Gain Is Not Your Friend

How is gain bad?

Well it isn’t bad, too much of it is bad. What separates the nice, crisp tones of older rock songs, is the fact that they didn’t have access to the boatloads of gain that we have today. Today people that play metal are able to just shred, and they sound like they hit every note. Well that’s because they have a ton of gain turned on, with their EMG pickups (with are meant for metal playing). If you want to sound like a rock musician, and not a metalhead, and want to learn how to play your guitar much better, then turn down that gain! Just turn up the volume, and let that tube amp do it’s job.

Why too much gain is ruining music

The truth of the situation is that it’s much easier to play with a lot of gain turned on. You can play notes super fast, and with hammer ons, but it’s much harder to sound good soloing without all that gain. Why were players like Angus Young, Jimmy Page, and Stevie Ray Vaughan such good guitar players? Because they never could program on all this distortion and gain to muddy up their playing. They had to play crisp and true for everyone to hear, and that forced them to become better guitar players. It’s the same concept as using vocoders.

Steps to Take:

Turn down your gain slowly, not all at once
Find the least amount of gain you can have on while still getting a tone you like
Practice turning off almost all the gain, and you’ll become a much better player. It’ll be easier to solo when you turn the gain back on

Do you respect singers like Kanye West, or T-Pain, who can’t even sing? They just turn on a vocoder, and are done with it. Back when rock was the big music, if you wanted to sound good on recordings, and live, you had to learn how to sing well! It’s a no brainer, if you want to sound good, you should have to be good. Well you might not have realized it, but cranking your gain is like using a vocoder. It disguises all the bad notes that you’re playing, instead of having them ring out. Beginners use a lot of gain, because they’re not very good players, and because it sounds good, but when you stop using so much gain, is when you’ll start hearing how you actually sound, and you can improve your playing.

In summary:

Gain will muddy up your playing
Gain is for beginners who can’t play, or metalheads
Turning down your gain will make you a much better player (and it’ll make you sound better”