I once heard a lead guitarist say, “turn everything to 12 o’clock and if you don’t like how it sounds, get a different amp.” While he may have been exaggerating, his statement has some truth.
When trying to get the best clean tone out of your amp, you have to use your ear. The best way to make adjustments to your tone is to start everything as neutral as possible. In other words, set everything to the middle, or 5 on each knob (12 o’clock).
But there is a lot more to it than that.
Lucky for you, this article will provide you with a comprehensive guide to creating the best amp settings for clean sound. Read on to nail down the perfect tone for your amp.
Picking the Right Amp
One thing you will definitely need to create a decent clean tone is an amp with plenty of headroom, meaning that you can get enough volume out of it before getting a distorted sound.
Hopefully, you can have the gain set to next to nothing, and you get little to no crackle even when you turn it up.
This shouldn’t be an issue for solid-state amplifiers. But let’s face it, if you’re looking to get the best tone from your amp, you need a tube amp.
Old school Fender amps are known for their ample headroom. Yet, plenty of high-quality British amps can compete with them. The Marshall JVM series is a prime example.
There’s No Right Answer
Unlike with rock, metal, and blues, it’s hard to give template amp settings for a clean tone. It truly is all about experimentation and working it out for yourself.
Start with everything in the neutral position, turn off any effects, then start playing.
Listen. Then make adjustments and repeat.
But, there is an exception to this.
Fender Amps and The Magic 6 Number
Fender amps (and guitars) are synonymous with classic American tones. They’re also known for their ample headroom, so they’re perfect for use on their clean channels. This also makes them the ideal base to build upon with a pedalboard.
You’ll hear plenty of Fender amps on your favorite artists’ recordings. For example, the Fender Princeton and its subsequent reissues have been around since the ‘70s and still see plenty of use in modern recording studios. The same goes for the Fender Reverb and the Fender Twin Reverb.
Pretty much any vintage Fender amp or their reissues can create the typical sparkly, bright, and percussive tone we’ve all come to know and love.
So, with the similarities between these amps, and their age, we can draw some conclusions about ideal EQ settings for them.
Here’s how it works:
- Volume: 6
- Treble: 6
- Mids: 3
- Bass: 2
Sound guys and guitarists have been using this setting for Fender amps for years. So, this is just the ticket when you say you’re looking for the best amp settings for clean tone and you own a classic Fender.
You could also use these settings with cheaper Fender solid-state amps. It just won’t be so sure-fire, and you may have to make some adjustments.
Altering Your Tone to Get The Best Clean Guitar Sound
One important thing to keep in mind when you’re building your sound is to make sure that the volume on your guitaris turned all the way up. Unfortunately, having the volume turned down alters the tone too.
The same goes for the pickup switch. Make sure it’s set to the pickup that you plan to play with the most. If your amp has two clean channels (fancy), you can even use a footswitch to change pickup positions and have two separate settings.
For ease of writing, let’s say you don’t own a Fender amp. This means you’ll start with the dials all set to 5 (right in the middle).
Drive/Volume
Ideally, these will be separate knobs, and you can have the drive set as low as possible. But many tube amps need to use the drive knob to also control the volume. In which case, you should be wary that pushing the volume too high will introduce fuzz or distortion into your tone.
If your amp isn’t loud enough to get over a drummer without becoming overdriven, you should consider micing up your amp with the main PA system when you play instead of cranking the gain.
You need to remember that too much volume generally equals distortion.
Bass, Mids, and Treble
We’d recommend messing with each of these knobs one at a time. It will make it easier to identify when each becomes too much. Once your ear becomes familiar with the changes, it will be easier to create complete tonal profile changes for different guitars and amps on the fly.
We have an article on how to EQ acoustic guitar for live sound with a helpful flowchart. The same principles apply to clean tone on an amp, so you could use that to make some informed alterations to your settings.
Reverb
The amount of reverb you want depends on your taste.
For example, a jazz musician will probably use minimal reverb, a blues player on the clean channel will use a little, and a reggae musician would likely have it cranked past ten if they could. That doesn’t mean you have to fit inside a specific genre box, especially if you’re writing music.
You may also need to adjust the reverb settings when you play in different rooms, studios, and venues. Most rooms have a certain degree of natural reverb in them, and the artificial or spring reverb in your amp may clash with it.
For example, a hall generally has a lot of reverb. But an outdoor venue will have almost none.
Pedals to Improve Your Guitar Amp Setting for Clean Sound
Reverb
If your amp does not have built-in reverb, you should think about getting one ASAP. It doesn’t have to be expensive, and reverb will definitely improve your sound.
Here are some of the best reverb pedals in the market, to name a few:
Delay
Delay is another pedal that sounds amazing with clean amps. You don’t need to saturate the sound by turning the delay pedal’s settings to maximum.
While this could be a cool effect for lead lines and certain parts of songs, it’s something to use to break up your song structure.
You can leave the delay pedal on constantly with lower settings, so it’s hardly noticeable. Combine that with a decent reverb, and you’ll have a rich-sounding full clean tone.
Pedal EQ
Sometimes the onboard three-band EQ on an amp just doesn’t cut it when it comes to building the best amp settings for clean tone. Using a pedal EQ lets you boost or cut much smaller frequency ranges to fine-tune your sound.
If you haven’t mastered the amp EQ yet, hold off on getting a pedal. Think of it as more of an upgrade.
If the pedal EQ is also a stompbox, you can turn it on and off when you switch pickups to maintain a fantastic tone throughout a varied performance.
Chorus
Chorus is another one of those effects that people can use too much of. Doing this can often make your chords sound dissonant, which is fine if that’s what you’re trying to do artistically but be careful.
On the other hand, a chorus pedal on low settings is perfect for creating ambiance with your playing.
Master EQ Effectively
Ask any sound guy, and they’ll tell you they are always learning more about perfecting soundscapes. You should make this a goal too. Learning music should be a lifelong journey because there’s always more to learn.
We have plenty of articles about making perfect sound for recordings and live performances to help you on this journey. Some of our best are: