The number 1 rule for GREAT tone | Real Guitar Talk

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[DCayce]

This is so dead on. I’m 72, been playing since I was 10, and I’m embarrassed to say just so much of my musical life has been spent thinking I had to do things the way other people were looking down their nose at me to do, instead of just “listening with my ear, ” as you just said it. My rule for finding the tone that I want it’s basically exactly what you’re saying, but my wording for it is, “forget everything you’ve ever heard about how it should be done and just create the sound you’re after.” Thanks for a great message, Jack.

[marcospintor]

It was liberating when I first started doing this recently

[CharlesN]

Thanks. Great topic. Really enjoyed the song at the end.

[CustomTeleRI]

My '68 Custom Princeton Reverb sounded woofy even with the bass turned all the way down until I removed the extra resistor Fender added to augment the bass relative to other Princetons. Now it sounds fine with the bass around 4 and the treble between 6 and 7👌 As for the Blues Junior - I'm not a fan. Never could make one of those sound good 🤷‍♂

[drno]

yes and yes..i have a randall rg 100 tube amp..swapped the hp and still sound a bit bizarre..so turned all the knobs to zero and slightly raised them up to the point..sounds amazing now..presence at 2 trebble at 5 mid range at 4 and bass at 2..same with my peavey bandit..just taming a lot of trebble clarity starting at zero and gently raising stuff up..

[keithfranklin]

Yes I agree 100% I learned this when playing live in a band setting sometimes you have to darken or brighten up your tone in an unconventional way due to acoustics or sometimes even situations like having a stubborn bass player who takes up too much sonic space. I also find this to be a rule with pedals for example I love the breakup character of Keeely overdrive pedals, I find it unique and great sounding but that being said I have to be ok with the fact that my ears prefer the tone knob completely down or off and the volume cranked . At first I felt like I couldn't use it because I was unable to use 2 out of 3 knobs but the fact is I can and I love to use it, I just have to pin one knob all the way down and dime the other and wa lah! If I need adjustments from there I can use something else

[Bliggick]

I have a very simple system that works for me. I start by setting the amp tone controls all around the middle. Then I set switch to the trebliest setting on the guitar, which of course is the bridge pickup, tone all the way up. Then I set the treble on the amp. Then I go to the bassiest setting on the guitar, neck pickup, maybe roll off the tone some. Then I set the bass on the amp. So now I have set the two ends of the tone spectrum. Then I can set the mids if I have them, ideally if I have a Strat middle pickup or neck and bridge pickups together and a mid control on the amp. Then I will set an EQ, boost and other pedals after that. Seems to work for me, but if it doesn't I'll try a different guitar or amp.

[michaelhockmuller]

This is a great reminder. I always wanted a Gibson es335 but I could only afford a Gretsch electromatic. The expectation was to make it sound like a Gibson. But the reality was the Gretsch had its own tone. Once I embraced that fact, I enjoyed the Gretsch a lot more.

[fender]

Great video Jack. Cool song too. Loved it. Keep the vids coming. Would love a video on how to tame high wattage amps.

[rudolphpyatt]

If it sounds good, it is good. I will add that I also play acoustic instruments (guitar, mandolin, banjo) and exclusively played acoustic steel string guitar the first with years I played. With acoustic instruments, shaping the sound IS in your hands and your ears. I carry that to my electric playing.

[JimMorrisonsBathtub]

The most prominent example of a guitar I've owned where I had to play around with it to get a good sound was my Danelectro 59. I got it because it was relatively cheap and I thought it would rip in an interesting way if I cranked it through a Supro. After I bought it I found it sounds horrible if you do that and for a while I had a hard time figuring out what to do with it. Eventually I realized if I tune it to open G flat or open D flat and play it through my 150 watt Music Man amp with the volume down to almost nothing and the master volume up as loud as I dare it sounds super clean to the point that it would be a boring sound for almost every other kind of electric guitar even if I was going for a clean tone but with the Danelectro it sound very nice. I also found that if I play it clean through my Fender Champ 50s reissue it really takes on the tone of the Champ and in open G flat and open D flat it resonates in a kind of crunchy clean tone rather than the more beautiful ultra clean tone of the 150 watt amp and it also sounds excellent that way.

[coryfeldman-hzyj]

Metal zone into metal zone into reverb into metal zone into the front of line 6 spyder.

[MrBluesilverred]

Thanks Jack, right to the point. You can’t assume all knobs at 12 O’Clock on all amps will sound good. Even same brand and model amps aren’t exact. Same for guitars and other instruments. Season your sound to taste, so it sounds good to your ears.

[dmac]

Cool video. I’ve been doing this much more lately especially w my HXStomp. Before I expected the amp models to better match my expectations. Now I’ll get a good baseline amp tone, then work in a drive pedal, compressor, change the mic on the speaker sim, etc.

[fordhammie]

This is million dollar advice! Thx boss! 😊

[honkytonkinson]

I have a Marshall DSL5cr that is like this. It doesn’t really make a bad sound but it’s in finely adjusting the EQ and gain that really coaxes some nice sounds out of the amp. It helps to learn how all the knobs interact, the ones on the amp and the ones on the guitar.

I find I like a simpler setup now with less pedals. It’s already enough work to dial in good tones when recording at home. No point making it even more complicated!

[GuitarNewby]

The most important skill in getting great tone is listening👂.

[DrumStrum]

I run my Blues Jr. with the fat switch in, bass all the way down, mids all the way up, and highs one notch down from all the way up. It’s money.

[FuzzRatOD]

The ProCo Rat! I find to my ears it sounds the most focused and well rounded as a chewy chunky distortion with the filter knob at at 3 o'clock or higher, ie. most of the high end cut out. I find it's already a pretty bright pedal, and turning the filter knob almost completely clockwise, tames the high end while still being plenty bright enough to cut through, especially with the distortion knob below 12 o'clock. As a fuzz though, once you have that distortion knob cranked, bringing that filter knob almost all the way counter clockwise, gives it the right amount of brightness and keeps it from getting too woolly. It's an intersting gain circuit to say the least as those 2 knobs do not seem to work independent of each other, but are very co-dependent, and react very differently depending where each is positioned relative to each other.

[inertiallychallenged]

Yep. I have a Blues Deluxe. Sounds best with bass turned almost all the way down.