Seems like a clean tone always just works. I never really had the impression that TB was dirt heavy, but more of an overwhelmingly "just a hint of od" type of crowd. (among those here that use effects at all)
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I sense a trend
- Thread starter Peaveylover
- Start date
So true. My guitar/synth player music partner and I switch back and forth with distorted tones. When I play dirty he plays cleans and visa versa.
Exactly. I've been diving pretty head-long into Doom, Sludge, and Stoner metal lately so to my perception, fuzz and distortion are on a huge rise. I've also never really been into "radio rock" or most top 40 stuff so as far as I'm concerned, clean tones have never been that big of a thing to begin with.
Discussions of music trends are essentially pointless unless specific genres are mentioned because how can what's happening in folky, acoustic indie coffee-shop rock have much in common with what's currently happening in technical brutal death metal?
You are totally correct. There are tons of genres out there so it's hard to say anything is a real trend. Perhaps I should have just simply asked if people are tending towards cleaner or dirtier tones on this forum.
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Maybe, or maybe it's just what you happen to be reading. I wouldn't worry about it too much, one way or the other.
My approach has always been bass straight into the amp, but I know how to use effects and definitely think they are useful and cool. However when effects are used, IMHO a little tends to go a long way.
I've always likedthe sound of dirty and fuzz, but in general my tone is fairly clean. Has been forever.
Even when I dirty it up I have to have a clean blend.
Even when I dirty it up I have to have a clean blend.
In the dozen or so years I've been hanging out here, I've observed schools of posters who are looking for clean tone, schools of posters who like "grit" or "grind", and a small school of people who are so heavy into distortion it barely matters what amp is used. The schools seem to congregate around certain threads more than others - not necessarily threads about tone, mind you, but about particular instruments, players, albums, effects. I personally haven't noticed any recent overall demographic shifts.
i've been getting dirtier and louder, to the point of almost burying the guitar.
.When I feel myself at that point, I ask my drummer if he's OK with it, or if I should back down. He has never wanted me to back down.
I've like a clean sound ever since my '66 Bassman amp that I bought in 1966 started farting out while I was on tour. In late 1971 (or early '72) I traded it in towards a Standel MCIIb/SAM30b piggy-back amp. That gave me clean incredibly loud sound. One of the selling points at the music store was that it "doesn't distort at all because of these 4 round points vertically stacked next to the two 15" speakers. All the sound coming out the back of the speakers is channeled around to these ports and comes out here. You could turn this all the way up and hit a low E and it wouldn't distort." So I did; it didn't distort at all; and I bought it and gigged it that night and for the rest of the 3-years I was touring. Clean and loud is what I like.
Unfortunately all my touring gear, including my '65 Jazz Bass was stolen in 1976 and it took me until 2015 to put together a rig that I was really happy with. Now with my Eden WT500/800 running through either my DNS-210 for indoors, or my DNS-410 for outdoors and Festivals, I have the "best" sound ever. If I play bass chords with my set-up, you can distinctly hear each individual note. Love it!
I got my first bass pedal for Christmas this year. It's an electro-harmonix Bass Clone chorus pedal. Not sure I'll actually be using it for gigs, but I have played around with it a little bit and it's an interesting little box. Got more exploring to do with it, but hard for me to get away from a straight clean sound, especially since my maple-necked passive Jazz sounds so good through my gear as-is.
Yes! Me too.Coffee-shop death metal is relevant to my interests
Hummergeist
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Moving to fretless and EUB changed everything. I went from preferring an Ampeg style tone to clean. I have the GT-1000 CORE, so if needed I can have fx coming out of my ears. But...what the CORE does mostly is sit there and provide some eq, maybe even a bit of reverb. I have one song where I throw in the kitchen sink, everything else is clean.
Not sure I thought that the '90s was the time of clean sounding amps with low distortion. Like Eden, Hartke and SWR.
I tried the fuzz distortion thing and could never do it. I wasted a bunch of money trying to be part of the cool club and just ended up always keeping it clean and articulate. I like to have some good attack and thud though.
Music is going through a global change , getting quieter or more intimate, more specialized, will that last forever I hope not. I would like to see this time taken to develop an appreciation for the intimate while not losing the spectacle and energy of large or enormous venues and events because those are just as special and important.
There are specialized crafts, knowledge and skills to playing, production and logistics of those larger events that can very quickly be lost if not maintained. Like Broadway, F1 or climbing Mt. Everest there are countless minutiae that are ephemeral and all too easily lost when those activities are suddenly stopped.
There are specialized crafts, knowledge and skills to playing, production and logistics of those larger events that can very quickly be lost if not maintained. Like Broadway, F1 or climbing Mt. Everest there are countless minutiae that are ephemeral and all too easily lost when those activities are suddenly stopped.
I haven’t noticed a trend toward clean, but then again, I don’t listen to a lot of new music.
I’ve been playing mostly clean since I started playing in the mid-70s, but have started getting into mild dirt in the past year. Of course, I have not had many gigs to test it out.
I’ve been playing mostly clean since I started playing in the mid-70s, but have started getting into mild dirt in the past year. Of course, I have not had many gigs to test it out.
Also, hip-hop is dominant these days and bass on the radio is either RnB tastic or 808 - stuff that has super present bass, especially in headphones. My clean tone is probably cleaner than it's been in a while, and dirts are mostly mid gain instead of the maximum doom of 2016 (metal tone has got to be tighter these days).
