Vernon Reid
Ask any random group of rock guitarists
to name a player whose skills and music
they admire, but whose tone they hate,
and Vernon Reid’s name will inevitably
come up. Known for his adventurous jazz,
punk, and avant-garde-inflected rocking
with Living Colour, Ronald Shannon
Jackson’s Decoding Society, and as a solo
artist, Reid is a fearless, uncompromising,
virtuosic six-string visionary who has
also managed to achieve considerable
commercial success. Earlier on in his
career, his rig and tone were both
relatively straightforward (at least by ‘80s
standards), but over the years both have
grown ever more complex, distinctive
and extreme. He is well known for his
use of guitar synths, harmonizer effects,
bit crushers, and other non-traditional
guitar sounds, but his direct-to-amp tone
is his signature sound, marked by molten
gobs of Mesa-Boogie Dual Rectifierderived saturation, massive low end, and
a hairy, buzzy treble quality that is often
described as sounding like a tin can full
of angry bees. When one considers the
nature of Living Colour’s music, which
frequently makes use of rapid tempos
and complex harmonic structures, it’s a
wonder the whole thing doesn’t devolve
into a mess of white noise and distorted
mush, but in Vernon’s hands this sound can
be magic. He makes this unconventional
tone work to suit his vision, and it is so
instantly recognizable that he will never
be mistaken for any other guitarist.
22
TONE TALK //
PHOTO BY MARIO, VIA WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
The 5 Best “Bad” Tones in Rock History