General Tone Tips

[jimijames]

One thing I noticed after watching the red hot chili peppers:

When it comes to rhythm, less is more, and there is no substitue for good timing. Use a metronome.

Also, IMO, when you enjoy playing, you sound better. If you don't enjoy playing with huge strings and really high action, then you're going to sound bad. Music is about passion. The only famous guitar god player that I can recall that used absurdly heavy strings was stevie ray vaughan. Duane allman, Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix, B.B. King, Brian May, and now Billy gibbons all use what would be considered light strings. So, before you raise your action 2 1/2" off the fretboard and switch to 13's, spend some time trying to get a good sound out of what you have.

Also, vibrato is underrated. Most people just do it without giving it much thought, but it really deserves as much attention as you can muster for it. If you can make the high notes sound like a singing woman, then you're going to sound good no matter what you're doing.

The average person doesn't pay as much attention to your sound as you do. Quit worrying about your sound and start worrying about what you're playing. Like I've heard before, it's not what you play through, it's what you play through it.

[Robbiedbee]

This one may sound a little odd, and even condescening, but keep your guitar in tune. It's really noticeable under distortion. Say you're playing a power chord (root, 5th, octave), if any of them is slightly off perfect pitch, then the distortion really brings it out.

[Iron Horse]

Don't take anybody's word as a bible, make your own trademark sound and style, and as long as it's not _out-of-tune-mush-with-just-shreddin-above-your-technical-abilities, you're on your way to success as a guitarist!

[Zhangliqun]

This one may sound a little odd, and even condescening, but keep your guitar in tune. It's really noticeable under distortion. Say you're playing a power chord (root, 5th, octave), if any of them is slightly off perfect pitch, then the distortion really brings it out.

If anyone thinks you're being condescending about that, a trip to the local GC on a Saturday afternoon with all those pimply faces plugged in should cure them, and quick.

[Diego]

Back off that gain - you surely don't need it on 10 - and rejoice on how sloppy you actually play!

Time to practice a bit more on the clean channel!

Also, this isn't a tone tip, just a tip but a worthy one I think... if you're gonna play something on a gig, rehearse it standing up! Not sitting down. It's different and you might just ruin it if you don't practice accordingly. Wrist angle comes into play, in both hands.

[BFahz]

Listen to those who have come before you. Often times, younger players dont listen and wonder why their tone sucks. Most everything on this site is accurate:
- guitar and amp work together to make good tone. A high gain amp needs a low gain pup, and vice versa.
- Power amp distortion is the moniker of general great tone (ie EVH, SRV, Yngwie, GL)
- Signal Chain is very important, whether pedals or rack gear
- scooped mids do suck. Even Metallica has mids in their tone...
- When playing to a record, remember the bass guitar is present. Most guitarists play with too much bass and too much distortion.
- Good tone in the bedroom may not be so good in a band situation (mids...).
- If you can afford it, have two systems on each side of the drummer (different systems, if possible). I once had a Marshall on stage left and a Soldano on stage right. Awesome!!!
- Again, listen to the comments on this page...

[ModestCargo]

Learn to sit right in the mix. Your guitar's low end shouldn't interfere with the bass player, that's usually the biggest mistake I see bands with players my age make. There's too much distortion, too much guitar, and you can't hear anything else.

Midrange IS the electric guitar, so don't cut your mids. What sounds best in your bedroom probably doesn't on stage.

Don't play with so much high end that you're taking people's heads off and intruding on the cymbals.

If you're a lead guitarist you're going to need more upper mids / highs than the rhythm guitarist - the mix should sit like this in a four piece rock band, from low frequencies to high

Bass guitar / Kick drum
Rhythm guitar
Snare
Lead guitar
Cymbals / Hi-hat

Also, get a real amp. Don't get a POD and run it through the PA because a lot of the time you'll just want to mic the vocals.

If you play with a lot of distortion practice with a clean setting.

If you play with a lot of distortion you probably play with too much distortion.

Learn to play with dynamics - don't turn your guitar up or stomp a pedal for solos - instead vary your pick attack. It's all in the fingers/hands/wrists. You shouldn't be picking or strumming as hard when the vocalist is doing his or her thing. Of course if you're using too much gain you won't be able to play with dynamics, so don't use too much gain.

Learn chords and theory, and please, please put the "tab" away and just learn to figure out leads and chords from the record. To be a good lead guitarist you need to be a great rhythm player.

Your band probably plays too loud for the places you eventually will (or won't) be playing. You'll never get asked to turn up but believe me you'll get asked to turn down.

You don't need a full or half stack unless you've been gigging for a while.

Tell your bass player he doesn't need to shake the foundation loose - mids are his friend also. The bass needs definition, not more low end.

