Finally, learn the basic gear and tones used across blues guitar. You’ll learn all about the guitars, amps and effects used to get a legendary blues tone!
In this tutorial we’ll walk you through the sounds and electronic configurations available on the most popular guitars in the market: semi-hollow body, Les Paul, SG, Telecaster, and more. You will have a great idea of what guitar will give you the sound you want, to become the blues player you want to be.
Many great blues guitarists use a semi-hollow body guitar. It has a woody tone that can have a deep and mellow sound as well as a bright and thin sound.
This guitar also has a resonant, acoustic quality that produces a unique sound when pushed through overdriven amps or pedals. If you’re a traditionalist, this guitar is a viable choice for you.
Pros would be the sound, the look, and the range of tone. Be careful of stage volume and placement of this guitar near the amp. It can produce a healthy amount of feedback if you’re standing in the wrong place or playing at high volumes. Do the pros outweigh the cons? You better believe it.
This may be the most popular guitar with blues guitarists today. The strat style guitar is arguably the most versatile guitar when it comes to tones available and road-worthiness.
With 5 pickup configurations, there is a great deal to choose from.
The Bridge, Middle and Neck positions have a clear and definite spectrum of sound while the two out of phase positions add a depth that screams “strat”.
Is this the industry standard? You be the judge.
From the time the electric guitar became popular, the Les Paul style guitar has been among the top choices. Its body shape, pickups, and weight give this guitar a distinct sound that has enticed some of blues greatest guitarists.
Here we’ll look at how this guitar sounds in its various configurations.
Some say the SG style guitar is for those who want a sound with more bite or less weight than a LP style guitar. Make no mistake about it, the SG is its own force to be reckoned with in the blues world. Its thinner body and long neck couple with standard P90 pickups make this guitar unique. Let’s take a look at how this sounds.
Some call the Tele style guitar “thin”. In this case, thin is not an insult. This “thin” is like a razor – cutting, sharp and brutal. The tele sound is a great blues tone and can put the glistening, razor sharp edge on any performance or recording. Let’s look at how this guitar works.
The hollow body guitar is a blues staple because it is a throwback to having a guitar that you can play unamplified and it has the shape and feel of an acoustic guitar with pickups. It is the link between the acoustic guitar and the solid body guitar so many blues guitarists use today. It’s no common middle man, though. What you’re left with is a dark and creamy sound that your listeners will love if you’ve placed it tastefully.
The hollow body can produce a good deal of feedback if played at loud volumes. If the volume is just right, though, it can punch like Joe Louis and cry like Greta Garbo.
What can be said about this guitar? No amp, no mic, no problem. Nothing but you, your fingers, some sweat and some tears and you’ll see where the blues started. A steel string acoustic guitar is where all the legendary early guitarists get their tone. Robert Johnson, R. L. Burnside, Charley Patton, Blind Boy Fuller, and hundreds more are great guitarists in which to hear an acoustic guitar talk.
The Resonator Guitar is a well known blues sound. You’ll find almost every modern bluesman experimenting with this guitar on their recordings. It has the metallic sound that works well with slide or fingers. Here we’ll take a look at what it is and how it works.
The High Strung or Nashville Tuning Guitar isn’t necessarily a specific type of guitar but rather a guitar that has been strung with different strings. The tuning of the guitar is exactly the same as a normal guitar in standard tuning. However, the low E, low A and D strings are replaced with strings that have the guage of the higher three strings. Strings 6, 5, and 4 are then tuned in higher octaves to get this bright, high sound. The best way to describe this sound is as if you removed the low strings from a 12 string guitar.
This sound isn’t a requirement to get your blues license. It’s a unique choice to get a tone that is a throwback to the older days of blues when each musician had his own homeade tuning.
There are many different kinds of amplifiers to choose from. These are 3 primary amp styles on which most models are based, and here we’ll look at 2 tube amps and a solid state amp. Use this demonstration by a pro to get a good idea of what kind of amp best suits your style.
There is no better way to get the blues tone you hear recorded and performed live than with a tube amplifier. The warmth of tone and the natural overdrive available to you makes this amplifier the industry standard.
The tubes here process your sound and shape your guitar’s tone directly. That’s the short version of an electronic story that ends in tone utopia. A great tube amp generally costs a bit more, but the tone you get when using one is exponentially more.
