Let’s talk about something every guitarist wants to have – a fat, warm, unique, clean and stable tone. How to get it? What it consists of? Where to find it?

Is it in your equipment, your fingers or in your mind and heart?

I believe the answer is; it’s in all of that.

The first place where we look for it is equipment. We look for better guitars, for better amps, for better distortions… But we seldom find it there, unless we already have it in our fingers and it gets even better and more unique if it is the tone we imagined and had in our mind. Unique because, it is very unlikely that someone else thinks about the same tone you do, but, you have to be aware that you are often thinking about other people’s tones, and that reflect on your playing. This can be only good if it’s in certain limits. Anyway, this brings us to this, what I call, ‘the good tone formula’:

STILL MIND + STRONG FINGERS + APPROPRIATE EQUIPMENT = GOOD TONE

In other words, you can affect the quality of your tone by improving those 3 factors. Let’s go step by step.

1. Still mind

Why still mind? Because the more you calm and focus your thought process, the clearer and more effective results you get. You obviously can’t focus on something if you’re thinking about 50 things at the same time, and that’s why you have to learn to calm your mind.

How to do that?

Easily – with musical meditation.

Have you ever tried to meditate? That’s something excellent. Just close your eyes and let all your thoughts float in front of you. There will be all sorts of them, and many will often repeat. Just let them go. All of them. I feel like a totally new person after that. It is so relieving.

Just try it, but, with the guitar in your hands.

Take just one chord, let’s say Em9. And strum it on clean sound, maybe with some delay and chorus on it, so it feels a bit better (see, this is the using of appropriate equipment). Play around with it, and remember, you can always implement everything you know about playing guitar (music theory, techniques, licks…), but there’s only one rule. You musn’t think about what you are and aren’t doing. It will take you a while to get to the point of doing that and then you’ll realize how great that feeling is. Playing guitar without any thoughts running in your head. I think that’s the most intimate way of playing the guitar.

Now, after you’re deep in the meditation mode, magical things will start to happen, and you will get a chance to focus harder on certain things. Try imagining your ideal tone. The color, the fullness. After it gets in your mind, you’ll see what you have to do to achieve it. It takes some time for that process to happen, though. It won’t happen overnight, but, if you’re consistent on it, it will be forming faster.

1. Strong fingers

Strong, not necessarily fast.

Try playing twice as slower, but twice as harder. Press strings harder with your fretting fingers, and pick harder. This will probably feel ‘feelingless’ at first, but, overtime, you’ll find a balance of strength and easiness, that will contribute to your ideal sound. Make sure that everything you play is clean and clear. Make each note distinctive, and dedicate your attention to each note. Then, make sure everything you play fast is as everything you play slow. Obviously, sometimes you have to push yourself, but in the end, the energy you’re putting in to play fast should be the same energy you’re putting in to play slow, while nothing else gets changed.

Also, remind yourself that fingers follow the mind. You have to train your fingers all the time, but don’t neglect the mind.

1. Appropriate equipment

After you’ve got those 2 things in place, you’ll be able to know what equipment you’ll need for your ideal tone. There are several things you should know about equipment.

1. It is build to change frequencies – meaning, you change your sound by changing frequencies. That means you have to learn to manipulate the sound with frequencies. Know what changes if you boost or lower low, middle or high frequencies. Then, you should know a bit about other characteristics of amps, and what characteristic affects sound in which way. I find tube amps irreplaceable – but, that may be just me. Also, know a thing or two about effects, such as chorus, delay, reverb, phaser, flanger, wah-wah. What are they doing and how can you use them to realize what’s in your mind.
2. It is built to amplify sound – it amplifies the sound, either the one already produced, or the one in your head. It doesn’t make it (at least if it’s working properly). Think about this theory a bit, and come to your own conclusions.
3. You shouldn’t depend on it – learn to reproduce what’s in your mind in many ways. Explore how can you do that with at least equipment possible. Doing this will force you to develop the skills improving the other 2 factors.

So, that’s it basically. The more you work on these things, the better you get. The better you get, the easier you learn new things and get a better tone. The better tone you get, the better you feel playing and performing your songs. The better your performance and sound is, the easier your audience understands what your message is. And so it goes…