How should i set up my Guitar Amp for Blues sound?

I don’t have a very good amp or guitar (just learning) but the settings i have on the guitar are presence bass middle treble i also have OD on the amp but i prefer to use my OD pedal. How can i get the amp to give me a texas blues kind of sound?

There’s no one “blues” sound. Freddie King sounds very different from Buddy Guy, who sounds nothing like Joe Bonamassa, etc, etc. Even though you say “Texas” blues, Jimmy Vaughan sounds nothing like Lightning Red or Alan Haynes…all Texas blues players.

That said, a lot of the older blues players will tell you that the Texas guys have borrowed heavily from the Chicago blues.

I suppose that if there was one defining aspect of a blues sound, it would be that any distortion in the sound is the natural by-product of just turning the amp up. Blues players found distortion when they had to crank their small amps up all the way in order to be heard over the crowd at a juke joint on a rowdy Saturday night!

But, one important aspect….they all used tube amps which tend to sound pretty good turned up. Not always so with a solid state amp.

You didn’t say what kind of guitar you have (always an important ingredient). Just about all of the players I’ve mentioned at Strat players, so if that’s what you’ve got you’re in pretty good shape.

As a general guideline, do not drop the mids out of your sound. That’s a very important part of the guitar cutting through the mix. Without knowing anything else about your rig, I’d say try the bass/mid/treble at 4/8/6 as a starting place. If you think your overdrive pedal sounds better than the amp, then use it. But, use just enough distortion to put an edge on the sound.

No reverb. None. Blues players don’t need no stinkin’ reverb…that’s for surf dudes!

Remember, playing the blues is as much about attitude and emotion as it is tone and technique. True blues players didn’t get hung up on equipment….you just plugged into whatever was available and started telling your story. You won’t find the blues in a Digitech pedal.

BB King once said that “…the blues is like telling the truth.” It doesn’t matter what guitar or amp you have. If you don’t do that, then you’re just like the 10,000 Stevie Ray wanna-bes here in Austin.

Good luck.

Greetings from Austin, TX

Ken

Electric Blues Guitar Improvisation

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