Years ago I read a book about guitar effects pedals. Something the author wrote in the intro stuck with me: “Tone is in your fingers.”
He went on to explain: You can buy the same guitar, effects pedals, and amplifier that Eddie Van Halen uses. But when you play that rig, it’s still going to sound like you.
Likewise, Eddie could plug into a crappy Strat/Pignose setup at a pawn shop and you’d still be able to recognize that it’s Eddie Van Halen playing.
Sure, fancy gear can help. But the truth is that your tone comes from you.
I often think of this story when people fixate on gear over content. You know the type: Wannabe designers who want an avalanche of fancy typefaces and Photoshop filters but don’t have anything to say. Amateur photographers who want to debate film vs. digital instead of what actually makes for a great photo. Startup folks that worry more about software and scaling issues then how to actually get customers and make money. They all miss the point.
Aspiring podcasters consantly ask Gary V about the tools he uses. He responds:
It’s not the camera that I use, it’s not the blogging software, it’s not the widgets, it’s not the SEO. It’s the two C’s: content and community…There are so many crap podcasts out there with billion dollar cameras and editing tools for days. It’s about giving from your heart with content you really understand and, more importantly, giving back to the community that supports your show.
Figure out what you have to say that’s interesting and then unleash it. Use whatever tools you’ve got already or what you can afford cheaply. Then go.
It’s not the gear that matters. It’s you and your ideas that matter. Tone is in your fingers.
Austin Kleon
on 13 Aug 08Amen.
Kevin Mackie
on 13 Aug 08The photographer, Ken Rockwell, would agree with you. He refers to these gearheads as measurebaters in this article titled the Seven Levels of Photographers – http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech/7.htm.
Joe Fusco
on 13 Aug 08This reminds me of something my immigrant, Italian grandfather told me years ago when I mentioned that I really, really needed new golf clubs:
“It ain’t the sticks, it’s the man swingin’ ‘em.”
Jonn Dailey
on 13 Aug 08Excellent advice and something I follow. Most successful entrepreneurs will tell you that you can, and should do more with less. 37signals stresses that too.
matt
on 13 Aug 08I’m going to partially disagree. If the tools and what not get in the way from you expressing yourself, doing your job, etc. then it is about the gear and you need to change it.
If Eddie was on a very shitty guitar with horrible pickups, etc. it would still sound like shit. You’d be able to tell he was probably pretty good; however, the overall experience would probably be shitty.
Like anything else, it’s the sum of the parts that makes up the total. Being all gear and no talent is horrible…as is being all talent with no gear upon which to realize it.
Eric
on 13 Aug 08This applies to so many areas of life. Blogging, music, web design, etc. Lance Armstrong wrote a book: “It’s not about the Bike”.
Truly, tone is in the fingers!
Ed
on 13 Aug 08The analogy that I’ve heard from golf is that a $400 club doesn’t fix a $20 swing.
Joshua Blankenship
on 13 Aug 08To put it more poetically, “The tone is in the touch.”
It’s true in guitar playing. It’s true in design. It’s true pretty much in anything. Getting to work is better than acquiring gear.
Gavin
on 13 Aug 08I remember a story like this when Jeff Beck was playing on a Bon Jovi track, they were all curious about what gear he had. He phoned them up and asked for “any fender guitar, any marshall amp”.
jgwong
on 13 Aug 08@matt: You are missing the point. We know good gear, good tools matters, but they doesn’t magically level up your skills. There’s the wrong tendency to think that having artist’s X Korg/Roland/Kurzweil keyboard will make you good. It won’t. The piano samples will sound awesome, the performance/recording features will be awesome, but when your fingers meet the keys, it’s still you and your playing style. People use the lack of gear/tool/software/language/brains as an excuse for mediocrity. It denial to the fact they don’t do hard work. You should do the opposite, embrace your constraints and do the most with what you have.
Sébastien Orban
on 13 Aug 08Matt : my guitar teacher is a great player, work mostly in studio, and well, we’ve done the test : he still sound like him on a Pignose. He shred with this thing without any problem.
A good amp will never make you a great guitarist. Your finger will, whatever amp, guitar, you use.
mike h
on 13 Aug 08Another great example of this is old recordings. Take pop and R&B music from the 50’s and 60’s for example. Or jazz recordings from the 20’s. There are legendary recordings from those eras and they had equipment that was “bad” by today’s standards. Why are those recordings so good? Because the songs and the performers were good. The songs transcend technology, gear, and time because their content and the performance is what mattered.
