Your tone? Me, hardly ever. Once I find what I like the amp pretty much stays set. There’s some minor tweaking when switching between guitars. (HB vs Single Coil) Pedals get used or not depending on the song. Basic tone stays the same.
Most guys end up sounding like they sound no matter what they’re jacked into or where the knobs are pointing.
My amps all sound different. My guitars all sound different. I leave everything pretty much set the same and just switch amps and guitars for different tones. Never really try to make any of them sound like any given band or player, just roll with what I plug in. If anything, I've actually been backing off the gain a little lately. That's a change for me.
Once every 5-10 years I’ll overhaul my gear and my approach to tone. Recently I got into using NMV amps with an attenuator, and it’s a big change from my old master volume habits. Beyond those occasional revolutions, everything stays the same.
Continuously. When recording, just as the level of distortion will be changed, and different effects potentially applied, every guitar track in a song will be EQed differently. Likewise, the same applies to each individual song. Otherwise, every thing literally just sounds monotonous.
I change every time I play, in fact what I play depends on the sound. That’s why I like a versatile amp to fit the mood I may be in. A lot of people like just one sound almost every time they play, which is fine. The only reason I have 4-5 guitars and 4 amps is because they all do something different, which makes me play differently with each change I make.
Mine has evolved over the years. Generally I'm always going to sound like "me," I think, and I've found that with my friends who play guitar. I can identify their sound on the instrument. But after I get an amp dialed in I don't typically change it, and if I change stuff in the amp (cap job, new tubes, etc) I've found that I'll often tweak the amp until it sounds like it sounded before, so I suppose that some part of me wants it to sound a certain way! Over the years though my tone has gotten cleaner and a bit brighter. I used to run mostly distortion, to the point that one of my bandmates once said "I think this part should be pretty clean. Do you know what that is?" Part of it was the gear I was using. I went from a 2204 with an added gain stage, to a Superlead, and now to a Superbass. I still use boosts and overdrives but I find that more often I'm now just playing what the amp can give me and I'm focusing on playing accurately and being able to hear the individual notes of whatever I'm doing.
I have all sorts of tones preset. I have my core tone(s) and then I have tone(s) of others. Is that not the way anyone or everyone should do it? I really like sound processors.
I have everything set for my Les Paul's and it is perfect with my 2555X's . When I have used a Strat it sounds weak and I will not start playing with the knobs ( box of knobs ) on my 2555X's . Now when I play one of my Telecasters they work well thru the 2555X's and actually sound good . Go figure right ?
I don't have that issue with my 800 or 900 or plexi. My strats and tele sound great without having to adjust anything after playing my sg or using with a guitar with humbuckers.
Every so often I realise that I hate my tone and change settings, string heights, cables, tubes, bias and anything else I can think of. It usually means I need to change my strings.
