Good songs, questionable guitar tone.

[AndyG]

Everything I've ever heard by Rush on the radio (since it's always been enough to keep me from exploring further), from their unfortunate choice of vocalist to their dry-as-a-bone production values (seriously, did they record EVERY instrument in a "dead" room?), the godawful, artificial-sounding drumkit, the synthesizers utterly bereft of roomsound piped directly into the mixing board.  And the sounds their instruments make, argh.  Bass without balls.  Guitar out of an overdriven Crate practice amp.

I'm hoping maybe what they were trying to do makes sense on vinyl or something?  It's like I can hear a super-cool band just dying to get out from under five thousand layers of saran wrap and acrylic batting.

Wow ... that's a HUGE generalization, as every Rush album sounds different, and for a variety of reasons.
Permanent Waves was an amazing-sounding record, as was 2112.  The one thing about Rush will always be Geddy's voice ... some people just can't stand it.  Synths in the last 70's and early 80's were dry ... but the bass tone from the Ricky had an amazing growl!  There are certainly Rush albums whose tone I wasn't crazy about .... but I've heard much, MUCH worse stuff on albums than anything they've done.

To each his own.

 

[TJD]

I love the tone on Reelin' In The Years (tele with neck 'bucker)... it's raw and dynamic.

Let's see here...

- anything by George Lynch (fuzzy, harsh top end)
- anything by Joe Satriani (super-compressed = no dynamics)
- anything by Steve Vai (same as above)
- Stones / Sympathy For The Devil solo (anemic)
- any nu-metal/nu-crap where the guitar sounds like a bunch of angry bees buzzing around (no good songs found here, though)

Oh we would just not get along...Listen to Dokken's Back for the Attack---any song---just about the best tone on a metal guitar solo ever. I realize the songs are 80's cheezy but for full, round tone with lots of feedback style harmonix...AmAAAAzing! ..kinda agree about Satch though..too sterile.

 

[TJD]

Oh ... and Hendrix.

I pity the fool who can't hear Jimi and his myriad glorious tones;  Gypsy Eyes, Machine Gun, Axis Bold as Love.  Krikie, Voodoo Child is the archetypal tone; simple, thick and cutting.  You know you want it!   :toothy12:

+++1

 

[Superlizard]

I love the tone on Reelin' In The Years (tele with neck 'bucker)... it's raw and dynamic.

Let's see here...

- anything by George Lynch (fuzzy, harsh top end)
- anything by Joe Satriani (super-compressed = no dynamics)
- anything by Steve Vai (same as above)
- Stones / Sympathy For The Devil solo (anemic)
- any nu-metal/nu-crap where the guitar sounds like a bunch of angry bees buzzing around (no good songs found here, though)

Oh we would just not get along...Listen to Dokken's Back for the Attack---any song---just about the best tone on a metal guitar solo ever. I realize the songs are 80's cheezy but for full, round tone with lots of feedback style harmonix...AmAAAAzing! ..kinda agree about Satch though..too sterile.

I was a big Dokken fan back in the day and still like their songs (1st album to BftA).  I just think Geo. needs to tame the fuzz on the treble a... hair.

 

[Schlieren]

We could bag on our least favorite tones by an entire artist's catalog, but the intent was to pick a particular song that you might be fond of but thought a certain tone was off.  Your reply fits if you like Rush.

That's too specific a topic for my taste so I expanded it to suit my preference

 

[Schlieren]

Wow ... that's a HUGE generalization, as every Rush album sounds different, and for a variety of reasons.
Permanent Waves was an amazing-sounding record, as was 2112.  The one thing about Rush will always be Geddy's voice ... some people just can't stand it.  Synths in the last 70's and early 80's were dry ... but the bass tone from the Ricky had an amazing growl!  There are certainly Rush albums whose tone I wasn't crazy about .... but I've heard much, MUCH worse stuff on albums than anything they've done.

Well like I said, my experience with Rush is limited to whatever shows up on XM radio or whatever I heard as a kid from buddies who loved Rush, so you have to take that into account.  And you know, I think his voice is interesting, and could really "pop", but the way they recorded him and mixed him took anything I would have liked about his voice and shelved it.

It's like they took a band I really would like and through nothing but aesthetic decisions in the studio - those decisions usually of marginal significance when making a record - they turned it into something that bugs the heck outta me.  Others love it and look at Rush as canonical, so it must work for a lot of ears out there, and more power to 'em, but it's strange.  Usually if someone doesn't like a band or a song they don't bother forming opinions other than "ugh that blows", it's rare to hear something one doesn't like and, instead, wish they could change a bunch of it to suit one's own tastes.  For some reason I hear a Rush song and I instantly start thinking of what I'd have done if I had the say in their sound.

I'm sure they'd trade their unbelievable success for pleasing just me.  I should write to them and volunteer to produce their next record.

 

[GoDrex]

I think Moving Pictures sounds really cool. Lots of good reverb.  :laughing7: Seriously though the sound of that album total soothes my brain. It's sublime.

 

[yyz2112]

This is kind of an interesting thread. To me, a player's sound and choice of notes work together to get a point across, hence the several replies along the lines of "it works for them".
That being said, I'm a big Sabbath fan, but Tony Iommi's sound on Born Again, pretty much the whole album. Can't stand the sound, though there are a few decent songs in there...and I couldn''t bring myself to listen to anything of his after that.

 

[taez555]

The guitar solo to the 1977 Commodores/Lionel Richie classic "Easy"

Such a laid back "easy like a sunday morning" tune, and then the solo is this painful, icepick to the head, fuzz tone.

I can't imagine the song with anything else, but man...   

 

[Superlizard]

That being said, I'm a big Sabbath fan, but Tony Iommi's sound on Born Again, pretty much the whole album. Can't stand the sound, though there are a few decent songs in there...and I couldn''t bring myself to listen to anything of his after that.

Yeah, someone was doing too much coke at the console when they mixed that.

"Duuuude... it needs more treble!  And dump the mids... all of them!"

 

[m4rk0]

That being said, I'm a big Sabbath fan, but Tony Iommi's sound on Born Again, pretty much the whole album. Can't stand the sound, though there are a few decent songs in there...and I couldn''t bring myself to listen to anything of his after that.

Yeah, someone was doing too much coke at the console when they mixed that.

"Duuuude... it needs more treble!  And dump the mids... all of them!"

I think Tony produced it himself... I also remember that Ian Gillan later said that the only thing Tony should be producing is a turkey sandwich....

(well, it was something like that)