ELECTRIC GUITARS
From truss rod tweaks and string swaps, to hardware and electrics upgrades, there are plenty of simple ways hone your electric tone
1 GET SET UP
While you’re saving up for your ultimate guitar, consider optimising the one you already have. A properly adjusted truss rod can cure fretbuzz and choke-out, and even lower the action. With strings ringing cleanly, nuts slots, bridges and saddle heights can be adjusted to optimise action and the intonation can be adjusted to ensure your guitar plays in tune all over the neck.
2 STRING SELECTION
Select a gauge that is comfortable to play, rather than struggle for the sake of ‘tone’ – because you’ll sound better and lighter strings actually sound tighter with gain. Pure nickel sounds warmer than nickel-plated steel, and stainless steel sounds brightest of all. Round-cores sound warmer than hex-cores and usually feel looser. Half-rounds and flat-wounds produce jazzy tone and vintage twang with reduced finger noise, and coated strings maintain their ‘fresh out of the packet’ tone longer.
MARTY FRIEDMAN
“Once you realise that your own personal tone comes mainly from your choice of notes, how you interpret them, and the touch of your hands on your strings, you can save a lot of time by not messing with gear settings much. Before a session or a concert, I always tell my tech or an engineer, ‘Just get me a tone that any self-respecting guitarist in a bar band might have.’ Get a decent sound and let the content of what you play be what identifies you. When the content is good, people will think you have great tone.”
3 PICKUP UPGRADES
Installing a set of hand-wound pickups is often the first serious upgrade we undertake. It’s one of the more expensive options, but pickup upgrades offer the greatest potential for improvement. The options are almost limitless and it pays to do your research. Check out reviews and video demos, and remember that players regularly swap pickups so there are secondhand bargains to be found.
4 POTENTIOMETER UPGRADE
Darker pickups are matched with higher-value pots, so Jazzmasters have 1megs, and humbuckers and P-90s are paired with 500k units. S-type and T-type trebles are tamed by 250ks. By choosing slightly higher pot values than standard, such as 550k and 280k, you can brighten a guitar. Conversely, 475k or 220k will sweeten the top-end. A potentiometer’s taper affects
