Best bands guitar tone?

[Mike_Philippov]

For rhythm guitar? Probably Dream Theater.

For lead, probably Michael Angelo Batio, and also my awesome guitar teacher Tom Hess.

Of course this is only my opinion, but I haven't heard anyone with a better tone than these guys.

 

[JoshuaLogan]

I like a lot of recorded tones, but a great guitar tone I've noticed lately is the tone on the Beneath The Massacre album Dystopia... just fucking excellent sounding... so heavy, so clear, not too bright or harsh... awesome

 

[cpnhowdy]

I dig the tone Machine Head got off of The Blackening alot, also
Mastodon`s tone on Crack the Skye.
Big fan of Joe Bonamassa tone too

 

[Cadavuh]

Shadows Fall has some of the sickest tones ever, both for lead and rhythm IMO. Decrepit Births tone on the new album. Newer Jeff Loomis lead tone blows me away with shredtastic intenseness. Necrophagists rhythm and leads as well. God I love dryness!

 

[Yoshi]

I know a lot of you don't like them and EMG's but As I Lay Dying On their 2nd album *can't remember the name, the one with Confined on it*. And Unearth on all albums from Oncoming Storm.

 

[Daemoniac]

Oh my god yes! For some reason, my favourite guitar tones are uber tight and grindy and super clear tones but Borland just has this... vibe when he plays. He makes a cheap sounding guitar sound like it's got some serious soul in it.

Totally agreed. I can't believe i forgot him either Theres just *something* about his guitar tone thatis aweosme. It fits perfectly with a band, and is so powerful without taking over the mix. Great stuff

Im also a big fan of Mushroomheads tone

Partially to quote my awesomeness, and partially to add that i can actually get pretty near their tone too Awesomely thick.

 

[Herb Dorklift]

To add my to my earlier posts...

Airbourne - For all round balls to the wall rhythm and lead.

Andy Timmons - The clean - mid gain master.

John Petrucci - Everything upto Systematic Chaos has been godly, Falling into Infinity in particular.

Ayreon/Arjen Lucassen - Another godly heavy tone.

James Hetfield - Garage Inc era.

Alex Lifeson - In the 70s, before everything got rubbish.

 

[Variant]

Alex Lifeson - In the 70s, before everything got rubbish.

Not true, he's had some great tones on some more recent albums, and live... but one in particular is his phenomenal solo album 'Victor' which has an array of great guitar tones, lead, rhythm, clean, brown, jazzy, and so on. Buy it now!

 

[Naren]

I've mentioned this before in several threads, but I guess I'll go again.

For heavy rhythm guitar, my favorite tone is Scar Symmetry's tone off Pitch Black Progress. For clean guitar, I have my own favorite tone that I can't compare to any band that I know of.
For lead guitar, I have a lot of favorites, but Mikael Akerfeldt from Opeth's lead tone off Black Water Park, Bill Steer and Michael Amott from Carcass' lead tone off Heartwork, and Paul Masvidal from Cynic's lead tone off Focus.

And a whole lot more. My favorite rhythm guitar sounds are the Mesa Boogie Triple Rectifier and then the Engl Powerball, but set up and EQed to my tastes.

 

[Herb Dorklift]

Not true, he's had some great tones on some more recent albums, and live... but one in particular is his phenomenal solo album 'Victor' which has an array of great guitar tones, lead, rhythm, clean, brown, jazzy, and so on. Buy it now!

Ah, meant to put "rubbish in the 80s".

He does have some great new tones yes.

 

[ZeroSignal]

Chuck Schuldiner's tone on the last Death album and the Control Denied album was pretty good for leads
and for the most part, i know a lot of guys here hate on EMGs, but almost every time you put them through a Marshall JCM, or a Mesa anything you get at least a decent tone unless you've got someone practically trying to make it suck, i mean, Hetfield, c'mon
and lately i've really been digging Tosin Abasi's tone with the Animals as Leaders stuff, not sure if he's using Q-tuners for all of it, but damn do they sound good through whatever he's playing with

Er... Chuck Schuldiner never used EMGs. He always used a DiMarzio X2N in his BC Rich's.

