Bright Tone with Warmth

[Jusatele]

I understand what you are saying. First of all, you don't know how well I play!  But I define smoothing out the notes with feel or adding edge with feel to manipulate the tone as still feel and it is still just that, manipulating the tone that is already there. I could tell if Jimi Hendrix was playing a strat or a flying V or his les paul and that's because each produces a different tone.

I am very, Very picky... perhaps more than you can imagine and I want the tone to be a certain way. Kenny says all the time that he needs to crank his amps all the way up to get that distorted tone that he loves even though it is much louder than he wants but according to him, he has no choice. What would you say to Kenny about that? I saw Kenny live and I heard him play different strats and some were brighter than others. How could I hear that if he could play every guitar to get the same tone he wants? Why does he bother playing vintage instruments? Why does he play strats instead of les pauls?

first off, I can tell a lot by the fact you point out I do not know how well you play, Kenny can out play me and I have years on him
telling what equipment someone is playing, you are a god
Kenny is just against the wall with his equipment, it is a thing we all know, it is why so many of us look for the holy grail, a 15 WATT AMP THAT WILL GIVE US WHAT A 100 WATT AMP WILL. The days of stadium rock where we ran mega sized rigs to fill the sound out are far gone, we now run everything through PA systems, we mike our rigs and the drummer so we can pay our sound guy to make sure the mix is correct. Now Kenny is not complaining about having to play loud, he is stating a fact.
Now if you were to go back and read what I said, you would see I Never said he could play any guitar the same tone, I said he could manipulate  the tone coming out of his rig. And he chooses the equipment that delivers the tone he wants, He plays the blues, not hard rock, he is looking for a very clean tone that is mile ahead of his distortion with dynamic response in the lead of his sound. Listen to that video again, he is hiding nothing, he is guiding you with a clean tone to haunt your ears. I say that because you are here wanting to emulate that, You are complaining of your neck woods not sounding like him, ever thought of buying his signature Strat?
We can discuss tone all day long, we can look for a answer that will magically transform us into whatever we want, but the 2 greatest things we need to achieve what we want is a spending hours in dark room with a guitar. Nothing will get you further than that.
Now you say you know so much about Kenny and even have his amp, OK, what pickup is he playing in that video, bridge, middle or neck, how is his pots set, who mods his amps and what have they done, what brand of pickups and models are in that guitar,, what are the setting on his amp, want me to go on?
Simply put, Kenny has a talent very few will achieve, and he has learned more about tone manipulation than most will ever achieve, to emulate his tone is not the problem, it is to control it once you find it. There is a huge difference, The tone is not that hard. You may even have it already, it is just doing with it what Kenny does.

 

[Super Turbo Deluxe Custom]

Does Kenny play Vintage stuff?  I'm sure he owns a lot of it, and may play it out on tour, but the guitar in the vid is his sig model, or a Vintage one done with his sig model Cross.  As far as if and why he plays Vintage stuff, thicker neck.  If he does have lot of Vintage guitars, I guarantee you none of them are stock.  It's a body from ___, a neck from a _____, a bridge from a ______, a neck pickup off a _____, a middle pickup custom wound to sound like an overwound _______, a bridge pickup from a _______, and new pots.

BTW, did ya'll know he is Mel Gibson's son-in-law?

 

[Jusatele]

none of my vintage stuff is all vintage, and I cannot afford a guitar tech, I bet his stuff is all modded.I did see and interview about his sig series and he said he wanted all the stuff he would like at a price you could afford. Now the way he sounded was he was trying to sell his guitar. Like Fender makes with any Sig series.  I would think that Kenny is like most of us, and cannot stop messing around with a guitar, Only guitar I never messed with is my PRS, but then it is a triple soapbar and how do you mess with that ?  And I know very few vintage guitars that actually get played that are stock, most guys do this or change that.
As far as Kennny's rig, he can afford to have some amp guy crawl into his amp, I can afford an amp but having someone rewire it at 60 dollars an hour is not in my pay scale.
That reminds me I need to check if they got a amp in I want to demo, another call today.
Anyway I agree that precious little of his stuff is stock, and would believe that even his sig series axe is modded. I personally think I would prefer a GE Smith tele anyway.

 

[Cagey]

I know very few vintage guitars that actually get played that are stock, most guys do this or change that.

That's because truly vintage guitars suck. Bad tuners, bad bridges, weak pickups, tiny frets, grabby nuts, fragile finishes, on and on.

 

[Jusatele]

I know very few vintage guitars that actually get played that are stock, most guys do this or change that.

That's because truly vintage guitars suck. Bad tuners, bad bridges, weak pickups, tiny frets, grabby nuts, fragile finishes, on and on.

I have said it a thousand times, the best guitars ever made have been put out since 2000, the entire vintage market is for collectors,not players
with modern parts and CNC carving of the bodies and necks, we now have the QC and the research into material that they only could dream of 40 years ago.

 

[Cagey]

...the entire vintage market is for collectors, not players

I agree. Try telling that to the folks who insist on using those poor designs on newer gear, though. You'd have less of a fight convincing Muslims that Mohammed was Irish <grin>

 

[Jusatele]

kinda like those guys who go out and buy a 72 replica Tele.
Want to remind them that 72 was in the heyday of the CBS years when Fender was making some of it's worse guitars ever?

 

[Cagey]

The silverface amps of that era were pretty universally despised, too, and had almost no resale value at all. Now, people get all excited when they get ahold of one. But, I suppose if you're anything less than about 40 years old or so, that stuff would seem pretty old and vintage and therefore somehow desirable.

 

[Super Turbo Deluxe Custom]

kinda like those guys who go out and buy a 72 replica Tele.
Want to remind them that 72 was in the heyday of the CBS years when Fender was making some of it's worse guitars ever?

Maybe, but an LP control layout and depending whether you had a Deluxe or Custom, a possible bridge hum in a Tele.  All the ones I've seen have had the hell played out of them.

 

[OzziePete]

When you get into the delicate finer points of the tone of a guitar, the player's feel is all important. There's no way that I could pick up KWS's guitar and rig and play with the same tone as he can solicit. A LOT of what I heard on that video (besides the hall acoustics) is his finger tip touch. I know my own playing would sound quite meat handed compared to his and I'd probably have all sorts of fatter, less bell like tones going and couldn't squeeze out those fine treble notes like he did. You could get 'in the ballpark' of his tone by copying what rig and guitar he has, but after that it's up to your playing. I think a lot of collectors and 'scientists' among the guitar playing community tend to try and quantify everything that makes the sound of a guitar, when in fact, the player's touch does influence what comes out quite a bit....and that is extremely hard to scientifically express. Is it too hard just to accept that good players have an excellent sensitive touch on their fingertips that connect with their brain extremely well?

 

[OzziePete]

I know very few vintage guitars that actually get played that are stock, most guys do this or change that.

That's because truly vintage guitars suck. Bad tuners, bad bridges, weak pickups, tiny frets, grabby nuts, fragile finishes, on and on.

I have said it a thousand times, the best guitars ever made have been put out since 2000, the entire vintage market is for collectors,not players
with modern parts and CNC carving of the bodies and necks, we now have the QC and the research into material that they only could dream of 40 years ago.

Agreed. To a point. The manufacturers have to WANT to properly supervise the QC and the research has to be more of an evolution than some cocaine fuelled, brainfarted, marketing revolution......and yes, I am specifically referring to Gibson on both of these points.

Gibson has been called out plenty of times for inconsistent - and that's being polite - Quality Control of late, well, there's the Firebird X... :sad1: