-
Just wondering. Listening this morning to lots of Kenny Burrell and Wes and some C.Christian and all awash in clarity and brightness. Where did 'mud' come from in the first place. Just wondering.
David
-
04-30-2021 07:23 AM
-
The terms thrown about "thunk" and "mud" are not talking about the same thing, for starters.
"Thunk" is more of the Freddie Green thing- 4-on-the-bar, when the acoustic guitar was a strictly a rhythm instrument, almost percussive.
"Mud"... I assume you mean the sometimes-imo-overly-warm tones thought of as "jazz tone"? We have whole threads here discussing that LOL. I really don't know how that became a "thing"... I love Johnny Smith, CC, Kenny Burrell, and don't hear any of their tones as "mud".
It's like with distortion: in the early days, it came from the amp, and there wasn't alot of it. Then people made pedals to get more of it. Then it turned into more gain. and MORE gain... as if "more is better". I think that's what happened with the jazz "mud" thing... older players had warm tones, and newbies started turning down their treble and tone controls, and things just got out of hand LOL.
-
i think i coined it originally in these forums.
-
From Old German...denken...
Think...
Thank...
Thunk...
“I’ve thunk you all many times for the wonderful entertainment you provide on this forum.”
-
Well, thunk is not mud, and it's not the Freddie Green thing either, which is clearly "chunk."
I also don't think that many jazz players actually play with that dark of a tone. It's a misconception among people who don't actually listen to much jazz. I mean, name other big names in jazz other than current Pat Metheny and some Jim Hall that really use a super dark tone? It's like nobody.
As for thunk, it's a very specific electric guitar sound, quick attack and decay, woody, but not acoustic (if that makes any sense) and it's very closely associated with the sound of a laminate Gibson guitar strung up with heavy flatwound strings. Think Joe Pass on "Joy Spring," or the "Swinging Guitar of Tal Farlow." It's on the darker side of things, but it's still very crisp and articulate....no mud.
-
I think the answer would be: Gibson.
-
-
Thunk is what I should have done...
-
Originally Posted by mr. beaumont
Well, thunk is not mud, and it's not the Freddie Green thing either, which is clearly "chunk."
I also don't think that many jazz players actually play with that dark of a tone. It's a misconception among people who don't actually listen to much jazz. I mean, name other big names in jazz other than current Pat Metheny and some Jim Hall that really use a super dark tone? It's like nobody.
Pat Martino?
Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Pro
-
OP seems to be asking about mud more than "thunk" (which is not necessarily muddy). I think the contemporary reverb-washed, straight 8ths feeling, modally reharmonized, humbucker-playing, "modern" scene of guitarists can be muddy. A lot of the time I don't think muddy tones are desired. They seem to be the outcome of poor recording techniques serving the ambition to achieve a certain greater ambience. Too much reverb on the guitar, tone too muted. Some try to remedy this by close micing the guitar for acoustic presence, but the result of that technique to blend acoustic and electric results in a thin tone, like the infamous Joe Pass Virtuouso recordings.
I think the clear and acoustic-electric tone was achieved MUCH more successfully by the techniques and tools in studios in the 1940s. A monophonic source that captures acoustic and electric simultaneously (e.g. those old RCA ribbon mics) does not have the awkward issues that you get with 2 condensor/dynamic mics mixed in stereo or summed to mono. Just listen to any recordings of Charlie Christian or Oscar Moore for proof. You cannot beat that tone (which I prefer to later "thunk" sound of plywood, and MUCH prefer to the current sound of excessive ambience).
Last edited by omphalopsychos; 04-30-2021 at 11:47 AM.
-
Absolutely. People forget that any individual voice in an ensemble is heard in the context of all the other voices, and on recordings, this goes double. The producer or sound man or whomever is responsible for the sound in the room or the sound on the recording will decide whether they will favor the top-end nuance of your tone, or the sizzle of the cymbals. Guess which it will be. Originally Posted by mr. beaumont
Well, thunk is not mud, and it's not the Freddie Green thing either, which is clearly "chunk."
