#11 the biggest sound improve

    Record more and play more with ppl. Often tones that sounds great to you solo don't in a recording or band context. Sometimes that awesome sounding tone does not sound as awesome when you hear it back :)

    Quote from Job Posthuma

    Stop at the first note that didnt sound 100% right.
    Figure out how to do it right
    Do it again.

    I can't tell if this was meant to be serious or tongue in cheek, but I think its pretty ludicrous and you'll never get past the first note.


    But, then again, I guess maybe it depends upon how you define something that 'sounds 100% right'.

    Quote from flyingheelhook

    I can't tell if this was meant to be serious or tongue in cheek, but I think its pretty ludicrous and you'll never get past the first note.
    But, then again, I guess maybe it depends upon how you define something that 'sounds 100% right'.

    was serious :)
    Focus on how it sounds seems so obvious, but looking back i certainly had my times where i focussed on speed..hitting certain notes...picking techniques...etc...maybe getting results there..but not always with the right sound/timing(sound from fingers/picks, not from gear). Maybe thats a typical phenomona with guitar players
    Having a very strict regime for yourself paracticing that departement i believe delivers very good results.

    I've been playing thrash metal since I was a teenager, so most of my technique tips apply to that style...I've often been complemented on my sound being 'really heavy, yet still tight and defined'' - I'm of the opinion that really its my technique, not my gutiar/amp sound (which has changed over the years) that supplies this.

