long riders is awesome. One of the best westerns ever made.
Your thoughts on playing humbuckers clean through a small amp are spot on.
I have a ‘76-77(?) Electra LesPaul copy that has those modules fuzz and overdrive.
If Eddie Van Halen and Tom Bukovac say that tone starts in the fingers, then that’s where it starts.
I got the BC Rich Seagull that came out before that one, same features. Try this trick , where the neck joint would normally be, lay it in the palm of your and it's perfectly balanced or at least this seagull is. Cool guitars.
That BC rich kinda reminds me of my old Les Paul Artist. It had Bob Moog active electrons, with 3 brass switches that gave dramatically different tones. When it first sold in the late 70’s early 80’s it was the highest end guitar Gibson had ever sold. Thing is, it bombed, nobody bought them. They can be had now for under 3k. Find one. Buy it. Really regret selling mine. Guy I sold it to said it was his favourite studio guitar. Im guessing for its tonal variety. Really interesting piece of Gibson history and still relatively cheap.
The circuit in that Eagle is the same as the one in a Mockingbird. It was designed by Neil Moser. It's completely different from the circuit that comes in a modern, Korean made, BC Rich. However.... Neil Moser still stocks N.O.S. circuits and the holes on the new guitars line up perfectly. Ask him install one plus a DiMarzio PAF and Super 2, and you'll get a great guitar set up by "the man" himself.
My favorite western is "Open Range." Killer.
I do dig Once Upon A Time in the West, and of course The Good The Bad and The Ugly