General Tone Tips

[mmguz]

Re: General Tone Tips

More volume= less Trebble needed I think.

[kmcguitars]

Re: General Tone Tips

Practice as much as you can WITHOUT A AMP !! This helps you develop
a feel for the natural resonance of the Instrument .This in turn will help
you develop the tone in your hands.(This is what you wanna hear when
you ampilify yourself) Even for pinched harmonices and fast runs it's
good to practice w/o a amp. When you finally do plug in and add some
gain you'll be amazed how the notes jump out/off the fret board.

[Bludave]

Re: General Tone Tips

If you have a tube amp, let it warm up.

Great point. I play thru A Super Reverb(1968), and Deluxe(1967) depending..... I find that as the night goes on I can start to roll the volume down. Once the Amp begins to warm up it begins to sing.

When recording I would recommend using heavier strings as well. They give a slightly thicker punchier sound. Of course they have to be comfortable for you to play.

Keep your signal as pure as possible. The less you have in the signal chain the better.

[nepalnt21]

Re: General Tone Tips

buy seymour duncan pickups

[ericmeyer4]

Re: General Tone Tips

Find a sound that is sound that you are happy with and that is you AND works in what ever your band situation is. And on that note you dont need to spend a lot of money to have a great sound! (Eddie Van Halen's homemade strat for example) Don't limit your self to one type of guitars, manufacturing brands, amps, fx pedals, ect. There are so many great things out there and its silly to say you can only get a good sound out of a tube amp. True bypass really does help your sound. If your pedals dont have true bypass there are always was around that. From making that way or tb-boxes. What ever it takes to get you your sound do it, but dont get hung up on brands or types. And if you really want a specific type of gear save untill you can afford it because finding a cheaper substitue most likey with be only a temporary fix.

good luck,
edm

[matt_transition]

Re: General Tone Tips

Listen to someone else play your guitar through your rig, (if you wanna risk it), its amazing how different it sounds to when you play it yourself. You might just alter some settings. Obviously the whole Tone In THe Fingers arguement comes into play. Just get them to play basic stuff not intricate things that your personal playing characteristcs would change the sound.

[Kamanda~SD]

Re: General Tone Tips

Turn the Gain down, turn the volume up
Never put you mids below "2"...at least!
"Don't tickle it...Hit the bugger!!!" Malcolm Young
Play like you mean it...it will sound better
Don't be afraid of playing loud.

[Kommerzbassist]

Re: General Tone Tips

*A gigging small club guitarist ought to experiment with a beam blocker from Weber Speakers. It does what Stevie Ray did with a piece of duck tape on the grill cloth where the speaker beams out most of it's highs. This will allow the people in the front row to not get killed with your laser beam high end (very directional). The beam blocker will diffuse that high end so that someone sitting at stage left will get similar high end to the ear as a person sitting directly in front of the stage.

Where can I get those and hpw do theylook like?

* Too many pedals suck the life (tone) out of your amp IMO

At least if they don't have a true-bypass switch (a switch that takes the effect completely out of the line by bypassing it physically)

[junior]

Re: General Tone Tips

Kinda obvious, but practice with your onstage rig as much as possible (amp, effects etc,) because that is your voice and you need to know what it sounds like and is capable of, and how to make it sound the way you want it to. Mainly, just get used to using the stuff. You can't make a strat sound like a PRS, or a Les Paul, or vice versa, so let the gear sound like it does. If you want a Les Paul sound, sell the Strat. And when you practice, try to close your eyes as much as possible- you'd be surprised how much better you hear with your eyes closed.

[viewaskew2k5]

Re: General Tone Tips

Crank It All The Way To Eleven

[Scott_F]

Re: General Tone Tips

*A gigging small club guitarist ought to experiment with a beam blocker from Weber Speakers. It does what Stevie Ray did with a piece of duck tape on the grill cloth where the speaker beams out most of it's highs. This will allow the people in the front row to not get killed with your laser beam high end (very directional). The beam blocker will diffuse that high end so that someone sitting at stage left will get similar high end to the ear as a person sitting directly in front of the stage.

*Always carry a spare tube or two, as well as a fuse for your amp.

*Use a surge protector strip when playing in unfamiliar surroundings.

*Different speakers can completely change the sound of your amps. I just finished a new amp and have tried it with three different speakers. Each lends its own color and texture to the amp. Finding the right speaker can be a challenge that some of us can't afford. Learn from others that are using your amp what speaker they've settled on. Tubes, speakers and transformers make the most difference in an amp's tone. 2 of those 3 are available to you for an easy swap. If you are trying new tubes, concentrate on the first preamp tube for the most radical tone change.

*Power tube distortion sounds better to *my* ears than preamp tube distortion. Crank up the master if you have one and keep the preamp at a manageable level.

*The standby switch on your amp is there for a reason. Let your tubes warm up for 20-30 seconds before you start playing. THis will increase the life of your tubes. What to do for those 30 seconds? Try tuning up. It will do you a world of good.

*Good quality cables very rarely go out on you when you need them the most. You don't have to spend stupid money on them, but good quality is important.

* Too many pedals suck the life (tone) out of your amp IMO.

[SOLO GUITAR STEWIE]

Re: General Tone Tips

Less Is More When It Comes To Effects (especially Distortion/overdrive)

Always Play With Feeeling And Dont Be Afraid To Let Loose

When Messing With Your Eq Start From 0 Up And Play At Regular
Intervals (the Same Chord Or Lick) Until It Sounds About Where
You Want It....start With The Bass Then Treble And Then Finally
Mids...then You Can Mess With All The Other Lovely Knobs On Your
Amp.


Chris

Re: General Tone Tips

Lower your gain, you *******!

In a full band situation:

Kick and Bass take care of the very lows and low mids.
Guitars take up the middle and the low end of the highs.
Cymbals take up the very top end.

Don't overload on bass. That's what a bassist is for. Keep your highs tamed.

EQ your amp from 20 feet away, and standing a bit to the side, as to avoid the harsh frequencies. Then, put a patch of duct tape on the gril in line with the cone of the speaker, to avoid those harsh frequencies.

EQ from ear level to the audience! Remember that the stage is higher than the crowd 9/10, and that they don't want to get blasted with all of your highs!

[Vasshu the humanoid typhoon]

Re: General Tone Tips

if you have a 1x12 combo, try to stick it in a corner, mids will change and sometimes you will get a fatter sound out of it.
Try to turn down your volume when using the bridge pickup, a slight rolloff sometimes sweetens up the sound.

Re: General Tone Tips

Try lifiting, especially your combo amps, up from the floor / directing the speakers more against yourself. It'll sound alot different than when the speaker or speakers project the sound along the floor.

Your tone can be different from day to day depending on the amount of electricity used by other things in your house and in your neighbourhood.

Remember that small things also alters your tone, try different picks. At least if you don't have anything else to do