what drives your tone quest?

[Davegraz]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PUhIEEwSSSo[/youtube]

THAT tone does it for me... almost there.

[nad]

Mindless consumerism.

[theavondon]

Mindless consumerism.

Yup.

[Gearmond]

Robert Fripp, Sonny Sharrock, Zappa from 2:16-2:30 on Black Napkins.
the laws of the universe broke for those 15 seconds

[rbtr]

Mindless consumerism.

/thread

[bronzetalon]

Your mom.

[smile_man]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hDZC1Ik3We0[/youtube]

[DarkAxel]

Your mom.

what i was thinking

um... don't know, really this site?

[StudioShutIn]

When I played bass, my tone quest was driven by the attempt to atleast come close to that growly, but not distorted, tone that Geddy Lee had in the late 70's/early 80's
needless to say..I never came close...Sometimes I still wish I had a bass rig, though

Now that I play guitar, I don't really want to try to duplicate someone else's tone..it's more about trying to find what 'my' tone is...

[dubkitty]

in terms of following it used to be trying to sound exactly like particular guitarists i wanted to emulate. now it's more particular sound elements that i first heard in someone else's sound or setup that i particularly like, say, the kinds of compression that Stephen Stills, Robert Fripp, and Kevin Shields used at various times.

more often, though, it's stuff that just sounds/feels "right"/"good" in general. e.g. i hate clean boosts with the sole exception of the Mellowtone Hi Five, which is the only one i've ever used that sounds "right"...all the other ones i've ever heard sound grainy and artificial to me. and there are certain classes of effects i just don't get along with; i've never liked phasers much, though i get on fine with flangers and choruses, and never use a wah unless i'm imitating Jimi Hendrix. it's not even that i know what i'm looking for, so much as i know what's not right...i can line up twelve stompbox demos or a half-dozen guitars to test in the shop and go "no, no, no, maybe, no, no, that's GOOD, no..." but i know when i find it. on more than one occasion i've explained the purchase of a guitar by saying that it "sounded like me."

[bronzetalon]

Your mom.

what i was thinking

um... don't know, really this site?

Disregard it when I make stupid comments. They are usually stupid.

[phantasmagorovich]

Wanting to create certain tones and textures.

[Companda]

Trying 2 get soundz dat da insidez uv muh head makez 2 meye ear holez.

[tuffteef]

my lack of CONTROLLLLLLLLLLLLL
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LH8xbDGv7oY[/youtube]

[The4455]

For cleans a fender twin reverb
For Rock Distortion a Marshall JCM 45
For Metal Distortion System of a Down
For Fuzzy goodness it's you guys

I also fill the empty void in my heart with pedals so far it's working