Great Tone or Great Playing ability, which is more important to you?

well if the playability sucks and you cant play very well, whats the point of having good tone?

I agree with Bodom.

I mean, if you have great tone, but only average playing ablility.

in this id choose tone but it matters, if your playing abiliy increases then your tone will, but technically speaking if u can play well and ur tone sucks verses not being able to play well but your tone is awsome, id rather haave the guy that had the tone, if its in the amps then the other way, but if its in his fingers then def.

I've never been a huge tone stickler on tone, that is to say my own tone. If I were a professional recording artist I would certainly care more, but even then, playing ability is infinitely more important than your tone.

are we talking playability as in a nice fast neck or the skill of the guitarist?

skill of the guitarist to be specific, probably should have said that earlier

well still skill over tone i guess

Im sorry, I didnt voted because I dont really know. Playing ability is ofcourse very important, but if I would choose I rather want to play good with awsome tone than playing awsome technical guitar stuff with bad tone...

If take Robert Cray an example, which play with style, but not uber technical boasting. If he suck the tone, his music is not as good as when he have a great tone...

For me tone is very, very and very important. When recording I sometimes take a days to get sound ready... experimenting with it, mixing it, mastering it... But in the other hand, if we could gave a Stevie Ray Vaughan a bad gears, Im confident that it would been good music to listening anyway.

I dont know. Against the all odds and what pro's say, but I think I admire tone over ability. But Im different you know that :D

skill...hands down. exactly what crunch said pretty much. fooling around i'm not particularly bothered but if at a gig or recording then i would. so skill > tone

thiink about some guitarists who are awesome players and made awesome music but had crappy tones: Jeff Beck, Jimmy Page and Neil Young just to name a few, I'd even be so bold as to include Jimi Hendrix. Tone is very important, I myself am a tone monger but you can still made good music with a crappy tone; just takes alittle more work.