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"Sound" is the basic noise that a physical system makes when it's vibrated by an arbitrary signal. Your gear has a basic sound, as does your voice or anything else. Here is the difference between Marshall/Fender/Gibson/Strat etc
"Tone" is the character applied to that sound by the player via technique, emotion, touch etc. This bit most emphatically IS in the fingers.
I don't know when or why people started describing gear as having "tone" of itself, but it annoys the hell out of me.
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Wikipedia, for example, has both under "tone".
Hence all the disagreements.
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
But for me, "tone" in this context is all about the human element. Tone of voice, tone of a conversation etc.
When someone uses the expression "tone is in the fingers", some people react as if they have said "the ability to replicate any amp and guitar sound is in the fingers", which would clearly be bollocks. But, I don't think that's what they are really saying. I think they are saying "the ability to get a good, musical sound is in the fingers", which I'd agree with.
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But it'd make guitar forums very quiet. Must be 10% of the on-topic traffic is basically arguments about which definition someone is using...
Where you hear gear from has a big impact. It's why wireless is so awesome!
The reason for this is exactly what I quoted Dave on above - the player's ears/brain/fingers are inside a real-time feedback loop and you subconsciously (or consciously if you want to) modify your technique to produce the sound you want as you play, in the same way as you turn the 'tone' controls on the amp to give you the sound you want when you set it up.
The two things aren't separate, which is in my opinion why modelling equipment often sounds less 'natural' to the player in the room, when it might sound indistinguishable from the thing it's modelling to a listener or even when a sample of a guitar being played is put through it - because it doesn't always respond to subtle changes in playing in the same way.
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
Trading feedback here
Tone cuts my hair by the way
An extreme example of "fingers" is when Hendrix holds a note of a massive, deafening stack jeeust on the ring point but also manages subtle tonal shifts (that WORD again!) INSIDE that screaming feedback.
AFAIK nothing non-human can do that?
An another thing! IF you were all fiddle or cello players you wouldn't even be having this conversation..You'd KNOW!
Dave.
This is also why I think Hendrix was probably the first *truly* "electric" guitar player - he didn't play an amplified guitar, he played the entire sound chain from the strings to the speakers and back via the air in a way that hadn't been done before. Although others before him had used high volume, distortion and even feedback, none that I know of really got 'inside' the sound in that sense.
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
I sold an amp last week that sounded meh when I played it but was perfectly suited to the rockabilly playing style of the new owner.