Three Essential Guitar Tones with Mark Lettieri

Check out the gear used in this video:
PRS Fiore Electric Guitar:

PRS HDRX 20W Guitar Amp Head:

J.Rockett The Melody Mark Lettieri Signature Overdrive:

J. Rockett Hot Rubber Monkey Overdrive:

Keeley HALO Andy Timmons Dual Echo:

Five-time Grammy Award winning guitarist, composer, producer and educator Mark Lettieri identifies his three essential guitar tones, and shows you how to get them. As a member of the instrumental groups Snarky Puppy and Fearless Flyers—as well as his own Mark Lettieri Group—the versatile guitar player seeks tones that can work seamlessly with almost any style of music.

Watch Lettieri as he demonstrates how to get an “edge of breakup” tone (“That sounds like a Hallmark movie,” he says. “I should write the soundtrack to that.”), a higher-gain lead sound and ambient reverb textures.

As the video unfolds, he also shares solid performance advice, such as “Hear how the amp sounds first before you start throwing pedals in front of it” and “Don’t forget to use the tone and volume controls on your guitar—you don’t have to have everything on 10 all the time.”

Lettieri doesn’t even mind if you totally hate the sounds he is dialing in.

“The beauty of using gear to make the music,” he says, “is you can find your own three essential tones.”

Keep tabs on Mark and his projects:

Chapters
00:00 - Intro with Mark Lettieri
00:54 - Three Essential Guitar Tones for Every Guitarist
01:26 - Mark’s Clean Sound
01:57 - How to Achieve a Classic “Edge of Breakup” Tone
06:50 - Demo: Mark Lettieri’s Higher-Gain Lead Tone
07:13 - How Mark Get His “Gained Up” Lead Tone
10:38 - Mark’s Method of Creating an Ambient Reverb Tone
13:17 - Mark’s Final Thoughts on the Three Essential Guitar Tones
14:30 - Outro

[guitarcenter]

Which of the tones that Mark demonstrated was your favorite? Let us know in the comments! 🎸🤘

[jonathanmalpica]

Mark Lettieri, legendary guitarist and, apparently, the only man to match his wedding ring to his shoes and guitar. Extra cool!

[ShaneStoneOfficial]

Mark has slowly become my favorite current guitarist. I need a fiore now

[woofcity]

Most of social media is meant to sell you more things, but Mark is showing you with a couple basic pedals you can get enough to do anything you need. Refreshing. And true. Reverb, drive, boost, tuner, guitar, amp. Already a lot

[fredrikh]

That guy is one hell of a guitarist, everything he plays always sound great and original.

[risingsun]

Ambient tones my fave. Love that red color with no pickguard. There's just something visually natural and pleasing without a pickguard. Nice Mark .. thank you.

[Antitrump]

Everything explains so simple and effective. Right to the point, thanks so much

[EricBourassa]

Mark is such an incredible musician. Great showman, too. And a radly good dude

[firebald]

This beautiful candy red PRS Fiore has a MusicMan scratch plate less look to it.
Gosh, what an easy going and happy player Mark is. His instruction is on point and flavored with his joy of guitar.
Thanks, GC for putting on these series of great musicians.

[budgetguitarist]

Mark Lettieri is an amazing player/composer. Fearless Flyers are fantastic, and Mark's baritone albums are great.

[briangabriel]

One of the finest musicians and a super nice gent too!!! Great demo!!!

[MrTroyBettis]

Mark is an incredible musician and a really cool dude!!! I thought every one of the tones were stellar! Thanks Mark!

[larryadams]

Great video. Mark is a killer player and a nice guy. I met him in Dallas after a gig. This was a fun and very enjoyable video. Stacking pedals is a a great way to get your own tone.

[TheGmcFilms]

Great business from PRS and GC rolling with Mark, he's one of the very best guitar players who'll put a silver bullet between your eyes ...G...

[hesch-tag]

He is so good. Such tasty licks, no matter if they are shreddy or bluesy.

[lukaszbohdal]

I have PRS Fiore guitar and I can say that's very universal instrument with 11 pickup combinations. Mark with Paul designed fantastic guitar with very clean sound and great sustain.

[CargoShorts]

Mark Lettieri is the man! Loved this guy ever since seeing his super cool looping videos years ago and obviously love all his Snarky Pup, FF and solo stuff. Killer player and all around good guy

[ZackSeifMusic]

Mark stays busy because he knows how to get alot of tone from the tools he uses. Very smart, very practical, and a fantastic artist.

[andrewl]

I really dig the mid-gain tone here and how the playing dynamics change the sound substantially. I’m not a guitarist, but could understand his explanations well. I saw Mark with Snarky Puppy about a year ago and wow what a great show. 10 guys packed on a small stage and everything was clean, tight, and sounded great.

[Spazzzzz]

Been my favorite guitar player for at least 10 years! 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