How to sound like your guitar heroes — even if you don’t have their gear

I spent years avoiding fingerpicking, thinking it was only for folkies or classical players. It felt fiddly, delicate, and a bit out of place for someone who just wanted to thrash power chords. I thought if it didn’t involve distortion, it wasn’t worth learning.

Looking back, I missed out on so much tone and feel. I now understand how the attack of your fingers, the angle of your pick, even the pressure you use — it all shapes the sound before your signal even touches a cable. I had been so focused on distortion, chorus and delay that I never focussed the tone coming from me.

An idea I recommend is to closely watch your favourite guitarist. Pick one live performance or studio session video and slow it down. Watch their hands, their body language, even how they hold the pick. Are they digging into the strings or gliding over them? Do they keep things tight and minimal or loose and expressive? How do they move between chords, shape bends, or mute between notes?

These small details often make a bigger difference than gear ever will.

🎸 Try this:
Play a simple riff three ways — with a pick, fingerstyle, and palm-muted. Just notice how different it feels and sounds.

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When I first started learning guitar, I thought the job was to hit the right notes in the right order. If I could play the riff, I’d nailed it — right?

But no matter how closely I followed the tab, something was always missing. The notes were technically correct, but the feel was flat. It sounded like a bad cover band version of the real thing — the structure with none of the soul.

What I didn’t get back then was that great players don’t just play notes — they phrase them. They stretch some, cut others short, throw in a ghost note, dig into one string harder than the rest. It’s those tiny, expressive choices that give a part its personality.

🎵 Think about it:

• Stevie Ray Vaughan’s wild bends and unpredictable accents

• H.E.R.’s subtle slides and perfectly timed silences

• Kurt Cobain’s instinctive push-and-pull rhythm that shouldn’t work — but does

This stuff doesn’t live in notation. You have to hear it, feel it, and experiment with it yourself.

🎧 Try this:
Take a riff you know inside out and play it three different ways — slower, more aggressive, more relaxed. Don’t change the notes, just the delivery. You’ll be amazed how much it transforms.

💡 ARTMASTER TIP: New to reading tabs? Check out our step-by-step guide on how to read guitar tabs — perfect if you want to get more out of your practice and start learning riffs faster.

One of the best things I ever did was stop obsessing over pedals and start learning how to shape my tone using the tools I already had — my amp, my guitar’s pickup switch, and the tone knob I’d ignored for years.

For ages, I left the EQ knobs on my amp right in the middle, never touched the tone knob on my guitar, and just assumed the bridge pickup was for solos and the neck was for jazz. Honestly, I had no clue what I was doing — I just kept hitting the distortion pedal and hoping for the best.

But here’s the thing: EQ, pickup choice, and the tone knob are the holy trinity of good tone. Together, they shape the sound before any pedal even enters the equation. And once you start using them intentionally, even a cheap guitar through a basic amp can sound surprisingly pro.

EQ on your amp

Let’s break it down:

• Bass: Adds low-end thump. Keep it tight — too much sounds muddy.

• Mids: The core of your tone. More mids = warmer and fuller. Less mids = scooped and modern.

• Treble: Adds brightness. Dial it in for sparkle or roll it off to tame harshness.

Try setting your EQ like this:

• Slash-style lead: High mids, moderate treble, low-to-mid bass. Add gain for sustain.

• Funk/Pop clean (think Dua Lipa live band): Flat mids, slightly boosted treble, reduced bass for tight clarity.

Pickup selection

Your pickups shape your tone before it hits the amp. If you're not using them deliberately, you're leaving tone on the table.

• Bridge pickup = brighter, more cutting, great for leads and rhythm with attitude.

• Neck pickup = warmer, rounder, smoother — perfect for solos, clean tones, or mellow vibes.

• Middle position (or combining pickups) = balanced, scooped, and ideal for clean rhythm or funky parts.

Even budget guitars have usable tones — it’s just about using them.

The tone knob: not just for jazz players

I used to think the tone knob was there in case I ever joined a swing band. But turns out, it’s incredibly useful.

• Rolling off treble on the bridge pickup makes leads smoother — less harsh, more vocal.

• Turning the tone down on the neck pickup gives you that creamy, almost violin-like sound.