Your good head won't sound good through a bad cabinet. Your good cabinet won't sound good with a bad head. Your good guitar won't sound good through a bad amp.

Humbuckers CAN do clean.

That's all for now.

Edit: Don't buy it because it says Fender or Marshall. Buy what sounds good.

If you sing and play guitar buy two Shure 58s, then you won't ever have to worry about a mic for you and your guitar amp, or singing out of crappy mics. In a pinch for stands just hang a mic over your grill cloth. Buy a whole **** PA if you can afford it, and don't cheap out on your monitors. If you're running keyboards or bass guitar out of your monitors you probably want 15" speakers in 'em.

[cream123]

more about playing.

playing guitar well is not about being EVH or Zakk Wylde or Yngwie or whoever. Playing guitar well is about knowing your current boundaries and pushing them with a lot of practice but performing only within them. I know a lot of good guitar players that try EVH and it sounds like poop.


work on learning how to play other stuff than your own. i did this and it helped immensely. guitar is not about reinventing the playing. just reinventing the style. you have to know stuff before you if you want to make your own stuff up

theory is underrated. at least learn your intervals.

Soul and feel is underrated. listen to a wide variety of artists and get the feel for the genre.

people that try and go and make 'their own" "totally new" music...fail. everyone has to have an anchor to work off of. find someone that you like. figure out what makes their sound "work" (this is where theory comes in) and do it.


put your spin on everything that you do. it's not yours unless you do this.



edit: (less gain is more)


tone...play what sounds good. play what plays well. do what feels right. nuff said

[TimmyPage]

Adding to the comment on practicing standing up - Don't be afraid to raise your guitar to nearly the level it is when you are sitting. The wrist angle will be similar to it will be easier to transfer between the two.

[LesPaulCustom1979]

1. If you want to play "Hard Rock" or "Southern Rock", you have to use a Gibson with SD Humbuckers. I prefer TBPG-1 Pearly Gates to all the other pickups in the bridge, anyway. If it's good enough for Billy Gibbons and Dickey Betts, then it's good enough for me. Duane would have used them too!
2. If you want to play "Blues" like Clapton, then you have to use a Strat with single coil pickups loaded flipped around like "Blacky". This is why Hendrix got his blues sound. He played left handed with a Strat strung upside down. They didn't make left handed Stats back then. Hendrix used alot of different Strats and they all basically sounded the same when he played them. Hendrix could have played a $50 guitar and made it sound good.
3. If you want to play "Heavy Metal", go with the SD Blackouts. If you want to play alot of different types of music you are going to spend a fortune on guitars and effects.
4. I use to swear by Marshall Super Lead 100w and Hi-Watt 100w valve "all tube" amps, but now I use a Marshall Valvestate 50w head. It is much easier to overdrive at lower volumns but can be as loud as any old Super Lead 100w. The solid state power section is not as noisy as the Marshall EL-34 tubes and is much more dependable.
5. If you play Lead Guitar or Rhythm Power Chords you have to use 12" speakers in a 4X12 cabinet of your choice. I prefer the newer, lighter, slightly smaller Marshall 4X12 cabinets over the back breaking old 1960A and 1960B 90 lb.cabinets. 2X12 amps are O.K.
6. If you play Bass Guitar, 10" speaker cabinets are better for whatever reasons, or 10" speakers in combination with 15" speakers. Probably for cleaner highs, you will have to ask a bass player.
7. You can buy all the equipment you want but practice makes you figure things out for yourself, and find the sound you like.

[cream123]

1. If you want to play "Hard Rock" or "Southern Rock", you have to use a Gibson with SD Humbuckers. I prefer TBPG-1 Pearly Gates to all the other pickups in the bridge, anyway. If it's good enough for Billy Gibbons and Dickey Betts, then it's good enough for me. Duane would have used them too!
2. If you want to play "Blues" like Clapton, then you have to use a Strat with single coil pickups loaded flipped around like "Blacky". This is why Hendrix got his blues sound. He played left handed with a Strat strung upside down. They didn't make left handed Stats back then. Hendrix used alot of different Strats and they all basically sounded the same when he played them. Hendrix could have played a $50 guitar and made it sound good.
3. If you want to play "Heavy Metal", go with the SD Blackouts. If you want to play alot of different types of music you are going to spend a fortune on guitars and effects.
4. I use to swear by Marshall Super Lead 100w and Hi-Watt 100w valve "all tube" amps, but now I use a Marshall Valvestate 50w head. It is much easier to overdrive at lower volumns but can be as loud as any old Super Lead 100w. The solid state power section is not as noisy as the Marshall EL-34 tubes and is much more dependable.
5. If you play Lead Guitar or Rhythm Power Chords you have to use 12" speakers in a 4X12 cabinet of your choice. I prefer the newer, lighter, slightly smaller Marshall 4X12 cabinets over the back breaking old 1960A and 1960B 90 lb.cabinets. 2X12 amps are O.K.
6. If you play Bass Guitar, 10" speaker cabinets are better for whatever reasons, or 10" speakers in combination with 15" speakers. Probably for cleaner highs, you will have to ask a bass player.
7. You can buy all the equipment you want but practice makes you figure things out for yourself, and find the sound you like.

