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Let's list the "sucks tone" myths.

#21
Not sure if this qualifies as "sucks tone" but one TBer posted that switching from large machine heads to smaller ones, like Fender recently did, makes dead spots worse. Never mind that top luthiers like Sadowsky, Dingwall, and Tobias use them. Never mind that basses with large tuners still have dead spots. :rolleyes:
 
#24
Zombbg4 said:
Greg Bennett basses have smaller head stocks in that bigger ones "suck tone". Makes sense to me, less wasted vibrations. But would I be able to notice? Probably not.
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I got the chance to have dinner with Greg a few years back, and he is one of the smartest guys I've ever met when it comes to guitar design. If he said it, there is probably some truth behind it.
 
#35
Incredibly, I just read a post from someone here concerned that the wrong solder would tonesuck his new pickup installation. :rollno:

Of course, the magic cabling fantasies are such old issues they don't bear repeating.
 
#36
Electronic signal degradation does equal sucking your tone. Bad solder joints are a problem.

As for dead spots, it depends on the methods used in making them, so different tuners will have different effects on different necks.

Long cords suck your tone. Just a little. So do tuners. On the other side of the speaker, carpet, people and aiming your amp at not your ears sucks your tone too. With bass especially, the room is a part of our instrument.
 
#37
OtterOnBass said:
Electronic signal degradation does equal sucking your tone. Bad solder joints are a problem.
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That wasn't the point though. He thought the "wrong" solder would let the tone mojo out. That's nonsense. Anything that makes a good electrical connection is fine, though there are some other practical considerations; I wouldn't use acid-core solder for other reasons, say.

As for dead spots, it depends on the methods used in making them, so different tuners will have different effects on different necks.
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They will with varying mass and placement, though usually they just move the deadness to a different spot. I was wondering how the new low-mass Hipshot machines (not tuners) would effect the traditional Fender dead spot on the new 2008s. Not much, a it turns out, but it's not an unfounded expectation.

Long cords suck your tone. Just a little.
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Cumulative capacitance.
With bass especially, the room is a part of our instrument.
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Which is why bass is traditionally recorded direct to save much exasperation.
 
#38
about half the sucks tone "myths" are correct in some regard. Capacitance in cables definitely alters tone, but to what degree varies. Some effects, tone circuits, etc can alter tone quite a bit even when they are "off". Can you hear this in a live setting? Probably not. Sometimes.

No talent? that truly sucks tone like a hoover. :hiding:
 
#39
Any amp that isn't point-to-point wired will suck your tone. That's the myth, anyway.

I'd like to see MythBushters do an episode on guitard tone myths. They won't, but I'd like to see it.
 

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