How to find the best Guitar Amp Settings (2023)

FAQs

How to find the best Guitar Amp Settings? ›

For a distorted tone, set your amplifier settings to 7-9 for gain, 4-5 for bass, 5-7 for mids and 5-7 for treble. For metal, consider decreasing the mids and increasing the treble and bass. For heavy rock distortion, lower the gain slightly, and increase the mids. Keep in mind, that this is just a starting point.

Most rhythm guitar settings will be around 4-6. Bass: this refers to the low-end sound that your amp produces. The lower the bass, the thinner the sound will be. Try your bass on around 5-6 to start with and then work from there.

Question: What Amp Settings did Jimi Hendrix Use? Answer: Jimi Hendrix's amp settings depended greatly on the song he was performing, but generally, he has the bass at around 4, the mids at 8, the treble at 6, and the gain at 4 or 5.

Set the crossover point around 10 Hz below the lowest frequency your speakers can produce without issue. (keep in mind that the most common recommendation for crossover frequency is 80 Hz).

Bright, chime-y clean tones are great for giving your playing lots of clarity. Go easy on the gain, because any distortion will lead to too much harsh high frequency distortion, but be sure to give it enough that it sounds nice and full.

On the other hand, gain increases the loudness which ultimately affects your speaker's sound quality. Increasing the gain on your speaker will result in a louder sound output but without any distortion. Increasing the gain further on your speaker will eventually reach the volume limit of the amplifier or speaker.

A good amplifier uses signal power with maximum efficiency, achieving a high signal-to-noise ratio. That is, the level of the audio signal is significantly higher than the accompanying signal noise. Anything above 100 dB should provide excellent sound quality with minimal distortion and maximal clarity.

When it comes to guitar amps, there are two types of input signals that can be used: high and low. High input signals are typically used when the guitar is being played through an overdriven amp, while low input signals are best suited for clean tones.

How do I match my guitar amp to my speakers? ›

As a general rule, the wattage of your guitar amp should be twice the wattage of your speaker. So, if you have a 100 watt speaker, you should look for an amp that is 200 watts or less.

A relatively low mids-setting is characteristic for Metallica, which is often described as “scooping” the amp. Treble: this determines the high frequency sounds. The higher the treble is, the sharper and more defined the sound will be.

In general, however, most amps should be turned up to at least half volume on stage to ensure that the audience can hear the music clearly. If you're playing in a large venue, you may need to turn the volume up even higher to be heard over the noise of the crowd.

This tone is pretty simple, Eddie Van Halen used his legendary Marshall Plexi amplifier famously cranked to the hilt with every knob turned up to 10 (or 11!) and his iconic Frankenstein guitar with the single humbucker in the bridge. The reverb and room mic effects mixed in also have an influence on this recording.

If you are trying to achieve Van Halen's tone, start with the following amp settings: Channel: distorted. Gain: 7-8. Bass: 5-6.

Quick Guide AC/DC Amp Settings

Gain: 5-6. Bass: 4-5. Mids: 5-6. Treble: 6-7.

There can be many reasons why your guitar amp might sound bad. It could be that the tubes need to be replaced, or that the speaker is blown. It could also be that the settings on the amp are not ideal for the type of sound you're trying to achieve.

The Quick Answer. Start with the following amp settings for blues guitar: low-moderate gain (2-4), low-moderate bass (2-4), medium to high mids (6-8) and medium to high treble (6-8). If your amplifier has built-in reverb, make sure you turn this on and have it set to around 1-4.

To get a good crunch tone, use either the overdrive channel on your amp with the gain halfway, or use the clean channel and crank the gain. Alternatively, use an overdrive pedal through a clean amp. Slightly boost the treble and mids in comparison to the bass and use the bridge pickup on the guitar.

What should my gain be set at? ›

For using tones and your ears to set an amp's gain, I recommend sticking with only the 40, 100, 400, or 1K Hz tones. They don't hurt at all. The 100 Hz tone alone will do for both subwoofer and full-range speaker amps.

When learning how to EQ a guitar amp, gradually tweak each control until you find the sweet spot. When you EQ your amp, make sure that you spend some time on each control. Don't just dive straight into adjusting every single knob, pick one control and gradually turn it until you are happy with your guitar tone.

The number of channels you need on your car amplifier depends on the number of speakers you have in your car sound system. Generally, you need one channel per speaker.

Middle - This is this most important control. Middle (mids) settings can change the whole character of the sound. Taking the mids out of a heavily distorted sound (a low setting of 2-3) might give a classic 80's "scooped rock" sound whereas a higher mid setting will make it more “honky”.

If the gain is too high at the input stage, your audio will reach the point of distortion or clipping. This can be a good or bad thing depending on what you are going for, as you might want to get some distortion with an amplifier, though you might want a clean tone for digital audio.

Noise floor will take over if you do not give your microphone enough gain to counter it. Not providing your microphone with enough gain will cause the signal to be too close to the noise floor which will result in a low signal to noise floor ratio.

For home use your amp should be around 20W. For most gigs and live performances in venues that hold around 100 people, you should have either a 20W tube amp, or a 40W solid state amp if you're playing without a band. If you're playing with a drummer, you'll likely need a 100W solid state amp, or a 50W valve amp.

Considering the above specifications, you will need an amplifier that is compatible with the speaker having 4 ohm impedance, and the amp should have at least 20W of power output. But to get good enough performance, the amplifier needs to be 150W at least because the higher range of the speaker is 300W.

How much louder is a 100 watt amp? ›

One watt=90 dB. One hundred watts, or 100X more power=110 dB. That's a huge increase in power but only a "doubled double" (4X) increase in terms of perceived volume levels!

