How to get MONSTROUS sound from ANY guitar

[Ace]

OK, this is how I personally get tons of tone from a guitar. This naturally works better on some guitars better than others(my 1965 Epiphone works much better than a $149 Strat, but that is a whole different thread), but this is the technique that I use on any guitar to get the most loud ringing tone that I can muster.

1. Switch to the neck PU. If you have a really wimpy neck PU, you can use an overdrive pedal, or use whichever PU works best, but your neck PU is going to pick up the most VU because it is closer to the center of the string's vibration, unless your playing pretty far up the neck.

2. Pick the strings around the 12th fret. That is the middle of an open string, and hitting it here will cause the most vibration in the string, giving it the loudest possible sound. As you move up the fretboard the middle point of the vibrating part of the string moves up a corresponding number of frets. For example, if you were playing a chord based on the 3rd fret, the 15th fret woud be the desired place to pick the strings.

3. For extra bass, strum with your fingers.

Let me warn you, it is really hard to play fast this way, the strings move around a lot, and the guitar rig will not respond very quickly to changes in tone. Also, you will sound muddy as fudge, but in a good droning way. This is something that you should agree with your band that you are going to do. Playing like this sounds like crap when it just comes out in the middle of a song for no reason. Also you stand a good chance of drowing out your bass player/singer/drummer by taking up a large spectrum of frequencies. But it sounds really cool when done right!!

[Number Of The Priest]

Re: How to get MONSTROUS sound from ANY guitar

In response to #3, I've always thought you perceive an increase in bass because you're killing off the treble. Strumming/plucking guitar strings with something soft like a soft pick or fingers gives a mellower sound because it's not so shrill once the treble is gone. Play a picked passage (lets say Metallica's "Fade To Black" or Judas Priest's "Beyond The Realms Of Death") using a hard pick, then use the pad of your thumb. Less treble SOUNDS like more bass. *shrugs*

Not sure about what you said about #2 though. You mentioned that picking in the middle of the string gives the most vibration, giving the loudest possible sound. A loud sound is amplitude, and amplitude is how far off-center a string moves when oscillating. I believe that amplitude can be achieved by how hard you pluck a string, not where on the string you pluck it. If you pick it at the middle, you're going to hear the first/fundamental harmonic, a very mellow and harp-like tone especially on acoustic guitar (I play in different positions of the neck on acoustic to achieve different timbres). Plucking the string elsewhere gives a complex mixture of different harmonics, but can still give the same maximum amplitude when plucked hard.

[Ace]

Re: How to get MONSTROUS sound from ANY guitar

I guess you could pluck a string as hard near the bridge as you do in the middle of the neck, but it wouldn't be the same. My theory is that if you play the string in the middle, as opposed to fractions of the middle, you will get more of the fundamental tone of the note(which is of course the lowest in pitch), because you will not be dividing the string's length as much. It is definitely easier to get a lot of string vibration(amplitude) strumming from the middle of the neck, because the strings have much more "give" there as well. That's just the way I explain it, if you have any corrections, I'm definitely intrested in hearing them.

[lerxstcat]

Re: How to get MONSTROUS sound from ANY guitar

Sounds like you want to cut out the overtones and only have the fundamental.
You can do the same thing with your tone control and not have to pick in a position where the strings are floppy and
you'll end up scratching up your fretboard with pick marks.

I agree, it would be a great effect used in its place and time, but your thread title sort of implies an overall improvement for any guitar, which would be something like better pickups or tuners. Personally I love overtones and
such, and get bored with a bassy tone after maybe 30 seconds. I pick just forward of the bridge pickup because that's where the best articulation (for me) lies, 90% of the time. I also think calculating 12 frets up on EVERYTHING for
picking position would take up a lot of thought process that could be used for thinking of something musical to play.
Eddie Van Halen did it in 1978, but for
artificial harmonics (NOT pinch style -
think "Women in Love" and "Dance The Night Away" intros) instead of a picking position. It was a trick he found, used and then moved on to something else.

Now what will REALLY make ANY guitar sound MONSTROUS? ONBOARD PREAMP!!!!!

[Ace]

Re: How to get MONSTROUS sound from ANY guitar

Yes, I was referring to making it sound monstrous for just a short period of time. I would NEVER play like that for more than 20 seconds or so, it does get boring. I didn't want to give the impression that that is where I always play my guitar, I normally pick just about right over the middle PUP, or slightly forward of the bridge PUP, like you do. I was just suggesting this technique as another tool to throw into your mental guitar toolbox. You don't have to calculate 12 frets up from every chord, but it IS possible, without wasting brainwaves or sacrificing musicality. All you have to do is use your brain to write it musically, then go back over it, once again using your brain, and calculate the 12 frets, if you like. Brains are not use once and destroy, though there are times when I have tried this practice: [img]graemlins/toast.gif[/img] [img]graemlins/puke.gif[/img]

[ May 02, 2003, 04:40 PM: Message edited by: Ace ]

[Newc]

Re: How to get MONSTROUS sound from ANY guitar

I'm reading this and trying to figure out when I'd ever use it [img]graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

If I'm going for monstrosity, I prefer to start monstrous and stay monstrous till the end of the song - you know, like Godzilla ripping up Tokyo [img]graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

Actually, for doing stuff with atmostphere and texture (light and shade, etc) I have a trick setting in my GSP21 Legend that adds hellacious monstrosity - like those thunderbursts that make you really freak out [img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img]
Set your Chorus for a wide Delay (30ms) and your Sweep and Rate for 0 (maybe set the Sweep around 20, but leave the Rate so it doesn't actually 'move'), and set the Dry Out for 1 or 2 less than your uneffected signal.
The Delay gives a nice doubling effect like a short slapback, and the Sweep and Rate settings give it a very midrangey tone. You may have to cut your highs to make it less piercing.
In the GSP21, I've also got a custom speaker sim running on that patch, so I've got 3 eq's total working together to create the sound, and it's just slammin'!
It's only good for sustained chords, though. The Delay causes it to mush when doing fast rhythms, but for Sad But True or the opening to Psychotron, the intro to High Speed Dirt, or anything fairly slow and sustained like that, it'll really get your attention [img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

Newc