How to Adjust Amplifiers to Get the Best Electric Guitar Tone

Ask any guitarist and they will happily tell you that they are all about their custom tone. All guitarists have a specific make and model of guitar and guitar amp that they use to drive a specific tone that suits their music. But many newer guitarists do not understand how to dial in that amp to get that sweet grooving tone that they crave. It actually is rather simple to do; follow these steps to a smooth and sexy electric guitar tone.

Difficulty: Moderately Challenging

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Guitar amplifier
• Guitar cable
• Guitar

1. Plug the guitar into the amp and turn it on. You will need to plug the cable into both your guitar and the amplifier input. Next make sure that you turn on the guitar amp.

2. Identify the settings. Most amplifiers have several basic knobs for setting up tone: bass, treble, gain, master and reverb. All of these do different things: bass controls the low notes; reverb adds more of an echo; gain increases the size of the wave; treble increases the higher tones; and master turns the whole thing up to create more volume.

3. Toy with the tone and sound. Depending on what sort of sound you are looking for you may want to play around a bit with these knobs. Typically you will want a few notches of bass, about 3 to 4 notches of reverb, a decent amount of gain, and 4 to 5 notches of treble for a smooth electric guitar tone. If you are looking for a sweet distorted tone, turn up both the bass and the gain to the desired levels.

4. Keep playing with settings until you reach your desired tone. Finding a good tone takes time. Keep fiddling with the knobs and try all sorts of different combinations until you reach the desired tone you are seeking.