Touch

[Ocelot]

Chops, chops, chops are talked about relentlessly as a measure of a player's worth, but for me, the great players are defined by their 'touch'. The way they play a note is profoundly different than the way other people play the same note. It's not about minimalism, it's about the attack/release/dynamic of the note. As an initial offering: Django, Beck, Knopfler, Harrison, Gilmour....

[wolfman63]

.........that's where a lot of what's called "tone" comes from. Without touch, you can buy all the fancy amps, pickups, pedals, and replace all the tubes and speakers in the world, and you still won't have tone.

[Ocelot]

Exactly!