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Electric Guitar- How to Get Great Tones for Recording or Live Performance

By  Bob Glastetter | Published  07/18/2006 | Guitars
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Electric Guitar- How to get great Tones for Recording or live performance

Here's some quick tips for better tone.

1. Roll back the distortion!! ?That's right too much distortion is bad. What happens when you add too much gain the note actually gets thinner sounding?with less?fulness. So your guitar will not stand out in the mix or sound as big in a live setting. Try this experiment- On a two channel amp set one side clean and the other distorted?then set the volume levels the same and switch between them. There will be a huge difference between the thickness of the notes clean versus dirty. Cut the gain back and if you need more "sing" to your solo's just use a overdrive pedal to boost those solo's up while maintaning your normal gain settings. Experiment here untill you are satisfied. Remember if your overdrive is "Buzzy" it's TOO much.

2. Don't cut all the mids out. Yep the modern "Scooped" mid sound in Mesa Boogie Recto amps have this charachter. Put some mids back in and your tone and your amp will love your for it. Marshalls are great for their strong midrange that's why they record so well and are great live amps, they simply cut through the mix. BIG TIP: Midrange is what makes your tone sound "Big" not more low end with lot's of highs. Mid range works as a "Thickener" of your tone therefore this makes it sound "Big". So more mids without the boxy sound is what you are looking for.

3. Set the tone of your amp while the band is playing or while beginning to record.?Record some test tones with the band playing along. If you get your tone set by yourself then?add the band that's where you get into trouble because you need to see how it fits in the big picture with the band or in the recorded track!

4. Biggest tip of all: PRACTICE GREAT TECHNIQUE. Yep that's where the tone is it's in YOUR HANDS. Practice on fretting properly so your notes are in tune and get your timing correct. Practice getting smooth bends and vibrato. Pro players aren't always the most "athletic" players but they play "SMOOTH" and that leads to great tones too. So technique helps with great tone just ask Carlos Santana he could play thru anything and it would sound great!!

5. Last tip and real simple: Guitar players buy a tube amp and throw the others away! Everything else made is a waste of time!

Guitar Guru
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Comments
  • Comment #1 (Posted by Brandon Drury)
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    Great article! Simply, straight forward advice that it took about 8 years for me to learn the hard way. There are WAY more mids than the kids realize. In fact, I'm not sure who told everyone that mids are a bad thing because I hear a lot of midrange on a lot guitar tones, even the modern stuff mega heavy stuff. It all depends on how you define "midrange", I guess.

    Slayer is a great example of this. Slayer is known for using maximum mids. Check out their Diabolus in Musica. Listen to "Bitter Peace". It's the hugest, meanest, and most pissed of guitar sound on the planet. However, it's mids galore. The right mids. The non-boxy mids that Guitar Guru is talking about.

    Brandon
     
  • Comment #2 (Posted by nocatfood)
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    I've had a Mesa Boogie F50 for a few months and could never get a good understanding of what "scooping the mids" was all about. I've played acoustic guitar for 30 years, have always been a Jeff Beck wannabe, got gear just within the past year and have barely begun making my way up the learning curve. Your description of mids confirms my experience...most articles I read talk about 'dialing down the mud', but a lot of character can easily get lost. It's tricky with the F50 - very slight tweaks make a BIG difference. Anyway, thanks for an informative article.
     
  • Comment #3 (Posted by jasen)
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    Everything but the last tip is common sense. The last tip though, makes absolutley no sense at all. It's pure predjudice.
     
  • Comment #4 (Posted by johnR)
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    Actually the last tip does make sense. A tube amp gives soft clipping and low damping factor (both desirable for good guitar tone) even when the output tubes are overdriven. The solid state amps that emulate these tube characteristics can usually only do it up to a certain volume level; above that the output transistors distort and give typical transistor distortion, ie. harsh and fizzy. If you want it really loud without losing tone, you will almost certainly need a tube amp.
     
  • Comment #5 (Posted by Joey)
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    Ya know, if you runts spent just half the time actually playing your guitars as you do surfin the internet and beatin your teeny dix into oblivion ya might actually get 1 decent song recorded during your pathetic lives.
     
  • Comment #6 (Posted by Jack)
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    Mid range is great, but it depends on WHAT sound you are trying to record. It is EASY to get big fat tone from a tube amp. If you cant, I would say that you are a fool! What is hard is to GET that scooped mid sound. For metal, its very difficult to get good sounds. especially the really heavy stuff like pantera and Cannibal corpse.
     
  • Comment #7 (Posted by Jake)
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    thnks alot. it rilly did help. im a drummer but im also the techy of the band and iv bin searching for some of these answers for a long time!
    thnks
     
  • Comment #8 (Posted by Player)
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    Now learn to play something and try again. Engineers who don't play have all the answers. Don't they.
     
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