Most every guitarist is constantly looking for that elusive ‘perfect’ tone. Great debates and occasional fistfights erupt over digital multi-effects units vs. analog stompboxes. What is the real truth? How can a guitarist get the perfect tone? Well, I can’t answer those questions for you but I can tell you about my search and hopefully you can learn from my mistakes and my infrequent triumphs.

First things first; listen to your favorite guitar players. Figure out what type of sound you want. Most guitarists have a ‘vision’ of what they wish their guitars to sound like…others want it to sound as close to their guitar hero as possible. Both views are fine, in my humble opinion. Before I go any further, I would like to stress that much of a guitarist’s tone comes from his fingers. My partner, Scott Shelpman, is an incredible guitar player. Amazingly, he sounds nearly the same whether he’s playing through a Marshall stack and thousands of dollars worth of effects or a small practice amp. A lot of your tone comes from your vibrato, your slides, your picking technique and other variables.

Once you have the sound in mind (or at least a general idea), it’s time to scour the internet for clues on how to get it. If your sound is based on a famous guitar player, the web is full of pages on these players and what they’re using. Obviously, you can buy everything Eric Clapton is using and still not sound like him, but it’s a great place to start. Here are some links to sites containing info about some of my favorite guitar players and what they play through:

Links will open in new window.

• David Gilmor (Pink Floyd)
• Eric Johnson
• Tom Scholz (Boston)
• Kirk Hammett & James Hetfield (Metallica)
• John Petrucci (Dream Theater)
• Slash (Guns N’ Roses)
• Jimmy Page (Led Zeppelin)
• Joe Satriani

The list goes on and on. Just do a search on the web for your favorite guitarists and there’s almost certainly sites on their equipment and effects.

Now comes the painful process of explaining to your wife/girlfriend why you need to shell out hundreds of dollars for new equipment. Just tell her you read it on Allegro Music World so you simply MUST do it. She’ll understand.

The three most important items that contribute to your sound are:

1. You
2. Your Guitar
3. Your Amp



For this article, I will bypass the human part of the equation and concentrate on everything else. The first part of your chain is your guitar. Based on what you’ve learned from your research above, pick your guitar. Maybe you already have it. Guitars come in many styles, shapes and they all sound different. The biggest difference to my ears, however, is in the pickups. To simplify things greatly, there are 2 main types of pickups: Single coil and humbuckers. Single coil pickups are found mostly on Fender Stratocasters and other similar guitars. They have a thinner, somewhat higher pitched sound. With some exceptions, some famous Strat users are Eric Johnson, Eric Clapton and David Gilmour. Humbucker pickups are common on Gibson Les Pauls and others and are used frequently by Jimmy Page, Slash and many more guitarists. They are fuller sounding and they are less noisy than single coil pickups.



As with guitars, you can boil down everything concerning amps to basically two types: tube amps and transistor amps. Transistor amps are less expensive and tend to need less maintenance. But although there are some great sounding transistor amps, I prefer tube amps. They have a certain warmth and character that can’t quite be duplicated. Another big difference in amps is whether it’s a combo amp or a stack. A stack consists of a head with all the electronics and 1 or 2 separate speaker cabinets, usually with 4 12″ speakers in each cabinet. A stack is definitely louder and fuller sounding than most combos. This is up to you. Since I have a dedicated soundman who mics my amp, I only need my stage volume loud enough to get a good tone. Then he can bring it up as loud as needed in the stage monitors and front of house speakers. For this reason (and the fact that I’m getting old), I generally play the the lighter and easier to carry combo amps.

Before you go any further in your quest for the ultimate tone, get the guitar and amp nailed down. It’s much easier to get the desired effect if the guitar/amp combination at least vaguely resembles what you’re looking for. In the next part of this series, I’ll be dealing with “cable vs. wireless” and basic effects.

Enjoy and keep on rockin’!

Mark