What does "sweet" tone means?

[thall]

Originally Posted by Brent Hutto

In my own geeky way I use "sweet" to mean the absence of inharmonic overtone clash. So you could apply that to a guitar without much in the way of higher-order overtones to start with or it could be a guitar with overtones that are very pure so that they mix without clashing.

For my taste, calling a guitar's tone "sweet" would often be ****ing with faint praise as I tend to enjoy a certain degree of the lovely pain/pleasure that comes with dissonance and a passing lack of purity as a song is being played.

Brent Hutto you are a wordsmith! I agree 100 percent with 'the absence of inharmonic overtone clash'. My Stonebridge gets along well with any 2 different notes plucked in unison anywhere on the guitar. The Taylor drives me up a wall when I hit an E flat note on the g string, and a B note on the low e string (eighth and seventh fret respectively). Up a wall!!

Hollow, chimey, non metallic trebels over a subduded, but growley bass would complete my idea of sweetness.

[blue]

Originally Posted by thall

Brent Hutto you are a wordsmith! I agree 100 percent with 'the absence of inharmonic overtone clash'. My Stonebridge gets along well with any 2 different notes plucked in unison anywhere on the guitar. The Taylor drives me up a wall when I hit an E flat note on the g string, and a B note on the low e string (eighth and seventh fret respectively). Up a wall!!

Hollow, chimey, non metallic trebels over a subduded, but growley bass would complete my idea of sweetness.

So Mahogany basically

[Mass. Wine Guy]

The opposite of sour.

[Glennwillow]

I hear younger folks using the word "sweet" for all kinds of things, not just tone. My 35-year-old son uses the adjective all the time. I have no idea what it means beyond "good." It's sort of like "awesome" and "massive," but somewhat different I suppose.

Regards, Glenn

[jhchang]

I think there should be difference in degree btw merely "sound good" and "sweet", which would make you smile from the heart. Here is a classic "sweet" tone:
MP3 #1
MP3 #2

[Howard Klepper]

Originally Posted by Glennwillow

I hear younger folks using the word "sweet" for all kinds of things, not just tone. My 35-year-old son uses the adjective all the time. I have no idea what it means beyond "good." It's sort of like "awesome" and "massive," but somewhat different I suppose.

Regards, Glenn

That's not "sweet," it's "swe-eet."

I think of flute as the paradigm of a sweet sounding instrument.

[I.B. Strummin]

It's fairly common for "sweet" to be used to describe the tone of the trebles coming from a smaller Gibson, like a Blues King or L-00 etc. I don't know how to describe that tone, but it's what I think of as "sweet" and thick.

[shambolic]

I agree with the poster about Gibson Maple guitars being the epitome of sweet

[MissouriPicker]

Has anyone noticed how "sweet" this thread is?

[Brent Hutto]

Originally Posted by thall

Brent Hutto you are a wordsmith! I agree 100 percent with 'the absence of inharmonic overtone clash'. My Stonebridge gets along well with any 2 different notes plucked in unison anywhere on the guitar. The Taylor drives me up a wall when I hit an E flat note on the g string, and a B note on the low e string (eighth and seventh fret respectively). Up a wall!!

Hollow, chimey, non metallic trebels over a subduded, but growley bass would complete my idea of sweetness.

Why thank you.

That was a sweet thing to say.

[kirkham13]

Sweet is obviously a positive reaction towards the musicality of a guitar which to my mind has to be woody and organic as opposed to metallic and clashing ie synthetic- I would say sweet notes are round and have a fair amount of integrity and life to them..

[Tricks]

Listen to James Taylors Greatest Hits, the period when he was playing an old J50 (Gibson). That's a "sweet" tone to my ears.

[Allman_Fan]

Sweet don't come out of my guitar. My guitar is nasty and sweaty and full of grunts and groans. Don't nobody say its pretty, as it has a tendency to makes folks uneasy. The womenfolks seem to squirm a bit.

[15 Man]

To my hear a sweet tone is the sound of a first position A Major or G Major chord played on an all Mahogany guitar.

[jrbarilla]

My 000-15s (all hog) has what I would call a "sweet tone" to my ears compared to my spruced toped guitars.