Guitar Lesson 16:

TITU’s mini-series on dialling in better tone using your guitar controls:

It seems a good idea to have this additional post in order to keep a collation of all the links in one place.  The featured picture to me speaks of perfect guitar tone – thanks Mr Gilmour.

• Externally published supporting article: IN SEARCH OF THE PERFECT GUITAR TONE (thank you Adam Harkus, the Blogging Musician)
• See this extra detail from other players via our Question on Quora
• Check in with this question on Reddit

This is very much a Holy Grail-type quest: One that will never be fully accomplished but neither would any guitar player want this. Part of the joy of learning how to develop your guitar tone is the endless experimentation with your technique and equipment and, dare I say it, wisdom gained from this. This is not to say that you can’t learn shortcuts or gain some insights, which can in turn fast-track your own development, from other people along the way. It is for this reason, and for love of the guitar that Dan Davies of “Tune in, Tone up!” is sharing some tonal tips, namely the use of the controls on your guitar.

• Dan Davies – Guitar Teacher and professional guitarist
• Gary Shilladay – Dan’s student and podcast editor

In these lessons, Dan demonstrates to Gary how you can use these controls on different guitars with the setting on the amplifier left untouched. It really is incredible how with a little understanding you can dial in such a range of tone from the controls which are always under your fingers.

16a) Dan demonstrates the versatility of Gary’s PRS without touching the amp

16b) Dan shows us that it is possible to get a thick, humbucker-type tone on a Stratocaster

16c) Dan gets a twangy, single coil-type tone with his Les Paul

16d) Dan puts his own PRS through its paces