Guitarists - how do I make my electric guitar sound like one?

Of course the easiest way to get virtually any sound you want that 99% of people wouldn't notice in a blind test would be to get a Roland GR55 or Boss GP10.

Also danlightbulb, plug your amp into you computer and you should be able to download the sounds you are after from the Blackstar site.
 
never tried the Roland or Boss...not used any real amps since I got a Pod XT about 15 years ago!

decided to upgrade that a few years ago...had a Line 6 Helix, an Axe FX2 and a Kemper all on trial at the same time..was fun doing some tests :D....the Kemper was the winner...Axe FX and Helix had more effects...you could even play a recording of a song in to the Axe and it would 'tone match', it was pretty good but the Kemper just felt a bit more raw and responsive

had to sell the Kemper last year because I'm an idiot :p back to using the Pod XT obv not as good as the latest modellers but it still sounds decent tbh
 
Nitefly said:
Without reading most (any) of the thread, it seems you are looking at an ‘overdriven’ tone. These tones traditionally come from ‘pushing’ the tubes of a tube amp. Crudely speaking, some amps (and many ye olde amps) get a lot of their tone from their ‘power tube’ section - the tubes that amplify volume after the signal has been ‘processed’ (which is why they are sometimes called post-amp tubes and why this sort of gain is post-amp gain). This is why a lot of traditional amps have to be turned up very loud to sound their best - a clean, but ‘broken up’ sound. A well known brand of amplifier that (purportedly) needs to be loud to sound good is ‘Marshall’.

Frankly, almost any amp of this style is far too loud for home use.

Other amps apply gain BEFORE the power tube section, in the pre-amp section. This gives the modern, hyper distorted sound you would associate with bands like Metallica. A well known brand of this type of amp is Mesa Boogie.

For a typical home use set up, if you have a simple amp with a drive/ distortion channel, you will probably be best off setting the gain to very low and raise it until the point where it’s not quite as distorted as you had in mind. Then it’s a case of smacking those strings! Attack them! Hurrrghhh!!! Different amps will be different in their response but you will find that the harder you play the more distorted it sounds. Play hard and you will find yourself broadly with the tone you are looking for.

You can do the opposite by having the gain slightly higher than what is ideal on the amp and then roll back the volume on your guitar itself.

BUT (and someone may have mentioned this already) you can make pretty much any guitar sound better, more full and convincing by apply reverb and delay. Some over-zealous types will say this is cheating but that’s absolute rubbish. If it sounds good, it’s good. Delay and reverb should ideally be applied at the very end of the signal chain, post power-tubes (in the effects loop). I can’t watch the video in the OP right now but I can guarantee there will be reverb and/or delay.

There are guitar effects that are completely unobvious that can really affect your sound - not what you’re looking for but just as an FYI. Things like noise gates and compressors. When you go down the rabbit hole of tone, it can get really complicated.

Another obvious point, your tone will pretty much always sound crisper, cleaner and neater with single coil pick up as opposed to a ‘fatter’ sounding humbucker - so if your guitar has both experiment between the two

Finally, I have some insanely expensive equipment (pretty much as expensive as it gets) and you can spend forever trying to make your sound better. It’s far better to spend time PLAYING. :)
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have you checked how much your amp cost today? They have jacked the price up!
 
builder22 said:
never tried the Roland or Boss...not used any real amps since I got a Pod XT about 15 years ago!

decided to upgrade that a few years ago...had a Line 6 Helix, an Axe FX2 and a Kemper all on trial at the same time..was fun doing some tests :D....the Kemper was the winner...Axe FX and Helix had more effects...you could even play a recording of a song in to the Axe and it would 'tone match', it was pretty good but the Kemper just felt a bit more raw and responsive

had to sell the Kemper last year because I'm an idiot :p back to using the Pod XT obv not as good as the latest modellers but it still sounds decent tbh
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Lucky boy, I would have loved to have tried those 3 at the same time.
Here in Stoke the Kemper is being used by a lot of pro guitarists.

I'm not going to claim the Roland/Boss are as good but they also emulate the guitar and still have 1000s of amps/speakers/effects to choose from so there isn't a famous sound I can't get.
I plug straight into a 3000 watt PA and monitor on headphones.
The other month I got together with an old band and put my Roland through a Laney 300 which is basically a PA Mixer cab and my sound was as good as my mates who had got a Les Paul, Marshall Amp and Gallien Kruger 4 x 12.
Over the years it's been great to play with bands and I just tune in the sound I need for that band.

