One Man’s Ceiling…

I had a chance to record my son’s band, Lungs They Burn this weekend. Same deal as last time I talked about recording ; a low budget, cheap guitar deal all the way.

But what I wanted to talk about today was an interaction that took place between the guitar player, singer/songwriter Sean and myself. He gets this whirring, twirly type of sound that I’ve always sought after. In fact, I’ve bought pedals trying to attain that sort of sound.

But half way through the session, Sean wasn’t happy with his sound. When that happens, there is no smoothing over it. Particularly if it involves recording where the sound will live on long after the moment.

I’m pretty sure the sound that I like and the sound that Sean dislikes is the sound of tubes going bad. Both Sean and I play Fender tube amps. These are neither cheap amps nor expensive amps. But the thing they have in common with all tube amps is that the tubes degrade over time and as they degrade, the sound changes.

How this all relates to cheap guitars is that beauty of sound is in the ear of the beholder. Sean switched to my Fender amp and was immediately happier with the sound. To my ear, I preferred the sound of Sean’s amp.

Its not a right or wrong sort of situation. Its a matter of personal choice. The same goes for playing a cheap guitar. If it sounds the way you want, if it plays the way you want it to play, then what difference does it make how much you paid for it?

In fact for me, it sometimes works in the opposite direction: If I’m playing an expensive guitar, I feel pressured to sound “great.” But if I’m playing a cheap guitar I feel as though nobody expects much of anything out of me.

So Sean will be getting his amp retubed sometime soon I’m guessing. And I’ll wait for my tubes to degrade to the point where they sound like Sean’s old ones. One man’s ceiling is another man’s floor.

Related articles by Zemanta

• SMASHING PUMPKINS Drummer Leaves Band (idiomag.com)
• Jimmy Quits The Smashing Pumpkins! (idiomag.com)
• Jimmy Chamberlin Leaves SP (idiomag.com)
• Smashing Pumpkins Jimmy Chamberlin Leaves (jambase.com)
• Drummer JIMMY CHAMBERLIN Quits SMASHING PUMPKINS (idiomag.com)
• Jimmy Chamberlin Quits Smashing Pumpkins (stereogum.com)
• Jimmy Chamberlin Quits Smashing Pumpkins (idiomag.com)

Tags: Arts, Fender Musical Instruments Corporation, fixes, Guitar, Guitarist, Instruments, Music, Singer-songwriter, Stringed

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 24th, 2009 at 1:24 pm and is filed under recording with cheap guitars, repairing cheap guitars. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.