How I Fixed My Bad Heavy Guitar Tone - Recording Metal Guitars

I was a guitar player long before I ever got into engineering and producing.

I’ve been playing guitar for 26 years (almost my entire life) and love everything about the instrument...especially great tone.

There are few things in life more satisfying than locking in with a kick ass drummer while riffing out through a cranked tube head.

After years of chasing guitar tone (long before ever getting into production), I had finally found the secret:

Solid playing on a solid guitar through a killer sounding tube head is where it’s at..

Simple.

After years of trying out every other gimmicky pedal, fx processor and modeling amp..I learned that the tone I was looking for was hiding right in plain sight.

A tube head plugged into a 4x12 cab. DONE.

Well..I’m sure you can imagine just how bummed I was when (even after 5 YEARS of constant experimentation) I was STILL unsuccessful at capturing the massive tone of my amp in my home studio.

It drove me insane.

“How can this massive sounding guitar tone sound so great on stage and in my room, but so terrible when I stick a mic (or in my case, multiple mics) in front of the cab?”

“Is it the fact that I’m using cheap preamps?”

“Do I need to upgrade my stock plugins for a more ‘analog’ sound?”

“Is there some secret guitar micing technique that the pros use and don’t ever share with the public?”

No matter what I tried, my recorded tones either sounded like straight razor blades or a wooly/hollow mess of crap.

As an aspiring engineer this frustrated me to no end, but it was even more frustrating as a guitar player who thought they had figured the whole good-tone thing out.

In this video, I shine light on the ridiculously simple discovery that allowed me to FINALLY capture the guitar tone that I always wanted on tape.

[mitchkeizer]

Definitely dig the new intro. Also brother I would kill for a mixing tutorial start to finish with like four or five tracks. Just something real simple and small. Don't know if that's something you can do or not. But I really appreciate how informative your videos are keep up the good work homie

[Hellseeker]

It's why I hand built my own ISO Cab. Got a 150W RED Back, sounds killer.

[marcusedvardsson]

Would love to see a video when you make your own IR. The entire chain from the software-sweep through the clean amp into the cab and back to the box. please ;)

[CrushingAxes]

This intro is awesome. Almost everyone thinks the head is the most important part, I think everyone who's really into guitar always go through this, it really took me a while to realize I have to beat the f*ck out of the guitar, picking really hard and use a nice cab.

[michaelj.anderson]

I've been using your custom IR for a while now & it sounds great. I use it on every single mix. Thank you for giving us such a great sounding IR for free. Much appreciated.

[TheGreatBaronOBeefDip]

This is exactly what I was looking for, my band and I are recording a single ourselves, and I play through an Ampeg VH140c which is a great amp, but my cab is a cheap 100 dollar ampeg cab, theres an Avatar cab with better speakers at the rehearsal space so hopefully it will be much better.

[eightsixguitar]

Great vid and good advice! Although I will most likely get a load box soon and cut out the hassle of trying to mic up my cab in an apartment 🤣

[jessebreakspear]

Ah the humble Vintage 30, I heard they stopped making those, and I only own one😢 it's ironic that they are called "Vintage" when they're the best thing for a "modern" high-gain sound. the only bad thing about them is that so many players use them that everyone sounds the same speaker wise

[jamespankhurst]

Couldn’t agree more! I got a Victory Kraken recently and was super disappointed with the tone coming from the 1x12 Victory cab. Now I use the Frightbox impulse response on my C.A.B. M from twonotes and it’s the exact tone I want. Super warm and responsive, sounds heavy without the muddy lowend. Cheers Bobby!

[rambog]

It was a serious challenge for me to get used to the sound of amp (or plugin) with IR. Had been playing for many years only through real amps, and my ears got set to listen to the sound of the room resonance rather than the sound coming directly from speaker. but that is the thing, that the mic "hears". Only after I started recording at home, I understood the difference and the taste of this sound, and how it works in mix. But at 1st I was hard trying to get the real tone that u hear when standing near the rumbling amp in a rehearsal

[scottwpomfret]

I too have struggled with getting a solid tone out of my gear for years. I'm constrained at the moment to using VST amp and tone modelers such as STL Tonehub and am just finally starting to get the sounds I crave out of them. I'm finding out that you are so right about the speaker selection of your cab! With regards to IR's and micing the cabinets in the virtual world, I find that moving around the microphone to other areas of the speaker eventually gets you more of the tone you want. But you definitely need a quality speaker first, even virtually. You know what else seems to help a bad tone? NEW STRINGS!!!! lol

[lovecraftmusic]

I played through V30's with my Jcm800, but being this amp so bright and low gain, I had a very awful harsh-fizzy sound when playing alone. In band or recording context it sounded ok but nothing special... So I got rid of 'em and bought g12-65 and g12-65m that are much more dark and woody (the first being from 1981, made to satisfy the demand of that time for heavy metal music and tame the high-end). Now I love the tone. Maybe they're not as easy to mic up and record, but the result will be great once you find the sweet spot. Have you ever had experience with those speakers? T75 and greenbacks are good too.

[ashamael]

Great stuff as always, Bobby! Question - I've been hearing for years about v30s from this producer or that engineer or whoever. Now I'm starting to hear "try something else! Get a different sound! Don't sound like everybody else!" Have you experienced v30 fatigue (or snobbery against them) recently? I know there are plenty of other killer speakers out there, but yeah ... just wondering if you've started hitting this wall or hearing others on this soapbox.

[stuartglenn]

Great intro! And solid advice. You can’t really go wrong with the sm57/v30 combo. Maybe blend in something else on top if you need a different flavor, but the 57/v30 base is where it’s at

[awjbutt]

Thanks for the vid. I appreciate the kind of topics you cover.

[jamesshafer]

Bobby’s IR is really great! Sits really well in the mix with different amp sims and active and passive guitars.

[chrispitts]

V30's are so awesome i use one on my kick drum.

[AlexeySolovievMusic]

Really great tips Bobby! Thank you so much!

[correametal]

Thank you so much for yet another inspiring and informative video! The greatest things in life reside in simplicity!

[clowncorpse]

I had the same issue for year's then I switched by chance to V30 speaker's & whammo if you check my recent riff challenge video's I use it on those with an SM 57 riff challenge #26 is without but all after use V30 I found it worked for me even before seeimg this video so I totally believe you🤘🤘