Here we’ll look at how I would set the amp to get great tone.
This amplifier is also a tube amp. This amp is a master volume amp and provides a better overdrive at a smaller level. As a bonus, this particular amp was designed with the blues in mind. Even though you’ll play the blues, it will be hard to wipe the smile off your face from the tone you’ll get.
Listen to the example played carefully. You’ll notice the first half of the lick will give you a room sound. There’s a distinctly bluesy tone with this amp that resembles any classic blues recording. The second half of the lick will give you a close mic sound that fattens up the tone. Incredible range of tone for such a small amp! Which one suits your tone best?
Solid State amplifiers come in all shapes and sizes and can have many different functions. It’s not unusual to see solid state amps with many effects and countless features. A solid state amp doesn’t use tubes. They don’t use current to directly alter the sound you are amplifying. The power supplied to the amp runs a chip that simulates the sound you desire, so it’s wise to buy a solid state amp geared to sound like the style you wish to play.
We don’t cover the effects that can come on the amp in this lesson. We’ll focus more on that in the effects section of these lessons.
You’ll notice that this amp has a “Presence” knob that some amps may not have. This knob specifically gives you how much of the equalization you want “present” in your tone.
Solid State Amps are road worthy. You won’t be replacing broken or jarred-loose tubes with these amps. There aren’t tubes to break. These amps are great for live performance. With some of the modeling/emulating capability on some amps you are able to get great studio tone as well.
This tutorial will give you the know-how to identify and put together great gear to get the tone you want. With these lessons, we hope to take away some of the work it takes to find the right effects and make the most of your hard-earned dollars. We’ll look at overdrive, distortion, tremolo, delay, wah, fuzz, and vibe pedal.
Overdrive is the distortion of tone caused by the pushing of an amplifier’s power. An overdrive pedal simulates that breakup of an amplifier so that you don’t have to push an amp’s power or volume to achieve the sound.
Although overdrive is a kind of distortion, it shouldn’t be confused with a distortion pedal. Distortion is far more harsh and simulates a broken amp or broken speaker. Overdrive is a bit warmer and sounds more natural.
Distortion is meaner and more pronounced than its nicer sibling, Overdrive. Distortion is the sound of a speaker breaking or an amp that has been overloaded to the point of melting. It’s a more bold choice than overdrive and is to be used tastefully.
This effect is used quite a bit in blues rhythm guitar, but is not limited to just rhythm. You’ll hear most modern players use the tremolo effect.
Delay is an effect that repeats whatever sound you make with your instrument. The repeat can be so fast or soft that it’s barely noticeable. It can also be so loud or repeated so many times that you’ve created a whole new riff from the sound you originally play.
As with all effects, subtlety is the key to making your tone better. Effects work best when you don’t even notice they are there. Use a delay with subtlety and you’ll get a better, thicker tone.
A Wah Pedal sounds exactly as its name sounds. It’s a big tone knob in pedal form. The sweep of the tone range is a bit wider than a regular tone knob on your guitar so the sound is more dramatic. It adds to the human voice quality of the tone but should be used tastefully. Let’s take a look at how the pedal works.
Fuzz isn’t necessarily the most talked about effect when you think of blues tone. Take a listen, though, and you’ll hear that it’s out there. Fuzz is a great alternative to your standard overdrive pedal. The germanium or selenium circuitry puts barbs on the tone and creates more harmonics in each note giving the tone a bit of bite.
We’ll show you the sweep of a large amount of fuzz down to the least possible while keeping the pedal volume at a controlled setting. On this pedal, the smaller switch goes between the selenium (SE) and germanium (GR) sounds. The difference is slight, but worth noting.
The Vibe pedal, also know as Univibe or a Leslie effect, is a great choice for getting dusty or swampy blues. It matches with most gain based effects like overdrive and distortion while also sounding great by itself.
Here’s a demo of the sound you can inject your blues with if you’re using a vibe pedal. It’s got serious “vibe”!
In this tutorial we’ll answer questions about the tonal differences between using your fingers instead of a pick. We’ll also look at the bottleneck slide, then how to use a capo. All these are important components of getting great blues tone and style.
Pick Tone and Finger Tone are incredibly different. The flesh of your fingers gives the attack on the string a darker, fleshier sound while the pick, providing less surface resistance, puts a brighter edge on the sound. Don’t let that “edge” mislead you, though, because you can use your fingers to snap the string, too and put a real pop onto the notes you’re playing.
