Periphery's Mark Holcomb - Building Chords Into Single-Note Riff Ideas

Periphery guitarist Mark Holcomb discusses the way he approaches using chords in conjunction with single notes when he writes guitar riffs. FOR TABS, GO TO:

[AlexStarbard]

Pretty much anything Mark plays just sounds fucking amazing, love his style

[ItzRoger]

It sounds like an insanely driven tone but in reality it's really just moderate gain at a loud volume and god tier EQ for rich beautiful clarity. i could listen to his chords forever

[JTwatchesyoutube]

Those are some great pickups. They maintain a lot of clarity under distortion.

[lorenzocafferata]

90% of those chords are playable in standard tuning as well. They're just chord clusters, add9, sus2, sus4 chords from jazz/fusion derivation. Using them in hi-gain contest and metal songs is freakin awesome and absolutely innovative

[rigorhead]

That's a killer heavy tone he's got there. I'm usually not a fan of super high gain, but this sounds great. It tight and refined, not noisey or out of control. Nice!

[RXD]

There's really not all that much gain in his tone. The amp itself is pushing maybe half OR LESS of what it's gain channel can produce. It's all about how hot the input signal from the guitar is.

I know nothing about his pickups, but I'll assume they are mid to high range on the output scale. The pickups themselves obviously have a significant impact on the end result, but for a tone like this I'd say the majority of the tone itself is generated by what he puts in front of his amp (along with the amp's settings of course, but that's basic so I'll pass over that for now).

If you have a tube amp (or AxeFX/Kemper/Amp Sim), a simple way to add clarity can be achieved in at least two ways. 

1.) An overdrive pedal. (Tube Screamer, FATRAT...)


2.) A parametric EQ. (The same can be achieved with a graphic EQ but it's overly complicated for our application) 

BEFORE I GET INTO THIS - TURN YOUR FUCKING AMP GAIN DOWN. Set preamp gain at half/noon while you experiment with this. These methods boost the hell out of your preamp. Setting amp gain too high will make a nasty over saturated sound. In many cases, the mud in your tone is coming from the power amp. Keep the Master Volume low unless you're rocking out on something British. ;)

Just roll it back, trust me.

OD PEDALS:

Overdrive pedals have been a staple of gain heavy guitar tones for decades. They are very simple. An overdrive pedal will simply boost the level of your incoming guitar signal (simply making it 'louder/hotter' in terms of line db) before it gets sent to the amplifier. Boosting this signal (ie. adding GAIN, not distortion) will push the amplifier's preamp and power section into clipping much easier. With tube amps/sims, clipping is your friend! This is how thick tone and spongy pick attack is achieved. The peak transients of your picking are smashed by the pre-amp which gives you the oh so lovely CHUG or DJENT that you love. Add that hot signal from the combination of the OD and the preamp to the power section and you get massive amounts of tube  saturation. You're literally pushing your tubes to their limit. In other words, you're compressing your signal to be as 'loud' as possible before it hits the amp to coax more natural gain and harmonic content from your amplifier.

So when you see a Tube Screamer before the input jack on an amp with GAIN at 0 and LEVEL at 10, you know that the signal is being boosted like a motherfucker so the nectar of the distortion gods can be squeezed from every last bit of your amp's electronics. The GAIN is at 0 because you don't want to add artificial clipping. The LEVEL is boosted to encourage the amplifier itself to clip, providing you with the uber chugga tone of your dreams while maintaining a high level of clarity. (The clarity is achieved because you specifically altered your tone to emphasize natural clipping from your amp and not by adding 'artificial distortion'. DISTORTION BAD - OVERDRIVE GOOD!

As for the Tone knob, most people like it maxed, but it usually sounds best around 2:30-3:00 o'clock.

A PARAMETRIC EQ:

The Parametric EQ method does exactly the same thing BUT it allows you to sculpt the signal from your guitar to complement the amplifier you are playing through.

Basic Setup:

Starting off, throw a PEQ pedal/unit between your guitar and your amp. A high-pass filter is ESSENTIAL here. High-pass is how you keep things TIGHT. Cut your low end with a High-Pass at around 150hz with a strong Q to pull all the muddy garbage out of your signal (your guitar's natural frequency range is strongest around 900hz/2khz. This is why anything below 100/150hz can be cut with no repercussions). Now use the LEVEL knob/slider and boost the FUCK out of it. Hear all that saturation going on? Yeah, that's right. There is the distortion you want with the clarity you need!

Sculpt your tone further by accentuating different frequencies in the tonal spectrum. 1400hz is a nice sweet spot on most guitars if you're trying to achieve that metallic 'djent' sound. So set a tight Q around 1400hz and boost it by a few db. Feel it out. Feel free to cut some of the really high pitched noise with a low pass. Don't set it too low or your tone will DIE. Flat as a pancake. A little bit of fizz is crucial to having a cutting tone. I wouldn't cut anything at all under 10kHz.

If you ask me, the PEQ method is best for achieving clarity. It adds little to no tonal coloration to your tone. It's my go-to for heavy tones and sharp Thrash tones alike.

The really important part is this:

EXPERIMENT as much as possible! These two methods will change your tone drastically. If you experiment, you might find another avenue to uncharted tone territory. Just play around; boost this, cut that! Don't be shy! Most importantly...

Find your own sound! A unique tone is always an ear-catcher! Build upon your influences and try to break new tonal ground! 

Have fun!

[acdbassdistortion]

I used to be all bass and peripherys chords made me want to learn guitar alongside it to expand my riffing through creative chords. <3 periphery

[mitchcoull]

The intonation on that guitar is INSANE!

[wakjob]

I've been listening and following this style of disjointed/schizophrantic single note riffing for 7-8 years now, and I just started to rap my head around it.
Then comes along Mark Holcomb and humbles me back to square one.

[AaronWelchMusic]

How the shit is there so much gain without losing clarity?!!?!?

[andrewt]

Wow, them's some close intervals for metal/high-gain. Love it!

[ossibossi]

He certainly knows alot of cool chords without knowing theory. That's pretty cool actually. Cool.

[kerrytaylor]

Man, I love Mark Holcomb. That Am7add2 in Pale Aura (5:35) is tough as balls.

[dougcronkhite]

Mark is one of the most inventive guitarists today with his chord voicings.. reminds me of Jim Matheos in many ways.

[brandonlam]

Literally one of the most talented humans on Earth. Love this dude.

[rjsmith]

He has no idea about what the chords are lol. But it really does not matter as long as it sounds good IN MY OPINION.

[MiraaagePenguin]

I'd love to hear his riffs in a clean version, especially with those crispy chords of his!

[JustAGuy]

OMG! Mark on GuitarWorld. My life is complete.

[Juventud]

I've been waiting for a lesson like this for some time. I get stuck on chord transitions and single notes into chords. Thanks Mark

[Rooz]

such a rediculously gifted musician
his voicing is phenominal