Tag: clean tone

Amp Settings

How to Adjust your Amp Settings for the Guitar Tone You Want

So you finally have a great guitar and amp, but are still trying to figure out how to dial it all in to achieve the tone you want. There are a lot of factors to consider when configuring your amp settings, so lets start with the basics.

Benchmarking

One of best ways to shape your tone is to set the amp to equal settings. To do so, just set your bass, treble, mids, and presence to 12 o’clock. At this point, you want to start playing your guitar for a bit and get a feel for the tone that you are hearing with the ‘benchmark’ settings. At this point, you’ll start to hear whats missing. If its sounding like the guitar is lacking low end, increase the  bass. If its sounding ice-picky or ear-piercing, turn down the treble and increase the mids. The great thing about this method is that it builds your ear for EQing. This is a great skill to have as dialling in tone will become easier over time.

Clean Tone

To dial in a good clean tone, there are a few things to consider. First, if your amp has multiple channels, make sure you are on the clean channel. A no brainer, but still needed to mention it. When it comes to eq-ing, make sure that your bass, mids, and trebles, don’t proceed 1 o’clock. The reason is that around this point, it will start boosting the signal, and distorting the tone. Another thing to mention is your guitar itself – if it is sounding a bit distorted when your guitar volume is all the way up, roll it back a bit to clean up the tone. Also a light pick attack will make the tone cleaner as well.

Dirty Tone

Just the opposite of the last paragraph. If you have a two channel amp, set it to the dirt channel if it has one. Turn the presence, bass, mids, and treble about 3 quarters up to boost the signal, and increase/decrease as necessary. If you are playing on a tube amp, the hotter the tubes, the dirtier the tones. To get those tubes hot, it means cranking the amp really loud. Also again, a stronger pick attack with your guitar will dirty up the tone.

Setting Reverb on the Amp

I usually say, set the reverb to taste. For a good clean tone, having reverb between 9 and 12 o’clock sounds great. For a dirty tone, I would skip the reverb, or just put a touch. For a jazz tone, put the reverb either 3 quarters up or all the way up. If you are looking for a sound-scapy, mesmerizing, dream tone, then turn the reverb up. If you are looking for a more in-your-face tone, turn the reverb down.

Final Tips

  • Use your ears. They are the best judge of tone.
  • If its a tube amp, let the tubes warm up. And give it a bit of volume for better tone.
  • Two channel amps allow you to go from clean to dirty with a foot switch, so you can do it on the fly.
  • Try using some pedals to dictate the tone you want. (i.e. Clean Boost, Overdrive, etc.)
  • Practice technique.. as they say, most of the tone is in your hands!
I hope these tips on amp settings help you to get your desired tone!

Ways to Sweeten Your Guitar Tone

Today I’m gonna show you a few ways to make your guitar tone sound more sweet. Some days you want a dirty tone, but other days you want that perfect clean sound. However, sometimes when you want it clean, it can still be harsh and ice-picky to the ears. So if you want to sweeten up your tone, try these ways:

Reverb
When you are playing through a dry amp, it can often sound too in your face and abrupt. I say abrupt because when you stop playing, all the sound goes away abruptly, which isn’t always sweet to the ears. Adding reverb will give your tone a trail, and make it feel like you are playing in a bigger place. With the right amount of reverb, the tone can turn very very sweet and addicting. I would recommend a tank reverb in your amp, or a tube driven reverb, over a digital reverb. Digital in my opinion will sound too fake and 1-dimensional. Check out my article on the Best Reverb Pedals on the Market.

Pedals
Aside from reverb pedals, there are a few that will help sweeten your tone, specifically a clean boost or a compressor. I personally own the Xotic EP Booster, which adds a nice sparkle to the tone. There are many options on the market. I would also check out Echo pedals and if set properly, it can really create the ambience of soothing tones. If you are very serious about making your tone very sweet with pedals, I would recommend to go the boutique route. Also stick to analog circuitry over anything digital as it will sound warmer.

EQ-ing your Amp
A lot of the time, you can get a sweet tone from your amp (if its a tube amp) just by dialing it in correctly. If the tone is too harsh, turn the treble down a bit. Not warm enough? Boost the mids and bass a bit. Also pay attention to where the Presence is set and experiment with different levels. I would recommend that you set all the dials to noon, and then go from there. Just use your ears and see where the tone need more or less of something. Also if you are using a tube amp, let those tubes warm up a bit, as the tone will get sweeter the longer the amp is on. Here’s more on EQing in your Amp.

Hope this helps you on your way to sweeter tone!