Metalman_666
Well-known member
Re: Tips on improving clean tone?
I really don't think playing unplugged has anything to do with getting a good clean sound. The way I read the post, given the lack of information, I assumed "I'm not happy with the clean tone I get when I plug my guitar into my amp and play". That's not something that technique is going to help.
Open chords are my first test of a clean sound, Em, G, Dm, A, whatever. If I don't hear the bloom, roundness or *feel* that I want after tweaking the EQ on those open chords, then I'm not happy with the clean sound. Whether the player is good or bad has absolutely no bearing on how the amp will make a strummed Em chord sound in open position. If a single chord doesn't sound good, chances are single notes or clean riffing won't be satisfactory either.
Guitar aside, the amp makes the biggest difference in my mind. With a cheap, small practice amp I think it would be unrealistic to expect a "good" clean sound. Move on to something bigger and more intermediate, or a modeler and you're in cleaner territory. If the straight clean tone sounds flat I would add reverb and/or chorus.
Chorus almost always makes cleans better to my ears even if it's subtle. The nature of the effect is to duplicate the signal and oscillate where the doubling happens in relation to the original signal, so it fattens the sound up and gives it that shimmer.
I really don't think playing unplugged has anything to do with getting a good clean sound. The way I read the post, given the lack of information, I assumed "I'm not happy with the clean tone I get when I plug my guitar into my amp and play". That's not something that technique is going to help.
Open chords are my first test of a clean sound, Em, G, Dm, A, whatever. If I don't hear the bloom, roundness or *feel* that I want after tweaking the EQ on those open chords, then I'm not happy with the clean sound. Whether the player is good or bad has absolutely no bearing on how the amp will make a strummed Em chord sound in open position. If a single chord doesn't sound good, chances are single notes or clean riffing won't be satisfactory either.
Guitar aside, the amp makes the biggest difference in my mind. With a cheap, small practice amp I think it would be unrealistic to expect a "good" clean sound. Move on to something bigger and more intermediate, or a modeler and you're in cleaner territory. If the straight clean tone sounds flat I would add reverb and/or chorus.
Chorus almost always makes cleans better to my ears even if it's subtle. The nature of the effect is to duplicate the signal and oscillate where the doubling happens in relation to the original signal, so it fattens the sound up and gives it that shimmer.