Don Schenck
on 13 Aug 08It don’t mean a thing if it ain’t got that swing.
GeeIWonder
on 13 Aug 08Those who can do, those who can’t buy.
Peter Urban
on 13 Aug 08Patrick Stewart is a fabulous example of an actor that can engage an audience just with his personality, voice and demeanor – no special effects required.
Prentiss Riddle
on 13 Aug 08Agreed, in principle. Ironically, though, it takes a certain level of mastery to overcome crappy tools. Hand Jeff Beck a guitar with a warped neck, 3/8” action and a missing string and he’ll make music anyway. Hand the same instrument to a beginner and s/he may never make it up the hurdle you placed in the learning curve.
Note that this rule applied to crappy teachers and bosses as well as to gear.
Paul Leader
on 13 Aug 08In a way it reminds me of a quote from Edsger Dijkstra regarding the academic subject of Computer Science, “Computer science has as much to do with computers as astronomy has to do with telescopes”. Not exactly what you meant, but a similar idea, and one which too few university CompSci departments understand (and pass onto their students).
Evan
on 13 Aug 08Along these lines, it should be said that crappy tools will frustrate you, sometimes even to the point of giving up. There’s something to be said for having nice tools even while you’re still developing. It helps you stick with it.
James Osborne
on 13 Aug 08Some guys have “All the gear and no idea”...
Keith
on 13 Aug 08Your post reminded me about a little story about Martin & Taylor…
Martin was arguing that the woods and quality of the materials makes their guitars superior to cheaper products. Taylor chimed in and said I bet I can make an incredible guitar from loading pallete wood.
Guess who won? Taylor did. Those pallete guitars go for a TON of money because it was such a limited run and because they sound incredible. (The story doesn’t hurt either though ;) )
Nice post!
William
on 13 Aug 08just like the guys that buy their cloths from L.L. Bean or REI and are suddenly pro outdoorsmen.
Anatoly
on 13 Aug 08Good equipment is necessary, but not sufficient.
Robin Hood
on 13 Aug 08Ruby, PHP, Perl, Java, ASP….really doesn’t matter. Great apps can be written in any language.
Mark Sigal
on 13 Aug 08Good post. Somewhat related to this construct is the axiom that you shouldn’t confuse attributes with outcomes. A bunch of really good ingredients don’t magically equate to a good recipe, a great meal or a memorable dining experience.
Forrest Zeisler
on 13 Aug 08I’m glad to hear about the quote from Gary V. as we are taking a similar approach with our podcast at the office. Low budget and knowledgeable should always beat the alternative. (Except maybe high budget and knowledgeable ;) )
Sav
on 13 Aug 08A British saying I learned from my uncle, that pretty much says the same thing, is
“A bad workman always blames his tools.”
Basically, people who complain that they failed because they didn’t have the right tools are just making up excuses.
Don Schenck
on 13 Aug 08@Robin Hood: Yeah, but Python is fast. :-) You forgot to mention Python. Python Python Python.
Martial
on 13 Aug 08I’m taking the thought in another direction (though the sentiment of the post is one with which I am entirely in sympathy). There are two types of people in the world: tool-users and non-tool-users.
It does not matter how good the tool is, the non-tool-user will never put in the effort to learn how to use it. The tool-user by contrast has learned/is learning and can use “inferior” components to still get good results. The infallible way you can tell a non-tool-user is by the complaining about the tools.
Bob Sawyer
on 13 Aug 08If I can add another example: I read an interview with David Gilmour where the interviewer asked him how he got his tone. He basically said, “it’s these big, fat fingers of mine. You can pretty much give me any guitar and amp, and it’s going to sound the same from one to the next.”
Thanks for expanding the idea to include the web, and really, anything we aspire to do with the tools (and fingers) we have.
Marco
on 13 Aug 08Damn, Eddie rocks!!!
JL
on 13 Aug 08Then the odds are they didn’t have the drive and dedication to that art that is emblematic of it being something that was true to their core. Certainly people can excel at many things, and it’s easier with ‘good’ gear, but when find someone who is a master, you will see that they [more often than not] intuitively understood that persevering through ‘bad’ gear was par for the course.
That’s not to say that masters have to start with shit, though that is one school of thought.
