Let me add another thing.

I think it's important to think about tone, but I also thing a lot of people think too much about tone, and not enough about the music itself.

Let me explain.

I'll take singers first. Does Stevie Nicks have a good voice? How about Dr. John? Rod Stewart? Bob Dylan? Louis Armstrong? Lou Reed? Tom Waits? Leonard Cohen? Lucinda Williams? Dolly Parton? Neil Young? John Lennon hated his own voice, the list goes on and on. So why have they sold zillions of records? Musicality and expression. It's more important than tone.

Take guitars. What is good guitar tone? Hendrix? Joe Pass? Jeff Beck? Carlos Montoya? Kenny Burrell, Slash? Wes Montgomery? Zakk? Larry Carlton? Duane Eddy? Robert Fripp?

And on which guitar and amp? Jimmy Page sounded better on an el-cheapo Danelectro than I'll probably ever sound on my Parker (I play better sax than he does though).

Charlie Parker (one of the highest 'sax gods' of the past) played a plastic sax and sold millions of copies of the recording. Charlie Parker technique and musicality did that.

Listeners like good tone, but tone without expression doesn't work. Expression without tone does, as is proven by so many examples through the years.

Personally, I think that as long as your tone is in the ballpark for the genre of music you are playing, it doesn't matter as long as your technique and expressiveness is right on.

Comments???

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