I've just sold a Line 6 Firehawk to my lead guitarist and he's awe struck.
 
Raymond Lin said:
have you checked how much your amp cost today? They have jacked the price up!
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:o silly
physichull said:
Ha! These posts need a whopping big disclaimer on them to the OP to say that we are now the biggest hypocrites in the land!!! :) We are discussing precisely what we said you should never do!!!

Interesting post @Nitefly , you make some interesting points.

Current gear: Gibson Les Paul Standard 2018 (blueberry burst), Marshall DSL40C. By no means 4x12 cabinet, but I don't need that for what I do, and to be honest, I don't need a 40W valve amp either! It knocks down walls if you turn it up! Pedals: Boss DD7, Big Muff Pi, CS-3, TC Corona chorus, Boss GE-7, Mr Black Supermoon, Boss CS-3, a RAT, TC Golden Plexi - I know, I already have a Marshall but I was curious for just a few quid! a Bad Monkey and the Dane.

This is the lesson to learn about chasing tones and why its a bad idea:

I love Dan's tone in particular, hearing his guitar on its own is just a super rhythm tone. Justin has a creamier and more "Les Paul Custom" kind of sound.

I heard Justin used to use a ProCo RAT. So I bought a ProCo RAT. Can confirm, it just doesn't work with a Marshall amp. Like, not even slightly. I tried using it just on the clean channel and the OD channel and it just doesn't work. £130 of wastage.

I can get quite close to that Black Shuck kind of tone with my amp alone. I sometimes use the Boss EQ, but mostly for the level boost - keeping the EQs fairly flat. Using a Muff just muds everything, that's a useless pedal for the Darkness, but I didn't buy it for that reason.

The Bad Monkey on the other hand, it was fairly cheap at the time but its absolutely fantastic. Love it, gets a little closer to the creamier more overdriven tone of Justin's guitar. Its a superb pedal for the money.

Interesting your comments about the EQ and scooping a couple of the frequencies. I usually just resort to my amps EQ, but occasionally, given the limits of my amp, I often find myself turning the dials up quite a long way. You are spot on about the gain though, less is definitely more, particularly for Dan's tone, and just use your playing style to make is sound nastier! Most of the time my gain is only on around 10-11 o clock.

9s strings for solos, 10s for rhythm. I play 10s most of the time though....

You are right about the "mix" with the various band components, you can never really get close, plus all the post production tweaks, and the multi-tracking as you've said, you can never get it that close.

As an aside, there is a lot to say about the Darkness. They get a lot of stick and are kinda seen as a bit of a joke now, but they are massively underrated guitarists (maybe they aren't amongst guitarist circles....?). But their last 3 albums have been absolutely top notch stuff with some great guitar work and catchy riffs.
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I tend to find that changing the knobs broadly sculpts the sound than then using EQ sliders or a parametric EQ allows you to be forensic. You do have to turn the EQ off every ones in a while to reset your ears!

I absolutely LOVED having the Boss ME50 when that came out. It was just the greatest thing.... all the effects you could ever want :)
 
danlightbulb said:
Would anyone be able to either describe, or link to a video of, perhaps the five or so fundamental sounds that I should look to experiment with?

Perhaps by era? Eg how would I get a 50's sound, a 70's sound, an 80's sound etc.

All I can currently do is get an overdriven sound, which sounds ok when using single notes but sounds too distorted if Im playing chords, or a non-driven sound, which sounds nice but has limited sustain.

I can get a few effects out of my amp like phaser or delay, but I'd like to get the fundamental sounds right first.

My guitar has two single coil pickups and a humbucker at the bridge end.

I think the general issue I am having is getting sustain without distortion.
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Tbh I wouldn’t bother trying to emulate any obvious range of sounds. Just try so sound like the bands you want to. Who are your favourites?
 
Get a padal.

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Nitefly said:
Tbh I wouldn’t bother trying to emulate any obvious range of sounds. Just try so sound like the bands you want to. Who are your favourites?
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I guess The Shadows, Dire Straits. I like their sound the most. Pink Floyd too.

ive never been hugely into any particular bands tbh, just like the sounds i grew up with.
 
