The tone of your guitar is how it sounds and what kind of character it has, the tone is what creates the difference between tranquil guitar melodies and energetic, powerful, rocking solos. If you have a good guitar tone then your playing will sound much more appealing and impressive, many players dedicate massive amounts of time and money in search for a tone they want but never quite manage to. In order to achieve a guitar tone you want, there are 5 essential aspects you need to consider.
1. Type of Guitar
The type of guitar you have can vastly change your tone as different guitars will have different electronics and components. Many guitar types have a specific niche and work to their genre incredibly well, for example the Jazzmaster guitar is great for shoegaze music and the Telecaster is great for rock and country music. Some are just overall good for all genres such as the Stratocaster.
2. Amp Settings
The settings on your amps can change your tone as well, depending on the combination of and different blends of knobs. The important knobs you need to know are:
- Gain: controls how clean your signal is, low gain will result in a smooth, plain tone and a high gain will result in a brash, rocky, distorted tone.
- Bass: Controls the lower frequency, low bass will result in a thin hollow sound, high bass will result in a boomy thick sound
- Mids: Controls the middle frequency, low mids (often referred to scooping the mids) will result in a hard dark sound, high mids will result in a bright twangy sound
- Treble: Controls the higher frequency, low treble will result in a blunt sound and high treble will result in sharp bright sound
When first starting out you should have all the knobs except for gain and volume at halfway as this will avoid in creating any unpleasant tones. You should try experimenting with turning different knobs to find out what settings you like.
3. Pickups
Pickups are magnets that converts the vibrations of the strings of the guitar into electrical signals that become sound through the amp. The type of pickups your guitar has can massively impact your tone. For example a duel humbucker pickup will result in a powerful bright sound perfect for hard rock and metal. Another example is the three single coil pickups commonly found in Stratocasters and are incredibly versatile while being perfect for rock music. Pickups can also be active or passive, active pickups require batteries and are often noise-free, creating a much more powerful sound as a result. Passive don't require batteries and are often a bit noisy but produce a less powerful sound. You can mod your guitar and replace the pickups on it to achieve the sound you want but this often requires someone experienced to do it.
4. Pedals
Pedals are external devices that can also massively impact your tone, they can often be turned on and off and require batteries. Pedals create super unique and special sounds that are often essential to a genre. For example:
- Distortion Pedal: Perfect for metal music
- Wah and Overdrive Pedal: Great for rock music
- Envelope Pedal: Amazing for funk music
- Chorus Pedal: Great for alternative music
- Delay Pedal: Great for ambient and shoegaze music
It is definitely worth getting a pedal if you are committed to a certain genre as it can add a lot of life and fun to your playing.
5. Technique
Some people say that "the tone is all in the hands" which refers to a musician's ability to use different techniques and dynamics to change the sound of their guitar. Although it is debatable that it is "all in the hands" there is no doubt that your technique plays a massive role in creating different tones that is often looked over. For example, a genre like jazz will require very precise and sharp picking technique, often requiring the use of something like palm muting and a picking placement close to the bridge. While a genre like rock can excuse sloppy playing due to the use of high gain and overdrive pedals masking it, It also often requires hard strumming and picking techniques in order to create an abrasive sound. Having a good technique also results in better sounding playing in general as you can properly control details such as note length, dynamics, hand movement and timing.
Guide to Achieving a Great Tone for Each Genre
Now that you know the 5 essential aspects of getting achieving different tones you can experiment and find out one that is perfect for you. But if you're looking for a pre-made set of instructions for a great tone for a specific genre of music then this guide is for you.
What You Need for Hard Rock
- Guitar: Stratocaster, Telecaster, Active Guitar
- Amp Settings: High gain, Boosted bass, Scooped mids, Boosted treble, tone all the way up
- Pickups: Active, Duel humbucker, three single coil pickups
- Pedals: Overdrive, Distortion, Wah
- Technique: Hard abrasive picking and strumming near middle of neck and bridge (sloppiness can be excused)
What You Need for Classic Rock
- Guitar: Les Paul, Gibson SG, Telecaster, Stratocaster
- Amp Settings: High Gain, High bass, Mids in middle, boosted treble, tone all the way up
- Pickups, three single coil pickups, single coil pickup, Duel humbucker
- Pedals: Overdrive, Distortion,
- Technique: Hard and powerful strumming and picking near middle of neck and bridge (sloppiness can be excused)
What You Need for Pop
- Guitar: Stratocaster, Acoustic, Active Guitar
- Amp Settings: Low gain, Bass down, Boosted mids, Boosted treble, tone in middle
- Pickups: three single coil pickups or active
- Pedals: Compression,
- Technique: Clean picking and strumming anywhere on guitar, relaxed dynamics and gentle strumming if on acoustic
What You Need for Shoegaze
- Guitar: Jazzmaster, Jaguar, Rickenbacker 330, Gibson SG
- Amp Settings: Gain in middle, Bass in middle, Boosted mids, Treble in Middle, Tone in middle
- Pickups: Single-coil pickup or Humbucker pickups
- Pedals: Delay, Reverb, Overdrive, Distortion, Chorus, Envelope, Chorus, Fuzz
- Technique: Clean and repetitive strumming and technique, needs good sense of timing and dynamics.
What You Need for Funk
- Guitar: Stratocaster, Telecaster, Jazzmaster, Gibson SG
- Amp Settings: Low Gain, Boosted bass, High mids, Boosted treble, Tone rolled down
- Pickups: three single coil pickups, single coil pickup, Duel humbucker
- Pedals: Envelope, Flanger, Chorus
- Technique: Sharp precise picking, Good left hand muting technique and sense of time and dynamics
What You Need for Jazz
- Guitar: Jazzmaster or any hollow body
- Amp Settings: No gain, Low bass, High mids, Boosted treble, Tone all the way down
- Pickups: Single-coil pickup
- Pedals: Compression
- Technique: Very precise and fast picking technique, Great sense of timing and dynamics, Good left and right hand palm muting