2009
11.06
11.06
You have purchased the signature guitar of your hero. You bought the green pedal, you played with a peso, but you still hate your tone! I can help! This DVD will help you understand how guitars, tube amps and effects pedals may be combined to achieve unique, appealing tones.
Don,
Do your guitar strings make much difference?
Strings do make a difference in 3 significant ways: 1.) The string effects how the guitar feels and responds. 2.) The gauge of the string effects the size of the sonic foot print. Bigger gauge strings sound bigger and rounder, lighter gauge strings tend towards the treble side. 3.) The string material effects the way it reproduces sound. Pure nickel are slightly mellow lower out put with a bit of harmonic complexity . Alloy strings are higher output a bit more gain and brighter. I use GHS Boomer(Alloy) .010′s on my 66 Strat. I use Kendrick Pure nickel on my 56 strat and my humbucker guitars. Experiment with different brands with your guitar(s) to find the right one.
Do you notice much difference among cabinets made with different woods? Is a pine cab better than, say, a maple one? Or a plywood one? Woods in other instruments matter much. Could you discuss?
How about speaker cones, impedances and cone materials?
LOOKING FOR THAT TONE
Hi Charles,
I have created a public facebook group called Guitar Tone Secrets. Any one can join. I have nearly 400 members from all walks of guitardom. These guys and girls are dishing out some great advice! You can purchase my DVD the Components of Tone. This is made for players just getting started in their search. If you are unfamiliar with all of the choices out there this DVD is a good start. If you already can tell which guitars, amps and pedal are being used on any recording or stage, wait for the second one!
Here’s the short answer for now. Avoid particle board and plywood cabinets. Get a solid wood pine cabinet with good dovetail joints. I have heard some birch cabs that sound great too! The best bet is to buy a used solid wood cabinet. These can be much cheaper and “broken in”. Speaker choice is a bigger topic. The design, materials, wattage, wiring, size (10″, 12″ 15″) all make a significant difference. This will be my next topic. I should have it posted in two weeks. You can also join my public facebook group called Guitar Tone Secrets. There is a lot of grate tone advice there as well.