Tube amp tone color

[sabredude]

Can somebody help me learn what the "Colors" of tone are? I understand "Brown" for the most part but what else do people use when talking about an amp tone? I keep hearing people talk about how they love this or that amp builder because they can describe the amp color they want and the builder knows just exactly what to build. Sorry if this has been discussed but I found 8 billion hits on anything I searched on and it had NOTHING to do with color.

Thanks!

[rdjones]

"Brown" is simply a nickname Eddie VanHalen concocted for the tone he was searching for.
It comes from the brown M&M's he was quite fond of.

If you really want to explore tone color as it was originally intended you might drop a couple hits of Brown Acid and watch Hendrix's Rainbow Bridge.
Pay very close attention to the scenes where he conducts his "Vibratory Color Sound Experiment".

rd

[Reeltarded]

Fender Twins are a good study of different 'colors' on a single theme.

Frank Zappa said that talking about music is like dancing about architecture. Talking about tone isn't a bit different. We can't help ourselves. It's our nature to be poetic about something so esoteric. We long to relate. Imagine that you share more fellowship with a concept than you do with a people by that measure.

Tone might be it's own language. I easily relate to every one I hear, you do too, but I don't know any translators, and no one agrees on the interpretations, just the generalities? Yeah, I think.

I produce music. When I am giving birth to an idea before a small audience of players I throw my hands around, become another species, eat dark matter, curse at the moon.. dance about while building a mausoleum..

Brown actually refers to brown out conditions. When people say "that brown sound" they are directly talking about Edward Van Halen, and otherwise I realize it's misconception, so I allow it and know they mean squatty, and harmonic. Brown isn't the definition of the sound, it's how you arrive at the spongy bounce that is squatty, and harmonic.

Sorry for the pedantics. I just see a hellish road ahead here unless there is a foundation, and a monument danced to the greater points that are more obvious.

If it were all about color, you'd miss the texture of the fabric it's styled on. Color is about the EQ curve, and the layman's lack of terminology.

Can we go farther then? I'm asking.



I think your question gives way too much credit to the player's ability to relate what he's listening for rather than the amp builders ability to make a player happy by matching his personal technique. A good amp builder builds a good amp, and you like it, but rarely was that amp the one you described. Tape the conversations then tell me how that worked out for you.

[VacuumVoodoo]

http://musicophilia.com/ - a book, an eye opener to colors of sounds and music.

[jjman]

People use many stupid terms to describe sound. My favorite is "sweet." Even "warm" doesn't mean anything to me. It's kind of like when people talk about art, write about music or dance about architecture.

http://quoteinvestigator.com/2010/11/08 ... out-music/

[xtian]

Some pepople have synesthesia <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synesthesia> and experience sounds or even numbers as colors and shapes (or even tastes!). Anyone here?

[Structo]

Robben Ford describes music as colors that are pushed around on paper, like finger painting.

I know that is not the same thing you are talking about but I found it interesting.

[LeftyStrat]

Some pepople have synesthesia <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synesthesia> and experience sounds or even numbers as colors and shapes (or even tastes!). Anyone here?

I have a mild form of it. It runs in my family, though I don't believe any of my kids have it. Sounds -> colors, and dates in a year to positions on a circle. When I was a kid I would listen to music when going to sleep and could see the notes floating in the air, especially with some classical pieces and a lot of ambient stuff. I guess it's why I've always gravitated to music that has a certain spaciousness. I can't even begin to describe what I see when I listen to something like Eno's Music for Airports. I always figured he had it too, to be able to create such pieces. The spaces between the notes is as important as the notes.

It's pretty disappointing when you find out that someone else that has it might not have the same associations, and you realize your perceptions are not absolute.

[Kagliostro]

When I was a kid I would listen to music when going to sleep and could see the notes floating in the air, especially with some classical pieces and a lot of ambient stuff.

when my son was very very little, till one, one and half year, when he wasn't able to sleep I carried him in arm and walking around in the living room we listen to Vivaldi and other great of classic music

I don't know if he saw notes, but he has made music his work

note that I understand near noting about music and so I didn't influenced him with particular knowledge

Kagliostro

[Lynxtrap]

People use many stupid terms to describe sound. My favorite is "sweet." Even "warm" doesn't mean anything to me. It's kind of like when people talk about art, write about music or dance about architecture.

I agree with that, and I blame guitar mag gear reviewers and amp company advertisement

Even if I heard an amp as sounding fluffy blue with a purple edge, nobody else would know what I'm talking about.
So I don't think colour means anything in general with amps, maybe with the exeption of brown.

[Furtz]

I always shoot for Bubble-Gum Pink with a little Forrest Green with my builds. That combination is really warm and sweet! It helps if you play them through a smokey sounding speaker like the C-Rex.

[LeftyStrat]

Of course, even as a synesthete, I still find those people that can taste words just damn crazy.

So does the brightness switch make the amp easier to see?

Does an amp with a nice round bottom have a great ass?

Does a note bloom in the spring?

Should you put a "fragile" sticker on an amp that sounds brittle?

Does bass get mushy from sitting out too long?

Should I be offended if I hear a note flipping?

[andrew]

Thanks for the wiki article. I have this: Ordinal-linguistic personification (OLP, or personification for short) is a form of synesthesia in which ordered sequences, such as ordinal numbers, days, months and letters are associated with personalities. I never knew it was an identifiable condition.

[LeftyStrat]

when my son was very very little, till one, one and half year, when he wasn't able to sleep I carried him in arm and walking around in the living room we listen to Vivaldi and other great of classic music

I don't know if he saw notes, but he has made music his work

note that I understand near noting about music and so I didn't influenced him with particular knowledge

Kagliostro

Great story.

When my kids were young, someone gave my wife a CD called "The Planet Sleeps." It is composed of lullabies from around the world. It is very beautiful. It would put our kids to sleep within the first three tracks. When they were a little older and wanted to stay up, we'd put it on and they would literally beg us not to play it, as they uncontrollably fell asleep. I guess it had become a conditioned reflex.

[Reeltarded]

Some pepople have synesthesia <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synesthesia> and experience sounds or even numbers as colors and shapes (or even tastes!). Anyone here?

Me. Totally... maybe that is why I seek a more perfect way of umm.. seeing it.