Turn the bass down - more bass = flub, the enemy of good chug
Turn the gain all the way down and slowly turn it up until you have a nice chuggy attack but *not* a gained out mess. You want as little gain as you can get away with to keep it tight.
Consider boosting the mids and highs a bit. The mids will bring more "grind" and the highs will bring more definition. Again, adjust carefully as you can easily make your tone shit by going too far on the highs for example.
Finally, as has been mentioned, get a boost in front if you can. Something like a tubescreamer will naturally cut bass and add mids, making your tone tighter and more aggressive. You can then turn up the volume which will hit the preamp hard and give you a really percussive attack to notes. If you do get a boost, turn the distortion/clipping all the way down. You are not looking for more *distortion* going into the front of the amp, you want more *volume*.
Also make sure your technique is sound to make sure you have enough muting to get the chug - too much and it will sound shit and choked, too little and it will be a boomy mess
Happy chugging!
P/s if you reply with your current gear, people will be able to give you more tailored advice
Absolutely dude, very important part of it which i think a lot of people overlook. I learned to slam the strings hard because for a while i didn't have anything besides amp distortion to work with, and by controlling it with physical actions before that stage, you can learn to adjust the dynamics of your playing to meld well with usable distortion
A few things that have helped me in the past achieve the metal rhythm sound i wanted:
* Limiting the amp Gain to around 6.5
* Using Bridge Pickup (Humbucker)
* Starting out with Bass/Mid/Treble at around 6/3/7 and iterating from there. (Keeping Mids below 5 and trebles higher than Bass became my go-to strategy)
* Getting some form of overdrive pedal (i.e. Maxon OD808, Tubescreamer, Boss OD-1, etc.) and putting it in front of the amp input. Tone set to like 6.5, level to about 3.
* Working out my picking hand to increase the "oomph"
Hope this helps! Let us know!
Every amp is different, unless you both have the same amp these settings aren't going to be the same for everyone.
I like to repeat a simple open note and turn the respective knob (bass, for example) slowly until I hear an audible difference, that is usually the sweet spot for your specific amp. From there you would adjust slightly to taste and repeat for the rest of the eq
Also note that technique is far more important than dialing in a good tone, the best of players can make a bad tone sound good and vice versa
This is the right answer, I think a lot of people are putting too much thought into it or describing how to get the exact tone they like. You can chug on an acoustic with good palm muting technique.
It's all about where you rest the edge of the palm:
If you pretend the edge of your hand is like a stick, the tip of your pinky pointed to the floor, you can push into the strings slightly, without touching the bridge AT ALL and then start hitting the string and moving the "stick" between the bridge and the nut. You can do this all the way up the fretboard. You'll notice you get the proper note in a small range just above the bridge. Then there's a "Dead zone" and THEN you get to the Harmonics! So, certain places correspond to the harmonics starting just above the 2nd fret. It's just flipped around, reflected at the 12th fret.
This technique works on all strings, not just the bass. You can get some gnarly squeals if you just play any old chord and do this at certain places which you'll have to figure out for yourself. The only thing is, you need to LIFT the "stick" off of the strings as soon as you strike them, in the same way you lift your finger when you do a harmonic.
For chugging though, you stay in that sweet spot just above the bridge. You don't lift your hand. You move your thumb and index finger. You do not strum. You do not move your wrist as if you're cracking a whip. You almost wave like the queen, keeping your pick perpendicular to the string so you get the least amount of pick attack noise. Adjust distance from bridge and pick attack angle to taste.
(EDIT: One more important thing. When you are switching from low to high strings, you push the stick toward to the floor, but don't change the position relative to the bridge. So that movement keeps the whole wrist position stable and unchanging. You will get muscle memory that is aided by where the strings touch the edge of your pinky/hand. The little grooves in it really sort of help align the position of the pick relative to the position of the strings. You don't need to look at the strings to know after a while. Just feel it. I think it is a very quick technique to learn! So I hope this works for some people!)
Quick note about one amp related thing that has the most bearing. Turn your Bass knob off. Add bass post Pre-Amp through an FX loop, if you can. Bass = Flub. Your chords sound muffled and unclear. It is fuzzy like an electron orbital cloud instead of a pin point of clarity. Cutting mids is more of a taste thing and really depends on how loud you're playing. But the Bass actually just fucks stuff up bad inside the circuitry of the amp in a predictable way. Tommy Iommi knew this I believe.
And I'm talking both solid state amps and tube amps. Doesn't matter. Has to do with how much of the power the bass part of the signal is taking up compared to the rest of the signal inside the pre-amp. Once the signal leaves that part of the amp you just add bass, it shapes the signal and then the power amp blows up that wave, like blowing up the picture of a virus to the size of a poster.
