How to setup your guitar amplifier
Take some time to experiment with these controls and get a tone you like. Checkout our amp settings guide linked to below for some suggestions. Read more: Amp settings suggestion guide. Set additional controls, such as reverb, to your liking. Amplifiers might have additional controls, even effects like reverb or tremolo. These can be set to your liking or left completely off. Other controls you might notice would be multiple midrange knobs, presence, or channel switching options. These are all going to depend on which amp you have, though none of them are required for what we'd consider the core of your amp's functionality.
If your amp has them, experiment with the sounds they create until you get something you like. If you have guitar pedals, add them into your signal chain. If you want to add guitar pedals, you can use additional instrument cables to add them into your signal chain before your amp.
You can read more about this process in our piece on how to use a distortion pedal , which covers more of the details with adding effects and stompboxes. You can also add effects as you go along and develop your playing style.
However, those are long term processes that you don't have to be ironed out right away. Boosting them adds presence and cutting them creates a hollow or contoured sound that gives space to other instruments in the same frequency range. On certain amps these frequencies are split into low and high mids. If this is the case, you can control at will the low mids, which are the real essence of your sound. You will also be able to control more subtly the attack with the high-mids knob.
However, if you play with a bassist or, worse, with a pianist, don't wait for any miracles to happen because they'll eat you alive every chance they get. Don't cut too much out otherwise your guitar will sound more like a ukulele. Increasing them leads to more strident attacks and a lot of noise. If you take out too much you risk not being able to recognize your instrument anymore.
If you've followed these steps and all the knobs are turned the same way it means you haven't set the gain correctly. In which case you need to bring all of them to the middle again and start over! Sometimes you will have some other settings at your disposal. Here, I will only discuss the most common:. Finally, bear in mind that the ideal settings, patiently cooked up by you alone with your guitar, will need some major readjustments when you join other musicians.
Moreover, every change of location will force you to recheck your EQ since the acoustic conditions of a space have a significant impact on your amp's final sound.
Yes, Audiofanzine is using cookies. Want to learn how to EQ a guitar amp? EQing your guitar amp is the quickest and easiest way to sound amazing quickly. Guitar amps are the heart of your guitar tone. If it is, you will. If you want your guitar to sound warm and thick, turn this control up. Too much bass can often lead to your guitar sounding muddy, so make sure that you use this control sparingly.
The more mids you have, the more you will stick out in a band mix. This controls how bright your guitar sounds. If you want your guitar to sparkle, turn this knob up. If you seek warmer tones, try bringing this knob down. The presence knob starts where the treble knob stops. This is perfect for country guitar or spanky funk lines. Make sure this knob is always cranked! Download our lead guitar cheat-sheet to make things easier It can be disorientating for guitarists to understand which scales work with which keys.
With this in mind, we created a cheat-sheet; a key and scale-finder that you can use again and again. You can get infinite suggestions for what people like to do with their guitar, but they will mostly all be different and ultimately you just have to listen for yourself to find what you like. Realizing that my guitar was a mid-range instrument helped me find what I believed to be the most satisfying tones i.
I have found distortion is good for tightening up the sound a little bit, and higher distortion tends to work better for single note passages and diads than it does for chord work. Keep playing with the settings, as you will be the best judge of what sounds like your definition of rock. This will also probably change as your ear improves, so make sure you continue to experiment. If you are using distortion then typically you would start by having bass, treble and mid set at halfway. Increase the bass and treble with no mid you will get the metal tone.
Most players keep the mid, bass and treble pretty close in values with each other then adjust the settings slightly depending on the type of guitar and genre. Something that I didn't learn until after a few years into playing the guitar is that, unlike a traditional hi-fi amp, a guitar amp is not supposed to play the sound of your guitar with complete fidelity; instead, it is supposed to alter it or "colour" it to give it a more distinctive sound. That's why different guitarists tend to prefer different brands, to achieve their own personal sound.
Not mentioned above, there are amps that seem to have that Rock sound built into their circuitry, and certain guitars that take advantage of the amps characteristics, so that when they are paired up, the results are considered magical. Marshall amps and Les Paul guitars, Telecasters and Tweed Bassmans, Stratocasters and Twin Reverbs, Gretch and Vox, the list goes on and on, but my point is, you will probably have more success in finding that magic, if you find the right guitar and amp combination that suits your purpose.
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