Getting a great guitar tone starts long before you fiddle with your amp settings. A bad guitar recording can seriously damage the sound of a record, and it’s generally a good idea to not screw it up even before you give the engineers a chance to get a great a sound.
Like they say in [___insert industry or profession here____]:
Garbage In. Garbage Out.
Guitar sound changes with the tides, like fashion. In the eighties, huge rock guitar sounds with appropriately huge reverbs was the sound of the era. In the fifties, clean and jangly chords strums was what was going on.
I’ve touched on many of the different guitar recording styles of each era before, but all through these eras there has always been a underlying character in all these professional guitar recordings.
Well Tuned, Well Set-up Guitars
Before you even decide on what type of amplifier or weird effect you want on your song, you must take care of your guitar. Take care of your guitar and he will take care of sounding good on your record.
Well tuned, newly strung guitars sound way better than old and battered guitars. A guitar that constantly goes out of tune, with dull strings and fret noise is a nightmare to deal with. Not to mention impossible to mix.
Restring Frequently
I string my acoustic every 3 months. I play my acoustic fairly often and some would say that I wouldn’t need to restring my guitar that often. But to me, strings are a critical part of my guitar sound. As soon as my strings start to dull I can hear the brilliance and depth of my guitar fade away.
Even different string gauges matter a great deal. Once I accidentally bought lower gauge strings and my guitar sounded weak and thin instead of the full and brilliant instrument it normally is.
Conclusion
Please remember to tune your instrument before recording, and preferably change strings on if they are old and worn. There is nothing worse than needing to re-record a guitar track because you forgot to tune your guitar and it sounds a quarter tone flat to all of the rest of the instruments on the track
Keep this in mind the next time you’re going to the studio you paid good money for. Good guitar recording is valuable. Tune and restring your instrument, it will make all the difference.
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4 Comments on "Nailing a Great Guitar Recording Before You Even Plug In"
Nice and Clear advices, thanks.
Great post! Some simple tips I truly believe in and apply before every guitar session in the studio. Maybe you should add that a player shouldn’t change the strings on the same day they’re going into the studio, but at least 24-48 hours before and play them a bit before the actual session. Rock on!
Hey, thanks for the comment. No need to add that tip since you already did. And you’re absolutely right, playing the strings a bit will wear them in just enough before the session.
Great Post, very informative. http://www.thefrustratedguitar.com