By Ronny North

I’ve been fortunate enough to have been invited to judge many Guitar contests over the years that feature players of all skill levels. The thing that I have noticed, more often than not, is that the novice players tend to have a thin tone, and it is usually way too distorted. My thoughts are, that with experience, your ear becomes more refined, and you develop your own sound as time goes on (some better than others but totally subjective to the individual).

I have realized that as the years go by I use less and less gain, and my tone gets better and better. I used to have the gain on 10, and these days its backed off to 6 or 7. In the studio it’s backed off way more than that. I’ve noticed that less gain on the guitar will actually sound bigger and will jump out better in the mix. The guys in AC/DC definitely had that figured out.Those guitars are hardly distorted at all but still sound huge.

My second theory is that a players touch gets more refined as he develops his style. As in most things as they get more comfortable playing they relax their touch and don’t push down so hard thus making the instrument sound a little smoother. I also play golf and a pro golfer barely squeezes the club at all when he swings. He holds on just enough to keep the club in his hands. That being said, when I’m having an off day on the golf course, one of the first things I do is lighten up my grip and usually that helps me get it together. Obviously, this is just my general observation, but worth considering.

Now go out there and play guitar!

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