FROM DISTORTION TO DRIVE — Breaking Down the Breakup

GAINS…

Distortion, overdrive, dirt, breakup, fuzz, boost, gain, grit, saturation (plus plenty more) all get freely thrown around the guitar tone universe when it comes to adding some extra harmonic content to your tone. Adding some grit to your tone can serve many purposes - boosting volume, creating a tonal contrast and increasing sustain for example. What’s the best way to handle and control gain in your rig? Well, of course there are infinite ways to run/set up a guitar rig but some of the main considerations involve clean/dirty tones and how to balance and operate these. So let’s dig a little further and discuss what’s involved.

The Clean Machine

A common starting point is using a clean amp tone that can then be effected/overdriven as needed. Essentially you would have your guitar running fairly directly into the amp (gain pedals bypassed) to get your desired clean tone (typically as clean as possible with possibly some reverb or compression depending on taste). The classic ‘Fender’ type of cleans are always popular for their pristine and spanky response and work particularly well with single coils.

On The Edge

The next step up from clean… and yes, there are different opinions of what actually is clean. I’ve played many rigs where the guitarist’s ‘clean tone’ is actually reasonably overdriven, definitely not in the super pristine ballpark. But, depending on the style of music you’re playing and/or the instrumentation of the band/ gig this dirtier starting point might be totally appropriate. You then get the ability to push it further with a boost, EQ or light OD. The only downside with this setup is that the option to go fully clean isn’t there, but if not needed then you’re fine.

Channel Switching

Channel switching amps are an interesting beast. Intended to offer multiple tones in one amp, they can potentially offer a solution to the issue of being limited to a single certain tone (and then needing to use pedals to get something different). Find one that you dig and they can be great. Sometimes however, players only like or use one or two of the channels and then don’t fully utilise the capabilities of the amp. That can then take you back to the setup of needing extra pedals/effects to achieve the sound you’re looking for.

Some Ideas

Experiment with different platforms. Don’t discount using pedals and EQ to get the sounds you’re looking for. An EQ pedal can really alter the tone of an amp (cutting bass, tightening the low end, scooping mids, boosting highs etc).

Dirt pedals can work with dirty amp sounds. A common practice for hard rock and metal players is to use a Tube Screamer type pedal to control the front end of an already saturated/ heavy tone.

Remember that pedals can also be used to subtract EQ. I know players that use a boost pedal as an EQ and volume cut to balance hotter humbucker guitars with single coils on gigs when they are switching guitars a lot.

BY NICK BROWN