Crayon Sky Music

Which guitar and pickups should I get?

I have been looking at getting a new guitar for months now, but I keep changing my mind. I originally opted for a Gibson Cherry SG, but I don’t know whether it’s heavy enough.

If you want a good metal tone, then you need a good amp. Period. A no-name amp that doesn’t have a gain control or even worse, is a bass amp, isn’t going to do a very good job at getting you there… you need something that is going to be more geared towards the sound you want.

Let me give you an example of what I mean… distortion generates a lot of high-frequency noise, and not always the pretty kind. This happens in both the amp and in distortion pedals. Guitar amps and guitar speakers in particular roll off these high frequencies so you get a warmer, rounder tone vs a thinner, harsher (in an unpleasant way) tone. Bass speakers don’t.

Bass speakers are geared towards reproducing a wider frequency response than guitar speakers… not just lower, but higher as well – they have a much less pronounced high end roll-off, and that means they keep more of the nasty high frequency noise. That’s not good times!

So if you’re willing to drop some cash on a new guitar, that means you have the cash to drop on a new amp instead. Take your guitar to a music shop (ie Guitar Center, Sam Ash, whatever) and plug in to a few different amps – Marshall, Crate, Peavey, B-52, Orange, Laney, and Mesa Boogie are all examples of brands that you should try (or at least those that you should if you can find them).

The amp itself isn’t everything – speakers are as important, if not more important, than the amp itself. You simply can’t overestimate the power of a good set of speakers in finding a good solid tone… I’m willing to bet that a good set of speakers would probably even work in your amp as is and give you a much better tone as is…. although of course that wouldn’t be my first choice!

Probably the two most important things that I would look at is multiple speakers and wattage rating. More speakers, in general, equals better tone. Bigger speakers, in general, means better tone. Speakers with higher wattage rating, in general, mean better bass and a crisper, cleaner sound (if that’s what you’re looking for, of course).

So, to give an example, speakers from a 120w 4×12 cab are going to be rated at 40w a piece, right? Well, compared to a speaker rated at 75w (ie a 300w 4×12 cab) they aren’t going to have nearly the solid bass and crisp treble detail that the higher rated speakers will….. *in general*. Different speakers have different tonal characteristics, keep that in mind. Researching your speakers to find the right ones for you is ideal, but at the very least try to find a cab that is rated with a higher number of watts.

Each of the bands that you’ve listed have a different approach to their sound, use different amps and different pickups, different gear in general. Claudio from CnC used Mesa Boogie, Travis from CnC used a Marshall JCM2000 I believe, then for their third album both switched to Bogner Uberschalls, I think Metallica has always used Mesa Boogie (but Marshall amps seem to nail their tone very well), Dimebag used a lot of EQ, a distortion pedal, and solid state Randall amps, AC/DC uses guitars similar to yours with a 50w Marshall tube amp (at least when playing live), etc.

If you like the way your guitar plays now, then don’t switch it out for something else… just put in new pickups. If you want to switch, try a few different ones before you buy. I like lighter guitars, so Jackson, Ibanez, or LTD are my preferences, but certainly Epiphone, Schecter, etc are all on the table.

For me, I’ve gone with passive pickups (Seymour Duncan) and an onboard preamp…. this gives me a hotter tone, but also gives me more dynamic range and a more detailed tone than you can get with active pickups. My current fav’s are an Alnico II Pro in the neck (for a very Slash-esque sound, esp on leads) and an Alternative 8 in the bridge (very hot, has a nice chimey tone though, similar to the JB but with a tighter low end, so a lot of clarity even with gain, saturates distortion pedals and tube amps very well).

Dimebag put an EQ before and after his distortion pedal… he boosted his mids before the distortion pedal and cut them afterwards…. this gave him a much more saturated, gain-y tone. You can achieve that same effect with EQ pedals, wah pedals, overdrive/booster pedals, etc…. I use my Dunlop 535Q before my distortion pedal, for instance, with the solo boost on and the pedal most of the way forward for a really smooth but highly distorted, chunky tone.

For quieter playing, I got an Epiphone Valve Jr (+ extension cab). Cost me about 250$, its a cheap tube amp, and once I put in a low-gain preamp tube in (a 12au7 / ecc83, I think, instead of a 12ax7) the treble stopped being so piercing, it got quieter (ie more reasonable volume, 5 tube watts is really loud!) and I could get a really nice creamy chunky tone with my Metalcore…

Saul

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