18 WAYS TO IMPROVE YOUR TONE

It’s the most hotly-debated aspect of guitar playing! Read on as we look at the best ways to optimise your setup and get more TONE!

- Chris Bird, Rob Laing, Stuart Williams

01 Change your pick

Your choice of pick fundamentally affects your tone. Gently-strummed acoustic parts laid back in the mix of a soft rock ballad generally benefit from thin picks with some give, so plastic, tortex or similar are order of the day here.

Alternatively, if you want a Queen- or ZZ Top-style harmonic-rich biting electric sound, the ring of a metal pick on metal strings is best. Experiment with a variety of picks to see what works best for you.

02 Try different string gauges

Some people will insist that heavier strings sound better. They may be right. They may however be wrong. What we know for sure is that you can expect a different tone from two otherwise identical string sets of a different gauge. Stevie Ray Vaughan strung his Strat with fingertip-busting 0.013s. His fellow Texan tonehound Billy Gibbons has used strings as light as 0.007s. So there’s really no right or wrong, only what’s best for you.

03 String materials/ construction

The gauge of string isn’t the only deciding factor in its tone. String companies offer strings mode of various alloys and with different construction methods too. The size of the core and the shape of the wire wrapped wound around it all affect feel and tone. It can be a bit of a journey to find what works for you, but keep in mind that flatwound strings are supersmooth, and generally used for jazz. Roundwounds are more general purpose. And, for those who can’t make up their minds, there are half-rounds.