Lyndon
on 13 Aug 08People get to caught up in the glitz and glam of things. No matter what it is that your doing, it will still come down to the time and effort you put into learning things.
kadavy
on 13 Aug 08Yeah, I’d agree with you, and so would Lloyd Kaufman, author of “Make Your Own Damn Movie.”
People also can often mistake being in a particular geographic location for being talented.
Rabbit
on 13 Aug 08Works with unicycles, too. You can easily spend $400-$800 on a solid unicycle.
I bought a Sun for $100. I have to adjust the seat every so often and inflate the tires every few days. The seat is also horribly uncomfortable. But I’ve learned how to ride.
I’ll probably keep the Sun around indefinitely, if nothing else than to be a reminder of where I came from.
It’s my hope that my experience with a cheaper unicycle will enhance my appreciate for a well-built uni.
Michael
on 13 Aug 08This is 100% true, no doubt. Good gear helps you realize your vision a little easier than cheap knockoff gear but you have to have that vision and that touch to begin with.
God knows how many pedals I bought because of another player that used them, only to sound nothing like that player. As the years went on I started just using my ears to tell me what sounded best for my playing, and everything worked out perfectly for me.
James
on 13 Aug 08Tone is the wrong word. The author means style. This is an egregious mistake in the world of guitar.
David
on 13 Aug 08This translates into developing a product before you have a customer, and then trying to find a customer. You developed that product for yourself. You would have an easier go if you developed an application for a client after verifying that your client was in a vertical industry that had enough money and enough seats. If that is true of the client, your risk goes away, but you still have to develop the client’s visualization, not your own.
GeeIWonder
on 13 Aug 08The author means style.
Don’t think so. In my experience, with just a 335 and amp, tone is almost all fingers, given a matched guitar and set of strings. If you use a plectrum (many of us don’t), that affects it too, but again your grip and attack are everything.
But then again I’m just a hack.
Still not as bad as the hack who buys/reads a book on guitar effects though (presumably by BOSS publishing, inc.?).
William42
on 13 Aug 08What’s ironic is that this comes from the company which (correct me if I’m wrong) refuses to hire you if you don’t use Macs.
James
on 13 Aug 08@GeelWonder
Try a different guitar and you’ll hear the difference. It’s that easy.
Brian
on 13 Aug 08@matt: Not trying to pick on you, but I play guitar myself (very poorly these days). Like many kids in those days, Eddie was the reason I picked up a guitar in the first place. I had quite a collection of effects pedals, tube and solid state amps, and a few guitars.
Then I heard a recording of Eddie playing on a little plastic toy guitar, and that’s when two things FINALLY became clear to me.
1.) You could always tell it was Eddie playing, no matter what gear he was playing on.
2.) For all my gear, I was no Eddie VanHalen.
High quality gear/tools in the hands of talent can make that talent even better. But, high quality gear can never cover up a lack of talent.
vdog
on 13 Aug 08Take the pignose up on stage with a full band and tell me again that equipment doesn’t matter.
barce
on 13 Aug 08ONLY ?MERKLEY?
MERKLEY FOREVAAR!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/merkley/
This guy is the man. He can kick Eddie Van Halen’s ass.
ALL the pictures you see were taken with a crappy canon ELPH?
WTF?
And his PICTURES ARE TEH AWWWWWWSSSSSOMESSSSS!
PWND
Loic
on 13 Aug 08I’m so tired of hearing photographers talking about megapixels and lenses…
Patrick Woodward
on 14 Aug 08Yupper – Take what cha got and rock it!
eric
on 14 Aug 08reminds me of my roofing days.. after someone didn’t have the special tool they needed:
“hey, anyone can do it with the right tools, its takes a really good person to be able to do it with the wrong tools”
sensei
on 14 Aug 08My favourite thing about this was when I was reading an article in “Keyboard” magazine (as in synthesiser keyboards) where they were interviewing NinjaTune. These guys make hectic beats, and they basically had almost no clue about what their equipment was… the interviewer was asking them questions about what they use, and they were basically saying “ummm you’re looking in the wrong place if you’re trying to find out what makes us us”. They said stuff like “I don’t actually know the brand of the sampler, it’s not important, it’s just what we use to make our music with”. The music is more important, like… you wouldn’t ask a professional writer what software he uses to write his books. Who really cares?
