A guitar's tone is shaped by the player's hands.
Great tone is a hallmark of all exceptional guitar players---it separates renowned guitar players from average ones. Conversely, players with terrible tone come off as mediocre, even if they have extraordinary ability, expensive guitars and high-end amplifiers. Like learning scales and chords, finding the perfect tone takes practice. The process is a combination of how your hands interact with the strings, what kind of gear you use and the knowledge of your equipment.
Instructions
Basic Essentials
1. Tune up. Being in tune is required for great tone. Dissonance is hard on everyone's ears---it won't matter how well you play if your guitar is out of tune. Use an electronic tuner to get your guitar in tune.
2. Practice your playing attack. Correct hand technique is a key element to tone.
The way a string is picked will also have an enormous effect on how the instrument will sound. Picks are made in a variety of materials and thicknesses, all of which color your tone. Billy Gibbons gets much of his characteristic sound from using a Mexican peso as a pick. Varying the amount of your picking force will also create differences in tone. Attend a performance of a local guitarist and watch how he uses his picking hand.
3. Focus on touch. How your fretting hand touches the strings will change the tone significantly. Differing the amount of pressure while fretting has an impact on the sound that's produced. Dynamic players will constantly change their grip on the strings while playing.
Tools of the Trade
4. Pick the right pickup to get excellent tone. Professionals often use a neck pickup (the pickup closest to the neck of the guitar) for playing rhythm, then switch to a bridge pickup (the pickup closest to the bridge) while soloing. Since the strings have more tension near the bridge, bridge pickups have a brighter sound, which will cut through a mix better than a neck pickup.
5. Know your amp. Setting your amp correctly is important for good tone. Turning one setting all the way up while the others are set at a conservative level can teach a player the influence of each individual setting.
6. Create special effects. Effect pedals can be valuable in generating killer tone. Most players employ at least an overdrive and a delay pedal. Wah-wah pedals and flangers have helped players like Jimi Hendrix and Eddie Van Halen achieve signature sounds.
7. Learn to compensate. One challenging way to improve tone is to set an amp at a setting that's not to your liking and then find ways to improve the sound. You can do this, for example, by turning the bass all the way up and the treble all the way down, or vice versa. This is a unique way to practice using your hands to create tone and to learn the impact that touch has on sound.
