Vai on The Ultra Zone - he has got the tone down, he absolutely knows what to do to achieve what he wants. Zappa once told him: "The sound is in your head." Damn right.

Didn't Zappa also tell Vai his tone was like an electric ham sandwich? It's true, actually.

Prong had a pretty sweet tone. Or rather that one guy that was in Prong and is now in Ministry. Love his guitar tone. Yeah.

Korn- When they got rid of the fuzz sound and made "follow the leader"

Yes, I love that tone too. Amazing for a nu0metal band

That's what happens when a band cures themselves of Robinson's Disease. Ross Robinson has ruined more bands' tones than I can count.

Devin is way up there. His huge sound is amazing, especially on Infinity.

My Dying Bride have an absolutely KILLER crunch to their distortion starting with the Dreadful Hours and working up to their more recent albums. I can't explain how much ecstacy is involved with that tone and Aaron Stainthorpe's growl together.

The clean tone used on the Smashing Pumpkins' Machina I / The Machines of God sounds SO good, especially on songs like "This Time." Usually their records are really lo-fi, but that record sounds so fucking good.

I love the guitar sound on Sigur Rós' Takk... . On songs like "Glósóli," it turns from sweet (his reverby bow work) to crunchy (the climax), and it's a beautiful sound all through.

Isis' tone on Panopticon is ABSOLUTELY UNREAL. There is one description of its guitar sound I read online once, and it's all you need to know: they sound like "walls of silk."

Meshuggah. They're good stuff. I rather enjoy Destroy Erase Improve and I. But their guitar sound is sick, and in a bad way. It sounds like someone's kicking a rotted corpse in polyrhythmic patterns, and while I realize that is completely \m/, it is taxing. I muchly prefer the bass crunch on Chaosphere because the guitars are so trebley, but maybe I was ruined by listening to all that Kyuss back in the day.

Steven Wilson's clean sound. Has the perfect hint of rotosphere, compression & delay at times. Just uses the right sounds to set the right mood. His distorted tone too is something to be mentioned & that obviously hasn't.
http://www.porcupinetree.com

Devin Townsend, his solos can religously send that shiver up my spine. When the solo hits in "Gaia" it is like the temperature drops ten degrees in the room for me.
http://www.hevydevy.com

Rich Ward, the duke, what can you say? Declaration of a Headhunter is probably one of the most toneful albums to ever be released. The Duke = pure %100 tone
http://www.dukerocks.com

Joey Z & John Fatts, Stereomud's Every Given Moment. No album can match that one is sure chest punch power. It hits you at a million deciples & never lets go!
http://www.stereomud.com

Steve Vai, his use of delay & the harmonizer on touching tongues is to me one of the best examples of original lush & pure tone.
http://www.vai.com

Steve Ray Vaughan, no explanation needed. Man is & will always be to me, the world's best guitar player. Fuck Jimi Hendrix as the world's best, Stevie took all the acid tripped shit hendrix did one day & couldn't remember the next & mastered it. learned how do make your guitar scream without having to set it on fire.
http://www.sonymusic.com/artists/StevieRayVaughan/

Tim Mahoney, the man behind 311's toneful leads. Some people may not like the band or their style, but his leads ring out alot more lush than any other alternative rock guitarist I know of.
http://www.311.com

Jerry Cantrell, of course all of his AIC work, especially tripod (s/t), but even is work degredation trip. I mean the force & brutalness of his sound on "spider bite", yowzers!
http://www.jerrycantrell.com

Anders "Blakkheim", especially on the new Katatonia album, The Great Cold Distance", there is such a fine line brilliant balance between the brutalness of his heavy sound & the gentlness of his cleans.
http://www.katatonia.com

Honrable Mentions:
John Petrucci-under a glass moon
Fredrik Thordendal-New Millenium Cyanide Christ
Testament-demonic
Zakk Wylde-1919 eternal
Micah Creed-Rock is Dead
Ian Thornley-In Memory Of
Amorphis-My Kantele
Peter Klett-Candlebox
Dimebag-Floods "pantera"
Dredg-El Cielo & 2004 demos
Faith No More-"evidence"
Beav's-Fuck Yea

