How to Get Great Electric Guitar Tone

As an art form, music is complex. When it comes to electric guitar, which is really a blend of music and technology, there's a specific art to getting a good tone. The tone is not the melody, and has little to do with which notes you play. When you're trying to enhance your instrument's tone, you're focusing on the quality of the sound

Difficulty: Challenging

Instructions

1. Pick the right string gauge. The strings you get will give your electric guitar a specific tone. Lighter strings produce a lighter, airier sound. Thicker strings will sound heartier. Match your strings with the sound you're looking for.

2. Choose your guitar pickups. These are the pieces underneath the strings, where the sound hole would be on an acoustic. They have metal nodes that carry the string sounds to the amplifier. Your tone depends on your pickups. You can use "single" pickups (one bar) and "humbuckers" (double thickness). Humbuckers eliminate buzz and perfect your tone. Buy a guitar outfitted with good pickups for recording.

3. Try different guitar styles. The guitar's action and neck tension can also affect the tone. You can also adjust the dials on electric guitars for extra treble or bass to craft a distinct sound.

4. Work on your amplifier. For great "traditional" sounds, use old tube amps with minimal effects. You'll want to work with all of your amp's dials to create your desired tone, using aspects like treble, bass, gain or reverb.

5. Use different picking styles. How you pick the strings will also affect your tone.

6. Be mindful of the acoustics of a room or space. Depending on your amplification, you can get a great tone using the space you're playing in.