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Get That Rock Sound

Ever wonder how to get that monstrous sounding rock guitar sound? The principles here are known by almost all rock guitarists and still holds true. Have fun in your adventure!

1) Turn your amp (whether tube or solid-state) up loud to produce some degree of power-stage saturation. Key here is to engage the guitar speakers.

2) Guitar effects will be worthless without amp. Playing through a loud tube amp is a first and a must for getting the most impressive tone out of guitar effects. Buy the tube amp first over guitar effects if you have to choose one. Guitar effects are not as important as having a good tube amp. When using guitar effects, remember that the sound of the effect when used through a loud tube amp offers the best sound compared to using the guitar effect on its own.

3) Rock listeners want to hear the real, physical tone of a stressed speaker wrestling with power tubes. Never connect to the mixer directly.

4) Effects sound better when combined optimally with a tube amp than when used directly into the mixer. You can connect effects and amps in many ways. But the default, optimal way of connecting them in the recording studio is to place time-based effects after, rather than before, any heavily overdriven stage. This prevents beats and preserves a clear basic tone.

5) Eq before distortion or saturation sounds different than eq after distortion. Think of all the tone knobs and frequency response curves of gear placed before a distortion pedal as the first equalizer. Think of all tone knobs and response curves between the distortion pedal and saturating power tubes as the second equalizer. Think of all the tone knobs and response curves between the speaker and recording tape as the third equalizer. Shaping your amp tone is controlled by adjusting, one way or another, one of these three effective-equalizers. To study how eq alternates with distortion, use this chain:

EQ->Dist->EQ

The resulting behavior applies to saturating power tubes as well as each individual stage of preamp distortion. Bass boost before saturation causes a dry, rough, crusty breakup tone. Treble boost before saturation causes a liquidy, glassy breakup tone.

6) A powerful way of connecting guitar effects and tube amps is:

Guitar Effects->Tube Amp->Speaker (Isolation) Cabinet-> Guitar Effects

This approach requires a final amp and a full-range monitor speaker.

A good chain is:

Wah->Compression->Distortion->Time-Effects->Loud Tube Amp

A clearer chain is:

Wah->Compression->Distortion->Loud Tube Amp->Time-Effects

So there you go. If all these information are too much for you to handle, divide it up into chunks and take it step by step. Be patient in your journey.

Andy Ng is a self taught guitar enthusiast. He have played guitar for the last 5 yrs and still going strong! He is also a leading expert on the art of building homemade effect pedals. Pick up tips, techniques and just plain guitar talk at his blog!
http://www.guitareffectssecrets.andy-ng.com

posted by ryvnefpd @ 6:29 PM