On Guitar Wank, which I'm really enjoying, you mentioned Mclaughlin's tone sucking in early Mahavishnu. Mclaughlin's tone has never been great (particularly his laptop shit tone circa 2005-2010), but I'll take a Marshall and a Les Paul over his noodly tone on Black Light. His tone in the late 70's (electric guitarist era) was halfway decent (if you're into that kinda thing) - I think he was using Boogie's at the time.
I was astounded you said you liked that tone because you damn well know good tone! His current tone (while better, given he's using PRS amps now) is still thin and anemic. In the jazz rock world, compare that to you, Landau, Herring, Guarna, Beck, Machacek, Quayle, Eric Johnson, etc. That tone has some meat and contour!
Aside from that, if you listen to album's like Extrapolation, or some of the early Lifetime stuff, it's obvious he has some kind of harmonic vocabulary - I wouldn't, even at that time, describe him as more of a rock guitarist...though he was definitely mostly playing with that type of tonality.
There's a funny story about him. In 2010, a musician who shall go nameless was playing a festival with Mclaughlin carrying up a rig with multiple speakers, etc. Mclaughlin just stood there looking and said, "Why do you bother with all that gear?" The musician said, "I need this to get my tone." Mclaughlin shrugged and goes, "I just go direct. It's easier that way."
For me, McLaughlin's tone from starting from Industrial Zen onward has made all his recent recordings almost unlistenable. During the Mahavishnu days, what made his tone appealing was that it was so raw and always on the verge of being out of control. It was explosive and powerful.
Post-Mahavishnu, I think McLaughlin sounded better on acoustic. He plays much more expressively, and with a greater dynamic range. His current electric tone practically has no dynamics to speak of, and paired with Abstract Logix's tendency to kill any and all dynamics during production, his sound is that much worse.
I mean, I understand the convenience factor of running a Mesa V-Twin or Zendrive directly into the board, but that's going to pretty much guarantee a tone that is buzzy and brittle. What he should try is using something like Two Notes Torpedo Cab, which has both power amp and speaker emulation (you can use your own IRs as well). That would improve his tone immensely while still keeping his rig small.
I don't teach any classes like that since I'm 100% not qualified. I did sign a 60 year old woman's breast once, and when I got closer I saw the faded signature of Carl Verheyen, so I signed over it. It was a good story to tell Carl when I saw him at MI.
That's not my dog, but I peed on Trump's star many times.
About Johnny Mac, I haven't heard all of his recent recordings, but I did hear a few cuts where I thought his tone was really good. As far as no dynamic range, that's just natural compression from the distortion and you could say the same thing about Holdsworth or me or anyone who plays a high gain solo. About my statement that he was more of a rock guitarist back in the day - I stand by that statement. He had absolutely no jazz vocabulary back then and was strictly a pentatonic player. He played pentatonic scales in the wrong places to sound outside, but that's still rock in my opinion. Now he has a huge jazz vocabulary and sounds completely different than he sounded on his first recordings.
Last edited by Scott Henderson on Tue Apr 05, 2016 1:05 am; edited 1 time in total
I did sign a 60 year old woman's breast once, and when i got closer I saw the faded signature of Carl Verheyen, so I signed over it. It was a good story to tell carl when I saw him at MI.
I liked his tone on "Between Nothingness And Eternity". Live album, sounds like Marshalls to me....... I never liked him too much till I heard Lyle Workman play "Dance of Maya" with his tone, and I asked him what song that was. He says, that's John McLaughlin! I liked it cause Lyle's tone was better........
I like his tone here a lot....and I think his vocabulary is more jazz than on the fusion stuff he did later. I always thought that was a more deliberate attempt to rock out.
Well, I stand corrected. Although he has much more jazz vocabulary now, I've never heard him play that jazzy in that time period. I've mainly heard him rock out with Mahavishnu when he played more pentatonic based lines. The exception is My Goals Beyond, and I'd forgotten about that one, which is also more of a jazz record.
Anyway, great player, great composer, and I've always been a fan.
People seem to knock McLaughlin's current tone, but I don't know, I really love it. It's got balls and it just feels right with the way he plays (very pick heavy). Also, his writing and playing on the last couple albums is astonishing I think. The guy can just slay anyone guitar.
However, I also love his sound in the Mahuvishnu stuff, but that's just because it sounds ridiculous, noisy, garage band like. They're "fusion" but they just don't sound like any of those other bands. They're like the best rock bands on steroids with touches of jazz, Indian music, and brilliant composition. Plus Billy Cobham is just monsterous on those recordings. I don't think there is any way to improve the sonic signature JMc's sound on those recordings. It was perfect for that band.
Isn't that what tones all about? Not the individual sound, but how the whole product sounds together? Could you imagine how lame Mahuvishnu would sound with some delay heavy 80s EJ tone or something? _________________ www.timmirth.com www.youtube.com/redsidevisible
I agree - if the tone doesn't fit the music, it's all moot. I think John's tone always works well with the music he plays, from back with early Mahavishnu until today. When I said his tone back then wasn't good, I don't mean to say it didn't fit the music, because it totally did - I meant to say that it's very raw sounding and lacks the finesse and grace that he's able to pull from his guitar these days.
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