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Picking technique and clean tone


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Posted

Sometimes it seems like most of the picking advice on this forum is about how to pick when playing distorted. Almost all the guitarists who are spoken of as masters of picking are progressive rock/metal/fusion players who pretty much exclusively use distorted guitar sounds.

 

That makes me wonder about whether these technique tips can be applied to someone who uses clean sounds most of the time, such as myself.

 

I hope you understand what I mean.

 

:)

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Posted

of course they can. believe me, IMO the BEST thing someone can do when wanting to play cleanly with a distorted tone is to practice with a clean tone. if you can play accurately and fast with a clean tone, it will do wonders for your distorted playing also.
there are a few techniques that you need to master to play distorted (such as muting unwanted strings because distortion WILL cause them to ring out more...) but everything like alternate picking, arpeggios, etc. are great to learn on a clean tone.

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Posted

If someone has developed good picking technique, then it shouldn't matter much if they're playing completely clean, completely distorted, or anywhere in between. The biggest differences will be the amount of dynamics that can be heard and the amount of muting that must be done. Otherwise, the technique itself is the same.

Anything I can pick on a distorted electric I can pick on a clean electric and even an acoustic, and I practice all 3 ways. Whatever tips and techniques apply to one also apply to the others, with only slight changes needed (usually for muting purposes). :)

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Posted
Originally posted by Auggie Doggie

If someone has developed good picking technique, then it shouldn't matter much if they're playing completely clean, completely distorted, or anywhere in between. The biggest differences will be the amount of dynamics that can be heard and the amount of muting that must be done. Otherwise, the technique itself is the same.


Anything I can pick on a distorted electric I can pick on a clean electric and even an acoustic, and I practice all 3 ways. Whatever tips and techniques apply to one also apply to the others, with only slight changes needed (usually for muting purposes).
:)



IMO those changes needed for muting make a big difference in ability to play. I don't often play electric so I have a lot of trouble. The first time I picked up an electric I thought the same thing; that I would only need to play just like I do on acoustic. but WHOA it didn't work that way. I couldn't hear the notes through all those unmuted strings.

It seems to me that 60% of good distorted playing is all about muting. So if you follow advice on playing with distortion, you should end up with a really clean, precise, exact sound.

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