Descriptions of Electric Guitar Tones
Juust as wine-tasters use words such as full-bodied, flowery, earthy, fruity etc to describe wines, so electric guitar players use words to describe their guitar's tone:
Bite- what the tone of a good Fender Telecaster's bridge pickup should have.
Glassy- the kind of tone you get in a Fender Stratocaster when the pick-up selector is between neck and middle pickup.
Creamy- when high notes are played with a thick round-end pick like a V-Pick.
Fat- Thick tone, not necessarily mellow, favored by jazz guitarists.
Muddy- Mellow but not clear tone.
Singing- the tone of an old Les Paul, or any guitar with long sustain.
Woody- the acoustic tone of a hollow body jazz archtop.
Snap- when a little bit of fret buzz sounds nice.
Honky- Like the tone of P-90's or an out-of-phase pickup
Woman tone- a tone first attributed to Eric Clapton's '68 Gibson SG through a Marshall amp, and typical of British Blues in the sixties.
Bell-like- a Rickenbacker used as rhythm guitar
Big Boss tone- like Duane Eddy's Gretsch tone in Rebel Rouser
Brittle- the horrible tone of a Fender Jaguar and Jazzmaster.
Twang- A tone that can only be attributed to the Fender Telecaster. Strats and Les Pauls don't twang.
Dead- the tone you get when the wood in your guitar cannot breathe; sometimes due to those thick glossy paintwork. Nitrocellulose is best.
Strangled- a tone worse than Dead.
Shadows tone- No other to describe The Shadow's Hank Marvin, and his Fender Stratocaster through a Vox AC30 with tape echo delay. The big sound that inspired many babyboomers to take up the guitar.
Ice Pick- the extremely sharp tone of Bluesman Albert " The Ïceman" Collins's Telecaster.
Bite- what the tone of a good Fender Telecaster's bridge pickup should have.
Glassy- the kind of tone you get in a Fender Stratocaster when the pick-up selector is between neck and middle pickup.
Creamy- when high notes are played with a thick round-end pick like a V-Pick.
Fat- Thick tone, not necessarily mellow, favored by jazz guitarists.
Muddy- Mellow but not clear tone.
Singing- the tone of an old Les Paul, or any guitar with long sustain.
Woody- the acoustic tone of a hollow body jazz archtop.
Snap- when a little bit of fret buzz sounds nice.
Honky- Like the tone of P-90's or an out-of-phase pickup
Woman tone- a tone first attributed to Eric Clapton's '68 Gibson SG through a Marshall amp, and typical of British Blues in the sixties.
Bell-like- a Rickenbacker used as rhythm guitar
Big Boss tone- like Duane Eddy's Gretsch tone in Rebel Rouser
Brittle- the horrible tone of a Fender Jaguar and Jazzmaster.
Twang- A tone that can only be attributed to the Fender Telecaster. Strats and Les Pauls don't twang.
Dead- the tone you get when the wood in your guitar cannot breathe; sometimes due to those thick glossy paintwork. Nitrocellulose is best.
Strangled- a tone worse than Dead.
Shadows tone- No other to describe The Shadow's Hank Marvin, and his Fender Stratocaster through a Vox AC30 with tape echo delay. The big sound that inspired many babyboomers to take up the guitar.
Ice Pick- the extremely sharp tone of Bluesman Albert " The Ïceman" Collins's Telecaster.
Anybody can add to this list, please do.
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