Guitar Tone Quest: Share Your Tips and Tricks for Achieving the Perfect Sound

[Yair Matayev]

Achieving the perfect guitar tone can be a never-ending quest, and sometimes the best advice comes from fellow guitar players. That's why I've created this thread, to give us all a space to share our tips, tricks, and experiences in the pursuit of crafting our ideal electric guitar tones.

 

Whether you found the perfect combination of gear, stumbled upon an unconventional technique, or discovered the magic of a specific guitar pick, please share about your experiences! Feel free to share your insights on any aspect of tone creation, such as:

 

Your current guitar, amp, and pedal setup.

Any specific techniques you've found useful in shaping your tone (e.g., picking style, string gauge, etc.).

Unconventional gear or settings that have helped you achieve a unique sound.

Tips for dialing in specific tones inspired by your favorite artists or genres.

Any challenges you've faced in your tone quest and how you overcame them.

 

Looking forward to hearing your tips and discovering new ways to make our electric guitars sing!

[KuruPrionz]

First, relaxation is key to good tone and good playing. Tension is your enemy. Relax!

Second, you may have your guitar tweaked to perfection and flawless technique but until you find the right speaker for your amp your tone will fall short of what it could be. 

 

There will be more...

[Larryz]

My 1st concept is deciding on what kind of music you wish to play.  Finding the right tone for Surf, Jazz, Old Rock and Roll, Old Country, Country Rock, Heavy Metal, Hard Rock, Blues, etc., can all be worth pursuing.  I like being versatile so a clean backing guitar with a little reverb is all I really need for chords and lyrics.  I prefer Fender amps and my Roland busking amp and can use Fender, Taylor, Gibson, Epiphone, Takamine, etc. guitars.  If you are seeking the nirvana of tone, pick an artist that rocks your world Acoustic or Electric, and studying his/her gear would be a great place to start IMHO. 😎

[Winston Psmith]

Speaking for the Fringe element - Drawing inspiration from other Instruments, other Musics, and even non-Musical sounds.

 

You want beautiful phrasing? Try thinking in terms of Vocal lines, or solo Horn lines. The great Stan Getz suggested that Guitarists should listen to Sax solos. Stan Getz' Bossa Nova sound also figures into my next suggestion, which is . . .

 

If you want new sounds and phrasing, look into other Musics, with different approaches to Scale, or even Pitch. Classical composers have often drawn on Folk Music forms for inspiration, while Jazz and Rock Musicians drew on, or outright stole from other Musical cultures around the world; think Sitars in Psychedelic bands, and American Musicians embracing Brazilian Bossa Nova Music.

 

In terms of non-Musical sounds, I don't just mean Noise, or SFX. Listen to a Woodpecker hammering away at a dead tree limb, and try to emulate that pattern in your picking. (Good luck with that one, BTW, those things are FAST!) Moving water, wind through the trees, the rhythm of a moving train, all of those have found their way into Music. Sit under a highway overpass, and listen to the Doppler effect as traffic passes overhead. (I know, that one's a bit out there, but consider the source.)

 

In terms of gear, there's no "One-Tone-Fits-All" solution. To borrow a phrase from another world, everybody has an agenda, in that everyone has a preference, or a set of preferences. If you were to listen to everyone's preferences, and prejudices, you might wind up buying one of everything, or buying nothing at all, because you just couldn't decide.

 

As @Larryzsuggests, if there's an artist whose work or sound you particularly admire, finding out what they use at least starts you in a direction.

 

 

[KuruPrionz]

26 minutes ago, Winston Psmith said:

Speaking for the Fringe element - Drawing inspiration from other Instruments, other Musics, and even non-Musical sounds.

An essential observation and not just for those who consider themselves on the "Fringe".

We are surrounded by sounds and often take them for granted. We don't have to try and duplicate them but we should be inspired to create our own versions. 

When I lived in the Central Valley of California, we had mockingbirds. If you went outside on a summer night around 2am or so, you could hear the songs, repeated off into the distance. At one point, I started whistling a simple little riff and the mockingbirds nearby repeated it and like the ripples from a pebble dropped into a pond, the riff floated off in all directions. I realized I was part of that world and began riffing every so often and listening. Just as we do with our own sentences, the birds would change things slightly and away it went. Magic!

[p90jr]

at this point I have some nice guitars, amps and pedals... and if I want to be inspired to write something I play the crappiest guitars I have through a little smokey amp or a busted old Silvertone with a 4-inch speaker that sounds like crap... because otherwise I'll sit there for hours playing Steely Dan and Dire Straits songs and thinking how nice it sounds.

"Ah, good taste! What a dreadful thing! Taste is the enemy of creativeness."
- Pablo Picasso

[KuruPrionz]

7 hours ago, p90jr said:

at this point I have some nice guitars, amps and pedals... and if I want to be inspired to write something I play the crappiest guitars I have through a little smokey amp or a busted old Silvertone with a 4-inch speaker that sounds like crap... because otherwise I'll sit there for hours playing Steely Dan and Dire Straits songs and thinking how nice it sounds.

"Ah, good taste! What a dreadful thing! Taste is the enemy of creativeness."
- Pablo Picasso

I bought a Rogue plywood guitar at the thrift store for the same reason. It has all the sweet resonance of a garbage can lid and I set the action too low so it rattles and buzzes in places too. Total piece of crap, great for writing songs. 

 

Back to tone. For live work I usually use a 2mm Gator pick. For recording that is just too heavy, I'll use anything from a thin to a medium. Nylon and plastic sound different, both sounds can be useful. Last but not least, I fingerpick on both electric and acoustic guitars including 12 strings and nylon strings. All different sounds, all useful in places. 

[surfergirl]

On 3/20/2023 at 8:55 AM, Winston Psmith said:

In terms of non-Musical sounds, I don't just mean Noise, or SFX. Listen to a Woodpecker hammering away at a dead tree limb, and try to emulate that pattern in your picking. (Good luck with that one, BTW, those things are FAST!) Moving water, wind through the trees, the rhythm of a moving train, all of those have found their way into Music. Sit under a highway overpass, and listen to the Doppler effect as traffic passes overhead. (I know, that one's a bit out there, but consider the source.)

I love to the sounds around me. I listen to 2 birds have a conversation and wonder what they are talking about. The 🐓 waking me up in the morning. Waves splashing on the rocks. Even the sanders, planers and cnc machines at work have a rhythm.

[Lokair]

For me when I play I have tone in my head(along with many voices) that usually guides me to it as close as possible. Everyday I make some sort of adjustment weather its how I hit the string or maybe where I roll the tone knob, even how hard I press my fingers into the string. 

 

The quest for tone is lifetime spent playing and accepting that its as close as you can get to the tone in your head at that moment. 

 

Lok