I just posted a thread on changing my RG320 pickups but then something else came in mind.

From all this time, all this playing with gadgets and stuff and EQ... I've only come up with one tone that was good to me and that's because my guitar teacher told me how to do it and that's a metal tone constituted of Max bass, max treble, little to no mids and lots of gain.

But if I want to do something more bluesy, or jazzy or get some satch tones or Malmsteen Neo-Classical tone? What if I want a sound like Petrucci or Vai...Heck what if I want to come up with a specific tone I'm looking for a song I made. All my tries have come to the same result: It sounds like crap.

A couple of weeks back my friend sent me an impro he made and his tone was really nice... and I asked him how he did it... said he used the bridge pickup of his RG, with some delay on his Zoom G2. I have a Zoom G9... could never get that tone... the tone is similar but too brittle, bright and thin sounding. It has no life, no warmth. I don't get none of this.

Is there anything I could look at to learn this stuff piece by piece ? I don't want to go all out and mix too many things at once. But I want to slowly learn how to mix things up and how to use the EQ to come up with something that sounds good.

Hope I was clear enough !

Thanks for the advice people !

I like pointing to this IMHO, it's all about your fingers. Seriously, last night I was playing Yngwie's "Black star" on a 57 Les Paul VOS :P Definitely not what you would expect, and it sounded decent.

My favorite tool to fool around with for different tones is Guitar rig 3.

http://www.suhrguitars.com/wood.aspx - just read the first couple of lines at the top

I have read that in this forum I think about the fingers affecting the tone. Can you explain to me how different playing styles will affect the tone of the sound ?

I know we can achieve different kind of sounds depending on what we do with both our hands like, our picking techniques, fretting techniques and such but from there I need a bit of meat so that I can go around and look for more details on my own.

Then I need to learn how to use these special effects to give a special feeling to the tone.

I've never heard of Guitar Rig. 3. I'll check it out.

as you have said, and in addition to it
how hard you hit the strings, how your fret them, whether you add vibrato to your notes, how you phrase, if you mute every note, or let them ring.

all these factors are part of what contribute to your tone.

IMHO, unless you are a cover band, you don't have to nail different people's tones. I think the guitar & the amp are the parts you need to be the most transparent.

good luck

Perhaps I have been looking for this a little bit too early, I have been playing for 8 months. I probably need more playing behind my belt and more theory and what not. I'm starting to be aware of what makes the difference but there's always these little details that I can't seem to understand.

I guess I have to be patient about it and keep on rockin! B)