Tone for Electric Guitarists

Electric guitarists, when learning a new song or piece of music from a method book, it’s important to focus not only on mastering the rhythm, note reading, and dynamics of the music, but also on achieving the correct tone needed to make the music sound its best. Fortunately for electric guitarists, this is where the fun starts.

For those just beginning to work on tone, start out by learning the functions and capabilities of your amplifier. With the right amplifier settings, you can easily achieve a good tone that’s appropriate for almost any song or piece of music. To get started, get acquainted with how the equalization, volume, and effect controls effect your sound. Once you get used to how these controls work, check to see if your amp has a distortion (or overdrive) channel as well as a clean channel. If you’re working on music that requires the use of both sounds, work on being able to switch between the two channels with a footswitch while still maintaining good rhythm.

Once you get in the habit of always having the appropriate tone for any piece of music, you can feel confident that you’ll give the best performance you can give during your next “gig”. Remember, the road to great tone is a long one, so the sooner you start the journey, the better. Happy shredding

– Jake Ramirez, M.M. President, Guitar San Antonio guitarsanantonio.org