Willem186
I would like to know, does anybody here, especially the metal players, practice any of your riffs or leads without distortion? The reason I ask, is because you can do magical things with some gain, as it tends to hide the flaws in your playing, especially the lead parts. I have gotten into the habbit of playing everything I've learned without any effects (including reverb), then dressing it up with some effects after its nailed cleanly, it works, and I have found it very useful for finding mistakes that I was not even aware I was making.
There is though a but, when using more advanced techniques like sweeping or legato sections, distortion is very useful as it lets you know which strings are ringing out, and need to be controlled, it can't be done with a clean tone as it is not as harsh a critic as distortion.
Just a thought, but I like to see what other people think?
Guy-Onraet
Yep, that is a good strategy Willem.
i agree, a compressed distorted sound hides things like weak pull-offs, while a clean tone doesn't let you hear all the unwanted string noise.
I used to alternate between practicing with a heavy distorted sound (no other effects) on one day, and then a clean sound the next. These days i practice playing through my valve amp with the gain set just on the point of break-up, just guitar, cable and amp. This creates a best-of-all-worlds scenario as far as critical string muting, picking dynamics and accuracy go.
