Check out the 7 amp Tips... At the 3 or 4 minute mark, I demonstrate this new amp.
2 years ago, I went on a mission at NAMM (biggest guitar conference in the world) in search of the best guitar amp. I literally tried dozens of amps. One of them blew my mind. I couldn’t believe how much TONE came from these small, inexpensive amps.
Hey, guys this is Claude Johnson with Guitar Control, A lot of people have asked me over the years about amps, amp settings and that’s what I’d like to cover today. I’ve got seven tips on how to get a great sound from your amp. Also, I’m going to demonstrate the Meteoro Atomic Drive 20, which is a new amp that I’ve been using. I’ll demo that for you guys and also hook you guys up with a great deal if you’d like to pick one up, too.
First, let me just get on my soapbox for a few minutes and just give you my seven tips on getting a great amp sound and then we’ll get into the demonstration.
Tip number one, try skipping the pedals. Now, I’m not saying pedals are always bad. Sometimes I use pedals, but I’d say the videos that I’ve done in the last couple years, I can’t even think of one where I was using a pedal. People always ask, you’ve got to be using some kind of pedal. But I really believe that going right into the amplifier will give you usually a better tone.
This brings me to tip number two, which is really obvious, really basic, have a good amp. Like the engineers say, garbage in, garbage out. You’re not going to get — if you don’t like the sound of your amp then no amount of fiddling with the knobs is going to necessarily change that. You need to invest in a good amp. Also, what’s a good amp for one person might not be a good amp for you. It really depends on the style that you’re going for.
Tip number three, use the right tool for the right job. If you’re playing heavy metal, don’t try playing through like a Fender Blues amp or something. You need the right tool for the right job. And even if you pick an amp that’s appropriate to your style, you’re going to have different songs that require different settings.
Tip number four is listen to your ears and listen to others’ ears. Now if you hear something you can tell if it sounds good or if it doesn’t sound good. Always trust your ears and listen. Also, trust the opinions of your band mates, your friends. Maybe not some of your friends. Trust your band mates or other musicians. For example, if you’re playing with your band and everyone’s saying, yeah, you’ve got too much treble. Turn down the treble. You might want to just like listen. It’s always good to get other people’s opinions. Even when we’re playing, that’s why people have producers.
Tip number five, don’t overdo it with your gain, reverb or volume.
More is not necessarily better with a lot of these things. Let’s start with gain. You sometimes need some gain to get yourself like a nice lead tone, but too much gain makes you sound muddy. It’s going to ruin the clarity of your notes. Try to find that sweet spot; don’t overdo it with the gain. Same with reverb. Reverb can give you a nice sweetness to your sound, which I’ll demonstrate in a minute. But too much and it just kind of — it’s just too much. Same with playing loud. Like Albert King said, if you try to play
too loud or too fast sometimes people can make mistake what you’re
doing for a big hole in the air. Just watch. Don’t do the classic beginner mistake of just putting everything on 10 on your amp.
Tip number six is boost the mids to cut through the mix. What this means is when you’re playing with a band, whether it’s on stage or in a studio, you’ve got to find that right sonic frequency where your guitar stands out. As musicians we’re always kind of competing so that we can
all be heard. Well, with a guitar you don’t want to crank the bass because there’s already a bass player, probably. So that’s not going to work. A lot of guitar players try boosting the high frequency, but it just doesn’t really cut through as well as sometimes boosting the mids.
Tip number seven, last but not least, watch your bass setting. On a lot of amps there’s way too much bass, a lot more than you need. I guess it’s good for certain things, maybe certain jazz styles if you’re playing solo. A lot of times you just don’t need that much bass. I’ll have my bass on three or four.
It depends on the amp. Watch it because the amps an just be very different that way.
So now I’m going to demonstrate the Meteoro Atomic Drive 20 amplifier. If you’d like to get one of these for yourself, I definitely recommend it. It’s a great little amp. It sounds great. I’ll give you a great deal. Just go to guitarcontrol.com/atomic and you can get one of these for yourself.
You’ll notice I’ve got a microphone in front of the amp. That’s because I’m recording the audio for the amp with a direct mic so you can really hear what it sounds like. Usually I just use the camera mic for my videos, but
I really want you to hear the sonic quality of the amp as clearly as possible. So I’ve taken the extra time today to do a separate audio line.
Anyway, let me zoom-in on the controls here so you can see how I’ve got my amp set. Okay, from left to right, the first knob is the gain. I’m going to start with my lead tone, because that’s just what my amp is set-up for right now.
Now let me just dial the gain back a little bit here, actually, a lot. We’re just going to go for more of a crunch sound. Now, when you dial-back the gain
you’re going to want to kind of bump-up the volume a little bit. So let’s see how that sounds.
That’s one thing about a good amp, is dynamics. You should be able to play soft or louder and it should all sound good.
Now let’s go to the clean channel. I’ll just turn my drive select on the clean setting and we’ll just see what that sounds like. I’ll probably turn the volume up a little bit here. I’m also going to add a little more reverb, too.
So there you have it. I hope you enjoyed today’s video, the demonstration of the Meteoro Atomic Drive. If you’d like to get this amp for yourself, I recommend it. You can get it at guitarcontrol.com/atomic. So go there right now and check-out the deal. Thanks for watching and I’ll catch you next time.
