So, who's suffered from the mysterious 'wandering tone phenomena' ?

Voxman

Why is that? (let's assume no alcohol is involved here! lol) - one day you pick up your guitar, plug in...and it sounds glorious and you positively ROCK!  

A few days later, same guitar, amp, effects, settings, same room....and it sounds 'meh' ... or even worse, your tone has mysteriously become lifeless and completely sucks - and no amount of knob fiddling (NO! - not that knob, the ones on your guitar, amp, & effects! lol ) can get it back that day!  Next day...sounds great again and you think 'WTF has been going on!'

We must have all been there at sometime, so what do you guys reckon - changes in barometric pressure and air-density, ear/brain dysfunction, gremlins getting into your gear over night?  

Gassage

One thing that I'd consider is a serious thing- voltage inconsistancies.

simonk

My hearing definitely changes according to mood and whether I'm hungry, thirsty, tired etc According to my wife I'm just bad news in general when hungry.

randomhandclaps

I worry that if 'Wandering tone phenomena' becomes an accepted phrase then it's going to lead to a spate of wild rumours about TTony!

ICBM

Gassage said:

One thing that I'd consider is a serious thing- voltage inconsistancies.

I doubt the variation in UK mains voltage is anywhere near big enough to make that kind of difference. It can sometimes be quite big from one place to another (a long way away) but it doesn't vary much day to day here.

I would guess air humidity or the player's mental state are the two biggest factors.

Gassage

ICBM said:

Gassage said:

One thing that I'd consider is a serious thing- voltage inconsistancies.

I doubt the variation in UK mains voltage is anywhere near big enough to make that kind of difference. It can sometimes be quite big from one place to another (a long way away) but it doesn't vary much day to day here.

I would guess air humidity or the player's mental state are the two biggest factors.

My Olson read out will vary by 10v. Is that not a lot?

randomhandclaps

Gassage said:

ICBM said:

Gassage said:

One thing that I'd consider is a serious thing- voltage inconsistancies.

I doubt the variation in UK mains voltage is anywhere near big enough to make that kind of difference. It can sometimes be quite big from one place to another (a long way away) but it doesn't vary much day to day here.

I would guess air humidity or the player's mental state are the two biggest factors.

My Olson read out will vary by 10v. Is that not a lot?

Meh. It's about 10 volts.

cacophony

a lot of it i think depends how fresh/tired you are. when i`ve had a hard day at work and sit down to have a pootle about i may as well play with a packet of richmond pork chipolatas as my hands.when the nearest and dearest ask "what the hell is that you`re playing" you answer "oh, nothing much just tuning up!" through gritted teeth.

Sassafras

I'd blame barometric pressure. I always feel a lot better and more positive when the air pressure's high.

Really.

XWulfhere

Maybe it's just time to change strings?

darcym

you'll find this goes back to the "it's in the fingers" factor.

depending on your gear, how you play it and how good you're playing will have a bigger impact than you think.

kaisos

It happens all the time...
Two reasons in my case
1) Strings need to be changed
2) "Not exactly" the same settings.... 

stuagu

Iv come to the conclusion it's my ears.

richardhomer

Mood - I'm convinced.

As I said in the 'selling it all' thread, I've taken to recording stuff on my phone - particularly when I'm not liking what I'm hearing.

Invariably when I listen to it back the next day, in sounds very good.

Samgb

richardhomer;550118" said:

Mood - I'm convinced.

As I said in the 'selling it all' thread, I've taken to recording stuff on my phone - particularly when I'm not liking what I'm hearing.

Invariably when I listen to it back the next day, in soinds very good.

This is an excellent idea which I never do but should.
Sometimes it sounds like shit because you don't feel particularly inspired. Sometimes I have my amp dialled in for a HB guitar and plug a single coil and I'll twig after a while why it doesn't sound great. Sometimes I don't feel like doing anything startlingly adventurous - this morning I plugged in and played along to Le Freak and then side 2 of Led Zeppelin 2 and it sounded great, the kids were dancing along and it was great. Having a bit of fun and acting like a kid can be a pallette cleanser.

ICBM

Gassage said:

My Olson read out will vary by 10v. Is that not a lot?

No, its less than 5%.

If you have a Variac, try varying it that much and see if it makes much difference.

(If you don't… it doesn't - certainly not enough to account for the difference between good tone and bad, you can sometimes hear a small difference.)

MatthewShreddery

Yea I get that. Though it's not as common as my wondering guitar playing ability phenomenon.

axisus

Dunno about tone, that sounds more like my sexual performance.

ThePrettyDamned

axisus;550204" said:

Dunno about tone, that sounds more like my sexual performance.

Wisdom.










Except mine varies from bad to bloody awful

Tone wise, I'm convinced it's mood. I record sounds and compare to previous times I've been happy - they're usually similar enough.

Sometimes, it all seems right.

ToneControl

Gassage said:

ICBM said:

Gassage said:

One thing that I'd consider is a serious thing- voltage inconsistancies.

I doubt the variation in UK mains voltage is anywhere near big enough to make that kind of difference. It can sometimes be quite big from one place to another (a long way away) but it doesn't vary much day to day here.

I would guess air humidity or the player's mental state are the two biggest factors.

My Olson read out will vary by 10v. Is that not a lot?

It dropped to 130v one day in my last house, blew a motherboard in a big server PC

all sorts of kits was making funny noises, I went round unplugging until it recovered

If you play in an outbuilding or at the end of a long extension cable generally, you can get a big voltage drop

You need very thick cable to minimise this

 

http://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/Technical/Charts/VoltageDrop.html

you can easily lose an extra 10v 

EdGrip

We run my mate's cabin on an extension lead. When the 10A heater's on, it drops to around 200v.