The thumb also provides the mack daddy of all flesh tones. You want your strings to sound like they are made of steel cables coated in velvet? Use your thumb. It’ll fatten up your tone like nobody’s business.
In this lesson we compare pick, fingers and thumb. Combine this with your choices of guitar, effects and amp and the plot thickens!
The slide is as important to some bluesmen as fingers or a guitar. It provides the unmistakeable, voice-like moan to notes and chords. The sound IS the blues.
Slides can be made of any number of materials. Try many types and decide which is best for you. You will make a decision based on feel of the material, the sound the material gives the notes (bright, dark, brassy, creamy, etc.), and size of the slide.
Slide technique is equally important. In playing slide guitar you must press down with the slide enough to make contact with the string but not hard enough that the string contacts the fretboard. You want to “block” the strings behind the slide (between the slide and the nut) so that all noise behind the slide is muted. This coordination can be challenging. You also want your intonation (tuning) of notes to be correct so you should make sure you have the slide directly above the fret you are aiming to play. This could be the most difficult process because younger players haven’t developed an ear for intonation. This comes with a great deal of practice. Finally, muting with the pick hand is a must. This insures that all the strings you’re not playing don’t ring and make a mess of your lick.
Here we’ll get a brief picture of THE sound of blues.
The capo is an essential tool if you sing the blues or if you find yourself constantly playing with a singer. A capo enables you to take anything you’d play with open strings and move it about the neck into different keys all while being able to keep your open string positions.
We’ll look at how that works here in this lesson. There are several models of capos in the market. Most are designed with the ease of use in mind. Check out which one works best for you and get to playing!
These non-playing lessons will do a side-by-side comparison of guitar tones, amp tones, and the difference in tones created by the most common effects used by blues guitarists. We’ll look at several tone configurations to give a good overview of the variety of choices available to get killer blues tone.
Here’s a great basic setup for any blues guitarist. It’s one of my favorites, especially if I’m having to play a blues based gig on the fly.
This setup is just guitar, amp, and overdrive pedal. The overdrive pedal is used just for a small boost and a little dirtyness. I let the amp do most of the work for the overdrive.
In this lesson as well as all the lessons that follow, I’ll run several guitars through THE EXACT SAME AMP AND FX SETUP. You have a great opportunity to hear the difference a guitar makes on the sound of this amp. That’s what you want to take from these lessons, especially considering gear that you want to buy. It’s not in getting one great piece of gear after another, but rather in constructing a complete rig that delivers great tone.
You should find that you like the sound of some guitars and that you do not like the sound of others. When you hear the difference and have preferences you are on your way to getting great tone yourself.
In this lesson, I’m using a Master Volume Tube Amp.
Settings: Volume 4, Master Volume 4, Bass 8, Mid 5, Treble 6.
I’m using an overdrive pedal with these settings: Drive 4, Tone 3, Level 4.
For specifics on any of this gear refer back to the previous tone lessons where each item is discussed by itself.
We’ll use the same setup from the last lesson (Master Volume Amp and Overdrive) and add a few effects. Some of my favorite additions to a great blues rig is tremolo and a slapback delay. The tremolo gives it a dusty, hot sound while the slapback delay puts the tone in a cinderblock blues dive.
Remember, you may not like this combination with certain guitars. They are meant to sound different. Choose what you like and modify your rig accordingly.
Here are my settings on this rig:
Amp: Volume 4, Master Volume 4, Bass 8, Mid 5, Treble 6
Overdrive: Drive 4, Tone 3, Level 4
Tremolo: Rate 5, Depth 8
Delay: 120 Milliseconds, Slapback Setting
Here’s another common blues lead setup. It’s a master volume amp and a fuzz pedal. Fuzz has a cutting tone that is perfect for blues leads. However, you’ll find it effects different guitars with a different sound. It’s amazing that this effect makes certain guitars sound thinner and others thicker. Neither is better or worse – it’s personal preference.
