What would you consider your biggest tonal realisation that has made an impact on the way you dial in gear?

[WizardAmpIphoneClip]

-Most Modern amps ( 90's onward) absolutely do not benefit from a boost for rhythms imo
-Only 1 guitar track a side is usually all you need
-Mids are annoying
-Your live tone needs more highs/presence than you think
-2 guitar bands live need the same amp/cab for each guy
-Gain is great turn the shit up

 

[SFW]

If you want to sound like fucking shit, that's well and truly up to you bud

Different strokes for different folks I suppose. I've never been accused of having "sounds like fucking shit" tone. There are also tons of guitar tones that we all rave about that were recorded with high output pickups into high gain amps. Just sayin...

 

[rottingcorpse]

I realized early on that I don't give a rats ass if you like my tone or not. I'm not playing my equipment to impress you. I'm playing because I enjoy it...or not. For me, it a singular journey. Lick my taint, you judgmental bastards.

 

[Techdeth]

I said a million times . But you use a noisegate to make your tone better .,It’s a huge part of tone . Not just there to stop noise . My biggest lesson for metal tone

 

[crankyrayhanky]

It's high gain guitar, it's ALREADY going to sound compressed and aggressive in comparison to everything else in the mix - use those tools sparingly and where they are really needed - like using a multiband to make palm mutes more controlled, etc

+1, I never use compression on guitars (unless you count the one during the final mix/mastering stage)

Not even the one where it controls the palm mutes- I like my palm mutes to jump out at you lol. In fact, some metal pros add extra guitar tracks just to emphasize the palm mutes and make them louder.

I do like compression sometimes going into my amp on a clean/low gain sound, depending on the riff

 

[DanTravis62]

+1, I never use compression on guitars (unless you count the one during the final mix/mastering stage)

Not even the one where it controls the palm mutes- I like my palm mutes to jump out at you lol. In fact, some metal pros add extra guitar tracks just to emphasize the palm mutes and make them louder.

I do like compression sometimes going into my amp on a clean/low gain sound, depending on the riff

It's probably the biggest "tell" for people new at recording guitars, compression on compression on compression

 

[thegame]

The adage off less gain = more depends a lot on the player as well! I've had times where I've handed off my own guitar to someone else without touching any settings on anything, only to hear back much less clarity and a darker tone compared to when I was playing. And that's with a generous amount of gain dialed in. No, this isn't yet another tone is in the fingers debate but a reminder that some people's technique and attack allow for lots of clarity to still happen despite ample gain being dialed in.

 

[IHateRap]

It has to do with my penis and I'm not ready to share it yet. I'm sorry.

 

[thegame]

It has to do with my penis and I'm not ready to share it yet.

Then your wedding night will be extra special!

 

[Kagami]

the prs metal are medium output, btw, that's not a super high output pickup - IIRC they are like 15k on the bridge - the emgs are a little hot, but not even close to the pickups that i'm talking about

Have you ever played one of the super high output ceramics that people use for metal? Or are you calling the prs metal pickups "high output"?

I'm talking about the X2N and Slug from dimarzio, the Guitarmory patriot thats like 26k, stuff like that. Are you familiar with what a pickup that hot does to the signal?

Don't get lured into the resistance trap, you can have a lower resistance pickup higher output than a high resistance pickup. This is why Dimarzio as example doesn't use it on their site to determine the output.

 

[DanTravis62]

Don't get lured into the resistance trap, you can have a lower resistance pickup higher output than a high resistance pickup. This is why Dimarzio as example doesn't use it on their site to determine the output.

It's not the end all be all, of course, but when resistance differences are THAT huge it's a good quickhand to show we're dealing in non-overlapping magisteria

I mean, if you think a dimarzio the slug or x2n is doing the same sort of thing as a PRS metal, I don't know what to tell you bro