Can't play clean/tight when cranked.

[dirkdiggler]

I've been playing for years and can shred with the best of them but when I crank the sh#t out of my rig with moderate to high gain and shred it's not that tight. Sounds sloppy, nothing like things I've recorded. Not a problem when I'm doing anything but really fast stuff. Any advice?

[teokiatuan]

weird, i have that problem on clean

i want a compressor

[_FR0D0]

advice for both of you, practice both clean and with different degrees of distortion at slow speed an then increase the timing gradually.

With clean settings you need uniformity in the strength you use to attack your strings.

With overdrive you need good damping techniques to keep out the unwanted noise.

[Dino]

You are just hearing what you actually sound like. It may not seem like it but at higher volumes and cleaner settings touch sensitivity and pick attack are more audible, especially if you are using a real tube amplifier. Stick with digital or cascading gain stages (double, triple rectifier) and you will be in bliss once again.

If you want to clean up your playing for real, get a class A amp like a blues Jr. at about half volume and practice you shredding on that, those little amps won't lie to you at all you can hear every nuance in your playing. It will make you sick... I sold mine.

[Bluestreak]

Originally Posted by dirkdiggler

Not a problem when I'm doing anything but really fast stuff. Any advice?

I agree largely with the other posts. Practice at higher volumes, both clean and with varying degrees of distortion. Don't neglect other commonly used effects - delay, chorus... etc. They all cause a guitar to behave differently at high volume. Learn how your guitar and your playing style will behave when cranked. The slightest touch, jarring the guitar, picking, even your belt buckle against the back of the guitar (hopefully you don't let your guitars get buckle rash!) or any other movement you make against it can be broadcast very audibly and will make your playing sound sloppier than you truly are. It's just that you never took into account how much more obvious these nuances would be at increased volume. Learning what those things are and being prepared to control them when using stage-comparable volume is paramount.

It's really just trial, error, and practice. Since you're an experienced player, it won't take you long to adjust.

[Magical Muffin]

As stated, the biggest thing is to practice at higher volumes. When its at the '2 AM bedroom level' you really can't hear any slop (Unless you screw up badly, lol) because its to quiet compared to the notes you're playing.

And when you are playing fast stuff, are you standing still, concentrating, or strutting around making faces at the audience?

[Cam-Vai]

maybe you can't shred with the bets of them?
try jazz - that'll clear up anyones style - specially that jazz one of guthrie's erotic cakes - **** that **** is good!
im leanring jazz and my shred is coming along 10-fold

cam

[mcmurray]

It sounds to me like you need to work on your string muting. Extraneous string noise is only heard when the gain is turned up.

IMHO this is one of the most underrated skills guitarists should have.