i have to disagree with #1 and 2. I can't say that I've got those tones with any guitars that I own. but it is possible with a lot of guitars


+1 to Number 7

[cream123]

don't be afraid to experiment with equipment and different types of guitars...etc


try before you buy

[ZoSo0789]

Marshalls also have an awesome clean tone if you crank the power tubes...... theyre not just for overdrive

[Iron Horse]

Marshalls also have an awesome clean tone if you crank the power tubes...... theyre not just for overdrive

If you crank the Marshalls, they'll get that faous crunch. And, I'd say that with Marshalls (well I'm obviously not speaking of JVM or TSL or DSL or some other multi-channel amp) you should get a descent crunch from the amp, and push it with a pedal, and then control the output and drive with guitars volume control or separate volume pedal.

[daemon barbeque]

Learn to play tight as a nut..You can allways loosen your picking and fingering ,but you can't tighten it up if you allready can't...So take a Metronome ,increase 8bpm for the same rythm patterns (3s and 6s are better somehow) ,and see how it goes...

[Beer$]

I have some contributions for more modern amps, particularly for metal.

Nearly all modern metal amps have extremely clean power amp sections with plenty of headroom so high gain, high wattage 6L6/EL34 etc. clipping properties are not used as much and most of the distortion comes from the preamp.

The original post is more appropriate for overdrive circuits such as a marshall plexi or the JCM800 etc. which did get a lot more gain from the power amp section of the circuit, but they originally had no master volume, so you only got hi-gain by cranking it and deafening yourself. Venues even requested that you faced the cab towards the BACK of the stage.

Compare a Mesa, an ENGL, a Splawn, a later marshall (like a JVM), an all tube Randall and run a CD player through the power amp and some hi-fi speakers... it will actually sound decent. Do the same with a vintage amp and it will distort. Quite a few people even go as far as to complain that they can't get any decent cleans out of their marshalls when cranked.

Anyway... my tips.

Throw your Metalzone in the trash

Tune to E standard (I'm pretty sure alot of people won't want to do this )

Back your gain off and play more precisely instead of trying to rely on heavy gain saturation to cover your mistakes, which will ultimately give you a fizzy, mushy tone.

Keep your mids up, in fact keep everything up on an amp with a passive EQ (which is most of them)

When you are playing live, turn down at the amp and hire a decent sound guy to mix everything properly.

To get a great studio tone you take 2 mics. Flip the phase on one of them and position them on the rims until they cancel each other out. Then return to the normal polarity on the mic which you flipped the phase of.

If you want a really tight sound with cutting pick attack, run an EQ BEFORE the amp and cut down on the bass frequencies. Restore these after the preamp. You can do this with an EQ in the fx loop or the bass knob on the amp if it is after the gain stages.

Change your strings regularly and make sure you keep a consistent guage which your guitar is set up for each time.

If your amp is not a fixed biased like a Peavey, check the bias and keep it running at an optimal level.

Spend some money on decent cables, especially the speaker cable between the amp and the cab. http://www.lavacable.com. Great value, service and ship just about anywhere

Throw your metalzone in the trash.

[astrozombie]

Throw your metalzone in the trash.

[Redmist]

If you want a really tight sound with cutting pick attack, run an EQ BEFORE the amp and cut down on the bass frequencies. Restore these after the preamp. You can do this with an EQ in the fx loop or the bass knob on the amp if it is after the gain stages.

+1 Took me ages to work this one out by myself back in the day.
Even better is to have a ^ eq curve before pre-amp, then bring back the v curve, post- pre.

[Redmist]

If you are wanting to start writing your own material, and have put in all the donkey work learning your theory and covering other guitarist's styles and chops, then it helps to STOP playing like other people.
It will all have been very worthwhile and essential, but it is time to develop your own style.

Far too often, a new band just sounds like another clone of their favorite band and, admirable as that may be, it will not get you noticed, nor progress your own personal style any further.

It will be hard at first, cause every new riff you come up with, and every solo you scream out may just sound like a re-hash of everything you have ever played (and still sound like your idols) - but after a while you will be cloning your OWN style, and that is when it gets both more interesting and more productive.

[grumptruck]

Wipe your strings on both sides. Grab the string with your rag and pinch it from top and bottom. go from bridge to nut. Repeat on all strings.

Helps your strings last and stay bright and shiney!