Dear Guitarists and Bass Players: NO ONE BUT YOU CARES ABOUT YOUR TONE! Shut up, get over it, and move on.

Really, that is it. I’m going to pontificate (read: rant) on this for a few minutes. If you laughed when you read the above then you get it so feel free to skip this blog. If you are shocked or disagree, please keep reading.

Ok, let’s dive in a bit. Musician’s obsess over their tone. They spend thousands of dollars on their instrument and again spend thousands of dollars on their amp and then again spend hundreds of dollars per unit on a mix of pedals and effects board all to get that perfect tone.

What a complete waste of time and money. Yes, I would argue you need roughly the right tone. You should not use an acoustic guitar on a death metal song. But how good does it need to be? Tone quality has a fundamental purpose in your playing. You need a good tone so people can hear what you are doing. Tone is for emphasis and clarity, not filling out your sound. Not filling out the song.

In my experience, most people can’t actually hear the difference between the highest quality tones and mid quality tones. I worked in a music store and watched this happen day in and day out. If you play high end and mid tier side by side then you will hear a difference. If you just play them in isolation, most people will guess roughly 60/40 right to wrong. If you mix it into a band in a live setting, fellow musicians often guess wrong when asked if another musician is using a high end or mid tier piece of gear.

In a high end recording studio under ideal situations, sure there is a difference. Yes, cheap gear has issues and non-musicians can hear the difference between low-tier and mid-tier. Mid-tier vs. high end in a live setting, the difference is small. Yes, as the player of the instrument you will hear a difference, but does the audience know?

Here is my counter-thesis as to why this obsession exists: your tone is not lackluster, your playing is. If you are just playing a whole note/chord on the root, letting it ring out and then think ‘huh, that needs a bit more to it’ then yes, you are correct. But it does not need a better/more/different tone, it needs you to play a riff, layer on counterpoint, play a passing note or two between chords, add in syncopation. DO SOMETHING! Before you “fix” your tone, add more to your playing. If you add just a bit more to the song and all of a sudden you don’t notice the tone issue then guess what? It was never a tone issue.