Eric Clapton’s ‘Woman’ Tone

I haven’t heard this Eric Clapton  ‘woman tone’ term for a long time. But I just read about it on a newsgroup. Someone was asking about it.

Anyway, there’s a certain tone Clapton uses (and many others, too) that has a certain appeal. An example would be the first part of his solo in ‘Sunshine of Your Love’, where he quotes an old song called ‘Blue Moon’. I have no idea why it’s called the ‘woman’ tone. But if you use your imagination I think it could be interpreted as likening his tone to a woman moaning during sex!! 

Perhaps it should be called woman ‘moan-tone’ instead? Just a thought. No offence intended.

Here’s a video where he discusses this tone. It’s about 1:35 into the video where he explains his woman tone using his Gibson SG (the psychedelic painted one).

And here’s a Wikipedia  article on  Eric Clapton’s woman tone. But, essentially, all you do is wind your tone control back. And adding a god dose of distortion completes the picture. The rest is in ‘your’ hands.