I also don't think that many jazz players actually play with that dark of a tone. It's a misconception among people who don't actually listen to much jazz. I mean, name other big names in jazz other than current Pat Metheny and some Jim Hall that really use a super dark tone? It's like nobody.
As for thunk, it's a very specific electric guitar sound, quick attack and decay, woody, but not acoustic (if that makes any sense) and it's very closely associated with the sound of a laminate Gibson guitar strung up with heavy flatwound strings. Think Joe Pass on "Joy Spring," or the "Swinging Guitar of Tal Farlow." It's on the darker side of things, but it's still very crisp and articulate....no mud.
That's why many an earnest guitar player works to get their perfect tone in the practice room only to discover that it is a whole different ball game on stage or in the studio.
"Thunk" is one solution to the "where'd my guitar go?" problem.
-
THUNK you very much Jack for reminding us - we are eternally grateful Originally Posted by jzucker
-
I've always associated "thunk" with a percussive sound that has rapid decay and not a lot of highs.
-
Never heard the term thunk before I became a fan of this forum. That says more about me than the forum.
Been mostly playing flattops since the shutdowns. Now that I have a solid koa with its flat frequency response my spruce rosewood sometimes sounds a bit muddy when I dig in - too many confused sympathetic resonances in the bass.
-
I believe Jack Zucker did coin that term here on the forum (as he claims). I have never heard it before in reference to guitar tone.
It is a good term. and we seem to have adopted it. Who wood have thunk it?
-
Ply wood have. Originally Posted by Stringswinger
I believe Jack Zucker did coin that term here on the forum (as he claims). I have never heard it before in reference to guitar tone.
It is a good term. and we seem to have adopted it. Who wood have thunk it?
-
OK, my sloppy inclusion of 'mud' has clearly - muddied the waters. I retract that part.
Shameful.
B.Katt
-
Agreed. Originally Posted by xavierbarcelo
-
Jack was at least the first person I saw use the term for guitar tone although, not being omniscient, I don't know if he really invented it. But I knew immediately what he meant, to my ears the exemplar of that being Tal Farlow in the 50s (e.g., "The Swinging Guitar of Tal Farlow"). Jack was referring to classic Joe Pass tone ("Intercontinental," etc.). Originally Posted by jzucker
-
Thunk. Because sustain is for kids.
-
Ha! Good one! Originally Posted by christianm77
-
Maybe I'm still in the woods on what thunk stands for. They say L-5 doesn't, ES-175 does. From this I take it's an amplified archtop thing, more present in laminate guitars. Even so, let's not forget that the electric guitar is the start of a signal chain ending with the speaker. In between you have - at least - a preamp and a power amp. In my experience, having built over 300 guitar and bass cabs, the speaker and, especially, its enclosure, play a role here. The acoustic suspension present in reflex/ported/vented cabs, as opposed to open-back, enhances the thunk thing. Maybe I'm talking of a different thunk variant, even species. Regarding closed cabs, I wouldn't know. No experience for the simple fact that they are heavy, lose speaker efficiency and are more directional than the other varieties.
-
I really don't think it's that complicated. Thunk is a rhythm acoustic guitar, playing chords, in a rhythmic fashion, with a percussive attack. That's how you were heard in ensembles and big bands back in the days before amplification, and the style continued over into the amplification age. Charlie Christian and Freddie Green both thunk. But then, upright bass players do too.
When I think of thunk, I don't think of the rhythm/chordal work of Johnny Smith or Kenny Burrell. It's generally older than that. Forum member Johnathan Stout could school us all on thunk.
-
We used to talk about ‘the dull thud’ in my swing band. It was the height of the rhythm section aesthetic believe it or not.
-
For the very dullest of thuds modern instruments rarely suffice. From drumheads to bass strings everything is way too resonant. Who would want to play four to the four on a modern bass drum?
Reply With Quote
The Moon Song, Johnny Mandell
Today, 05:51 AM in The Songs