More mids than bass (more bass will initially sound more âmetalâ but combine it with other instruments and it gets drowned out in the mix). First put your guitar on clean channel, then turn bass mids and treble up until you hear the biggest difference in the sound, thatâs the sweet spot.
Overdrive pedal.
Turn distortion (gain) up until you like the sound, donât just crank it to max.
Not seeing anyone else say this, but a noise gate. Play around with settings to see what you like but it will tighten up the sound by only letting intentional playing through, and cutting out the rest like touching a string etc. Again, find the sweet spot.
Also some reverb. Too much is âtalent simulatorâ. But adding just enough turns what you hear from âkid screwing around in bedroom on guitarâ to âsomeone is working a nice sounding axeâ
You donât boost with a fuzz pedal lmaooooo, which is technically how the metal muff is wired, boost with an OD pedal. Also you must be thinking of the early 2000s metalcore tone, 90s Sweden is famously the HM2 with everything on 10 and a shitty Peavy solid state
There are a lot of moving parts in achieving this sound. You need the right form of amp, pickups, pick and picking technique. You canât just throw a pedal in front of any amp and get this sound (or at least, a nice version of this sound). So if you donât have the right gear, youâre not going to be able to achieve it.
I should mention that the speakers you use are also important factor, as they act as a filter for your final sound. An EQ pedal in the loop of an amp could help you get closer, if the amp isnât designed for this type of sound, but again, if the gear you have is tailored for this sound youâll have a much nicer experience.
It's all about where you palm mute. Practice just on your E string. Mute with your pick hand right over top of the bridge. Move your pick hand a little at a time until you get that good chug sound. You'll be amazed how just moving you hand just a tiny bit totally changes the sound.
Humbucker into a Tubescreamer into a Peavey/EVH 5150 or comparable modern high gain amp/model. The tubescreamer/OD tightens up the attack and trims some of the fat.
Technique wise you're just palm muting at the bridge, experiment to adjust the response.
A lot is in the hands, you want to experiment with ways of picking so that there I almost a percussive element. Monuments is a band that often has a snappy bite to their sound because they aggressively down pick with force and rarely ever up pick.
You also want a tight sound, not a high gain sound necessarily. Turn the bass down a bit and the mids and treble up a bit. Adding an overdrive pedal is a good choice too⊠turn the volume all the way up on it, the gain all the way down, and tone to taste (a little past half way at least to keep the bass down and tight).
Donât use too much gain. Sometimes youâll want a ton but itâs generally good to use as little gain as possible to get your tone you want.
Once you dial everything in, the only other variables are swapping out pickups/guitars and amps.
Turn bass down a little, turn treble up slightly, move the mids up a lot if not all the way. Turn the gain up until you can make it chug while palm muting. If the amp doesn't have enough gain then it needs an overdrive pedal
I've been chugging since '89. Been using 2mm picks for about 5 years now. Thinnest I'll go is the jazz 3 1.38mm. They all chug fine. I was asking what the reasoning was behind the advice to use a thin pick for chugging. If anything, I see a thin pick dragging across the strings instead of cutting through them with purpose (like playing a 5th)
Haha, I hear you. If I was palm muting with a thin pick I feel like Iâd have to choke up on it really high so there was just a tiny bit sticking past my fingers so that it was stiff enough to get the control I wanted. But I donât agree with a lot of the suggestions here like cutting all your bass, can you imagine âSad But Trueâ with no bass?
Yeah itâs weird. Itâs like the people who always say âcUt tHe MidDs fOr MeTaL!â. You can set your amp EQ settings all at noon and get a decent chug with enough gain. Thereâs all sorts of genres of aggressive music with chugs that stereotypically use specific EQ band boosts or cuts and itâs not specific to âcut bassâ.
oh of course you can with any pick, if youâre a pro
but OP sounds like theyâre just getting started, and the thin picks make for a better chug for beginners
Turn the bass down - more bass = flub, the enemy of good chug Turn the gain all the way down and slowly turn it up until you have a nice chuggy attack but *not* a gained out mess. You want as little gain as you can get away with to keep it tight. Consider boosting the mids and highs a bit. The mids will bring more "grind" and the highs will bring more definition. Again, adjust carefully as you can easily make your tone shit by going too far on the highs for example. Finally, as has been mentioned, get a boost in front if you can. Something like a tubescreamer will naturally cut bass and add mids, making your tone tighter and more aggressive. You can then turn up the volume which will hit the preamp hard and give you a really percussive attack to notes. If you do get a boost, turn the distortion/clipping all the way down. You are not looking for more *distortion* going into the front of the amp, you want more *volume*. Also make sure your technique is sound to make sure you have enough muting to get the chug - too much and it will sound shit and choked, too little and it will be a boomy mess Happy chugging! P/s if you reply with your current gear, people will be able to give you more tailored advice
I'd like to add that picking harder will make it sound more aggressive and reduce the amount of distortion needed
Absolutely dude, very important part of it which i think a lot of people overlook. I learned to slam the strings hard because for a while i didn't have anything besides amp distortion to work with, and by controlling it with physical actions before that stage, you can learn to adjust the dynamics of your playing to meld well with usable distortion
Thanks!
