Anyone else here NOT a huge fan of Mike's tone?

DOSW

I don't know if it's just me, because I always seem to see threads pop up questioning how to get Mike's tone, but I just don't see what's really special about his tones. I mean, he doesn't have BAD tones, but I just don't think they're really memorable like most of the classic guitar legends. I think the best tone that he has is his tone in the studio version of the YL solo... but besides that, it's either too washed out in effects (like in many live versions of YL.... really kills it for me) or not trebly enough (especially on some of his Les Paul solos... turn up that tone knob, Mikey!). Also could use more gain in some situations. The Red Mosquito fuzz tone is awesome, but I'm not sure if that's Mike or Stone.

Speaking of which, if anything I think Stone has better tones than Mike does. I love Mike's style of playing though, I just think that I'd love him even more if his tone was a bit nicer. Does ANYONE agree?

lucylespian

Yeah, his tones are probably OK, but not overly standout for me. I like when he plays with lots of delay on YLB, and rotsphere, esp on Black.

Stone uses the bass strings a lot more, which gives better tonal opportunities.
I'm more of a high gain humbucker tone guy, so I enjoy Mike's tone for what it is, wihtout being in love with it. I prefer his LP tones, of corse !!

Now. Kirk HAmmett on Binge 'n Purge or S&M, that's my kind of tone.

scot88

DOSW wrote:

not trebly enough (especially on some of his Les Paul solos... turn up that tone knob, Mikey!)

YES!

DOSW

lucylespian wrote:

Yeah, his tones are probably OK, but not overly standout for me. I like when he plays with lots of delay on YLB, and rotsphere, esp on Black.

Stone uses the bass strings a lot more, which gives better tonal opportunities.
I'm more of a high gain humbucker tone guy, so I enjoy Mike's tone for what it is, wihtout being in love with it. I prefer his LP tones, of corse !!

Now. Kirk HAmmett on Binge 'n Purge or S&M, that's my kind of tone.

Yeah I think the problem I have with his effects is that he just uses them for the sake of using them sometimes. On songs like NAIS or Black the effects work really well... but at the end of live YL's for example, they serve no purpose.

Actually I remember salivating over one of his tones on the Lolla webcast earlier this year. I forget what song it was though, I'll have to double check tomorrow. I think it was on an LP though.

Anon

mikes best tone imo is on the mad season's only album. classic standard strat sound, very, very SRV like. the effects on that album were brilliant.

ianvomsaal

I thought his tone in Stillwater was fairly decent (I'm probably singular on this but I like his earlier Marshall tone better than later).
Yeah he does go a bit overboard on Hello-Led-Veder, but hey it's Mike, so we forgive him for wanking up a storm on some tunes.
Plus you need to understand that many (non-musician, non-guitar playing) Peal Jam fans love it, so he's giving them what they want.
All the effects makes him sound like he's doing an awful lot more than he really is - and hence almost god-like to inexperienced ears.

- Ian

xtremehardy388

2000-2003 had Ledbetter's BEST tone along with Black

DOSW

Pj_Gurl wrote:

mikes best tone imo is on the mad season's only album. classic standard strat sound, very, very SRV like. the effects on that album were brilliant.

Oh yeah. The cleans on River of Deceit are beautiful and the overdriven tone on I Don't Know Anything is KILLER.

SomethingCreative

yeah mike's tone is alright but to me its always been about Stone

MichaelMcKevin

You gotta think of it this way I think...

Pearl Jam is an "albums" band. What I mean buy this is that they're recording artists first, and peformers second. They use so many different guitars, amps and effects when recording to get each song perfect, that it'd take forever to set up the sound between songs in a live setting. They put a lot of finesse in the recording that would be a huge inconvenience to recapture live. Not only would he have to change pedal settings and such between each song, but he'd have to remember specific settings for a huge array of tunes.

I think Mike has come up with a distinct "live tone" than he can use for most songs in concert that's somewhat of a combination. Because this certain tone has to fit so many songs, it's gotta be hard to find a tone that can really cut through regardless of what song is being played. That's at least how I see it.

Pacomc79

I don't generally like his love for modulation and delay but that's just me really.

Honestly, I never liked the sound of the trentinos. They sounded thin to me live though I'm sure they sound great and are excellent to record.

My favorite Stone tone was the Blitz 50 so I'd like to see Mike back with the Marshalls maybe a TV cab and the Orange cab and the DC 30.

Or to see them go the Pete T route and try a vibroking or a wall of bassmans, and ditch the line 6 stuff maybe get crazy and have Pete Cornish build some effects boards for them.

It would be interesting to see a little more gain maybe a few different types, Octave up and down, Muff style, Tone benders, fuzz faces etc.