your tone secrets!

[antiheroinc]

i'm intrigued to hear everyones secrets for their best guitar tone.
at the moment i'm chasing "august burns red - constellations" or "cancer bats - hail destroyer" tone for a side project

i've got bare-nut essentials really. I have a Peavey Triple X (I replaced the 6L6's for EL34's, and swapped the 12AX7's), running through a Ibanez TS808 Tube Screamer then routed through the first gate/comp of my Decimator Pro-RackG and out to my Marshall 1960a cab (i replaced the speakers for some vintage greenbacks i got off ebay), then i have the the 2nd channel of my Decimator running through the fx loop on the head (it helps reduce the "fuzz" and lets me drive it a bit harder). And of course, I have Peavey Revalver mkIII.

is this possible? if so how? i've gotten close, but i'm actually keen to see what everyone does/would do

 

[Wolfeman]

The secret is all in mic placement.

So far that's what I've found to be the make or break on a guitar tone.

 

[AdamWathan]

Play guitar like a man and don't pick like a girl, that has always proven to be the most important factor so far for me!

 

[Harry Hughes]

^That is correct.
The concept of tone being in the picking hand cannot be stressed enough

 

[Wolfeman]

Oh crap I see you mean guitar tone before recording. Well in that case I second what Adam said.

 

[cloy26]

Like what everyone else has said.

You can have an amazing amp with an amazing mic placement, but if the guitarist can't play, no equiptment in the world can hide that.

 

[Metaltastic]

Honestly, IMO amp settings are easier to get wrong than mic placement; the ol' inch off the grille, half on/half off the dustcap should at least get you in the ballpark, provided the room is decent and you aren't getting any nasty reflections

 

[brianhood]

Play guitar like a man and don't pick like a girl, that has always proven to be the most important factor so far for me!

i call that pussy picking, and i do not allow it at my studio.
Dick picking only!

 

[brianhood]

oh, and my best mic position i've found is about in the center about 30% on the dustcap, 2 inches from the grill.

 

[Loren Littlejohn]

Good guitar, good player, good amp, good settings, good mic placement.

That's all you need.

Other than a touch of post eq. There really isn't much of a secret here.

 

[abt]

Harry Hughes - Posts: 2000

Nice one Hazza!

 

[Harry Hughes]

A good tone is something that fits in a mix.
Try to dial in the most brutal, h00ge tone by itself and it ain't gonna work in a mix where you need at least one more track of guitar, bass guitar, drums and maybe vocals.
A lot of people say "back off the gain" but I stopped buying into that school of thought a while ago. I think for some metal styles a highly saturated tone is awesome even if it's at the expense of clarity. I'm not saying have the gain literally on full, but don't be afraid to use an amount that really gets those palm mutes chunking and sustaining either

 

[Harry Hughes]

Harry Hughes - Posts: 2000

Nice one Hazza!

Haha no one has called me Hazza for years now, it's brought back memories see that

 

[Lasse Lammert]

no secrets here.
put 6L6 back into the amp though

 

[AerialThesis]

There is no best guitar tone.
I agree on the fact that if it goes well in the mix then it should be considered as a good guitar tone.
Stupid to put it this way, but the guitar tone that goes the best for a mix is the best guitar tone for that mix.
Have you ever heard the song named Starless by King Crimson?
There is a guitar playing a gentle melody at the beginning and it probably as the most low passed sound I've heard but still fits the mix at a point where I believe it's the best guitar tone that could have been used there.
I've never heard such a mellow sound either.

My best tip would be that if you like the sound you hear from an amp then keep it.
The rest should be done in microphone placement and eq, but still the original sound lies there.

 

[SkybluestudiosBEN]

Usually using the thinnest gtr picks, passive stock pick ups, super thin ernie ball strings, dropping the guitar down to A and going through a line 6 will really get you some SICK tone haha

 

[TheWinterSnow]

its called a "secret" for a reason...

 

[professorlamp]

A Phat pick (Jazz III's )
Don't be a pussy
your amp doesnt sound like what you ear through a mic, record it first to test the tone.
spend a bit of time getting to know your amp, take it out for dinner,wash your amp,love your amp!
GOOD GUITAR!
A £20 encore is still going to sound like a £20 encore

 

[TheDriller]

For me personally:

-Jazz III picks.
-A picking hand made of Granite.
-Just enough gain, sometimes a tiny bit more
-be concious that the tone needs to fit the mix, there is no one-size-fits-all guitar tone.

 

[greyskull]

get the sound in the room first. THis goes for everything.