Clean guitar tone from a distorted one (and why you should use it)

 

Hello and welcome to this week's article!

Today we dive back into the guitar world talking about tone, and specifically about a trick that has been kept secret for quite some time: the perks of getting a good clean tone by rolling off the input level that enters a distorted channel.

Usually when dialing in a clean tone we start from the clean channel of an amp, whether it is a real one or a plugin, and we work our way around from there, but there is an alternative way that in some case can sound even better: in some amp, in facts, the clean channel can sound a bit too weak, too cristalline, too "cold", while sometimes the type of clean we are looking for is richer in harmonics, at the limit of the breakup (the point in which it starts saturating and entering almost in the overdrive territory); we can be looking for a tone that is more full in the lower-mid range, and not always this is obtainable from the clean channel.

So what do we need to do? Do we lower the volume?

No. That one can stay fairly high, for example at noon: what we need to do is to lower the input level (if we're using a plugin) or lower the guitar volume by moving the volume knob in the guitar, and this way the signal coming into the amplifier will be weaker (but make sure to turn off any noise gate, or else it will fall below threshold and be cut).

Once the guitar signal will be lowered, the amp will not have anymore enough signal to produce a distorted output, and will give you a very warm tone, much fuller and warmer, and almost "out of focus" compared to the "zing" of the clean channel, in which you can really hear the brightness of the string. 
Now it's time to adjust the master volume in order to compensate for the lower input volume, and this (especially if we're talking about tube amps) will add an additional layer of saturation and harmonic richness, so dose it carefully.

Finally, note that this method of obtaining a low gain/clean tone will need eq adjustments in order to restore some brightness, and maybe to tame some low mids, which will become quite prominent.  

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