The sound of the guitar is everything, this is music after all.
Three key tones of Rock
The minimum sound the rock guitarist needs is three key tones. This is even before we get into effects!
1. Clean tone - No overdrive, adjust bass mid to taste. Hear the guitar.
2. Crunch – a bite of overdrive, but needs to sound different when picked loud
3. Either overdrive/ distortion or a lead boost.
Of course, this would prepare for any tone, but often we have our favourite tones. If you just play AC/DC rhythm, or just play Nile Rodgers style funk, then a one channel amp and no pedals can do you fine. This just prepares you for any eventually, and more importantly – can save you needing to buy a new amp every time you want a ‘new sound’! ;)
How to get this sound
To have complete freedom, what we really need is to be able to switch between any of these three key tones, ideally mid song!
Think about a classic Rock song like 'Smells Like Teen Spirit' by Nirvana. It as the clean intro, a super heavy riff and then a lead boost. The lead sound is not only louder, but it has more overdrive and more prominent mid range. We might want to add FX to any of these sounds, but here we'll just look at these core tones.
We can create these three key sounds with either the amp combined with overdrive/ distortion pedals, or even on the amp itself. Here's a break down of three main options;
1. One channel amp, then pedals or multi fx for Crunch and Lead tones
2. Two channels, (clean and dirty) with one pedal used as a lead boost
3. Three or more channels – the holy grail, but can be expensive or is typically just for heavier styles such as metal.
My general personal preference is for low wattage all valve amps. Between 1w to 5w of all valve power is absolute fine from the bedroom to the practice room and even most stages!
There are endless options when it comes to gear, all come down to personal preference. Just remember that we ideally want to at least be able to change between a cleaner to a more distorted sound mid song.
