The biggest mistake beginners make is they never learn what their amp and guitar can do with out effects. Hereās Joe Bonamassaās take on tone and plugging straight into an amp.
2 Likes
After spending a good chunk of time trying to download patches for my Line6 Catalyst that would give me āthis soundā or āthat soundā and not really liking any of them, I recently decided to go back to first principles and learn what effect all the knobs and dials on my amp and guitar had on my tone. Its been fun and eye-opening (is that ear-developing?). While doing that, I watched this video from Gibson Gear Guide, which shows the wide range of sounds you can get just by playing with the tone and volume knobs, on your guitar, in this case, an ES-335. Hope folks find this video useful.
3 Likes
Will take a look later. Might find something useful for my Washburns and Gretsch 335 clones.
1 Like
Thanks for sharing that Ashu.
Iāve been into the idea of that video for a while now. And I agree, it is āāeye-openingāā.
I use this notion on any of my guitars, which is 2 electrics (Casino, Reverend Double Agent W).
The notion works on both (dissimilar control layout).
To me it works best on the guitar that has the controls like the 335. Iām for sure partial to that control layout. Totally versatile. Infinitely even.
I feel a little short changed when I use a master vol. master tone for two pups after using the vol., tone control for individual pups. The middle position is the catās meow on the vol/tone for ea. individual pup control layout. Many tones to be had there.
At this point in my playing my guitar controls are hardly ever all set on 10. Sometimes, but not usually.
Folks that arenāt taking advantage of these controls (whatever your control layout is) are missing out on some real versatility and very groovy tones imho.
These controls also work well with or w/o effectsā¦ 
1 Like
Iām still at the stage of being beginner enough that no amount of pedals is going to make me sound great. My amp has a multitude of effects and I own a few pedals but in general Iād only use a pedal to put me in the right ball park of the song Iām trying to play. Anything more than that is just a distraction and taking time away from actually practicing playing!
Thereās some guitarists that are talented enough to justify layers of effects but for a lot of us itās just a rabbit hole to get lost down
1 Like
Huhā¦you mean those dials do stuff?
1 Like
Turns out they donāt control the action and intonationā¦ you couldāve knocked me over with a feather 
Like @LievenDV, I think āless is betterā, broadly speaking. However, Lieven did not specify why, and I think thatās where my view differs from many people.
I donāt think itās about ānot covering up your mistakesā. After all, what are āmistakesā? If all I ever wanted is to play heavily distorted metal rhythm guitar, who cares if my hammer-ons are sloppy because I couldnāt hear the difference with all that distortion on top?
My current view is that one should practice with their ādefaultā tone. Now, hereās the thing: if you crave musicality and/or expression, youāll want a ādefaultā tone that gets you the largest tonal variation out of your instrument (i.e. without changing settings on your pedal or amp). By ātonal variationā I mean things like dynamics, touch / articulation / attack, and even effects like scratching the string with your pick. Basically, you want to be able to produce a large range of sounds using only your hands, as this will give you the tools to layer on beautiful phrasing and emotion, amongst other things.
Chances are, the sort of tone that will get you that maximum tonal variation is one that is relatively clean. There is nothing inherently special about clean tones, IMO; itās not some magic formula that will makes your scale practice 2x more efficient. Itās simply that clean tones allow for large tonal variations, and so practising with clean tones forces you to think about dynamics, phrasing, expression, and everything else that goes into being āmusicalā.
One exercise that Iāve seen Justin recommend is regularly spending some time just making a short passage as beautiful as you possibly can. Iāve done so, and I cannot recommend that highly enough.
5 Likes
Well, I bought a board and some pedals before I bought an electric guitar, soā¦ā¦ā¦
Iām a bit of an effects fan. Iāve used them on bass, and pretty much always found that a new pedal, or any new kit gives me some sort of inspiration.
But do I use them most of the time when Iām practicing? No. A clean sound is probably better for noticing what my hands are producing. But I do feel like using them sometimes - so I do when practicing songs (sometimes) or just for a bit of an experimental noodle.
Effects might (probably will) become part of my tone, though. So I see part of my guitar journey as building playing skills and using effects. So Iāve started on the journey with pedals as part of it.
1 Like
I had a Distortion, a Chorus and a Fuzz pedal when I was playing only an acoustic still.
I thought process was, what do I need to sound like Kurt Cobain?
I did have an electric sort of, I was just building my Frankenstein still.