When placed on the floor, the amp will “couple” with the surface, boosting low frequencies. When miking the amp for recording or sound reinforcement, that boosted low end can create problems. 2. The amp will disperse its sound into the room better if it is raised up.

With your amp on the floor, it is absorbing a lot of bass vibrations directly from the amp and transferring them through walls and ceilings. By raising the amp, you take away the chance for the floor to project your bass throughout the building.

While many factors can affect the volume of an amplifier, such as the efficiency of the speaker and the type of music being played, wattage is one of the most important. Simply put, the more watts an amplifier has, the louder it will be. This is why 100 watt guitar amps are usually louder than 50 watt amps.

Case 1: running a 16 ohm speaker with an 8 ohm amp output

With this combination, the voltage at the speaker output will rise, while the current will almost halve. The power will drop, although you probably won't notice it too much, as this combination will likely increase the mids in your tone.

The bottom line: Our general advice would be that it's fine to connect speakers with a higher impedance to an amplifier capable operating with a lower impedance, but what you shouldn't do is connect speakers with a lower impedance (say, 4 ohms) to an amplifier with a higher minimum impendence (10 ohms, for example).

A 50-watt per channel amplifier will work fine with speakers rated at 100 watts.

Richards is well known for his use of Marshall amplifiers. He has been using them since the early days of the Stones, and they are still his amplifier of choice today. He typically uses a 100 watt Marshall head with 4×12 cabinets. Richards' amp setup is fairly simple, but it is highly effective.

What a lot of people do not know is that the 1964 6G6-B Bassman was actually the most recorded amplifier by The Beatles. The amp was first used by Paul McCartney as his main bass amp from 1965 to mid 1967 (he did use a Vox during this time but not as much as the Bassman).

What amps do Bon Jovi use? The lead guitarist of Bon Jovi, Richie Sambora primarily uses Blackstar and Marshall amplifiers.

What amp did Megadeth use? ›

For the type of high gain thrash metal that Megadeth is known for, there really is only one amp: Marshall. Mustaine has used both the JCM800 and JVM410H. These amp heads are usually paired with either a 1960 or ORI Marshall cabinet. He hasn't exclusively used Marshall amps, however.

The Quick Answer. To achieve a good metal tone, have your amp settings on high for bass and gain, mid-low for the mids setting and mid-high for the treble setting. The key to achieving a good metal tone is high gain, high sustain and lot's of low-end (bass).

For an ideal amplifier, when a signal passes through the system, then no noise is added to the signal, and input SNR is equal to the output SNR and hence NF for the ideal amplifier is 1 or 0 dB.

So what settings do you need for rock music? Usually for the having the bass on 5, the treble on 4 and the mids on 7 is a good place to start. If you're struggling to get a thick tone, but don't want to up your gain any more, then try increasing your mids.

The most common reasons for a muddy guitar sound are having your guitar's tone knob is turned down too far, using old guitar strings, or your amp's EQ knobs are set wrong.

The Quick Answer

To achieve a good metal tone, have your amp settings on high for bass and gain, mid-low for the mids setting and mid-high for the treble setting. The key to achieving a good metal tone is high gain, high sustain and lot's of low-end (bass). Remember, this is just a starting point.

Use a Tube Preamp Distortion Pedal

Turn a Solid State Amplifier into a "Tube Amp" with a Tube Pedal?! Using a tube distortion pedal, you ensure your tone does not lack the character you might lose when using a solid-state or digital distortion. These distortions are known to sound fizzy and, in some cases, lifeless.

Yes, they can. If you are good enough, you can make any guitar sound good. Also, the amp and strings you are using have a huge impact on your tone. So if you replace stock strings with better ones and choose a solid amp, you can sound really good with a cheap guitar.

Why do vintage amps sound so good? Vintage amps have a stronger sound due to the fact that their internal circuitry is primarily hand-wired, with an emphasis on detail. Furthermore, tubes add warmth to the output, which makes it more musical, and even order harmonics add order to the sound.

So, how long do guitar amps (solid-state, tube) last? A solid-state amp usually lasts more than 30 years even if you play it every day. Tube amps have a similar lifespan, but they require additional work like re-tubing every 2 years.

What not to do with a guitar amp? ›

Never, never, never run the amp with no speaker plugged in. This can cause major damage. Do not flip the power switch off, then back on rapidly. This can cause power supply damage.

If you're a guitar player, you've probably wondered if plugging your guitar into an amplifier can damage it. The answer is yes and no. While an amp can't physically ruin your guitar, it can cause serious damage if it's not used correctly.

Generally, cheap guitars come with really thick top woods. It means that much of the sound is absorbed in the wood, reducing sound volume or color when you play. It can lead to a poor and uninspiring sound. Unfortunately, you can't fix this problem because you can't change your guitar's body.

A relatively low mids-setting is characteristic for Metallica, which is often described as “scooping” the amp. Treble: this determines the high frequency sounds. The higher the treble is, the sharper and more defined the sound will be. Turn the treble up to 6 to start with to avoid the tone becoming muddy.

Are solid-state or tube amps better? Answer: Tube amps are generally regarded as “better”, more dynamic, responsive and pleasing on the ear in terms of sound quality at high volumes, but solid-state amps have more functionality and built-in features and are often cheaper and need less maintenance.

Whilst there are countless solid state modeling amps on the market, few come anywhere close to producing the truly authentic, tube-tones of Fender's Tonemaster series, which is why our pick for the best solid state amp you can buy right now is the Fender Tonemaster Deluxe Reverb.

One reason for the superior sound of tube amps is that they tend to produce a more natural and organic sound. This is because tube amps generate their sound by amplifying the vibrations of the guitar strings, rather than using digital signals like solid state amps.