Tera-pies

Now that I'm officially assignmentless, all these random post ideas are starting to come in. I'm sure every guitar player who frequently delve in the realm of distortion would have his or her idea of what their ideal high-gain tone would sound like; tight, punchy, boomy, etc. For me, there's definitely sponginess involved. But it's gotta be clear enough for full complex chords to ring, while at the same time, keeping metallic riffs and chugs tight and chunky. Anyway, for this first part, we shall be looking at 3 of my absolute favourite high gain tones, both in studio and live(yes, I too find it weird that all 3 band names start with A);

1. Alice In Chains

Guitarist of interest; Jerry Cantrell

This would be the starting point towards my holy grail of heavy guitar tone. Once I'm able to dial in a similar tone such as this on any pedal or amp, I'm a happy camper. This is more or less the type of sound I set my main distortion pedal/amp too, and then use another pedal(either an eq or overdrive) to bump up the frequencies for the aforementioned "metal chugs".

2. Alter Bridge

Guitarist of interest; Myles Kennedy(left track)

While Mr Tremonti will always be the resident six-stringed backbone of Alter Bridge, I tend to favour Mr Kennedy's live and studio tone more. It's not as "in your face" or "all-out metal" as Mark's. "Super-charged classick rock" would be a good way of describing his sound. It's also the reason why I will forever be intrigued by Diezel amps(although I wouldn't necessarily own one...there's no practical reason for me to fork out that much cash on an amplifier).

3. Abingdon Boys School

Guitarist of interest; Hiroshi Shibasaki(right track)



In a similar gear-related sense, Mr Shibasaki is the reason why I'm enamored by Music Man guitars; specifically the Luke models, as well making me rediscover the beauty and versatility of a HSS config strat-style guitar. I also consider him as a huge influence in my playing; not that I'm anywhere near his level, but I really appreciate his blues-meets-jazz-inspired lead work, 80s-effect-laden textures and making use of prog-ish chord progressions in a catchy, mainstream setting.