Examples of Guitar Effect Combinations
In the previous 'Getting the Right Sound' article I was showing you how to achieve powerful distorted sound suitable for punchy guitar riffs that extensively used in modern alt-rock and nu-metal music.
Here I'd like to show you how to get other tones by using different combinations of effects for different music genres and playing styles.
Although my guitar riff lessons are supposed to use high gain distortion, often in songs: heavy metal chorus may be interchanged nicely with smooth, clean sounding version or bridge. Jet or reactive sounding distortion can fit well on intros and fills. 'Cosmic' sound will surprise your listeners with uniqueness...
Clean Rhythm
DISTORTION OFFAdd some Reverb and Chorus.
Bright Solo
DISTORTION about 70-100%
EQ bass - 50%
middle - 60%
treble - 50%
Add thick Delay and possibly some Reverb.
Using the bridge pickup on your guitar will make the tone more screamy.
Classic Rock Solo
DISTORTION about 50-70%
EQ bass - 40%
middle - 70%
treble - 40%
Add some Delay and/or Reverb.
Smooth Solo
DISTORTION about 20-50%
EQ You might raise MIDs a bit
The neck pickup near the fingerboard creates a milder tone.
Blues
OVERDRIVE varies from 0 to a little, if you want to get a crisp tone
EQ all knobs around central positions.
Add some Reverb.
The neck pickup goes very well for blues solos.
Jet Sounding Distortion
Experiment with adding a slow Flanger effect after the Distortion.
Cosmic (Trance) Sounding
Imitation of th eCut-Off Filter extensively used in trance music.
- Switch on the Distortion.
- Now slowly push and release the Wah pedal, while playing something fast in a loop.
(I used simple two-handed tapping figure in the audio example)
Don't feel bound by the effect values I've put in the chart, they are estimations, and there are many more sounds you can get by mixing different effects, switching pickups, adjusting volume knob on your guitar and so on...