Good question on the Tosin Abasi pickups. I'd really, really love to get an answer for that one.

 

[jymellis]

Partially to quote my awesomeness, and partially to add that i can actually get pretty near their tone too Awesomely thick.

mrh tone is soooo nasty, i love it. did you ever get to check out (216)?

 

[groph]

Not so much guitar tone, but the mix on Cannibal Corpse's Gore Obsessed is amazing. The guitar is a tad too "rectumfrier" (too much sizzle) but the bass is heard really well, and it's just gut-ripping. The intro riff to Hatchet to the Head exemplifies this.

Ulcerate's guitar tone on The Coming of Genocide and Everything is Fire is pretty wicked.

Kataklysm's In the Arms of Devastation is some of the most brutal solid state tone (pretty sure it's SS) ever

The Last Felony's Aeon of Suffering has this wicked snarl to it, 6505 I think. The bass tone is buttfuck-terrible though. Like really bad, as in it sounds like the synth guitar in Fruity Loops.

Ion Dissonance's Minus the Herd, obviously. Yeah, it's a wall of noise but it sounds massive.
Amon Amarth - Twilight of the Thunder God - not as good as older AA but they've got the shitty tone issue fixed.
Disgorge - Consume the Forsaken = brutal
Devourment - Butcher the Weak = unintelligible but brutal
Big +1 on Bloodbath's The Fathomless Mastery, Unblessing the Purity's tone is really similar and I think a bit better.
All Shall Perish - Awaken the Dreamers, basically have the deathcore tone formula down to a science. Same deal for After the Burial and most deathcore bands in that vein. Burning the Masses - Mind Control, also righteous tone.

I've always loved Every Time I Die's tone

As for the tone on Planetary Duality, everything but the palm mutes sounds amazing. Too much gain wrecks palm-mutes. Is that a Randall V2?

Behemoth's tone on Demigod has a really satisfying looseness to it..


And Suffocation's tone on Despise the Sun KICKS ASS

 

[GCM]

The Red Shore, definitely. Peavey 5150's. love it.

 

[canuck brian]

Nevermore (TGE) and Carcass (heartwork) have my favorite guitar tones hands down.

 

[Scar Symmetry]

this thread's been away fo too long!

Catch 33 has incredible tone, so in your face, I love it.

I actually really like the tone on Annihilation of the Wicked, it's not by any means the best of anything but I think it really suits the album.

Decapitated - The Negation, Nevermore - Dead Heart In A Dead World, Whitechapel - This Is Exile, Scar Symmetry - Holographic Universe, Bloodbath - The Fathomless Mastery and After The Burial - Rareform although it is really fizzy.

those are my current faves

 

[petereanima]

I dig the tone Machine Head got off of The Blackening alot, also
Mastodon`s tone on Crack the Skye.
Big fan of Joe Bonamassa tone too

exactly this. you sir, got taste.

 

[vampiregenocide]

Static-X - Some say their tone has got a bit digital with recent releases, maybe but I still love that thick, heavy chordwork.

Meshuggah - Nothing is probably the oen album that stands out to be tone wise, completely flawless.

Seether - Whether its cleans or downright heavy shit, Seether do it well.

Tool (Adam Jones) - His solo work ranges from suttle to epic, and its just beautiful.

Mastodon - Blood Mountain ftw.

Dino Cazares w/ Divine Heresy - I don't really like 'shred' guitar work, but Bleed the Fifth made me want to try harder.

 

[ArtDecade]

Couple of outsiders... Just about all of the tones that Robert Fripp and Steve Hackett lay down are pretty darn tasty. They don't always sound like "typical" guitar tones, but they always work within the context of the piece.

 

[Crometeef]

i think evergrey's tone on torn takes the cake for me

YouTube - Evergrey - Fear