How to Start Dialing in Your Tone
Guitar tone is a very subjective topic and for someone trying to find out what their own tone is, it can also be quite daunting.
Sometimes, it’s hard to know how to even begin trying to find a tone that you love. Well, in this lesson we’re going to simplify that process. Using the Blackstar Silverline Deluxe, we are going to explore a few tone templates that you can use as a starting point. If there are any artists in this list that you really like the sound of, you can set your amp up that way and then tweak it to your own taste from there.
The principles that are discussed in this lesson and in the video can be applied to whatever amp you are using. The only thing that is specific to the Silverline is the voice and response features. But, with your EQ and the ISF, you can still get in the same ball park.
Any time one of the clean voices is used, you can use your clean channel. Likewise, the crunch and drive voices will be your overdrive channels.
The additional features such as effects, resonance and presence are not used. The only effect used is the amps reverb. Effects can be added to your own tone to taste.
American Clean – Stevie Ray Vaughan/John Mayer
You want to dial in a warm clean tone for this template. The gain is kept low and the channel volume is turned up just to simulate a high headroom, clean amp being used very loud.
The bass is set to 7, the mid on 5 and the treble on 7. You will need to set the ISF over to the American side.
If you have a Silverline, you can also choose the 6L6 response.
For this tone, you’ll want to use a Strat style guitar. Single coils work perfectly with these settings.
British Clean – Jimi Hendrix
If you want to dial in a Hendrix style clean tone, you can keep the voice and gain settings the same. Hendrix used British voiced amps so you’ll want to bring some of those mids back in. Push the mids up to 7 and pull the treble back to 6.
Push the ISF over to the British side and if you can, select an EL34 or KT66 response. If you have a Blackstar amp with EL84 tubes, this will still work.
The EL34 mode is more compressed and quieter. The KT66 will introduce a volume lift and a slight clipping at the top end to simulate a loud stack being pushed hard.
American Blues – Rolling Stones
If you love all things blues and you want to get some Tweed style tones from your amp, you can flip to the clean bright voice but max the channel volume and tone if you can. This will introduce a nice soft clipping sound at the top end of the clean voice.
These types of amps are small and fairly boxy sounding so you want to push the mids pretty hard here. Set the bass to 7, the mids to 9 and the treble to 5. Put the ISF over to the American side and select the 6V6 style tube response.
If you dial in a crunch tone or a low gain overdrive with these settings, it makes for a fantastic electric blues tone.
British Classic Rock – Led Zeppelin/ACDC
If 60s and 70s British rock is your thing then dial in a medium gain crunch tone. Set the bass to 7, the mid to 9 and the treble to 5 and get the ISF over to the British side.
You’ll want to select EL34 style tube responses for this. When paired with a humbucker guitar, you’re straight into a Led Zeppelin style guitar tone. Perfect for all those awesome 70s riffs.
If you dial in this same tone with a KT88 style tube, you’ll get a big, clear ACDC style tone. Think big overdriven rock chords with loads of clarity. You can really hear every single note ringing out clearly.
80s British Metal Tone – Iron Maiden
Dial up the gain and flip to your OD1 channel if you have it. Get the gain to just below half way and set your bass to 7 with the mid and treble up at 8. EL34 style tubes will get you straight into that early New Wave of British Heavy Metal style tone.
Pull all your best Iron Maiden riffs out for this.
80s American Metal Tone – Metallica
Now it’s time to use the OD2 channel. If you only have one overdrive channel, that’s fine. You can just push the gain a little more to add a bit more power.
Set the bass and treble to 7. A key component of the American metal tone is the slightly scooped midrange. Pull your mids back to about half way. You could set them lower which would sound awesome at home for metal, but beware of doing this on stage. A guitar amp with no mids will get lost in the mix.
Set the ISF over to the American side. Most tube responses will work well here. EL34 and EL84 sound great, but to get a tight, scooped tone I think the 6L6 works best.
Now, Dial in The Sound In Your Head
Now that you’ve gone through these tone templates and checked them out in the video, you can pick your favourite one and start to tweak it to taste.
When tweaking, make little adjustments anD think hard about what sort of things you want to achieve with your tone.
Remember, you can also add pedals to the mix and don’t be afraid of experimenting with effects.