Here are the settings on each that I’m using:
Amp Settings: Volume 4, Master Volume 4, Bass 8, Mid 5, Treble 6
Fuzz: Level 5, Fuzz 5
Here’s a treat for some of you. The 1953 National hand-wired amp is the center of our tone focus. The hand-wired National Amp is a gem from days gone by. It was made by Valco in the 50s and is as solid as any amp made today. It’s small and has a low wattage so it’s easy to crank up and get a broken up tone that is the blues. It’s a rare amp. You probably won’t find one in most music stores. It’s something that “amp guys” find and collect. However, you can find amps built in small cabinets that are hand-wired and produce a similar sound.
Do you like that overdrive? That’s all amp, baby. No pedals, just raspy, bluesy goodness. That’s what I’m telling you.
If you want the best blues tone, this one is worth searching out.
Here’s my settings:
Volume 6 apprx. (roughly 2 o’clock)
Tone 8 apprx. (roughly 4 o’clock)
We’ve compared guitars through a fixed setup. Let’s check out the difference your choice of amplifiers will make. We’ll run a strat-style guitar through several of the most common types of amps you’ll find in order to give you an idea of what it takes to get great blues tone.
When you’re viewing these lessons know that the volume of these amps has been leveled by the camera so that you can hear the tone without the higher wattage amps blowing the camera away. You’ll find that the largest or highest-wattage amp isn’t the always the best sounding amp. In most cases, the little ’53 National holds its own with the giant Marshall. Tone is subjective, but do not fall prey to the misconception that larger or more expensive is better. In the end great tone relies on how sound effects the ears and the soul.
Here are the settings used:
British Tube Amp: Tone 5, Volume 4
Master Volume Tube Amp: Volume 4, Master Volume 4, Bass 8, Mid 5, Treble 6
’53 National Amp: Volume apprx. 6, Tone apprx. 8 NO OVERDRIVE PEDAL USED ON THIS AMP
Chimey British Tube Amp: Volume 4, Master Volume 3.5, Bass 7, Treble 6, Treble Cut: 6
Overdrive Pedal: Drive 4, Tone 3, Level 4
Let’s make a run through the amps again using a Les Paul-style guitar. You’ll find the amps take on a different color. The tone will be much different than with the strat-style guitar we used before. Which do you like better?
Again, note that the largest or most expensive amp is not necessarily the best tone. How do they compare?
Here are the settings used:
British Tube Amp: Tone 5, Volume 4
Master Volume Tube Amp: Volume 4, Master Volume 4, Bass 8, Mid 5, Treble 6
’53 National Amp: Volume apprx. 6, Tone apprx. 8 NO OVERDRIVE PEDAL USED ON THIS AMP
Chimey British Tube Amp: Volume 4, Master Volume 3.5, Bass 7, Treble 6, Treble Cut: 6
Overdrive Pedal: Drive 4, Tone 3, Level 4
Let’s try out some higher wattage amps. We put these particular amps by themselves because the essence of their tone lies in higher volumes. You’ll notice I have the amp right behind me when I’m playing. I’m wearing ear plugs as we shoot the video. Having ear plugs preserves your hearing if you play with this size of amplifier. We’ve also leveled the volume so that you get the essence of the tone, otherwise you’d get muddled, distorted tone.
This size amplifier is best suited for larger venues and venues where volume is a must. You wouldn’t have much use for this amp in your bedroom or basement. However, if you find yourself onstage with this weapon at your side, you’ll really knock it out of the park. This is your chance to preview the big amp you’ve seen sitting in your local music store without annoying the guy behind the counter and the kid playing Smoke on the Water for 15 minutes.
Here are the settings I’m using:
Presence 2.5
Bass 8
Treble 6
Volume 2 I wouldn’t be able to sit in the room if this were turned up louder. The break up on the amp at louder volumes is quite nice, let me assure you.
To get the break up at level 2 volume, I use a slight boost with an overdrive pedal. The gain on the pedal is quite low, around 2.
Let’s take a look at a 35 watt amp with a little different feel. The EL34 tubes give this amp a glassier tone. Even though it’s glassy there is a noticeable bottom end on the sound as well.
Again, this isn’t an amp you want in your bedroom or basement unless you live in an outdoor ampitheatre. However, if you do live in one this will be the best tone you could have. Here’s a chance to preview the large amp that’s out of the customer’s reach in your local music store because of the price tag. No salesperson breathing down your neck, no weekend warrior playing Free Bird in the background.
My settings are:
Volume: 4
Bass: 6
Treble: 4
Brilliance: 2
Master Volume: 3
There a slight boost with an overdrive pedal that has the drive at 2.