Megadeth tux guitar
These will help you cut through the mix without making the tone too aggressive. In practice, it gives a boost to higher mids. To those who don’t know, this parameter is about the power amp section. In my experience, the presence control should be at a higher setting, even at its maximum.
In case your amp has a presence control, you should use it as well. A slightly scooped tone works well, but mids shouldn’t be absent. For Megadeth-like tone, I prefer them to be at around 50%. The mids, however, should be a bit lower. I estimate that it should be over 70 or 75%, but not at its absolute maximum. However, I still have some basic guidelines.įirst, I recommend a significant boost to high-ends. It will depend on the amp that you’re using. Now, when it comes to the EQ, it’s a bit hard to give an exact setting. You can also get things going on a clean or crunch channel with an overdrive pedal in front of it. If you’re using a tube amp, I’d suggest that you use your amp’s distortion channel instead of a pedal. Additionally, things get more complicated as Dave’s tone changed over the years.Īs mentioned, Megadeth mostly plays with high-gain settings. However, you’ll still have to rely on your ears a lot. I can give you general directions from my experiences. Now we get to the main part, or how you should set things up. If you’re playing at home or smaller gigs, even a 5-watt model like DSL5CR will be enough. I always prefer amps with E元4 or EL84 over those with 6L6 or 6V6 tubes.Ī tube-driven Marshall is the safest bet here. Although traditionally American, Mesa Boogie amps also come in handy. Most Blackstar amps can also come in handy. So anything that will add those punchy mids is ideal to get that classic British-oriented high-gain tone. And even when he had more elaborate rigs with separate preamp and power amp units, it always gravitated towards classic Marshall tones. You don’t want it to sound fuzzy or too muffled in these settings.įor most of his career, Dave has used Marshall amps. The idea is to have a high-gain tone that’s still tight. In my honest opinion, high-gain tube-driven amps are the best choice here. Which Amps Work the Best for Megadeth Tone?
It’s not impossible to use them, but you’ll have a very hard time making it all work. I should also point out that hollow-body and semi-hollow-body guitars are not ideal for imitating Megadeth’s sound. If you’re playing a tube-driven amp, then a smoother overdrive pedal like the classic Tube Screamer is a great choice. However, I’d advise not pushing them to ultra-high- gain settings.
Some metal-oriented distortion pedals could also help. You could also cut the high-ends and boost mids and bass. You can also add a dash of compression to fatten it up. If you have no other choice other than single-coils, I suggest that you roll off the tone knob a bit. It would be very difficult to work with single-coil pickups. I just find passive ones easier to work with. However, active ceramic humbucker pickups are also great. In particular, I prefer passive humbuckers with a hotter output. Getting the right tone is more than just tweaking the knobs on your amp.įirstly, I’d highly advise that you have a guitar with humbucker pickups. What you also need to bear in mind is that the amp is just one of the components. I’ll give a few directions from my own experiences. What we want to focus on here are the amp settings. For instance, you could always notice the tightness in the tone whether that’s on their 1985 debut record, legendary “Rust in Peace,” or the controversial “Risk.” Perfect Megadeth Amp Settings But, on the other hand, some traits remained the same. In short, it’s extremely difficult to get it exactly right.Īdditionally, their tone has changed over the years. And you can try purchasing all the expensive gear and not even come close to imitating their sound. Like almost all famous musicians, Mustaine and other guitarists in Megadeth used some high-end gear to make their sound. However, please remember that accomplishing this sound isn’t an easy task. And that sound is what I’ll focus on in this article. Unsurprisingly, countless guitar players try to copy it. And Mustaine is one of the guys who set the standards there. When it comes to metal, this is one of the most important components of the genre. Aside from Dave Mustaine’s leadership and awesome songwriting, we also have his tone. Megadeth remains one of the most important metal bands of all time. If you’re curious about Megadeth amp settings and how you can imitate their sound with your axe and amp, this is the post for you! Megadeth Tone