I saw the discussion on the Kinks' guitar tone in the forums and I thought I'd start one here. What's your favorite guitar tones and what are some ways to get them? (especially for poor people without much equipement such as myself). Right now I'm listening to The Birds' "Daddy Daddy" and I think that has some good tone. I've always loved the aforementioned Kinks' tone as well.

I use a '67 KAPA Minstrel (see below).  American body, neck by Hofner, electronics and pickups by Harmony.  The Minstrel has a thin trebly tone, very much like an old Rick.  Clean, with all three pickups engaged, it has a pleasingly lush vintage tone, very reminiscent of the Mercy sound;  overdriven, it screams, squeals, and often throws an uncontrollable fit. I suspect this is due to the dicey pickups.  It's an unpredictable beast, but that's part of the charm. 

I use the Minstrel for all my solos in THEE DIRTYBEATS, as it contrasts so well (and cuts through) Jamie's thick fuzzed-out Mosrite -- another guitar with especially good tone for garage.

The following track has examples of both tones. The opening riff is the Minstrel with overdrive, while the backing guitar during the verses is the Minstrel played clean.  The terrific solo is Jamie's Mosrite -- he totally has that fuzz thang down:

http://theedirtybeats.bandcamp.com/track/you-turned-your-back-on-me

THEE DIRTYBEATS - maximum vintage garage

...and my favourite sound of guitar is in "The Calico Wall-I`m a Living Sickness".

if you are patient there is the posiibility to buy great sounding fuzz clones (!) cheap on ebay.

I bought for example a clone of the mosrite fuzzrite for 50 bucks (the original from the 60`s costs up to 400 Euros!) and it sounds perfect.

Mine is the Fuzz/Tremelo combo on many Cramps records ....Best exemplified by The Animals "Don't Bring Me Down" . A hit , yes , but still an underrated sound on that record. Of course , a lot of Garage Punk 45s tried for the kingdom , if they could , using the same sound.

DADADADADDAADADADADADADADADDADADAADDAADD......

 

I {heart} that tone that Link Wray has. Pussy Galore's 'Cunt Tease' has a similar tone.

My favorite is the guitar in "Shakin' All Over" by Johnny Kidd and the Pirates. So cool.

   

Also, the guitar tone in "Primitive" by The Groupies.

Bo Diddley.

A better experiment might be to buy a cheap speaker for your current amp to modify into Swiss-cheese. Smaller inexpensive amps tend to distort all on their lonesome. A franken-speaker in yer gigin' amp may give you a better idea when played at gig volume. Link Wray use ta' poke holes in his speakers and keep the volume ALL the way up.

Jamie said:

Cool choices. Have you ever tried the infamous "poke holes in your amp" trick? I haven't yet, but one of these days I'm going to get a small amp and try it out. I heard that Dave Davies had a small amp that he then ran through Vox AC30 I believe. If I could find a small cheap amp I would try it.

True. But at least they hold value. I've probably lost hundreds fixing, selling, and just throwing out crappy gear. It's nice to finally have a sound I'm satisfied with!

but £££

Nothing beats a Rickenbacker and an old fender tube amp!  

may i sudgest the vox ac4 for that ,small ,cheap ,tube and toneful seems great

Jamie said:

Cool choices. Have you ever tried the infamous "poke holes in your amp" trick? I haven't yet, but one of these days I'm going to get a small amp and try it out. I heard that Dave Davies had a small amp that he then ran through Vox AC30 I believe. If I could find a small cheap amp I would try it.

im a garage rocker and no we do not ,i have no money from buying a used guitar strap for a fiver

Jamie said:

Yeah that sounds like an ideal setup, but do garage rockers have money? I think not. :) I guess I'll have to look around quite a bit.

We were talking about the Shin-ei earlier in this thread (a piece of Jap crap that is sublime in the way a dentist's root canal is sublime)... you can hear a great example of it on the song "Unlucky In Love" here: www.myspace.com/miketheravens2007 Tell me that doesn't set your teeth on edge...