Oh, Goodie! My post got a lot of reaction. Vive la différence!
1) Personal tone and development of personal style is the #1 priority unless a person wants to do nothing but play piano bar the rest of his gigging days. Congrats to those looking for individual tone, and experimenting with the state of the technology art to find it and keep pushing that envelope.
2) Yes, most sound men should be doing something else for a living. I am privileged with my current band to work with a guy who knows me and my playing and makes me sound the best. He is literally one in a million.
3) There is something to be said for the proposition that in a live setting, especially in a large venue, subtleties can get lost, even with the best of sound men.
4) I encourage all players that, in developing their own tone, to search out the highest quality effects with the best fidelity and lowest noise floor so any below the floor noise, distortion, or other unwanted artifacts are at a minimum. I save my favorite vintage effects for the studio where the noise can be eq'd out, and because if they get damaged on stage they cannot be replaced. If a person does use effects, I am a proponent of using the digital emulations in a live setting. Hell, when I played guitar in a band 20 years ago, I wouldn't take my Rick 12 on stage, even though it "made" the song my old band wrote - I used a Boss CE-2 chorus and cranked the treble instead, and saved the Rick 12 for the recording. Now, I would use a digital emulation to save both the Rick 12 and my Boss CE-2.
5) On the rare occasion anymore I play guitar, I either go direct, or use a Line 6 POD 2.0, which is the same as using a SansAmp or other similar effect, so I do understand. What I will say about that is any sound man who criticizes the use of a SansAmp has not mixed mic'd live cabs with all the cross talk and feedback issues, or worse, is not old enough to remember when the only way to be heard in a large venue was with an Ampeg SVT with two 8X10 cabs, before the development of modern PA equipment.
Epilogue: yes, the sound man should be accomodating of a player's personal style. But more often than not, he won't, and the bass player will be lucky to either just be heard, or be over-eq'd to all thump, all the time. So the real purpose of my post is to encourage everyone to be flexible, and not get too bent out of shape when, due to the sound man, and in spite of the player's best efforts, all that comes across is thump. After all, would you rather gig, or be pissed at the soundman and do nothing? With that said, I do encourage all players to work on clean, fundamental, traditional technique and tone, because it does have a place so that when a player takes off on an original composition with the player's style or effects it actually will be noticed and appreciated for what it is.
