Guitar Tricks Insider April/May Digital Edition | Page 46

7COVER
KILLERSTORY
AMP TWEAKS

7 KILLER AMP TWEAKS

his fingers with the help of that ’59 Tele and sheer
tube tone. As Jimmy proved many times over in
the Zeppelin era, when it comes to amp overdrive,
less is more. Just a dab of dirt can do the job.

TOP
7 KILLER
AMP
TWEAKS
by Pete Prown

The guitar amplifier is the backbone of modern
music – from rock and metal to blues and country.
Still, many guitarists only use one or two settings
on an amp perhaps not realizing there are plenty
more sounds inside. Let’s look at a few tips and
tweaks to uncover some sonic colors that will
make your tone-box really roar.

Many of us enjoy using overdrive for solos, but
there are many, many different kinds to choose
from (fuzz, overdrive, distortion, etc.) If you want
a big ’70s tone – from Led Zeppelin to Aerosmith
– use a medium overdrive setting. Too much dirt
will push you into metal territory. In fact, Jimmy
Page used far less distortion than you might
think. Still, his guitar rig sounded huge on those
legendary Zep records.
In 1971, Page recorded the solo on “Stairway
to Heaven” using a Telecaster through a cranked
1x12 tube amp. He got a sweet singing tone from
46

DIGITAL EDITION

That term refers to the fat, warm tone Eric
Clapton created in the late 1960s with Cream
– most notably on “Sunshine of Your Love.”
Also known for creating “woman tone” is Carlos
Santana (“Black Magic Woman”) and Mountain’s
Leslie West (“Mississippi Queen”). To get some
bluesy, woman tone yourself, flip the toggle on
your guitar to the neck pickup, or use the bridge
pickup with the Tone knob turned halfway down.
On your solid-state or high-gain tube amp, find
a medium dirty tone. Use only a smidge of reverb
and adjust the Treble knob so you have enough
high-end to cut through the band. Now play some
cool bluesy licks with tasty wrist vibrato – just like
Clapton. It’s a sound that is fat, tasty, and dare we
say, creamy.

There is a world of clean to mildly overdriven
“twang” out there – from country to roots rock.
The critical piece is to make sure your tone is fat
city – ride that Bass knob up to make sure your
amp is delivering a beefy bottom end. Conversely,
turn the Treble down to make sure your top end
isn’t pushed past one or two o’clock; so it’s not
harsh and trebly (unless that’s part of your tone,
like bluesman Albert “Iceman” Collins). Adjust the
Mids to provide “body” to the tone.
A great track to check out for killer Strat twang
is Dire Straits’ “Sultans of Swing.” Mark Knopfler’s
tone is warm, clean, and full of Fender chime. If
you want to make your amplifier’s twang-tone
even better, put your plectrum down and pick with
your fingertips or nails sometimes in tandem with
a thumbpick. That’s the Mark way.
APR/MAY

In the 1980s guitarists began exploring the
concept of “high-gain” distortion – that type of
saturated crunch that fueled metal bands like
Guns N’ Roses, Dokken, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest,
and Ozzy Osbourne’s solo work. They achieved
that tone by either hot rodding tube heads to have
hotter preamps, or plugging distortion boxes in
front of older heads to kick it up a notch. Today
many modeling amps come with built-in Crunch
presets; but you have to be careful not to lose
your tone in a sea of “frying bacon” sizzle, which is
all too easy to do.
For best results, keep your Treble and Presence
under control (not too high). Keep your Bass and
Mids in a range where your tone isn’t thin and
wimpy. Slash’s amp-stack tone on “Paradise City”
and Motley Crüe’s Mick Mars on “Dr. Feelgood” are
prime examples of saturated hard-rock tone from
that era.
Many guitarists of that era also used echo/delay
settings; but you might risk getting a muddier
tone. It’s for this reason that some guitarists
developed a wet/dry setup with more than one
amplifier. In some setups one amp is loaded with
echo, chorus, and other sweeteners while the
other is dry and crunchy. Eddie Van Halen is one
major proponent of the wet/dry amp setup.

Another important heavy amp tone is the famed
“scooped mid” sound perfected by Metallica. Listen
to “One” for that wall-of-crunch tone from rhythm
guitarist James Hetfield. This involves not only
cranking the Bass and Treble knobs for bottom
and top end power, but also rolling down the Mid
knob to deliver the hollowed-out sound that fueled
a million thrash-metal tracks. Dropping your low
E string to D on your guitar heightens the effect.
This generates an absolutely massive sound with
gobs of distortion.
APR/MAY

Surf rock is about clean, semi-clean guitar tones
with lots of reverb. If you listen to vintage tracks
from the Ventures, Dick Dale, Hank Marvin, and
the Sufaris (“Pipeline”) you will hear big bottom
ends of Fender and Mosrite solid bodies. To get the
sound, make sure t