IMO, Ronnie's guitar tone changed dramatically from his debut tour in 1975 to the next tour in 1978.

Which one do you prefer, the fat, hard-rocking tone in 1975 or the cleaner, less mid ranged tone that he kept throughout the 70s and 80s.

After the 80s there has been less consistancy in how Ronnie sound, imo.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2011-03-04 14:40 by DandelionPowderman.

His tone was EX from 1975-1982.And also in 1990,but since its been the same mostly,except for licks tour.

Definitely the '75 tone. I remember being seriously disappointed by Ronnie's tone when I saw the Stones in '82, especially compared to the sound of Keith's Telecaster during that era.

yea,but listen Ronnies tone on Let it bleed and you can´t allways get what you want,he used slide on both songs.

Nice thread DandelionPowderman. I always paid attention to Ronnie's sound. I think that back in '75-'76 his live tone was quite 'stingy',and cutting through. I always liked his clean licks in parallel with Keith's rhythm attacks (Honky Tonk Women for example). I also think that he was much faster (fast tremoloes etc).
Ronnie doesn't attack the strings like Keith does. If you pay attention you'll see that his right hand movement is strictly from the wrist down, something like a 60 degree movement which affects the tone no matter the amp settings etc. Keith is playing from the shoulders down. I don't know if that's clear what I'm saying here,but I always thought that Ronnie is playing the strings,both hands always close to the strings controlling them, and Keith is playing the whole instrument. And that is maybe the reason why Keith fell in love with a light, vibrating, bell-like instrument like the really gorgeous Tele.

Ronnie sounded best in the Faces.

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Phil Good
Ronnie sounded best in the Faces.

QFTT

I have been meaning to start a thread on this. I love Ronnie's 75/78 tone, but anything post 94 is bloody awful! Especially B2B and on. He just has this weak, thin, wimpy tone that has no muscle to it whatsoever. And when he does try to rock it up, it ends up sounding god-awful like on "CYHMK" and "Sway" (and I am just judging the tone, not the solos).

Ronnie has the tone that Keith allows him to have..

2 1 2 0

Hate to say it, but his later tone and style sounds very "coked out" to me - thin, trebly and trying too hard. His earlier playing with the Faces and on his first couple records with the Stones was a lot more diverse/well-rounded/ nuanced and the tone was more...full or warmer somehow. It sounded exciting to listen to, it cut through the mix, but without being too trebly or piercing.

78 was great!

This is strange,
last week I listened to the recording of the Fort Worth ´78 show
for the first time in a few years, and my first impression was
how terrible the guitars sounded. I know they used Boogies
as preamps into the SVT Ampegs but why? The `75-76 tours
had the best guitar sounds ever. Just Ampegs!!!!!
Bring em back!

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Tommy Cosmo
This is strange,
last week I listened to the recording of the Fort Worth ´78 show
for the first time in a few years, and my first impression was
how terrible the guitars sounded. I know they used Boogies
as preamps into the SVT Ampegs but why? The `75-76 tours
had the best guitar sounds ever. Just Ampegs!!!!!
Bring em back!

I think just the opposite. The Boogie-Ampeg was the best sound they ever had,
and they only used it once. Don't me wrong, though, I loved their Ampeg sound.
Hell, I even own one.

Ronnie had a sort of fuzzy tone in the 70's, but played really well. Now he has a more organic tubedriven Fender-tone. More trebly than Keiths, but I guess that's not a coinsidence. In '06-'07 Rons tone got fatter again. Maybe not a coinsidence either?

[www.reverbnation.com]

Quote
Phil Good
Ronnie sounded best in the Faces.

Damn right...I could never understand why he used such a thin, characterless tone since the 90s. Very weak, imo.

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71Tele

Quote
Phil Good
Ronnie sounded best in the Faces.

Damn right...I could never understand why he used such a thin, characterless tone since the 90s. Very weak, imo.

That's exactly what I was saying. Listen to, for example, the St. Louis 1997 show. On songs like "All About You" and "Gimme Shelter", you've got Keith's thicker, tougher guitar sound, contrasting poorly with Ronnie's clean, tinny, tepid sound.

my feeling is that his tone is best after vacationing in the Caribbean...a nice warm brown.

Quote
theimposter

Quote
71Tele

Quote
Phil Good
Ronnie sounded best in the Faces.

Damn right...I could never understand why he used such a thin, characterless tone since the 90s. Very weak, imo.

That's exactly what I was saying. Listen to, for example, the St. Louis 1997 show. On songs like "All About You" and "Gimme Shelter", you've got Keith's thicker, tougher guitar sound, contrasting poorly with Ronnie's clean, tinny, tepid sound.

Must be those old guitars he usually plays. One would have thought he'd be able to afford new ones.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2011-03-05 13:53 by xke38.

Have you guys heard his tone and different attack on the Faces shows from last year?Simply incredible.To me it showed everyone that he could still play an entire show with his hands on the guitar again.I would love to see Keith doing something like this now to keep his chops up.Plus to see him enjoying the stage on his own with the Winos would have been good for Keith in 2009/2010.

Coming Down Again

Ronnie sounded best with his faces tone. Big cranking tones. Alot of it wa ampegs but on not as good as a wink I bet a their are a few surprise amps. It's not his guitars it is his amps. His main guitar choice has not changed mostly strats and the disc front Zemaitis (which sounded great on happy on at the
Mac btw). He sounded like the he does with the stones when he plAyed w Jerry Lee on last man standing DVD. Thin and dull. I tink some of it is by Ronnie's choice and other are crappy sound engineers. Keith's twins unfiltered by a pa or tape sound way better than any recordings. They just need to bust out the good ole ampegs and be done w it.

Go Dawgs!

I'm 100% sure that the tone change did not happen just by accident without anybody in the band or in the crew noticing it.
They all are fully aware of each ones tone. And it is how they - Mick & Keith - wanted it to be.

During last tour Ronnie sounded spectacular , very fat and powerfull,His tone during BtB or VL was much worse.

he seems to tend to have more noise in his sound than keith, as if he's using cheap pedals or something. Does he?

When you play with a Strat things tend to be weak.

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skipstone
When you play with a Strat things tend to be weak.

That can be avoided though

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skipstone
When you play with a Strat things tend to be weak.

He played the same strat in 75

Well, I was specific in NOT saying 'everything is weak' ha ha. Yes Ronnie as well as other guitar players have had nice tones etc with Strats. I just think overall they are not full enough. Of course, that's probably the point anyway, to have something different.

I thought Ronnie's lead on Don't Stop was nice. Ha ha - very Ronnie-esque!

Did anybody ever consider Jeff Beck's Strat-tone weak? Isn't the guitar.
There's the amps, the setting, the effects and so much more.

I liked Ronnie's tone on the Steel Wheels tour - at least when I saw them. And his lead on Start Me Up sounds fantastic.

What is it Beck used on Jagger's solo albums? Whatever it is, it sounds like a big gnat buzzing around. Horrible.

As the Dutch most famous guitar player Jan Akkerman would say when talking about Neil Young: "Did he need to buy such a guitar to sound like that?? But you also have to see him"



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 2011-03-27 18:53 by Amsterdamned.