Fattening Guitar tone

[LesStrat]

Listened to the first mix last night.

He took the position 4 track and pan it left/right.

He pretty much centered position 2 track.

That focused the track with the Strat honk, and added body to the tone with the stereo panned darker tracks.

Yes, beau, he does add “x” ms offset when needed. I’m pretty consistent when I play the same part again, so it’s usually needed.

 

[Solarflares]

I use small dark-room emulators in DAW to thicken the single guitar track, and make it stereo, in a narrow band.
Then, any longer ambient reverb is panned wider to create space.
I consider the stereo track to then be a bubble. I use EQ and compression to bring it forward or back, then that bubble has to live in a larger bubble of ambience - which itself has it’s own depth and presence. In this way I can make guitars note-ends recede into the distance, or remain up-front and alive.
I do record with two different amps, and of course double parts a lot. Sometimes a clean guitar mixed with distorted. It’s all fair game.
But a basic valve-driven short spring reverb, set low, will initially thicken any guitar tone for recording.

Frank Zappa used a box called the Wagnerian Emancipator. This gave him two distinct de-tuned signals, and was quite unique and wonderful sounding.
Check this out…

This was obviously a guitar part recorded at a fantastic gig in the late 70’s. He later sketched a new backing track, and then spent hours on the floor, cutting and glueing together pieces of guitar-solo tape, until he was happy. Utter genius.
The speed in which Joe’s Garage was conceived and mastered is mind-boggling, and Frank released 9 albums that year!