Improving your tone

September 23^rd 1949…Freehold, NJ…Bruce Springsteen is born (in the U.S.A.).

THE BOSS IS NEARLY 60! Dude puts on a very athletic show for his age. I recently had the pleasure of seeing THE BOSS at the Richmond Coliseum, here in Virginia. Unfortunately, the pleasure was mostly visual. This is was THE WORST LIVE SOUND I have ever experienced from a professional artist. I have heard a lot of bands in a lot of weird venues large and small, but this was FAR AND AWAY THE WORST. YIKES! EVEN IF YOU ARE A ROCK ICON: SOUND MATTERS. So what does this mean to you and me (other than avoid Bruce at the Richmond Coliseum)?

First, good equipment makes a difference in every facet of your rig. Since we at JAX deal with a lot of guitar products, let me give you a guitar example. If you own a vintage Strat and play it through a vintage Fender Twin, but use old worn-out strings, you won’t sound good (or at least not as good as you should).

Second, there are things that even the best equipment cannot fix. A million dollar sound system can’t fix the bad acoustics of an out of date venue. I think that this is what happened to THE BOSS at his Richmond ‘show.’ Similarly, great equipment won’t give you great (any?) talent (Jessica and/or Ashlee Simpson, i.e.). A corollary to all this: LOUDER ISN’T THE SAME AS BETTER (Springsteen might take note of this…just a thought).

Third, little things make a big difference in sound. New strings make a huge difference in how your guitar sounds! Change ‘em often! Also, use decent guitar cables…they matter, too! Even the picks you use change the way your guitar sounds.

The good news is that sometimes little changes (picks, strings, and cables) can make a BIG DIFFERENCE! You’d be surprised how much better your rig will sound with NEW STRINGS, BETTER CABLES, and a change of PICKAGE!