Factors Affecting Guitar Tone

What makes a guitar play good music in perfect tones? Is it purely based on the skills and judgment of the player, or do factors outside the guitarist’s innate talent play a role as well? As a matter of fact, yes. Factors like your guitar’s shape, its string arrangement, and sometimes even the very pick that you use can have both positive and negative effects on tone.

Body

The main thing that affects tone, of course, is the instrument’s body. For example, an acoustic guitar’s sound hole helps in amplifying the strings’ vibrations against the wood, thereby producing a full, clean, and lovely sound. The guitar’s bouts (the wide parts above and below the waist) also helps emphasize the instrument’s lower and upper tone.

String

When it comes to guitar strings, tension is the major factor influencing the tone. This is the main purpose for the tuning heads after all. Tightening one, for instance, gives more tension to a particular string, allowing it to let out a higher tone. Shortening or pressing on the strings also changes the tone in various ways.

Pick

Whether you realize it or not, the pick that you use can also affect tone. The differences in size, thickness, shape and even materials used can either make your strumming churn out deeper or lighter tones.

Beginner Guitar Tips: Don’t Drop that Pick

Small as they are, guitar picks are essential tools for learning the art of making music, especially when you’re just a beginner trying to get the hang of your first instrument. Their size presents a problem though, since you can easily drop them while you’re in the middle of strumming, causing you to lose your momentum or your concentration. Here are a few basic tips to ensure that this doesn’t happen to you:

Hold it properly.

Hold the pick lower down instead of high up. To check, a good majority of the pick’s tip should be visible over the top of your thumb. This is because as you’re strumming your guitar, there will be times when insufficient grip will cause the pick to slide, and if you’re holding it at the top end, it just might completely slide off your hand.

Relax the rest of your fingers.

If you stiffen all your fingers while gripping, you’re giving your mind a lot more muscles and joints to control, so in effect you’re only making your hand more exhausted. Instead, keep everything except the thumb and index finger relaxed into a lazy “ok” sign or gesture.

Don’t overwork your wrist.

To keep from stretching or hurting your wrist when strumming, make sure that the pick extends out of your thumb in a right angle. The arrowhead end of the pick should be facing away from your hand.