Practicing with intentionally bad tone

[AnthonyStauffer]

There's another thread going right now about those rough practice days and it made me remember something I started doing in college while first learning guitar that I wonder if anyone else has tried.

I was stuck in a dorm room at PSU, and my only amp was a Marshall Valvestate head, capable of some truly awful tones. While I usually practiced with the distortion channel on, I quickly realized that the more distortion I had, the more easily it masked any mistakes I made.

So one day I purposely set the amp for a really weak, thin, clean tone and did my usual routine of attempting to play with my favorite songs. The result seemed to be the equivalent of slowing from 60mph to 10 and suddenly seeing all the trees you used to drive past too fast to look at.

I had to focus on every single note I played because there was no distortion, and not enough volume to really sustain any notes. It was literally worse than playing with no amp at all. My goal was if I could make that sound good, than I knew I could make anything else sound good.

Has anyone else ever tried this?

[The Guy]

for the first 3 years that i played guitar, i played the crumbiest epiphone guitar available.

does that count?

[Gino*]

In AYGP (I think, maybe the clinic dvd?) Tomo recommends practicing using bridge pickup with the treble all the way up on the amp. I do that, and at relatively loud volumes with no effects. It lets all the mistakes shine through perfectly.

[JonR]

Originally Posted by The Guy

for the first 3 years that i played guitar, i played the crumbiest epiphone guitar available.

does that count?

Yes.
I began on an appalling cheap (nameless) acoustic with painful action. Toughened me up good.
If you can sound good on bad equipment, you can sound great on good stuff.
Plus you have a dream, a goal, a prize: "[sigh] if only I could afford that beautiful gibson/prs/martin/whatever... maybe I'll deserve it when I get good enough on this piece of s*** ..."

[Yngtchie Blacksteen]

Yes, and I believe it's a good thing. Practising with a crummy tone that enhances all your flubs can truly make you a better player, because it forces you to pay close attention to your technique at all times.

[splatt]

if it "works" for you, it's fine.
i often practise on acoustic instruments, where i can
still work on the nuances of tone-production;
not all of my stringed instruments are guitars.

i also practise without any instrument to hand, so.....

but, personally?

i do not prefer to play through a "bad"-sounding amp,
with a bridge pickup set @ super-bright settings, etc,
as a "routine", though,
since there's one key element missing from that kinda practise:
the actuality of concentration & focus on my working tone-production.

since, among other things,
i'm an electric guitarist,
i prefer to practise the electric guitar, when possible,
with the entire instrument.....
.....which, for me, clearly & absolutely includes
(or, is simply incomplete without) the amplifier.
i play at reasonable (but not painful) volumes.

if a player comes to me for practise-tips
and i think they may be having problems due to their
using (not playing) the amplifier
to "mask" certain elements of their technique/phrasing/expression/tone,
i might feel that it's
precisely the way in which they're not "playing the amplifier"
that warrants their attention & work in practise.
not always, but..... it certainly has happened.

like i said, though:
whatever works..... so long as it's working!

dt / spltrcl

[buddastrat]

Yes I do. I figure if I can make that cheap amp sound good and get some compliments, I'm doing alright.
I find it's much easier to play on a clean tone than distortion. it's that cheap buzzy distortion that shows mistakes actually. If you can take that tone and make it sound very clean and sustainful you're doing good.

On a clean tone, a player doesn't have to worry about note overlap or sympathetic vibrations and so on, so they can flail away and still sound clean as long as your hands are in sync with each other. With distortion, not only do your hands need to be in synch but there's many other things to worrry about as well.

Distortion can actually magnify mistakes. I think it's good to practice on different tones because they require different techniques.

[AnthonyStauffer]

I guess it is a bit optimistic to think that an overdriven tone will automatically sound better. "Practicing" your technique when working with higher levels of saturation and also with the simple act of switching pedals on and off could mean the difference between a show where you're thinking about your rig, rather than focusing on the music.

I actually used to wonder how much more enjoyable setting up and tearing down after a gig would be if I actually practiced setting up my gear over and over to learn the most efficient way, instead of assuming that I could just do it.

[dantedayjob]

I usually practice without being plugged in at all... hearing the guitar acoustically serves, to my ears, the same purpose

[splatt]

Originally Posted by dantedayjob

I usually practice without being plugged in at all... hearing the guitar acoustically serves, to my ears, the same purpose

i also do this;
but
--- as an electric guitarist ---
don't feel it's "the same thing".

i tend to think of it as a specialised/limited kind of practise,
since it ignores/bypasses the first word
of the phrase "electric guitar".....
and, my musical interest has always included
for efforts towards the application of
a broad concept of integration.

dt / spltrcl

[JonR]

The one caveat here to practising on poor gear (or with poor sound) is that you have to enjoy practising. The gear/sound/tone shouldn't be so bad it depresses you or puts you off doing it. It just has to be clean and revealing.

Also, you do - ultimately - have to practise (for live performance) with the setup you will be using, so you know how to control everything. Not just your fingers (1st essential!), but all the processors (PUs, FX, amp, speakers) your sound is going to go through.

I've often got a great sound at home, then a cruddy one live or in the studio.

[dantedayjob]

Originally Posted by splatt

i also do this;
but
--- as an electric guitarist ---
don't feel it's "the same thing".

i tend to think of it as a specialised/limited kind of practise,
since it ignores/bypasses the first word
of the phrase "electric guitar".....
and, my musical interest has always included
for efforts towards the application of
a broad concept of integration.

dt / spltrcl

I follow you, when I say "I practice unplugged", I mean as far as learning/practicing scales, learning the structure of a new song, etc. Once the notes are in order (proper phrasing, etc) I can plug in and apply "electric technique" (feedback, distortion, pick harmonics, etc)

[crazyForce]

Originally Posted by JonR

...I've often got a great sound at home, then a cruddy one live or in the studio.

Me too.

And I can understand exactly what the OP is at, I toughened up on a really cheap Epiphone which made every decent guitar after that a cinch to play.

In a way though, I have arrived at the inverse regarding my live and recorded distortion tones. I have always struggled getting the distortion sound I wanted from the amp vs. the sound I needed in the song. Anymore, I am using only lighter distortions and cruches because I realized I wasn't getting all of the detail out of my chordings-no matter what amp I tried. The simpler my rig gets, the better my results seem to be.

[Bryan T]

Originally Posted by gr8bluesgtr

Has anyone else ever tried this?

I used to practice on a ridiculously bright sound - it kept my technique clean.

These days, I focus more on acoustic playing, which has its own benefits for my technique.

[Z_Zoquis]

I think the idea of pracitcing at least some of the time with sub-par tone has some real merit actually. My practice amp is a little Marshall MG10. I often find that after spending some time practicing a given song at home, I have to adjust my playing when I finally get to the band practice space where my real gear is due to the fact that I'll have adapted to the crappy practice amp. You can really alter the tonal characteristics quite alot by simply adjusting your pick attack, the location on the guitar where you strike the chords or notes, your vibrato - all that sort of stuff...