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General Tone Tips

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  • Re: General Tone Tips

    Even though good gear can help get you good Tone, but IMO a lot of the Tone comes from the guitarists fingers. When you use a lot of distortion it tends to covers things up.

    Even if you play Rock & Metal try practicing your scales and riffs with a nice fat clean Tone. You will be able to hear all the subtle little things that are going on between you and your guitar (including your mistakes). It may help you clean up some things that you might have been missing otherwise and help you achieve better overall Tone??

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    • Re: General Tone Tips

      When it comes to hard rock, use slightly less gain than you think you need and then use slightly more volume than you think you need. Instant tonal improvement. This works especially well with hot pickups, too.

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      • Re: General Tone Tips

        fuel your rig from the blood of dead hookers

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        • Re: General Tone Tips

          Originally posted by metalmachine View Post
          fuel your rig from the blood of dead hookers


          That really did make me LOL.

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          • Re: General Tone Tips

            For a more natural chorus sound in recordings, double track your guitar part, but in between strum some cowboy chords or whatever with a large amount of strength, this should put your guitar a few cents out of tune, creating a more believable sound of two different guitars playing in unison.

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            • Re: General Tone Tips

              I'd like to redact anything I've ever said on the topic of tone and say, as many people have always said... it really just is in your hands. Working as a producer/engineer with many different guitarists and trying to get the best tones possible, it becomes increasingly obvious that the only way to get killer tones is to be a killer player in the first place.

              My hands just sound a certain way, naturally. Regardless of what I play, I've got a slightly rounded top end, really 'squishy' but tight palm mutes, and an overall smoothness to the tone that just just inherently in my playing - it's 100% because that's the kind of sound that I hear in my head, and my hands have been subconsciously trained to facilitate that kind of tone.


              Originally posted by Ninja Monkey View Post
              For a more natural chorus sound in recordings, double track your guitar part, but in between strum some cowboy chords or whatever with a large amount of strength, this should put your guitar a few cents out of tune, creating a more believable sound of two different guitars playing in unison.
              Sorry, but being out of tune is something you should strive to avoid with most all recording situations.

              The best way to make a recording sound bigger/wider is to double track incredibly tightly and just pan in either direction.
              www.JeffDunne.com

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              • Re: General Tone Tips

                Originally posted by Virtual Kevorkian View Post
                the only way to get killer tones is to be a killer player in the first place.
                no wonder my riff recordings suck
                gear list in profile

                "no seymour - no tone ... know seymour - know tone!"

                Is it not the glory of the people of America that, whilst they have paid a decent regard to the opinions of former times and other nations, they have not suffered a blind veneration for antiquity, for custom, or for names, to overrule the suggestions of their own good sense, the knowledge of their own situation, and the lessons of their own experience?" - James Madison - Federalist #14

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                • Re: General Tone Tips

                  Learn to play with your toes for a meatier tone than you could ever get with your fingers.

                  That's why the smoother passages are called legatoe.
                  Arm got fingers - leg got toes.
                  I am so close to retirement that I could play in a band full time. All I have to do is figure out what to use instead of money, improve my playing, learn some songs, and find some other musicians more talented than me who will do exactly as they're told. .

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                  • Re: General Tone Tips

                    Wellllllllll

                    1) Get to know the tone knob and how it works

                    2) Pedals really aren't as important as some people think... they will suck your guitar's soul. try less pedals and more amp volume

                    3) Tube amp> solid state amp

                    4) Learn the things that make solos beautiful--bends, slides, harmonies, squealies, etc

                    5) It will never sound good unless you play the right notes, so learn at least a little theory (which everyone does whether they know it or not)

                    6) The amp type matters 100 times more than the type of guitar

                    7) Remember to change your strings. It makes a world of difference. Washing hands before and wiping frets down afterwards add life to your strings

                    8) If you want to develop great tone/feel in the long run, stop using distortion and play clean. Distortion covers up many technique errors guitarists make, and therefore you never get great at playing. Practice clean for a while, get the technique down, then go back to your effects. It'll sound a ton better than it used to!

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                    • Re: General Tone Tips

                      Originally posted by daemon barbeque View Post
                      Try different tunings. Open ones, classic ones, mirrored 5th/4ths etc. This will give you a better control and over your instrument.
                      Different tunings give different inspiration and playing possibilities too. Some guy/guys in the past tuned the guitar to E, and this shouldn't be a limiting factor.
                      +1

                      Try this one...especially with a 12-string.

                      Take the b string(s) off. Put the high e string(s) where the b string(s) goes.

                      Now tune it: C-G-D-A-E. This takes heavy strings.

                      Now you have an octave mandolin on the G-E strings, and a mandocello on the C-A strings.

                      Fun stuff, if you play mando/bouzouki.
                      Last edited by guitfiddle; 03-13-2010, 11:01 PM.
                      - Tom

                      Originally posted by Frankly
                      Some people make the wine. Some people drink the wine. And some people sniff the cork and wonder what might have been.
                      The Eagle never lost so much time as when he submitted to learn of the Crow.

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                      • Re: General Tone Tips

                        Originally posted by juice View Post
                        Wellllllllll
                        ......

                        8) If you want to develop great tone/feel in the long run, stop using distortion and play clean. Distortion covers up many technique errors guitarists make, and therefore you never get great at playing. Practice clean for a while, get the technique down, then go back to your effects. It'll sound a ton better than it used to!
                        Huge!!!
                        Originally posted by Jessie's ghost
                        That's one of the reasons I don't have children. Bullet-proof insurance against anything bad happening to them.
                        Originally posted by JOLLY
                        Just made my 7th White Russian. We'll see what happens.
                        Originally posted by JohnJohn
                        He's a tall crazy tatted up ex trash band guitar player from Vancouver .
                        Think of an unarmed Lucid covered in ink.

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                        • Re: General Tone Tips

                          If you must use reverb, use as little as possible. Too much reverb can cover you up in the mix.

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                          • Re: General Tone Tips

                            Originally posted by OctopusRider View Post
                            If you must use reverb, use as little as possible. Too much reverb can cover you up in the mix.
                            yea, no one could ever hear van halen!
                            Yo, i'm Ryan™.

                            https://www.facebook.com/patchworklv
                            https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=der6aGGzQTk
                            ^link to 7 tracks of my band, Patchwork

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                            • Re: General Tone Tips

                              Whatever works.
                              The seminar on time travel will be held two weeks ago.

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                              • Re: General Tone Tips

                                -tune

                                -turn the pick sideways, so the thin side is on the string for fast picking

                                -drill scales for an hour a day
                                I Build My own Guitars
                                know duncan...know tone
                                no duncan...no tone
                                Originally posted by Warheart
                                First problem right there! letting drummers write lyrics!

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