Anyone else suffering from "Tonephobia"?

[OmegaSlayer]

3 days ago I picked up a second hand POD XT... (no, no NGD for a POD, sorry )...and blah blah blah today I was going through the presets and I faced again my "Tonephobia"

Scary disease the Tonephobia...and I can't actually explain it but I always suffered from it...but never really completely realized until yesterday
Basically what I mean with Tonephobia is "that ear-hands problem that makes you unable to play"

Last time I had it trying an hand made amp a friend of mine built...basically he was showing me the tonal possibilities of the amp and moving the knobs.
The effect on my brain is that when the tone doesn't match my liking, my hands do not respond...so I might be going between shred and missing strings in a matter of seconds...milliseconds perhaps.

I almost never play clean electric guitar sounds, even if I like the sounds on a record and have the same exact sound...my right hand seems scared to hit the string and produce the sound...the left fingers go completely out of synch...and that's why I have to resort to either classic, acoustic or piezo-like effects, very very very dry...when I play clean guitar, the sound seems to pierce my brain and I don't want to produce it.

But same things happens with distorted sounds...the less the sound is, the more sloppy my right hand is, but if the sound is tight, I can crunch and be tight on the strings like a demon.

And yesterday and today, going through the POD presets, as I said...it was the same thing...skipping between chirurgical shredding and slop fest.

Has anyone else the same problem?
Or am I the only idiot around?

 

[EmaDaCuz]

You are not alone.
I don't shred, but I face the same with heavy riffing. Sometimes I miss notes, sometimes the rhythm is off, sometimes pinch harmonics are not existing.

 

[OmegaSlayer]

You are not alone.
I don't shred, but I face the same with heavy riffing. Sometimes I miss notes, sometimes the rhythm is off, sometimes pinch harmonics are not existing.

Yeah, I was more surprised by the tightness going on and off...I found a tone I gel'ed with and started to play rhythm with a savagery I never thought I had.
I'm quite soft on the guitar but I was enjoying it so much that I was hitting really hard but with precision and consistency...

Bah...I wish someone here is able to explain what happens in the brain, because I don't think it's only about adrenaline.

 

[marcwormjim]

I found practicing unplugged to help.

 

[Rizzo]

Sometimes psychoacoustics is a b*tch. Try to play more and care less about the tone!
It's mostly matters of habit.

 

[MoonJelly]

I used to have a POD HD pedalboard with all the sounds ~$500 could buy you. I found myself just cycling through the effects/amps/yadda yadda and not creating/honing my craft every time I sat down. I liked having all the different sounds at my disposal but my learning the instrument really took a dive at that point.

Today I keep only a few single-effect pedals in my chain, and I enjoy actually playing a lot more. It's far more rewarding to fool around with every possible effect in the music store, you can be an obnoxious dweeb and just try everything they have, then maybe take home the sound you like the best/affects your playing in the way you most like.

So in summary, my total of pedals I have in the house is 8, and I'm currently only using 4-5 in my signal chain. But I'm enjoying my playing and it's improved my learning curve..

 

[OmegaSlayer]

Sometimes psychoacoustics is a b*tch. Try to play more and care less about the tone!
It's mostly matters of habit.

Yeah, I take challenges in a very good way, even because tone affects the mood, the notes and the way you're going to hit them.
Silly but effective example...with a very gain saturated sound, there's no way I'm going to do a double-stop bending in a Slash solo, I just hit the note I'm going to bend and I'm good with the sound, because it keeps the clarity even if not the exact mood...if I play more crunched and less distorted I play the double-stop because it sounds meaningful.

So yeah, I must adapt.

 

[wakjob]

Yeah, but I'm the exact opposite as you...
I can't play with metal amounts of gain anymore. My metal days are numbered.

Low to medium amounts of clipping/saturation at most.
And single coils. Thank you very much.

 

[mrspacecat]

I found practicing unplugged to help.

This. I usually only use amplification/ effects when I actually have to when practicing.

 

[Alex Kenivel]

I agree that the feelz ain't there when the tone ain't right.

 

[OmegaSlayer]

This. I usually only use amplification/ effects when I actually have to when practicing.

Guys, with clean tone on electric I manage to mess even the intro of Civil War by Guns'N'Roses...it's serious...

 

[Gmork]

lol i think i know what youre saying. tell me to play electric guitar with a clean tone and its like i just started playing guitar months ago but give me my prefered set up im used to (my pedalboard/amp or what have you) and im like oh right! ive been playing guitar for over 20 years lol IVE GOT THIS! and off i go tech deathing it up lol