common mistakes that make your tone suck.

jimistone

jimistone

long standing member
I know all of us have seen and heard things that cause shitty guitar tone.

One thing that is very common that I see is using too much pre-gain or "crunch". It's like brill cream...a little dab will do you. Nothing, IMO, ruins tone as much as too much pre.

Anyone else have any tone destroying pet peaves?
 
I see, or hear, too many people set their EQ without getting down to speaker level. It's mostly bad with combo guys and/or 2x12s. They stand above the amp and hear the room. It's dark and dull so they jack the highs. Anything in front of the amp, like a person, or a mic, is getting roasted with high end. Dumb.
 
Too many goddamned pedals. You show me a guitarist with a pedal board like the deck of the Enterprise and I'll show you someone who's shit scared of being heard properly. :D
 
Making decisions based on the room tone, or based on what you hear in headphones while standing next to the amp. You need to hear it through your monitors and then make your adjustments. You can do that by making a test recording and listening back, or else by getting the amp out of the room where you are monitoring. And listen to it in the mix, or as much of it as you have tracked up to that point. Another mistake is scooping the mids excessively, then wondering why your guitars sound puny and distant. Another is trying to make Amp A sound like Amp B, which has totally different characteristics. Find the tones that your particular amp does well, then make those work in your music.
 
Bubba po said:
Too many goddamned pedals. You show me a guitarist with a pedal board like the deck of the Enterprise and I'll show you someone who's shit scared of being heard properly. :D
Click to expand...

How many is too many?

I have about 7 on my board, all controlled by a pedal switcher. Is that too many?

Let's see, I have a germanium fuzz, 2 OD's, a midi controlled delay, midi controlled mod, a spring reverb, compressor, and a tuner.

Is that too many? Am I afraid of being heard?
 
Calaban said:
How many is too many?

I have about 7 on my board, all controlled by a pedal switcher. Is that too many?

Let's see, I have a germanium fuzz, 2 OD's, a midi controlled delay, midi controlled mod, a spring reverb, compressor, and a tuner.

Is that too many? Am I afraid of being heard?
Click to expand...

Yes
 
Calaban said:
How many is too many?

I have about 7 on my board, all controlled by a pedal switcher. Is that too many?

Let's see, I have a germanium fuzz, 2 OD's, a midi controlled delay, midi controlled mod, a spring reverb, compressor, and a tuner.

Is that too many? Am I afraid of being heard?
Click to expand...

It turns out that the threshold is 8. So you're good. But you're so close, SO CLOSE TO BEING AFRAID!

:D
 
I've been listening to a lot of guitar related stuff on YouTube lately. Strangely enough, it seems that over half of the people that either create or view content there are really into metal. I mean, like reeeaaaalllly into metal. The worst offenses that I keep seeing/hearing:

- too much preamp gain, like Jimi mentioned
- scooping out all of the mid frequencies, leaving only mushy bass and spiky treble and no definition
- not turning the amp up loud enough to get the speaker moving enough air to matter
- trying to record a presentable guitar tone with a damn telephone
- not learning or paying someone to properly adjust your instrument. Bad intonation is a deal-breaker
- not taking 10 seconds to tune before pressing record
 
Tadpui said:
I've been listening to a lot of guitar related stuff on YouTube lately. Strangely enough, it seems that over half of the people that either create or view content there are really into metal. I mean, like reeeaaaalllly into metal. The worst offenses that I keep seeing/hearing:

- too much preamp gain, like Jimi mentioned
- scooping out all of the mid frequencies, leaving only mushy bass and spiky treble and no definition
- not turning the amp up loud enough to get the speaker moving enough air to matter
- trying to record a presentable guitar tone with a damn telephone
- not learning or paying someone to properly adjust your instrument. Bad intonation is a deal-breaker
- not taking 10 seconds to tune before pressing record
Click to expand...

Ha yeah. Youtube is the de facto home of crap metal.

Speaking of those videos, I have a huge pet peeve with guitar/amp demos - the sound of pick hitting strings. Don't fucking waste my time with an amp video if that motherfucking thing isn't even loud enough to overcome the sound of a guitar pick hitting the strings.
 
Greg_L said:
Ha yeah. Youtube is the de facto home of crap metal.

Speaking of those videos, I have a huge pet peeve with guitar/amp demos - the sound of pick hitting strings. Don't fucking waste my time with an amp video if that motherfucking thing isn't even loud enough to overcome the sound of a guitar pick hitting the strings.
Click to expand...

Totally! You know within 2 notes of a demo where you can hear pick/string noise that the rest of the demo is going to be a waste of time.
 
Another common tone robbing mistake I see people make is setting their pickups too high. The lower the pickups the better the tone. Texas Special strat pickups are a great example of this, because they have higher output than most other strat pups. I hear people bash those pickups because they lack definition and articulation. They are right....when those pickups are close to the strings. But, if you set the bass side flush with the pick guard and the treble side up to about the thickness of a nickel (or whatever height gives you balanced string volume)...they sound fantastic.

Most people set their pickups high to get more output, but it's a mistake. Get a OD pedal to boost output and get better tone with lowered pickups.
 
^^^^Seems more like trolling to me.^^^^

Back on topic. Live I wont use any pedals. Maybe a wah. Too much stuff for me to deal with. Dont need and like most of them anyway.

Most often used pedals are some type of gain/ distotion device. I achieve this by cranking the amp and dialing down my guitar volume. When I need more crunch, it's at my fingertips.

Now in the studio toys will come out, but its mostly to create stuff that happens live naturally. Such as reverb.

I can respect guys that have a full featured pedal board and have mastered it. I'm just not one of them.

Speaking of pedals, I have a brand new, in box Boss DD-500 should anyone be interested.
 
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I think often people don't really know the tone they want before they start recording.
If you have a good idea of what you are after...with a decent amp and maybe a pedal or two, most times you should be able to dial it in.

I get the feeling that people who have a hard time finding good tone might be too caught up in pedal madness, or they don't know how to dial in their amp, or if they are using sims, they just pull up presets and assume it will sound like what the preset name implies...or they dial in the tone based on JUST the guitar tone by itself...which then falls apart in the mix.
 
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