It Might Get Loud

While we were putting together this month’s feature on tone, a topic came up that’s been debated quite a few times in the office. Namely, if heavy (a man who knows a thing or two about tone), we speculated that volume might be key – and that in certain scenarios the very lightness of the strings might make them more interactive with the field of sound generated by a loud amp. “There was a stage when Hendrix was using really thin strings,” Dan observes. “I had a conversation with Roger Mayer about this, because I couldn’t quite believe he wasn’t using a heavier set – but no, he was using eights. Unbelievable. So he was epically loud, and that’s a big thing. I can’t see another way to do it – because it’s that dynamic interaction with the amplifier, the sound pressure level, and the guitar.”