đ
A few things that have helped me in the past achieve the metal rhythm sound i wanted: * Limiting the amp Gain to around 6.5 * Using Bridge Pickup (Humbucker) * Starting out with Bass/Mid/Treble at around 6/3/7 and iterating from there. (Keeping Mids below 5 and trebles higher than Bass became my go-to strategy) * Getting some form of overdrive pedal (i.e. Maxon OD808, Tubescreamer, Boss OD-1, etc.) and putting it in front of the amp input. Tone set to like 6.5, level to about 3. * Working out my picking hand to increase the "oomph" Hope this helps! Let us know!
Thanks bro Iâll definitely try this đ
Every amp is different, unless you both have the same amp these settings aren't going to be the same for everyone. I like to repeat a simple open note and turn the respective knob (bass, for example) slowly until I hear an audible difference, that is usually the sweet spot for your specific amp. From there you would adjust slightly to taste and repeat for the rest of the eq Also note that technique is far more important than dialing in a good tone, the best of players can make a bad tone sound good and vice versa
Palm muting
This is the right answer, I think a lot of people are putting too much thought into it or describing how to get the exact tone they like. You can chug on an acoustic with good palm muting technique.
It's all about where you rest the edge of the palm: If you pretend the edge of your hand is like a stick, the tip of your pinky pointed to the floor, you can push into the strings slightly, without touching the bridge AT ALL and then start hitting the string and moving the "stick" between the bridge and the nut. You can do this all the way up the fretboard. You'll notice you get the proper note in a small range just above the bridge. Then there's a "Dead zone" and THEN you get to the Harmonics! So, certain places correspond to the harmonics starting just above the 2nd fret. It's just flipped around, reflected at the 12th fret. This technique works on all strings, not just the bass. You can get some gnarly squeals if you just play any old chord and do this at certain places which you'll have to figure out for yourself. The only thing is, you need to LIFT the "stick" off of the strings as soon as you strike them, in the same way you lift your finger when you do a harmonic. For chugging though, you stay in that sweet spot just above the bridge. You don't lift your hand. You move your thumb and index finger. You do not strum. You do not move your wrist as if you're cracking a whip. You almost wave like the queen, keeping your pick perpendicular to the string so you get the least amount of pick attack noise. Adjust distance from bridge and pick attack angle to taste. (EDIT: One more important thing. When you are switching from low to high strings, you push the stick toward to the floor, but don't change the position relative to the bridge. So that movement keeps the whole wrist position stable and unchanging. You will get muscle memory that is aided by where the strings touch the edge of your pinky/hand. The little grooves in it really sort of help align the position of the pick relative to the position of the strings. You don't need to look at the strings to know after a while. Just feel it. I think it is a very quick technique to learn! So I hope this works for some people!)
Quick note about one amp related thing that has the most bearing. Turn your Bass knob off. Add bass post Pre-Amp through an FX loop, if you can. Bass = Flub. Your chords sound muffled and unclear. It is fuzzy like an electron orbital cloud instead of a pin point of clarity. Cutting mids is more of a taste thing and really depends on how loud you're playing. But the Bass actually just fucks stuff up bad inside the circuitry of the amp in a predictable way. Tommy Iommi knew this I believe. And I'm talking both solid state amps and tube amps. Doesn't matter. Has to do with how much of the power the bass part of the signal is taking up compared to the rest of the signal inside the pre-amp. Once the signal leaves that part of the amp you just add bass, it shapes the signal and then the power amp blows up that wave, like blowing up the picture of a virus to the size of a poster.
Watch Ola Englund Will it chug series
Distortion and palm muting
Depends on your gear. Search YouTube with « will it chug? » and youâll se that there are shit gears that donât chug whatever you do.
Ola Englund is that you?
You called?
đ€ŁLOL Love "Will It Chug!"đ
More mids than bass (more bass will initially sound more âmetalâ but combine it with other instruments and it gets drowned out in the mix). First put your guitar on clean channel, then turn bass mids and treble up until you hear the biggest difference in the sound, thatâs the sweet spot. Overdrive pedal. Turn distortion (gain) up until you like the sound, donât just crank it to max. Not seeing anyone else say this, but a noise gate. Play around with settings to see what you like but it will tighten up the sound by only letting intentional playing through, and cutting out the rest like touching a string etc. Again, find the sweet spot. Also some reverb. Too much is âtalent simulatorâ. But adding just enough turns what you hear from âkid screwing around in bedroom on guitarâ to âsomeone is working a nice sounding axeâ
The amp plays a major factor here. You can get very decent full-valve metal amps for less than 500. 6505+ combo sounds great in that price range.
