Chords for How to Set Up a Good Blues Guitar Tone

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_ _ Hi, Travis here from Wampler Pedals and the Chasing Tone Podcast.
I get asked a lot about blues tone.
[G] What makes a blues tone?
What do I use for blues tone? _
It's all subjective.
We all know that, but I think there are some things that a lot of blues tones all have
in common, and that's that they're based off of overdrives and not so much distortions,
and most of the time it's a light overdrive to kind of just get that amp break up.
_ _ Now that's kind of a good blues tone, but to get into more blues rock territory, I like
to stack overdrive pedals together.
The way it clips, the way it compresses is completely different than just a distortion
pedal, and the gain's going to sound different and everything.
So I'll just kind of demonstrate what I'm talking about.
So I'll start with my clean tone, which I'm just using a Don Gross Retro Classic into
a Fender Hot Rod Deluxe, and here's [E] my clean tone.
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_ [Em] _ [D] _ [Am] _ _ [Eb] _ _ _
[A] _ _ [Em] _ _ _ _ _
I always love a neck pickup for that just great blues tone. _
So here's my overdrive.
Today I'm using the Clarksdale from Wampler, and it's a very mid-heavy, tube screamer-ish
kind of sound, and a lot of guys like that 808, they like that mid-range.
It just kind of adds that chewy flavor, for lack of a better word, _ and it sounds like this.
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[Db] _ [N] _ _ _ that gives you just kind of a good bass tone, a basic tone.
_ But if I'm wanting to get a little heavier and get into some solo stuff, then I'll kick
on another overdrive to help me achieve that and kind of take it up through the mix a little bit.
Today I'm using the Plexi Drive Deluxe from Wampler.
_ Just want to note that I'm not using the boost channel on that pedal right now.
I'm only going to use the actual, it's called the post-gain.
So _ [A] _ _ it by itself sounds like this.
_ _ _ And I also like to EQ my second pedal pretty dark and quite gainy when stacking pedals.
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So it's very dark, and a lot of that is because I'm using a mid-heavy, _ mid-range heavy pedal
before that in the Clarksdale.
So I'll go clean, Clarksdale, and then stacked.
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[E] _ [A] _ _ _ [Cm] _ _ _ [N] _
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[A] _ _ [G] _ [Am] _ _ _ _ [D] _
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[D] _ _ [A] _ _ _ _ [C] _ [Eb] _
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[D] _ _ [Db] So _ [Em] _ [A] _ _
_ [N] _ _ _ a lot of gain on tap, but the cool thing is too, is when you get into that, you can
really play with the volume knob on your guitar.
So let's go back out to that maxed out gain sound.
[A] _ _ _ [N] _ _ _ So now I'm just going to go to the neck pickup and roll off my volume.
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[A] _ _ [G] _ [D] _ _ _ _ [E] _
_ So [A] you can hear that, especially on the neck pickup, that basic blues rock tone is still
there even when you have a lot of gain just with the volume roll off.
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_ _ _ _ So that's how _ I like to think of a blues tone, is starting with a good bass tone, then adding
something a little bit mid-heavy, _ _ tube screamer-ish if you will.
A lot of players love that.
And it doesn't have to be that, but just an overdrive before distortion.
_ _ And then I like to _ get my lead tones out of running a second overdrive.
So if you guys have any questions, comments, or suggestions for me, please leave them in
the comments section below.
And thank you so much for watching. _