🧠 Pro tip: Combine bridge pickup + slight tone roll-off + mid-heavy EQ, and you’ve basically got a Slash-style solo tone — no pedals needed.

🎥 Want to see it in action?
Check out our free video lesson where guitar soloist Kfir Ochaion breaks down the core amp settings that help you dial in a tone inspired by Eric Clapton — no expensive gear required, just smart tweaks that make all the difference. 👇

This one changed everything for me. The first time I recorded myself on Cubase and listened back, I was pretty underwhelmed. I thought I sounded great while I was playing — but the playback told a different story. The timing was a bit off, the tone wasn’t quite there, and the energy I felt while playing didn’t come through at all.

Recording let me hear what I actually sounded like — not what I imagined I sounded like. And from that moment on, everything improved faster.

🎧 Try this:

Record a short loop — just a riff or chord progression — and listen back with fresh ears. Ask yourself:

• Is your pick attack too sharp or too soft?

• Are you rushing or dragging the beat?

• Are your dynamics too flat or too uneven?

Then make a few small changes. Play it again. Throw on a little EQ or reverb and see how it sits. You’ll start hearing yourself the way others do — and that’s where real progress begins.

💡 ARTMASTER TIP: Struggling to stay in time? Learn how to lock in your rhythm with our guide on how to practise with a metronome — it’s one of the simplest ways to sound instantly tighter.

This one’s less technical — but maybe the most important of all.

Ever watched Prince live? It’s not just the gear. It’s not even the flawless technique. It’s the swagger. The way he commits to every note — even the slightly out-of-tune ones — like he means it. That’s what people remember. That’s what makes a performance feel alive.

Because tone isn’t just about sound — it’s emotional. It’s personal. It’s in the way you hit a note and own it, even if it’s not perfect. Especially when it’s not perfect.

Anyone can play the right notes. But when you play them like you, with conviction and feel? That’s when it starts to matter.

Sounding like your guitar heroes isn’t about copying gear — it’s about listening closely, experimenting, and learning to shape your tone from the ground up. The real breakthroughs can come when you start adjusting your EQ, trying different pickups, playing the same riff with new phrasing — and really listening to what changes.

So explore. Play around. Trust your ears more than the spec sheet. Because great tone isn’t something you stumble on — it’s something you create.

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Want to get closer to your hero’s sound? Here’s a cheat sheet with simple tone and feel suggestions — all doable with basic gear and smart playing.

🎸 Jimi Hendrix

• Tone: Fuzzy, psychedelic, expressive

• Tip: Bridge pickup with fuzz or overdrive, rolled-back tone knob, touch of modulation (vibrato/Uni-Vibe)

• Feel: Big bends, lots of double-stops, play behind the beat

🎶 Eric Clapton

• Tone: Smooth, creamy blues with edge

• Tip: Neck pickup, mid-boosted EQ, gentle overdrive (Clapton’s “woman tone” often came from rolling down the tone knob)

• Feel: Controlled vibrato, expressive bends, lyrical phrasing

🎤 H.E.R.

• Tone: Warm and expressive

• Tip: Neck pickup, low-gain amp setting, and fingerpicking or soft pick attack

• Feel: Soulful slides, clean timing, and space between phrases

🎸 John Mayer

• Tone: Clean, glassy blues-pop

• Tip: Neck or middle pickup, scooped mids, light compression

• Feel: Play dynamically — soft touch, expressive bends, and micro-timing

🔥 Kurt Cobain

• Tone: Dirty and raw

• Tip: Bridge pickup, distortion with mids pushed high, no finesse needed

• Feel: Chaotic strumming, lots of attitude — perfection not required

🎛 Tom Morello

• Tone: Unique, rhythmic, effects-heavy

• Tip: Clean or high-gain with EQ boost, wah pedal or kill switch for signature sounds

• Feel: Think like a percussionist — riff tight and use effects rhythmically

🤘 Slash

• Tone: Thick, soaring, blues-rock lead

• Tip: Bridge pickup on a humbucker guitar, mid-heavy EQ, lots of sustain

• Feel: Play with swing — Slash’s solos often lean into timing and melody more than speed

💡 Pro tip: Use these as starting points, not strict rules. Try adjusting pickup positions, EQ, and phrasing on riffs you already know — you might stumble into a tone that feels more like you.