How to Get a Heavier Sound From the Guitar

Heavy guitar tone involves using a combination of amplifiers and guitar pedals.

Whether you're a hard rock, heavy metal or punk rock guitar player, guitar tone is a lifelong pursuit. But good electric guitar tone isn't made up of a single element. An electric guitar setup has several components. These usually include the natural tone from your amplifier; an array of guitar pedals and effects, and the natural tone from your electric guitar's tone control and pickups. Though there's no wrong way to approach guitar tone configuration, a few tried and true methods can help you achieve your desired sound.

Things You'll Need

• Electric guitar
• 1/4-inch instrument cables
• Electric guitar amplifier
• Distortion pedal
• Tube preamplifier pedal
• Compressor pedal
• EQ pedal
• Reverb pedal
• Delay pedal

Instructions

1. Connect your electric guitar directly to your amp's input jack with a 1/4-inch instrument cable. Turn your amplifier's volume to the halfway point. Turn up the volume on your guitar all the way. Strum some chords, and slowly raise the amplifier's gain or distortion knob until you reach the desired sound.

2. Add a distortion pedal to your signal chain. Turn on the amplifier's "standby" switch. This temporarily disables an audio signal from reaching the speakers. Disconnect the instrument cable from your guitar and connect that end to the output jack on the pedal. Connect another instrument cable from the 1/4-inch input jack on the pedal to the output jack on your electric guitar. Turn up the volume knob on the distortion pedal until it is slightly higher than the original volume on the amp. Slowly increase the gain knob on the distortion pedal until you reach the desired tone level. Hit the "standby" switch again to enable sound. Always hit the standby switch whenever you disconnect or reconnect a cable to your amplifier's signal chain.

3. Add a tube preamplifier pedal to the signal path. This will increase the overall volume and power of your guitar tone. Simply disconnect the instrument cable from your guitar and connect it to the output on the preamp. Connect another cable from your guitar's output jack to the input jack on the preamp pedal. Adjust the pedal's volume and gain knobs until you have reached the desired tone.

4. Repeat the procedure in Step 3 to add more effects to the signal chain, like a compressor or EQ pedal. A compressor will increase the sustain of chords as you play them, and an EQ pedal will increase the frequency range of your amplifier. You may also want to consider using additional reverb and delay pedals to fatten your guitar's tone.

References

• Sound on Sound; Guitar Amp Recording; Mike Senior; August 2007
• Goodnight Kiss Guitars; Guitar Effects and How to Get a Good Guitar Sound; Justin Sandercoe; 2003