How to Adjust Amp Settings for the Best Blues Electric Guitar Tone

The tone settings on an amp are as important as the settings on the guitar for producing the blues sound. The amp settings are a personal style preference. Blues guitar has a distinctive sound and tone which can be enhanced by the amp settings. Focus on the drive and reverberation settings for a good full-bodied blues sound.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

1. Adjust the bass and treble to set the basic sound for the guitar. Each guitar is different so spend some time making the initial adjustments to get the general settings.

2. Turn the drive down to zero. This gives the player the opportunity to get a feel for what the drive setting actually does.

3. Turn the drive up to five or seven to give the guitar the blues grittiness. The type of guitar will determine how high to set the drive above five.

4. Turn the reverb down to zero. The reverb is designed to emulate the sound of the old spring-type amplifiers of the early electric blues period.

5. Turn the reverb up to five or seven. The reverb adds the finishing touches to get that blues tone from any amp.