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1
Pick Out a Winner
Many underestimate just how much their choice of pick affects their tone.
Not so with jazz legend Jimi Hall, who carries a pocket full of them in
different gauges: light ones for strumming, heavier ones for single not
picking. Indeed, switching from a medium to a heavy pick, while requiring
an adjustment of technique, can do as much as to thicken your tone as
installing a humbucker in the place of a single-coil pickup. (Meanwhile, opting for a light-gauge pick on a strummed acoustic in a band
setting well help the part sit better in the mix.) And you can't complain
about the cost-there's no cheaper way to change your tone.
2
String for Your Style
Strings come in flavors as well as gauges. I f you're seeking a
classic jazz sound , flat-or half-rounds will get you close to it without
to spring for an archtop. And if you want to sound like Stevie Ray
Vaughan, .009s ain't going to cut it-try using at least .011s. You'll also
want to tune down a half step, not only to further deepen your tone but
also to ease the added string tension that come with bumping up your
gauge.
3
Learn to Unwind
If you play really loud or with gobs of gain, stay away from over
wound pickups-they'll only muddy your sound. A lower-output pickup, on the
other hand, will help maintain clarity while the volume and gain, or both,
supply all the girth and sustain you need. The greatest rock tones of all
time-including Eddie Van Halen's "brown" sound-were created with
relatively weak pickups.
4
Go Wireless
In other words practice without plugging in. The reason being, you want to
make sure you're not using the mask of high gain to cover sloppy or uneven
playing. Try to get the best sound possible out of your instrument before
you plug in, with just your fingers, and the rest will follow.
5 Speaker Up
Perhaps you like the way your old combo feels when you play, but just
aren't crazy about its tone. Well, before you trade it in for a new one,
first consider changing its speakers. A more efficient speaker model can
make a huge difference: in addition to taming nasty high end or beefing up
the lows, it can actually make your amp louder.
6
Move It On Over
Play those G, B, and high E sting licks on the D, A, and low E strings
instead, higher up the neck. Why? Those strings offer a fatter sound. Work
on your finger strength until you can bend that D string as you would the
B string. And keep in mind that stronger fingers will improve your tone in
general. This is one reason Jeff Beck sounds so good; the rest is because
he is, well Jeff Beck.
7
Call the Cable Guys
Use low-capacitance cables to wire your pedals-and and make your own
pedalboard. Companies like George L's and Planet Waves offer kits that
allow you to customize cable length to suit the spacing of your pedals.
And cutting down on total cable length will improve your tone.
8
Kick in the Overdrive
Learn to love your overdrive pedal. Sure, we all agree that power-amp
distortion is the best, but unless you're always in a position where you
can crank it and yank it, you may not be able to reach optimum volume
levels. So, find yourself an amp with a great basic tone, then supplement
it with a solid overdrive; that way you'll be able to control your
overdriven sound no matter how loud or soft you're playing.
9
Stop Bottoming Out
Turn down the bass. That big bottom you're putting out well disappear into
your bassist's maw the second you've counted off that first tune.
10
Get Buffer
Consider adding a small buffer amp, like the Durham Electronics Sex Drive
boost pedal to your effects chain, to restore the frequencies lost as your
signal travels through a host of pedals.
11
Cut Down on Saturated Fat
That saturated sound that makes you so excited in your bedroom will make
your hottest licks disappear once the rest of the band starts playing. A
tad less distortion and people might actually hear that sweep picking
you've been practicing for the last five years.
12
Let Your Voice Be Heard...
Your guitarist voice lies largely in your dynamics-that is, the manner in
which you attack the strings with both hands. The more distortion, gain,
or compression you use, the more of these dynamics you'll lose, and with
them your individuality as a player.
13
...But Don't Repeat Yourself Too Often
It's not only dirty effects that can rob you of your touch. Time-based
effects like delay, chorus, flanging, and reverb can really sink your
sound (into the mix). Add the natural reverberation of the club or hall
where you're playing and it's bye-bye note definition. To use these
effects sparingly is to use them wisely.
14
Read the Room
Tailor your tone to the situation. If you're playing in a keyboard-less
trio in a dry room, you can get away with more of everything than you
could playing in, say, a 10- piece horn band in a high-school gym. You can
use more distortion, chorus, delay and reverb when there are fewer
competing instruments in the same frequency range. If the room is soaking
up your ambient effects (delay and reverb), turn them up. If the room is
echoing like a mountain yodeler, turn them down or off.
15
Bring the Noise
Finding fresh sounds often involves breaking the rules, so chain those
fuzzes together, run the reverb into a flanger delay, crank up the low
end... and stand back.
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