"The tone is in your fingers"

[sLapshock]

How many of you agreed with this statement?

 

[visa]

definitely.

take victor wooten and billy sheehan, and swap their entire rigs, and they'll still be identifiable by the tone of their fingers.

 

[hay88]

for me i feel it's 60% person 40% gear...i can't play a high action guitar.

 

[kentheman2000]

It's all on the individual. A person can make a ply wood guitar sound better than a rig full of every damn thing.

 

[ahkiatt]

as long as your bass is not shit... it's mostly in the fingers.

 

[warwickw]

Tone is in the bass, Feel is in the fingers =p

 

[ahkiatt]

if you don't fret hard enough, there's no tone. XD

 

[anghoonking]

tone in amp and bass itself instead of fingers?

 

[Vanga]

i think most importantly, we must treat everything with respect. treat your hands with respect, treat your bass with respect, treat your equipment with respect, and everything will fall in place together

 

[litford]

i have 6 fingers on each hand and pwn all of you.

 

[3notesAbar]

Sorry to hear that man Litford lol.

Alot of tone is in the fingers... Tone comprises of things like instrument's sonic signature, EQ settings (FOH, amp, preamp whatever), Right hand technique, Left hand technique, and....cables. I think thats about it. But one thing for sure, the fingers determine alot of the result. Take one Fodera bass with fixed tonal settings and pass it among 3 players... Quite obvious.

 

[80s_people]

my amp sounds like crap, cant really develop any skill on 'tone from fingers' at the moment, lol. i guess amp really plays a part as well.

 

[jeremyrozario]

for me i feel it's 60% person 40% gear...i can't play a high action guitar.

its wad i've been meaning all the while when i say tone is in the fingers, gear does play a part in the tone (lyk duh!?)

 

[CrispyEgg]

I'd have to say:
The tone is in your fingers. *and in fine print* Now all you need is a suitable bass to bring out that tone.

In other words:
if u have shitty fingers u have shitty tone, period.
if u have a smooth fingerstyle but a grumpy bass, u get a smooth-grumpy tone. NOT neccesarily bad!
if u have smooth fingerstyle and a smooth bass, u get secks.

so there.

 

[ravenelle]

awwww.... u guys missed out the all important thumbs.

 

[exin]

ravenelle: THAT'S RIGHT MAN!!! ...

 

[tgcpsgoh]

personnally, i feel that the statement is true, but not absolute.
your finger do make a different; just as different bassists using the same gear give different tone feel.
but if the same bassist using different gear, it also give different tone feel; it means "your finger is not everything of the tone"

 

[RoRK]

Tone is definitely in the fingers (left hand), pick/fingers (right hand) and the gear.

There is another part to the equation and that is what happens before and after a string is pushed/plucked - what does the left hand do. Does it stay still, do a vibrato (how does it go about doing it) etc. The last part is integral in making each and everyone of us quite unique in the sound that we get from a specific guitar+samp+effects.

Then there is the case of how the right hand is used. That's another case for how the fingers/pick matter in getting our tone(s).

Finally, good gear doesn't equate to good tone BUT good finger techniques definitely will lead to a good tone BECAUSE a good tone requires feel and feel comes from your fingers - how you push/pluck/pull/caress/vibrate the strings.

Cheers
RoRK

 

[Freeko]

but gear still comes into play..for example you can have really good finger tone but i can plug you into a really lousy amp..cut all the bass and you would still sound funny even with good finger tone.

 

[CrispyEgg]

u guys realise that you're all going round and round in circles saying the same thing phrased differently.