Pick one tone that shaped you forever.
 

Not a riff. Not a progression. Just a tone. For me it was Ernie Isley on "That Lady". Legend has it they wanted to remake a 1964 hit of theirs, and were inspired by Carlos Santana's sound.

Funnily enough it is claimed that Hendrix played on the original 1964 version.

James Calvin Wilsey's lead tones on Chris Isaak's "Wicked Game" and then "Blue Hotel" and then just about everything else he touched and made great.

Game changer for me back in the 80's!

It was also the first song I ever performed live.......tough song !

Fat
 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IyczH-Uh1QE
Love this squashed fat tone!

I’m a metal head and my tone has been seriously shaped by John Petrucci. Heavy, yet melodic and dynamic. It’s the tone I’ve been pursuing for the past few years.

I'm a metal head too. It was those Iron Maiden harmony solos that made me pickup the guitar in '87. Powerslave tones (from '84).

Although this didn't shape or influence me, I love SRV's tone.

I have never cared much for heavy distortion. I like a variety of clean tones. But man I like to hear a Tele played like this!

I don't think there was one, but if I had to pick one person to sound like it'd be Martin Barre (Jethro Tull.) The funny thing is that his tone seemed to have nothing at all to do with what he was playing through. He went through a pretty significant progression of amps and guitars over the years but, at least to my ears, his tone never changed.

Simple, Carlos Santana on Samba Pa Ti. Not just the tone but the phrasing, and the way he constructed the song/solo as well.

Pretty much everything jimmy page did, especially his acoustic playing.

Just like the old potato chip commercial, I can't pick just one...

the one name comes to mind is Gary Moore.

For me, the two that I really like are the very simple electric guitar work on Gordon Lightfoot's albums, usually by Red Shea or Terry Clements, both of which had a slightly different sound.

Second would be Mark Knopfler's tones on the Brothers in Arms album.

It would be the lead tone in this Joe Walsh song. Strip away the phase shifter in the fills and the wah in the coda solo and listen to the sound of the raw guitar in your head.



I spent years trying to get that basic sound. A Les Paul was too thick. Fenders were to thin. And there was some other sort of harmonic poop going on in there. I couldn't figure it out until I saw a couple of videos around 2005 of guys playing ES-335s, including the video containing this song:



and Will Owsley playing a vintage E-335 and the 2003 Allman Brothers concert at the Beacon with Warren Haynes playing a couple. I found the sound. What I was hearing was the body resonance of the semi-hollow ES-335. My lovely, sweet wife caught me sniffing around the ES-335s and surprised me with a shopping trip for one for Christmas 2007. A few weeks later I saw a video from 1975 with Joe and Don Felder playing "Turn to Stone" live and lo and behold Joe was playing an ES-335. For one little period he used that guitar for that song.

The ES-335 has become the centerpiece of my studio kit ever since.


Bob