LEARN TO PLAY
WITHOUT DISTORTION
There’s a certain kind of visceral thrill
that can only come from letting a cranked
power chord ring out. Believe us, we
get it. If you’re just starting out playing
though, you’re missing literally half the
experience if you’re playing distorted
all the time. Diming the gain knob is
a natural instinct, but chances are you
can iron out your tone just fine and still
sound heavy and epic without jumping
right to that step. Ask any Big Muff user
and they’ll tell you the best sound comes
from pointing all the knobs northeast, not
cranking them all the way.
Playing clean or even unplugged makes
you examine a lot of things about your
technique and your setup. For one
thing, does your guitar even sound good
when it’s not distorted? Can you play
everything you want to without cranking
to 11? Playing clean forces to you work
on your natural vibrato and sustain, which
distortion will thankfully emphasize,
not to mention you can still get plenty
of power playing a variety of tones just
increasing the volume rather than the
distortion. Ask punk bands like the Hives,
whose root-fifth stompers rely almost
completely on volume. The good news is
you can still play metal riffs whether you
have distortion or not. Seriously, look up
videos online of musicians playing metal
riffs clean. It sounds like surf rock from
Hell and it’s a blast.
ToneReport.com
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