Tone chasing comes way later....and it cost money and endless. You can have the exact rig and it probably won’t sound the same because half the sound is in the fingers. I have all gear anyone could ever ask for, Kevin Shield would be jealous, yet I’ll never be Davey G because I’m not him. I’m happy to get the rhythms right! Lol
 
SexyGreyFox said:
I've already told him, Blackstar like many other companies, will have software so you can look for sounds and transfer them to his amp but he doesn't want to listen.

http://www.blackstarinsider.co.uk

http://www.blackstarinsider.co.uk/faqs.php
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I need to get a cable - dont have the right one as its an old usb standard on the amp.

Ill only be able to download sounds that are already creatable using the settings on the amp itself though wont I? Ill gladly be proved wrong but there wont be a 'dire straits' setting?
 
there'll be settings for loads of bands/guitarists... just get the cable :p

plus there's adjustments to effects parameters etc that are maybe more easily accessible with the PC interface, looks like there's various knob/button combos needed to have the same control just using the amp
 
danlightbulb said:
I need to get a cable - dont have the right one as its an old usb standard on the amp.

Ill only be able to download sounds that are already creatable using the settings on the amp itself though wont I? Ill gladly be proved wrong but there wont be a 'dire straits' setting?
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I could be wrong also but every pedal and amp that I've come across where you can download user sounds always come with Hank Marvin, Mark Knopfler, Angus Young, James Hetfield etc because they are the basic sounds people want. of course a big part of the sound is the guitar itself so putting a Les Paul through a Hank Marvin setting will definitely not sound like Hank Marvin.
This is the beauty of my Roland GR55 or Boss GP-10 because I can choose the guitar sound also.
I still have a Line 6 setup that features a James Tyler JTV59 and POD HD500 where the guitar can choose between 37 famous guitar sounds and the pedal can choose between 1000s of famous sounds and once again the accuracy will beat everybody in a blind test.
 
Nitefly said:
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A couple of years ago I was playing in an acoustic band and I was looking for a good acoustic pedal just to give me a little reverb, chorus and compression etc.
I came across the ME70 in a cupboard and it was everything I needed.

I can't look at OCUK in any other colour, it would be sacrilege and against the Gods.
 
Bassmansam said:
whats the most expensive guitar you guys own?
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I've had a genuine £1700 offer for my 1979 American Fender Stratocaster which cost me £305 in 1979.
Over the years I've spent ridiculous amounts of money on especially Ibanez Steve Vai models.
One I still own is a James Tyler JTV59 which I paid £1100 for and I bought 2 of them.
I also own a Hayman 4040 bass that I bought from new in the early 70s, that's supposed to be worth a bit.
 
Bassmansam said:
whats the most expensive guitar you guys own?
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It's a bit cringe since it's been in its case for 9 months, but a Tom Anderson Angel. It is good though. By far away the most resonant of the shred style guitars I've had.
Nitefly said:
New guitar day - Tom Anderson Angel.

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Stegosaurus is for tone.
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At this point, it'll require a rocky-montage of training to get back to a level of playing beyond embarrassing. Just don't have the space in my house or the energy. When I move house, we have a 'guitar room' as a thing pencilled in so I can enjoy the hobby without it causing gross clutter.
 
Bassmansam said:
whats the most expensive guitar you guys own?
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Cost, in direct cost was a new PRS SC58 which was $2100 from the US plus tax and duty.

I have also paid £1100 for a used PRS Custom 22 which i then part Ex + £1k for my 2001 CS Gibson. So these are similar in cost but the Gibson is worth more, reverb price it around £3500-4500 depending on the figures top and condition. I can’t actually price the PRS because it’s kind of one off custom, If it’s regular PRS run it’s worth about the same if paid.

How much someone paid and how much they are worth can be wildly different, if you buy used then you won’t lose much money at all. Guitars is like cars, classic cars even, if you buy used and pick the right one, you can sell it at no loss. I’ve only ever paid full price RRP once and that’s a GS Mini. Everything else is either on sale or used.

last few years guitar prices has gone out of hand, it seems they are pushing the higher end stuff ever higher, almost a 10% increase year on year, over £4K now for a new CS Fender and £5.5k for a Gibson reissue. I remember them being £3500-4000 new in about 2014. It’s very hard to get into the higher end stuff if you are starting out. Used gear is where the wise money is.
 
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