What is tone?

[GreyBeard]

To me, tone refers to the quality of sound you are getting. Good tone = good quality sound, Bad tone = bad quality sound. So, tone is really a subjective term and can change over time. If you had put on a set of round wounds and cranked up the TWANG back in the 50's, you would have gotten fired. Whereas today it might be perfectly acceptable.

 

[MultiScaleMale]

To me, it's more about the sustained portion of the note, how bright or dark it is and the overtones that are emphasized / de-emphasized. How the note is attacked and decays is a product of playing style / technique. How it sounds when I'm not actively plucking / slapping / muting is "tone".

 

[bassliner50]

In simple terms tone is: A sound quality that can be satisfying or unsatisfying.

 

[groove pump]

Tone is a range of pleasing frequencies.

Agree completely... and then it gets interesting depending on the setting.

I'm just another case of my J-bass sounds great when I'm practicing at home, while my P/J is fantastic for helping me to be heard in the mix with the band.

My P/J makes a sound that I love for how it functions - it's audible when the band turns up - but the tone itself isn't as pleasing for my ears compared with the adorable tones I get with my Jazz. The P/J is actually a little obnoxious on its own.

 

[Fynn]

I like all the very philosophical sounding answers here, but to me tone are the variables of my setup that I cannot change by simply playing differently. Meaning my EQ settings, my amp, my cab, my bass all things that can drastically change the sound that is coming out of my speakers that I cannot change by simply plucking the strings differently or such things.
I make that distinction because that way I can tell if someone has a specific tone without saying that they sound like xy. If I were to dial in a tone that sounds exactly like what Jaco sounded, but I play completly differently, then that would still be the Jaco tone to me.

 

[sleddogn]

It's what the knob removes.

 

[bigdaddybass12]

It's all in the wood.

Yeah, and bass color also!! Black sounds the best.

 

[bigdaddybass12]

It is when people spend $5000+ for a custom made bass and play it thru a $75.00 pedal and a $150.00 amp.

 

[Snaxster]

...I don’t think I’ve seen a solid discussion on what tone actually is.

That is because the term "tone" in the audio or music making context, after being used for so long to refer to so many different things, ends up referring to nothing in particular.

It is a catch-all descriptor that might mean something specific to any one person who uses it. But since, at first, no-one else ever knows for sure what that person's definition is, a game of assumptions or guesses ensues.

For some time now I have been of the opinion that this fosters a widespread culture of intellectual laziness among music makers, in which lowest common denominator catch phrases serve as definitions.

The poor gear makers... what can they do? They cannot buck the tide, but have to use the term "tone" in their product descriptions. And so the standard for usage is reinforced, whether anyone likes it or it does any good.

That's what tone is.

 

[nealw]

It's me (or you).

Put me on a Squier 5-string and a small practice amp, or a 5-string Alembic through a big preamp/power amp/Bag End cabinet mega rig, gimme a few mintues, and on either one (and both), I'll sound like me. Always.

I've played too many basses through too many amps to not know that this is utterly true. Granted, on nice axes and nice amps, I sound like a better me, but it's always there.

'Me' is a five-string with nickel roundwounds, good cables, and larger amp with great EQ. I know what I like, and what it takes to sound like me, and that's what I'll steer towards when it comes to buying stuff. Not too much bass, not a searing top end, but enough clear to hear the strings in the mids and high mids. Solid.

I totally think each of us has an embedded at a DNA level of what we think we ought to sound like. You can have a big pedalboard, buy any bass or amp you want, and sooner than later, we spin knobs until we hear 'me', and like snowflakes or each person's idea of a perfectly-cooked ribeye, it's totally different from player to player, and unique to each one.

Buy what you want, play what you want, but sooner or later my 'me' or your 'me' always comes home to roost.

My basses are Stingrays with TI Jazz Flats. A couple of years ago I got a Hofner Ignition Club, which is currently strung with GHS Pressurewounds. On paper, they couldn't be more different: active vs passive, solid vs hollow, long scale vs short, one pickup vs 2 in entirely different positions, flats vs pressurewounds. It's amazing how similar the flat recorded sound is. Not identical of course, but very similar. I guess that's "me."

 

[Thumpin6string]

According to a lot of TBers, it's you fingers. I don't know how pick players can ever have any tone based on that premise. It has absolutely nothing to do with the bass, the strings, any pedals, or the amp. That is why in this world there is only one bass manufactured, only one string set available and only one pedal and amp manufactured. They have nothing to do with your tone. What is weird is that I love my tone and my fingers suck. I built my bass to sound the way it does with strings I like and it took many years to find the amp that gave me my perfect tone. If I play a different bass through a different amp, it doesn't have my tone. So I guess I'm the exception.

 

[HelpImaRock]

Tone is the "quality" of the note being played. Many variables go into determining tone. On a solidbody electric instrument, It mostly comes from the musician, strings, and electronics. Amplification/PA/recording gear have a significant amount of influence as well, as you really can't hear the instrument without plugging in and turning on.

 

[hypercarrots]

when you get good tone, pull the trigger

 

[BobDeRosa]

Simply tone is the sound you make with your instrument. Good tone is where you have a set up and technique that works for what you want to do. Bad tone is obviously not having the right setup and technique to pull that off. It doesn't get much deeper than that. After that it's all about certain things and certain philosophy and the expirimentation of those things into the said equation. That equation being what does this sound like and what caused it? Answer xyz...

Professor Irwin Corey? I thought you were dead!

 

[JRA]

What is tone?

- in the real world, tone = timbre.

- on TB, tone = "what you hear in your head."

- at the gig, tone = what you can tolerate for the next 3-4 hours.

"good tone" = what you get when everyone else likes it!

"bad tone" = what you get when you don't like it.

 

[chadds]

Don't use that tone with me, mister!

 

[silky smoove]

Frequency response over time

 

[mike buzzetti]

Whatever makes my ear HAPPY , Done !

 

[metron]

I learnt in music class that tone is sound quality so… frequency response. Different from timbre and I guess texture.

On the internet tone is the term used for anything and everything related to sound which is not wrong, but not quite right. Vibrating atoms of wood fibres and such.

 

[silky smoove]

I learnt in music class that tone is sound quality so… frequency response.

Frequency response doesn't get it done on its own. You have to consider time as well for attack, sustain and decay characteristics. It's the difference in a spectrum analysis and a waterfall plot.