Get a CHUG pedal from Solar Guitars. Canât go wrong
5150 amp, electro Harmonix metal muff pedal. Done.
That setup will probably need 3 noise gates though :D
Why would you need a pedal in front of a 5150? The amp is tight on its own and has gain for days.
Yeah, a 5150 will absolutely chug on its own.
That's true but a boosted 5150 is the foundation of the Swedish death metal tone from the 90's-2000's. It's pretty epic sounding
You donât boost with a fuzz pedal lmaooooo, which is technically how the metal muff is wired, boost with an OD pedal. Also you must be thinking of the early 2000s metalcore tone, 90s Sweden is famously the HM2 with everything on 10 and a shitty Peavy solid state
There are a lot of moving parts in achieving this sound. You need the right form of amp, pickups, pick and picking technique. You canât just throw a pedal in front of any amp and get this sound (or at least, a nice version of this sound). So if you donât have the right gear, youâre not going to be able to achieve it.
I should mention that the speakers you use are also important factor, as they act as a filter for your final sound. An EQ pedal in the loop of an amp could help you get closer, if the amp isnât designed for this type of sound, but again, if the gear you have is tailored for this sound youâll have a much nicer experience.
A lot is in technique. Pick hand is culprit.
Neural dsp Fortin Cali
If you have a Katana 50 amp use this *...And Justice for All* tone patch: https://guitarpatches.com/patches.php?mode=show&unit=KATANAMKII&ID=12378
Don't forget your pick angle, might even need a different pick.
It's all about where you palm mute. Practice just on your E string. Mute with your pick hand right over top of the bridge. Move your pick hand a little at a time until you get that good chug sound. You'll be amazed how just moving you hand just a tiny bit totally changes the sound.
Humbucker into a Tubescreamer into a Peavey/EVH 5150 or comparable modern high gain amp/model. The tubescreamer/OD tightens up the attack and trims some of the fat. Technique wise you're just palm muting at the bridge, experiment to adjust the response.
A lot is in the hands, you want to experiment with ways of picking so that there I almost a percussive element. Monuments is a band that often has a snappy bite to their sound because they aggressively down pick with force and rarely ever up pick. You also want a tight sound, not a high gain sound necessarily. Turn the bass down a bit and the mids and treble up a bit. Adding an overdrive pedal is a good choice too⊠turn the volume all the way up on it, the gain all the way down, and tone to taste (a little past half way at least to keep the bass down and tight). Donât use too much gain. Sometimes youâll want a ton but itâs generally good to use as little gain as possible to get your tone you want. Once you dial everything in, the only other variables are swapping out pickups/guitars and amps.
- Loud volume - Cut bass - Turn up mids - Play harder rather than use more gain
Turn bass down a little, turn treble up slightly, move the mids up a lot if not all the way. Turn the gain up until you can make it chug while palm muting. If the amp doesn't have enough gain then it needs an overdrive pedal
1. A thin pick 2. Bridge pickup 3. Edge of cone mic 4. Boost mids (donât cut bass) 5. Proco rat pedal
Why can't you chug with a thicker pick?
You can. I do. Maybe you get better chug with a thinner pick, Iâm not sure because I donât use one, but I have no issues chugging with a 1mm.
I've been chugging since '89. Been using 2mm picks for about 5 years now. Thinnest I'll go is the jazz 3 1.38mm. They all chug fine. I was asking what the reasoning was behind the advice to use a thin pick for chugging. If anything, I see a thin pick dragging across the strings instead of cutting through them with purpose (like playing a 5th)
Haha, I hear you. If I was palm muting with a thin pick I feel like Iâd have to choke up on it really high so there was just a tiny bit sticking past my fingers so that it was stiff enough to get the control I wanted. But I donât agree with a lot of the suggestions here like cutting all your bass, can you imagine âSad But Trueâ with no bass?
Yeah itâs weird. Itâs like the people who always say âcUt tHe MidDs fOr MeTaL!â. You can set your amp EQ settings all at noon and get a decent chug with enough gain. Thereâs all sorts of genres of aggressive music with chugs that stereotypically use specific EQ band boosts or cuts and itâs not specific to âcut bassâ.
oh of course you can with any pick, if youâre a pro but OP sounds like theyâre just getting started, and the thin picks make for a better chug for beginners
if you want it put really plainly, scoop the mids boost the bass and treble a little.