The Importance of Guitar Tone

Cris Cohen: You've been part of this band for almost a decade now. I'm curious, how has being part of this band influenced your guitar playing?

Kryz Reid of Third Eye Blind: It's an interesting question. I don't think I've ever been asked that before. Let me think. 

I think that Stephan has a producer's ear. So, as soon as we started to record together, the way Stephan talks about tone and talks about the style of guitar players… 

Like when Tom Morello hits a chord. We were rehearsing next door to the Chris Cornell tribute thing that was on a while ago. So, Tom Morello and all the Audioslave guys, they were all right next door. We could hear (guitar sounds). And it's just completely on. There's no way you could be like, "Who's that?" Even his tech checking his shit doesn't sound like Tom.

So, Stephan kind of emboldened me with that idea. He was like, "When you play the guitar, I want people to know that it's you." 

So, the thing is, all of that is in your fingers. It's all very expressive. So, unbeknownst to me, I'm doing that. You know what I mean? But he definitely got me to think more about tone. Because I was always very kind of punk rock. I get a fucking Marshall 800 and... Am I allowed to curse on this?

Cris Cohen: Yeah.

Kryz Reid: I would just crank it and would be like, "Yeah, it sounds good."
But we used to shoot out different amps, different guitars, different combinations of vintage amplifiers. We have all these photos of nine vintage amplifiers lined up with different microphones on them all. Playing the Strat and playing a '68 Strat and playing a fucking Jazzmaster. And then just going through all these different combinations.

Because anything less than what we think is ideal compromises the tonality of the entire product. So, yeah, he's definitely made me a more disciplined guitar player.

Cris Cohen: And as a result, do you notice minor changes now, more? 

Kryz Reid: Oh, yeah. I'll listen and I'll go, "We can hear the Stratocaster." You can hear the tonality difference between all those instruments, and the different tones that you'll get off like an AC30 versus a Marshall sound and stuff like that. So, I've learned on the gig, in that respect. Because before that, I was just always plugging in a fucking rocket.

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