Today's rock music, particularly hard rock and heavy metal, relies very heavily on a distorted or overdriven guitar tone. In the early days of rock and roll this distorted or overdriven tone was produced by cranking the volume on a tube amp. What at first might have been viewed as a problem soon became the desired sound. In the 60s performers like the Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix, Cream and The Beatles began recording songs with an intentionally distorted tone and by the late 60s many companies were manufacturing "distortion", "overdrive" and "fuzz" boxes for the masses. These days there are hundreds of distortion pedal options ranging from $20 to $300 (or more!) in price.
Many a budding rock guitarist may think that a distortion pedal is the magic bullet to attaining heavy metal tone nirvana. And let's face it, what twelve year old would-be guitarist wouldn't have fun stomping on a brightly colored foot pedal and transforming himself into Tony Iommi? But getting the most out of your distortion tone is not as simple as just stomping on a pedal. Here are a few tips to help you sound your best when adding a little dirt to your sound.
Distortion, overdrive, fuzz: What's the difference?
There is a difference between distortion, overdrive and fuzz. I had to say that to cover my bases with all the guitar geeks. But for the purposes of this discussion I will be referring only to distortion. The concepts I'll cover will apply whether you are using a distortion, overdrive or fuzz tone.
Distortion tone basics: Sometimes less is more
A common mistake many players make is cranking the distortion level "all the way to 11." This might sound okay at lower volumes in your bedroom. But playing at higher volumes and with other instruments in the mix a maxed-out distortion level can sound very thin and shrill. As your volume increases, try easing off the distortion level a bit.
Another common mistake is adjusting your amp's tone at floor level. What I mean by this is that your typical practice situation is you sitting or standing while your amp is on the floor facing your legs. You adjust the sound of your amp so it sounds good to your ears which are several feet above your amp. This is okay for practice but remember your audience will not hear the same thing you hear. Get in the habit of raising or tilting your amp so the speaker faces your ears not your legs! You'll probably immediately notice that what you thought was a great sound was actually very trebly and harsh. (By the way, this applies with or without distortion!)
Is it in the pedal or the player?
Surprisingly, while the distortion pedal will alter the sound of your guitar dramatically, your own playing technique will have a huge impact on how well you sound. Your choice of chord voicings, palm muting and picking style will all contribute to the overall sound.
Power chords Vs. open chords
Both power chords and open voiced chords can be used to great effect with distortion - it just depends on what you're after. Angus and Malcolm Young of AC/DC have built a career around the effective deployment of nice, fat open chords. However, they are masters of avoiding those ringy major chord inversions that don't distort very well. Experiment with open chords and decide which ones sound good with distortion and which don't. More often than not you'll hear rock players using power chords or 5th chords. These chord inversions usually use only two or three strings and leave out the third tone of the major scale altogether making them niether major nor minor. Power chords are the bread and butter of most rock songs and sound great with distortion. Get comfortable moving power chords around the neck and try to find at least three or four positions to play each chord.
Picking and palm muting
Perhaps the single biggest factor in unleashing sweet sounding rock riffage is your picking technique. I remember a friend of mine who was an excellent acoustic player, but put him on an electric with a little distortion and he sounded terrible! Why? Because his strumming technique for acoustic guitar was not applicable to a heavy rock style. It just sounded noisy and sloppy. When using distortion you'll likely have better results using smaller, more controlled picking motions. Another crucial technique is good palm muting. Listen to music by The Cars, .38 Special, or the Police for good examples of palm muting. This technique is done by lightly resting the side of the palm of your picking hand on the bridge of your guitar while playing. Slide your hand towards the neck to increase the muting effect. Slide it further back behind the bridge to reduce the muting effect. Experiment with this technique. You can achieve some very heavy sounding effects with good palm muting.
Key to playing great with distortion? Turn it off
Lastly, one of the best tricks to improving your distortion playing is to practice with a clean tone regularly. If you can learn to play clean, articulate chords, scales and licks with no distortion then you'll just sound that much better when you do engage the distortion. Trust me. The benefits of this can really not be overstated.
Jeremy Lunnen - Jeremy Lunnen is a 44 year old MBA and father of seven whose "grown up" job is as a corporate leadership trainer. His love affair with ...
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