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Color?
- Thread starter Ryan Mohr
- Start date
I have never seen a definition, but as it tends to be used, "color" seems to suggest some mild distortion, which some find beneficial. In a broader context, it is anything that alters the tone, though I suspect it is usually intended for an alteration that is not drastic.
About it being a good or bad thing, it's a good thing if you want it, and a bad thing if you don't. Generally, one finds one's choices of affects that add coloration by trial and error, or discussing with others who have similar tastes.
About it being a good or bad thing, it's a good thing if you want it, and a bad thing if you don't. Generally, one finds one's choices of affects that add coloration by trial and error, or discussing with others who have similar tastes.
Depending on the pedal, it could mean a ton of things. But color as used by bassists means the tone the amp imparts onto your sound. A lot of bassists' idea of good tone (not mine, really, but I see the logic) is playing through an amp that adds nothing to the tone of their bass at all. That's a bit of an impossibility, though some get closer to it than others. And for those amps that add more than just the natural tone of the bass to the sound, they are said to "color the sound."
Usually, on pedals, I've noticed that a "color" feature tends to equal selective mid-scooping (i.e., mids cut at particular frequencies, often coupled with bass and treble boosting). That's often what's meant by a "color" switch or knob - it's sort of like a "contour" control.
But color has no universal definition, and it often has nothing to do with mid-scooping - it's only a tendency that I've seen on effects pedals. I agree with the others - generally speaking, color refers to how your amp or effect alters your instrument's natural tone. Often, it's a bit of dirt or slight overdrive. "Color" is only bad to those who really love the sound of a clean amp which faithfully reproduces the natural tone of your bass.
As an amp example... Ampeg SVT = very colored, because it's anything but your natural tone. Different basses will sound very different through it, of course, but measure its frequency response through an 8x10 fridge cabinet, and you'll notice that there's a pretty distinct response curve that's not even remotely flat. GK, in comparison, is often regarded as cleaner and more "uncolored", but IMO, the true glory of a GK amp shows up when you crank up the Boost knob and bump up the mids (or, if you're a slap bassist, the reverse... scoop the mids and make a smiley-face!). Of course, those tones aren't very clean or uncolored... but so what?
Rock bassists tend to NOT like super-clean uncolored tones. We like our dirt!
But color has no universal definition, and it often has nothing to do with mid-scooping - it's only a tendency that I've seen on effects pedals. I agree with the others - generally speaking, color refers to how your amp or effect alters your instrument's natural tone. Often, it's a bit of dirt or slight overdrive. "Color" is only bad to those who really love the sound of a clean amp which faithfully reproduces the natural tone of your bass.
As an amp example... Ampeg SVT = very colored, because it's anything but your natural tone. Different basses will sound very different through it, of course, but measure its frequency response through an 8x10 fridge cabinet, and you'll notice that there's a pretty distinct response curve that's not even remotely flat. GK, in comparison, is often regarded as cleaner and more "uncolored", but IMO, the true glory of a GK amp shows up when you crank up the Boost knob and bump up the mids (or, if you're a slap bassist, the reverse... scoop the mids and make a smiley-face!). Of course, those tones aren't very clean or uncolored... but so what?
Rock bassists tend to NOT like super-clean uncolored tones. We like our dirt!
bongomania
Commercial User
+1 to the above answers. Note that while "color" is often representative of mild "distortion", not all distortion sounds like a distortion pedal. Often it just sounds like "warmness", "fatness", "thickness", "compression", "roundness", "punchiness", etc. In the strictest sense, "color" and "distortion" are synonyms, just meaning "your signal is altered".
On an Electro-Harmonix Small Stone phase shifter, the color switch adds a rotating wah effect to the phasing.
Don't know what that has to do with anything...I just like the Small Stone.
Actually... this is straight out of the manual.
EHX Small Stone Manual said:
Looks like it does do some mid-scooping.
Well a wah wah basically is a tone pot controlled by a pedal. So I'm sure that at certain points it does scoop the mids. But it rotates and is always changing, so it doesn't scoop for long.
bongomania
Commercial User
No, that's not entirely right. A wah is a resonant filter while a tone pot is typically not self-resonant. http://www.geofex.com/Article_Folders/wahpedl/wahped.htm
However I must say I am totally digging Devo JB!
Devo JB is diggin' you!
My mistake on the wah. That's what a salesman told me it was back in the 70's. Should know better than to trust them
My mistake on the wah. That's what a salesman told me it was back in the 70's. Should know better than to trust them
- Dec 18, 2000
- 13,201
- 340
- Disclosures
- greenboy designs: fEARful, bassic, dually, crazy88 etc
Devo JB is diggin' you!
My mistake on the wah. That's what a salesman told me it was back in the 70's. Should know better than to trust them
Music store salesman are usually just users, ones with a job that has music gear involved. And like users, the cross-section of those passing on bad info and downright bull is somewhat significant.
