How much time do you spend tweaking tone?

[tapper mike]

So I'm sleepless and downloading custom tones for my Pod Go off the Line 6 website. Trying to remind myself that I'll prolly never play the songs for the patches and have too much to do elsewhere in my life.

I'm curious as to the amount of time spent surfing for tones as opposed to actually developing your own.

[Bombadil]

Very little. I'm a plug in and play type.

[Uncle E]

Hate preset hunting. Take as little time as possible finding a preset that's in the ballpark, then tweak from there. But that's with plugins and dedicated effects pedals, I won't touch a Pod Go or any other menu-driven guitar multi-effect (Line 6 M13, Boss ME90, and Kemper Profiler are doable).

[Artie Fichelle]

I mostly use my own sounds, that means starting from a preset and tweak it to my own taste and ears.

[Daimonicon]

I don’t. Guitarists worry too much about the tone. They should worry more about the arrangement need to be good enough. Everything is about a good song and not guitar tone. Nobody cares about anyway. They want to hear a good song.

[morelia]

More than ever before but still very little.

[Scrubbing Monkeys]

Lately absolutely none. For single coills I load a track with NAM containing a Ritchie Blackmore Engl gain set to 2.5 with 1960 Marshall 4 x 12 IR. Tweak the guitar volume to taste. For humbuckers I use NAM with a JCM 800 and same cab.

[Bombadil]

I'll go through Tonex.net every few weeks to see if there are any captures that appeal. For, maybe, 15-20 minutes. Really, I have more than enough for what I do. If I want a particular effect(s) I'll add them in the fx slots in Logic. There are enough good tones that I don't get bored easily. Some might not like the hi-gains available in that ecosystem, but as I use them sparingly and normally just for leads, they're fine by me.

[tapper mike]

Opened a can of worms I see.

The AA cover bands around these parts are very dedicated to tone and technique. I can't blame them as it has a significant value to how much of an audience and income they can draw. The workstation and plugin Soundware industry is thriving
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hn4ByQwlGSk Those who want the most accurate sound so they can focus more on playing.

I didn't get Sonic projects OP-X (1,2) so I could spend hours trying to find "My Sound"
I did get it for the presets.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mAry3nbsGAM

Having faithful sounds in the box allows me to focus on playing. I play keys/linnstrument better and learn songs faster when I can draw up the most accurate sound out of the box.

The same holds true for my guitar playing. Having the right tools for the job enhances my playing experience which shortens my learning curve. Spending time trying to capture that perfect tone from scratch frustrates the hell out of me. What's worse is getting some amateurs bad tone and trying to fix it. This is a thing I had to go through with my Zoom G1xon mediocre sounds in the box and crap patches from amateur contributors https://guitarpatches.com/

[Uncle E]

Boss and Fractal both have great presets. If you use an FRFR, you can sound like the records with them, at least close enough for live cover bands.

[vurt]

plug in, turn on fuzz.

[tapper mike]

It strikes me as a curiosity.

Everyone in this forum loves talking about the latest amp sims modellers vs profilers and no one spends time trying to dial in something something new with their existing rig.

I've spent a little time with my newly downloaded custom tones and done some tweaking. Something I'll prolly only rarely do in the future. The closer to truth in tone I get the more satisfying the playing experience is for me. No it's not perfect recreations of classic tones but it gets me enough in the door.

I have no issues with the ui on the unit itself or the standalone companion app. it's incredibly more intuitive than my Korg Krome or the countless workstation keyboards I've had years gone by.

[Bombadil]

Welp,
For me, the captures I'm playing are good enough now to not need tweaking. Tweaking ad nauseum, for me, is a buzzkill. Now, it's a decent guitar with good aftermarket pups, and my hands going into a dimed Fender Vibrolux. That is setup in my Logic template as 'Tonex Empty' meaning it would be for exploration, but I've left the Vibrolux there, with Soundtoys Tremolator through my reverb tank. I can play with that tone for hours, and have. The combination of pickup choice, guitar choice, and almost 50 years of playing is 'my tone.' There is truth to the adage 'tone is in the hands,' though it isn't as simple as that.
I've got a couple of great VOX and Plexi captures in my template, as well. Setup is minimal.

[donkey tugger]

When I'm mixing stuff I obviously spend a bit of time to get the guitars to sit properly, like anything else.

If I'm writing/recording and I need to do it on electric with the effects I don't mess about - have a few things saved - jangle basic, metel, shoegazey etc. Once the f**kers recorded as DI then the fun starts.

[Uncle E]

Vibrolux is such a great amp. One of the best I've ever owned. Less wooly than a Deluxe and bigger sounding than a Princeton. Perfectly hits the sweet spot. Tonex nails that sound.