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The Science of Tone
Comparing analog and digital amplifiers
By Rusty Wright
Comparing analog and digital amplifiers
By Rusty Wright
The quest for THE SOUND is a task all guitar players undertake from the moment they learn their first chords. You start thinking, ok, I can play a song now how do I make it sound like (insert favorite guitar players name here).
Tone is the second half of the equation in developing your musical identity. You can have the greatest chops in the world but if your tone is generic or crappy no one will listen for more than a song.
Theres a lot of discussion and theory on guitar tone. Some say its the equipment and some say its the player. The equipment theory is a bit of a trap. Yes, you should have decent gear that wont break down every show but running out and buying every new piece of trendy gadgetry that hits the market is a plain waste of time and hard earned money. Not to mention if its new and trendy every other guitar player in town is buying it too. So much for standing out!
The real nuts and bolts of tone is how you get The Sound . The final output from the speaker cabinet to your ear. The relationship between the player and the guitar and the amp to the speaker is audio alchemy. Theres many ways to get there but here are some scientific reasons WHY we like what we like.
Theres basically 2 distinct types of guitar amplification. Analog (aka Tube) and Digital (aka Solid State) Im gonna tell ya up front, Ive NEVER found an all solid state amp that was worth a damn! I tried em all and yes, you can get some big distortion and lots of other sounds or real chimey clean tones that were interesting. But if you put some real volume on these things they ALWAYS sound like a bumblebee in a papersack! Whereas a well made all tube amp will knockdown walls while still sounding warm and fat. The reason is because of the ways that analog and digital or transistors resonate to reproduce the signal you feed into them.
Everything vibrates. Sound is nothing but vibrations that your ear can pick up. Your ear reproduces those sounds into stuff your brain can understand by the small bones in your ear rubbing together and sending the vibrations through the nerves.
Every sound wave is made up of frequencies oscillating at certain pitches which harmonize to create the overall sound you hear. These are called Resonant Harmonics , if you hit a single note on guitar and look at its waveform on a computer you dont see one little line for the sound. You see buttloads of spiky little stuff. Those are the frequencies that make up that tone.
Ok, you say, So what? Well theres a little known fact about analog and digital. Analog tube tones resonate odd harmonics while digital tones resonate even harmonics. Digital stuff resonates at 2nds, 4ths, 6ths, 8ths etc. while analog tone resonates at 3rds, 5ths, 7ths, 9ths, etc.
Ever here 2 people sing in 2nds or 4ths??? If you dont know what Im talking about just put your finger on the B string of your guitar at the 7th fret and play it and the open E string simultaneously. That's a 2nd (UGH) and yes, it might work for some metal bands but most westernized ears will find it annoying. Especially at High volume. Go ahead hit those notes with the amp cranked and see how your wife or mom react! Those harmonics are resonating at frequencies that most american and european ears find dissonant and irritating.
Analog tones are often described as warm or fat because they are resonating at intervals we find pleasant to the ear. Singers sing in 3rds, 5ths, an so on. When you play a 2 finger bar chord its a root note and its 5th harmony.
The bottom line is Digital sounds brittle because it makes our ears vibrate in ways that feel uncomfortable so the brain says Ow, this sucks while analog causes the ear to resonate in frequencies we find more comfortable. That's why the world spends so much time trying to capture that Warm, Brown, Analog sound in a digital world. Go figure,…Billions of dollars in technology just to NOT use a vacuum tube amp with paper speakers. Gee, I guess all those guys like Jimi Hendrix, Jimmy Page and Stevie was just doin it wrong. All I know is, If it aint broke, Don't fix it!
Have Fun, Make Music
Rusty Wright
Tone is the second half of the equation in developing your musical identity. You can have the greatest chops in the world but if your tone is generic or crappy no one will listen for more than a song.
Theres a lot of discussion and theory on guitar tone. Some say its the equipment and some say its the player. The equipment theory is a bit of a trap. Yes, you should have decent gear that wont break down every show but running out and buying every new piece of trendy gadgetry that hits the market is a plain waste of time and hard earned money. Not to mention if its new and trendy every other guitar player in town is buying it too. So much for standing out!
The real nuts and bolts of tone is how you get The Sound . The final output from the speaker cabinet to your ear. The relationship between the player and the guitar and the amp to the speaker is audio alchemy. Theres many ways to get there but here are some scientific reasons WHY we like what we like.
Theres basically 2 distinct types of guitar amplification. Analog (aka Tube) and Digital (aka Solid State) Im gonna tell ya up front, Ive NEVER found an all solid state amp that was worth a damn! I tried em all and yes, you can get some big distortion and lots of other sounds or real chimey clean tones that were interesting. But if you put some real volume on these things they ALWAYS sound like a bumblebee in a papersack! Whereas a well made all tube amp will knockdown walls while still sounding warm and fat. The reason is because of the ways that analog and digital or transistors resonate to reproduce the signal you feed into them.
Everything vibrates. Sound is nothing but vibrations that your ear can pick up. Your ear reproduces those sounds into stuff your brain can understand by the small bones in your ear rubbing together and sending the vibrations through the nerves.
Every sound wave is made up of frequencies oscillating at certain pitches which harmonize to create the overall sound you hear. These are called Resonant Harmonics , if you hit a single note on guitar and look at its waveform on a computer you dont see one little line for the sound. You see buttloads of spiky little stuff. Those are the frequencies that make up that tone.
Ok, you say, So what? Well theres a little known fact about analog and digital. Analog tube tones resonate odd harmonics while digital tones resonate even harmonics. Digital stuff resonates at 2nds, 4ths, 6ths, 8ths etc. while analog tone resonates at 3rds, 5ths, 7ths, 9ths, etc.
Ever here 2 people sing in 2nds or 4ths??? If you dont know what Im talking about just put your finger on the B string of your guitar at the 7th fret and play it and the open E string simultaneously. That's a 2nd (UGH) and yes, it might work for some metal bands but most westernized ears will find it annoying. Especially at High volume. Go ahead hit those notes with the amp cranked and see how your wife or mom react! Those harmonics are resonating at frequencies that most american and european ears find dissonant and irritating.
Analog tones are often described as warm or fat because they are resonating at intervals we find pleasant to the ear. Singers sing in 3rds, 5ths, an so on. When you play a 2 finger bar chord its a root note and its 5th harmony.
The bottom line is Digital sounds brittle because it makes our ears vibrate in ways that feel uncomfortable so the brain says Ow, this sucks while analog causes the ear to resonate in frequencies we find more comfortable. That's why the world spends so much time trying to capture that Warm, Brown, Analog sound in a digital world. Go figure,…Billions of dollars in technology just to NOT use a vacuum tube amp with paper speakers. Gee, I guess all those guys like Jimi Hendrix, Jimmy Page and Stevie was just doin it wrong. All I know is, If it aint broke, Don't fix it!
Have Fun, Make Music
Rusty Wright