    • Adapt your picking technique to the style of the riff. e.g. with a metal riff you want to dig deep and angle the pick so it's NOT running parallel to the strings, so it kinda scratches across the string as you pick. For softer/lower gain stuff you want a more parallel angle with less scratching, and dig less deep. Solos require you to pick MUCH less deeply, but still with a small bit of angle. Most people hate trying to learn to do this, especially if they've grown up with bad habits, but it is worth the effort. Paul Gilbert had a video about this on YouTube somewhere some years back, although he advocated the scrapey technique ALL the time (I don't)
    • Further to the above, you'll probably discover that you need to increase the action on your lower strings to prevent excessive fret buzz. Do it. You'll hate playing lead on it for a while, but you'll get used to it and your rhythm playing will tighten right up.
    • Use decent thickness strings. For every step you tune down, as a MINIMUM you need to go up a gauge in strings (starting from 9s), so e.g. standard E would be OK with 9s, D would need 10s, C would need 11s and so on. If you can stomach it, going up another guage will help even more. I play in D with hybrid strings at the moment, but used to use 11s. I found 10s too flabby.
    • if you want tight metal rhythm, use a guitar with a 25.5" ('Fender') scale rather than a 24.75" ('Gibson') scale. The extra tension in the strings helps keep things controlled.
    • Use picks with a square edge. Dunlop Tortex ones for example, or the green ones that come with your Kemper. The edge of your pick should have TWO corners when you look at it side-on (i.e. looking at it from the thin side); if it tapers to a point, leave it for playing softer music.
    • Throw your pick away sooner than you think. Check the wear, and keep an eye on how it feels as it slides over the string. I find that after a 3 hour band practice I need to chuck the pick I've been using, or alternatively get a knife and scrape the edge flat again where it's worn in an angle.
    • Palm mute properly. Many metal guitarists don't mute properly and hence you get an indistinct, fuzzy, flab of a palm mute instead of a thick CHUNNNN sound. Press your palm down hard, and try moving it a little bit closer to the nut in order to tighten these up. A slight increase in the pitch of the palm mute (versus the open note) is an almost inescapable side effect. Don't worry about it too much unless it really does sound like you're fretting it one note too high.
    • Practice getting your alternate picking to 'disappear' behind a fast click/metronome (i.e. one click per up or downstroke). Or if you're a thrash guitarist like me, program a simple double kick drum line and pick the same notes as the kick. This is as much of a listening exercise as it is a technique one; you'll hear a sudden difference once you lock into it - it's quite satisfying. Then practice that at different tempos to get your picking hand out of it's 'natural' tempo. Too many guitarists are caught up in their own little bubble and don't pay enough attention to making their pick hit the string at exactly the same time as the kick beater/drum stick hits the skin. It doesn't happen naturally (contrary to what you probably think) - you have to work at it.
    • Only play with JUST ENOUGH gain for rhythm. If you're playing metal, crank the gain ONLY until you hear the palm mutes start to saturate and fizz, then back it off a little. It will clean up your sound a lot.
    • Learn to tune properly. Don't just rely on your tuner. Check your intonation; my favourite way is to tune my guitar normally, then play power chords on each pair of strings at both the open root string and at the 12th fret (with a high gain sound). If they all sound smooth and powerful, great. If some sound off/out of tune/not as smooth as the others (i.e. the intermodulation distortion you hear sounds like ass or you can detect a beat frequency), your intonation is out (most cheaper guitars suffer from this). Fix it and try again.
    • Further to the above point, replace your strings regularly. What happens is that the strings develop tiny scrapes and 'dents' around the frets, and this affects the intonation. It also imparts a horrible scratchy, buzzy sound to the guitar (kinda like a reduced version of fret buzz). And this is before we begin to talk about corrosion/dirt.
    • Further to the above, don't record or gig with brand new strings unless you particularly want a very bright, jangly sound (you don't want that for metal). Play them in for a day or so first. This also allows the tuning to settle.
    • Learn to mute unused strings properly. Use your palm to mute unused low strings, and the unused fingers of your right and left hands to mute the higher strings. Watch Francis Rossi, he often rests the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th fingertips of his right hand on the highest 3 strings while he's playing the lower 3, or jams his palm across the lower strings to dampen them. The more gain you use, the more important this becomes. At high gain, during stabs I often have to use both hands to mute the strings - palm jammed across all 6 strings, entire left hand lightly wrapped across all 6 strings. This kills any residual resonance of the the strings at high gain levels, and does it naturally; don't rely on a noise gate to do this for you - a) that's lazy, and b) it sounds shit. Noise gates are for removing the noise floor that the equipment creates, not noise that you create. Also learn to keep dead still during stabs/rests - even slight movement can induce small noises in a high gain rig that detract from the absolute dead silence you want during a musical rest.
    • Find a riff being played by your favourite guitarist where the rest of the band is silent (i.e. just guitar). Record yourself playing the same riff. Listen to the difference between the two (set up a track in your DAW for him and one for you, pan them left/right, send them to a group, mono out the main stereo bus, then use the pan control of the group to A/B them), and analyse what you need to do to sound as good as they do (I'm assuming that your favourite guitarist actually has good technique, which is not always the case). It helps if you EQ match your recording to the original for this so that your perception is not biased.
    Quote from AxeSlash

    I've been playing thrash metal since I was a teenager, so most of my technique tips apply to that style...I've often been complemented on my sound being 'really heavy, yet still tight and defined'' - I'm of the opinion that really its my technique, not my gutiar/amp sound (which has changed over the years) that supplies this.

    Great post!! I don't necessarily agree 100% with all the points, but way most :) And very practical advice. thumbs up! :)

    Disclaimer: Clearly NOT playing Metal here.


    This is my experience for Recording:


    Choosing only 1 or 2 strings to pick at a time on a Boutique guitar -> crazy expensive chords -> Compressor -> Delay (optional) -> Reverb
    -> Kemper -> Profiles of 59 Bassman or AC15 HW or Marshall JMP45 -> SPDIFF -> DAW


    I find the boutique guitars just have these necessary ingredients:
    1) Superb sustain
    2) Stay in tune
    3) Boutique pups with great Mids
    4) Ease of playability


    The Compressor brings that great sound up to a nice chime and the delay and/or reverb help hold it in the air in a mix.


    The KPA and great profiles just allow this all to sing.


    I am finally getting the guitar tones I've always dreamed off. The rest are my hands fault.


    Boutique guitars are great, but I'd be scared to take them out of my house. Give me a workhorse to earn my daily bread! :)