General Tone Tips

[jdm61]

Non-expert, uneducated opinions forthcoming so beware
1. An electric guitar, particularly a solidbody, is NOT a true musical instrument. An electric guitar connected to an amplifier is.
2. Any high end stereo geek wil tell you that tube amps continue to sound better as they warm up...........and it can take a LOT longer than you might imagine......sometimes hours. Good argument for putting the amp on standby between sets.
3. You new amp and speakers willl sound better after you put some time on them. Some high end audio reviewers run white noise signals through speakers for 50-100 hours to break them in before they do any critical listening....speaker burn in is not a myth.
4. Lousy AC power is the enemy of good sound. Get a power conditioner as opposed to just a surge protector strip. Monster and Adcom, among others, both make nice ones that don't cost thousands of dollars. Find an old Adcom 515 on Audiogon. You don't have to worry so much about current capacity with a guitar since you are not dealing with huge power requirements because you aren't creating huge low bass related power surges or impedance swings.
5. Most club PA's are the cheapest that they could find.......as are most of the PA's that folks like us can afford.....your tone will always sound worse through the PA than through your carefully selected and much loved amp. So do like Ted Nugent and shake loose the fillings in the first 20 rows of people's teeth with your stage volume

[DeadSkinSlayer3]

I personally don't like the JB at all, but the Invader 7 is really the only Duncan pickup I like, period.

The JB doesn't have any ass, and what ass it does have is all mushy and disgusting for extreme metal. The Custom has really brittle highs, to me.


Courses for Horses though, for sure.

[junior]

If you can make great tone out of cheap, bad equipment, then it will be that much easier with great stuff.

[neosadist]

Some tips of my own (although others have probably said something similar):

1) Get many different guitars. Trust me on this. Keep them in good working condition, but play them all. Rarely will one guitar sound like all others.
2) Nothing wrong with "hot rodding" a cheaper guitar, so long as the quality of what's on it is decent. Walmart guitars are not hot rodding candidates.
3) Someone who plays through effects only to be heard is not someone you want in the band. Especially if they never stop playing!
4) If thou shalt use effects, use them tastefully. You can over-spice food, and the same applies to guitar playing. Sometimes the best effects and leads are only complimenting the other parts. And sometimes the best sound is no effects at all.
5) Get a _good_ sound man, and do not argue with him or tell him what to do. These creatures seem to do best when left alone. If you don't like the sound man, tell him nicely what you want fixed and how it sounds to you, in general terms. Thou shalt not touch the sound board!
6) Get a good drummer. The drummer is the anchor to the music. Musicians can compensate, but only so much, for lack of a decent drummer.
7) As for sound, play what you have. If you want to buy amps and such, never buy them just because someone you admire uses them. Sometimes the best combinations are those which do not seem to fit each other for time period (such as my own: 1974 fender twin reverb + boss ME-50 + Esp hot rodded guitar). When you shop for something, try them all, and never make a snap decision.
8) Signal purity and clarity are absolute necessities. Your sound starts with your guitar, and cannot sound better than it does at that point, in terms of depth, clarity, and harmonics. Effects cannot make your guitar sound better, just different.

[JammerMatt]

Wear an Iron Maiden shirt. People will leave you alone.

[Zerberus]

1. Nothing is absolute when it comes to such subjective things as tone, what for your style and ears is perfect may be absoloute crapola for someopne else.

2. KISS- Keep It Simple, Stupid: it´s easy to lose yourself in effects and such to the point that you no longer really have the tone you actually want. Moderation is the key

3. Fit the tone to the situation, in a one guitar no bassist no vocalist setting you can crank just about everything and get a huge tone... but that same huge tone will stomp all over the toes of a vocalist, keyboarder or bassist in a different setting... It´s about the team, not hte guitarist´s ego

[jdm61]

opinions on this comments, guys........if it doesn't make pretty noises when it it just guitar-->cord--->amp, no amount of effects or processing will make it right.

[JammerMatt]

A few soldering tips I just learned after all these times:

1. Use Flux. It helps the solder take better and results in nicer, smaller solder points.

2. Clean the surfaces to be soldered with a steel brush, steel wool, or something like that to roughen the surface.

3. Use one of those soldering wicks when removing solder. It makes a nice surface, and you can use it to clean up all those real big globs you left while you were trying to learn.

From the worlds 2nd worst solderer (used to be the 1st but I'm getting better).

[pretaanluxis]

put a patch of duct tape on the gril in line with the cone of the speaker, to avoid those harsh frequencies.

What do you mean by "in line with the cone"?

[JammerMatt]

Right in front of the cone - center of the speaker

[daemon barbeque]

1)Try to optimize your picking.Use the right pick.Try different techniques ,try to hold different ,mute different ,try different positions to lay your arm and never to copy from anyone.Every person has a different anatomy , a different guitar wich means millions of combinations.we have to find the right way.
2)Try to gain speed with acoustik instruments.
3)Train extreme slow to learn fast riffs/licks.That will increase the "learn" capacity.
4)Understand your equipment.physics are maybe not fun for everyone ,but it will give you the opportunity to "change" and "control" your "tone".

[Mkf411]

Tune up to pitch. If a string is sharp go down past flat, give a light tug, then back up to pitch. If you tune down to pitch, you'll most likely leave a bit of slack and be out of tune after the first bend.

[seafoamer]

ooooooooooo, i just thought of one!!!

- if u suck, don't spend $$$ on gtrs and amps, spend $$$ on lessons & cd's!

[daemon barbeque]

ooooooooooo, i just thought of one!!!

- if u suck, don't spend $$$ on gtrs and amps, spend $$$ on lessons & cd's!

hehhe
or
if you suck ,try to find out why you suck and change it,
if you still suck ,try to make something else wich you don't suck!!!

[Prolik]

Practise..

[Voxman]

Tone is over-rated! A good musician can make a toy guitar sing.

Totally agree but,a nice sounding guitar will inspire you to play better!

[ModestCargo]

raise your action. way harder to play but way better tone.

I find a high action easier to play - but that's because I bend a lot, and use 11s, and when I try to bend 11s with a low action (unison bends, anyway) my finger ends up slipping off.

[Mr Wolf]

When buying, judge with your ears (+make sure the product is durable)

When tweaking gear, judge with your ears, not eyes

Practise

Try to figure songs out by ear

Listen to as much music as you can

[fakiekid]

practise, practise and erm practise.

try getting hold of a recorder, listen to urself play and change what u think is wrong. this way u can also listen to ur guitar, try mic placements on your cab and get the best sound you can so that wen the sound man is running off and on stage like a blue arse fly cos your guitar sounds too thin, you can tell him what to do.

[JohnnyGuitar]

1. Nothing is absolute when it comes to such subjective things as tone, what for your style and ears is perfect may be absoloute crapola for someopne else.

+1

In playing guitar every change you make adds something and makes you lose something... you loose some speed from higher action but you get tone... you loose some sustain from a whammy bar but you get something that would allow you to make a few new sounds...

here are a few of my tips:
1. Adjust the height of your pups. pulling them high would make you more articulate and loud but you loose some harmonics, pitch harmonics come out worst through the amp and the whole thing becomes more harsh. If you are raising your pickups for the output and not the tone- get louder pups.

2. Find the spot for your picking hand!!!! closer to the bridge? more twang... closer to the neck? it's warmer... playing in your spot will get you your tone.

3. single coils sound fat as humbuckers if you use them well and in the right settings.

4. if you like to express yourself on the guitar and not just make noise don't hide behind a wall of fuzz.