Matt J.
on 14 Aug 08All very true. However, with musical instruments (guitars being a good example) there is a threshold where having a poor instrument can get in the way. A $100 guitar with poor action can be very difficult to play, even by a master. Try wailing on a saxophone with a really bad reed. A VW bug and a BMW can both get you a 1000 miles, but not if you have a flat tire. All the gear in the world won’t make up for years of practice, but there exists an argument for even a beginner to not buy the very cheapest axe available.
Nathan
on 14 Aug 08I think the guitar analogy is the wrong choice here. Depending on the kind of music you play, the gear you use can make either little difference, or a lot. Personally, I play shoegaze music, which is heavily reliant on the gear and effects you use. Of course, there is skill involved in mastering the effects to achieve the exact sound you want to produce, but nonetheless – no matter how much ‘tone you have in your fingers’ – without the gear, it’s going to sound completely different.
I can understand the point that the greatest gear in the world won’t make crap good, but it’s wrong to discount the quality of what you use and even an interest in it as a factor in the end result.
Bruce
on 14 Aug 08This is a great post. MJ wasn’t great because he played with a perfect bball or on a shined court all the time. Rather he was great because of his talents and dedication to the game.
Some equipment might make you faster or more efficient, but the dedication and vision has to be there to begin with. Well said Matt.
Dempsey
on 14 Aug 08Some of the comments are going a little askew. If you learn guitar on a machine with a warped-neck and a sustain-robbing bridge, you can still make great music. You’ll learn to do it through you’re fingers. When you (hopefully) upgrade to better gear, you’ll get the opportunity to learn more ways to make great music (bar-chords at the 10th fret!).
Upgrading gear won’t make you better, but new gear may help you discover different things.
But I believe the point of the post is a nod to everyone’s hero, Wm Gates ;-). “Content is king.”
dale.
on 14 Aug 08My brother saw Tony Hawk early on in a demo tour, he did his things with his skateboard on a huge ramp.
Then he got off, took a 2X4 with trucks and wheels bolted on and went up the ramp and started doing 360’s.
Brandon Mulnix
on 14 Aug 08Wow, you couldn’t be an more correct. Sure tools make your job easier, but there was great photographs before photoshop, actions, and Quantum Lights!
I think the other most influencial piece of portrait photography is personality. I live by “If I can capture your heart, the photograph just happens”. It took me a long time to develope that philosophy, because I was way too busy with toys. Clients don’t buy just pictures, they invest in a personal experiance that lives within the portrait.
Metals
on 14 Aug 08Reminds me of Tony Iommi’s fingers being chopped off.
Twice the sound, half the hand.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_Iommi
Steven
on 14 Aug 08I recently lost my tone, when I was approached by some investors about my start-up.
Their white noise made me lose the inner ear of what was right for us.
So after a month of wasted time talking about their needs, I listened to the business and what it needed and went back to doing that.
The music is now clear and we can still pick what type of song(s) we want to play.
Power of Focus
on 14 Aug 08Well said! The best artists usually use average tools. It is so popular among digital photography amateurs – they want the best gear. Why?
Regarding thinking about clients and money – spot on! “Show me the money” should be said in the first place. Have you read The Power of Focus (the aff link is in my Name above). It is the only book, apart from Getting Real that I would recommend to any entrepreneur. It really makes you think about your previous mistakes especially if you can’t reach your targets and teaches you how to make the best out of you and focus on what is important.
Anonymous Coward
on 15 Aug 08so the somewhat recent Mac Book Air purchase written about here in such glowing & loving terms – pointless?
Anonymous Coward
on 15 Aug 08http://www.37signals.com/svn/posts/858-the-macbook-air-could-easily-be-the-only-machine
jonathan
on 15 Aug 08i used to be a total gearhead until i had a similar realization. tools are awesome until they get in the way of whatever you’re trying to create…and it’s true on so many levels. thanks for writing this.
zeaLOG
on 15 Aug 08When I was doing 3D animation and visual effects, people would always get way into what software someone was using, what interface, etc. I would try to explain that as long as you have the basic tools it really doesn’t matter. They would argue and I would finally explain,
“Give me every ceiling and all of the paint in the world and you still won’t end up with the Sistine Chapel.”
Drew
on 15 Aug 08No matter how fine an artist or craftsman you are, you still need the right tools for the right job.
Matt
on 15 Aug 08Great gear can make playing a joy. Crappy gear is full of interruptions.
Yossef
on 15 Aug 08Rabbit:
Tires? On a unicycle?
Don Schenck
on 18 Aug 08@Steven: GREAT POST!
This discussion is closed.