🎚️ Clean tone

How to get a clean guitar tone

Starting point: gain 1 · bass 5.5 · mid 6 · treble 6.5 · presence 5 (out of 10, from 202 tones)

A clean tone is the amp barely breaking up — clear, dynamic, with the note ringing out. It lives almost entirely in the amp and your picking, not in gain. Set gain at 0–3, let the amp's natural voice and a touch of reverb do the work, and use your volume knob and attack for dynamics. Bright single-coil guitars suit clean tones, but humbuckers do a thick jazzy clean too.

💡 If your clean sounds harsh, pull treble/presence down a little; if it sounds dull, add presence rather than treble. Headroom (a louder, cleaner amp) keeps it from breaking up when you dig in.
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Amps known for clean tones

Fender Twin Reverb (16)Roland JC-120 (14)Vox AC30 (10)Mesa Mark (4)

Famous clean tones

Telephones — Vacations · Boys Don't Cry — The Cure · Le Freak — Chic · Good Riddance (Time of Your Life) — Green Day · Wagon Wheel — Old Crow Medicine Show · Jolene — Dolly Parton · Take Me Home Country Roads — John Denver · Hurt — Johnny Cash · Redemption Song — Bob Marley · Autumn Leaves — Joe Pass

Community-researched estimates. Adapt any to your gear free at GuitarToneAdapt · amp settings by amp · what every knob does.