Guitar Tone [Part 2]

As we mentioned in Part 1, many factors can affect your sound and tone. We will now go over the importance of effect pedals for your sound as well as amplifiers and how they project the guitar tone you are looking for.

Guitar Pedals

The all mighty pedal board is used universally.  Guitarists like The Edge and David Gilmour are known for their effects combinations and their distinct guitar tone. You can choose to use a multi-pedal unit or an array of individual pedals.  When choosing your pedals, it is important to keep in mind what sound and tone you want to achieve.

Here are some tried and true examples of pedal configurations to get started:

Blues: 

Wah (CryBaby) –>Compressor (Boss CS3)–> Overdrive (Soulfood) –> Chorus (Boss CH1)

HardRock:

Wah (CryBaby) –>Compressor (Boss CS3)–> Distortion (BossDS1) –> Chorus (Boss CE5)-> Phaser (MXR)

Metal:

Wah (Vox) –> Compressor (Boss CS3) –> Overdrive (Tubescreamer) –> MetalZone (BOSSMT2) –> Chorus (Boss CE5) –> Phaser (BossPH3) –>Equalizer (Boss GE7) –> Delay (BossDM2W)

Early Alternative: 

Compressor (Boss CS3) –> Overdrive (Boss OS2) –> Chorus (Boss CH1) –> Phaser (Ibanez FP777) –> Flanger (BossVF3) –> Equalizer (Boss GE7) –>Delay (Boss DD7) 

The key in getting your pedalboard up and running to your taste is ultimately a matter of trial and error until you find the correct configuration for your special signature sound. 

Amplifiers

Lastly and perhaps one of the most important pieces of equipment to consider is your choice of amplifier. There are many brands but there are three major categories that they fall into:

Tube amp overdrives are usually much smoother, and more responsive than solid state. They can be influenced by adding pedals to the signal chain between the guitar and amplifier, and this gives the guitarist more control over their sound.  With a tube amp, even how hard a player plays can influence tone. Tube amps are more subtle, and the differences in the signals coming from your guitar are accurately represented.

There are many solid state and digital amps that do a great job of replicating a tube amp. Solid-state amps are generally more reliable than tube amps. Tubes are a bit more fragile. Solid-state amps are generally less expensive, both to purchase and maintain.  Solid state rated output power is always going to sound less than tube amp rated power.  For example, a 100 watt solid state will not be as loud as a 100 watt tube amp.  Also a solid-state amp can work maintenance free for years, while a tube amp will require periodic maintenance including new tubes and re-biasing.

A Hybrid incorporates the best of both worlds. They sit between both worlds giving you both preamp tube warmth and solid state reliability.  A final note for your tone search -  don't forget some good cables since that is what gets your tone to the amp!

If you need any help deciding on how to go forward with your setup contact us at 1-877-778-7845 and one of our Guitar Professionals will help you.