I could go on for years. Alot of great guitar sounds out there.
-Brent

ok
finally i can say something 100% for sure:

the guitar tone i HATE the most is the one i have to use in my songs

I know a lot of people on this forum have heard or own Texture's album Polars. Can anyone tell me exactly what effects/equipment the guitarist is using for his solo tone on the following tracks:

track 2 - Ostensibly Impregnable: 01:34 - 2:12
track 7 - Polars: 16:20 - 17:21

I'm especially interested in the Polars section, as it really stands out in that particular solo. It sounds very reminiscent of Devin's GP-100 solo tone on the Ocean Machine, Infinity and Synchestra albums, but even moreso. There's definitely chorus and reverb, some slight delay, and most likely compression, but it's like there's some phantom effect that I can't place. It's so buttery smooth, like a WD-40 enveloped ball bearing gliding along endless miles of fresh ice. Okay, I know that was a bit much, but you get the idea. I WANT that tone. So, does anyone have any information on that?

John Petrucci

A-Daamage: That's a really, really good description, actually. Hell, I just wish I could get the tone they have on the opening powerchords of that song... Crunch. But... Buttery crunch. Does that make sense?
...Crunchy butter...

A-Daamage: That's a really, really good description, actually. Hell, I just wish I could get the tone they have on the opening powerchords of that song... Crunch. But... Buttery crunch. Does that make sense?
...Crunchy butter...

That's easy: Get yourself a Peavey 5150 (now known as the 6505). Even if that's not what they use, it sounds a whole helluva lot like the good ol' 5150 crunch. It's what I use and I love my tone so much that if it were a woman I'd draw her a bath, light some candles and massage her aches away until my hands could move no more. Did I just type that? I need sleep.

This is just about the hardest question ever. Peavey 5150's are overrated in my opinion. They just dont seem to be stable amps.,., i know they're endorsed by everybody who isnt rectumfried endorsed but i just cant seem to like them...

With regards to tone i'm a bit obsessed with DirEnGrey at the moment they seem to be able to do everything with amazing tones. Their last album has so many tonal ups and downs all of them flawless.

I use hughes&kettner and dont think i'll ever change they make amazing heads. I have the vortex stack which is cheap but good for practice and for performance i use an uber expensive hk zenamp head which is a modeller head and dare i say pisses on line6 (runs for cover). I think hk get forgotten about but i'd recommend the higher end models to anybody. I payed over £1200 for my zenamp and couldnt be happier with it.

I'm about to buy a hughes n kettnerr switchblade head and h&k cab. It's all tube but it has some digital effects built in, and instead of 3 channels, it's got banks like you would see on your lin6 or gt8 pedal so you can swap between 4 completely different sounds at once which sounds pretty nifty to me.

Of course ideally I would buy a Dual Rectifier, much better sounding than those 5150s IMO. I have heard some SOldano's that sound great too (Silverchair's distortion is quite nice)

The switchblades are mega,..,., good call!!!

I know a lot of people on this forum have heard or own Texture's album Polars. Can anyone tell me exactly what effects/equipment the guitarist is using for his solo tone on the following tracks:

track 2 - Ostensibly Impregnable: 01:34 - 2:12

A guitar synth and lots of reverb.

A guitar synth is a device like this one:
http://www.thomann.de/thoiw3_electro_ha ... dinfo.html

track 7 - Polars: 16:20 - 17:21

Same thing.

I have to note that the original player who the guys in Textures and Fredrik Thordendal copy is a fusion jazz guitarist called Allan Holdsworth, and he does that sound with just a volume pedal.

After reading a bit, it seems you can also do that effect using E-bow:

http://www.thomann.de/thoiw3_ebow_ebow_prodinfo.html

Steven Wilson from Porcupine Tree uses that a bit, too.

Peavey 5150's are overrated in my opinion. They just dont seem to be stable amps

There's a lot of people who have their 5150/6505 randomly break some part, usually a transformer (if that's the english name for the part), or blow a fuse just *snap* like that.

Thats the case in my experience anyway with regards to peaveys.,., in the studio they are hard to fault but on the road they are nothing but trouble.