Whether you are only just learning to play the guitar or have been playing for years, it can be a real pain if the sound quality generated by your equipment causes unwanted distortion or white noise.
Selecting the right equipment is really important for any guitarist wanting to create the right sound without any annoying humming or crackling. Here are a few pieces of must-have guitar equipment to help you achieve a great sound.
A Noise Suppressor Pedal
After the speakers and the amp, noise suppressor pedals and gates can be rarely thought about. Noise suppressor pedals and noise gate pedals are slightly different from one another. That been said both work stop unwanted noise.
Noise suppressor pedals filter sound to reduce the effect of your guitar dropping signal between riffs and chords transitions, and also to prevent pickup hum.
Noise gate pedals protect the quality of your sound and equipment by blocking the full signal from the guitar until you start playing and then turn everything off when you stop playing. In order to lose as little tone as possible, it is smart to invest in the right pedal for you, and it is worth noting faster noise gate pedals hold more tone.
Specialized Guitar Speakers
When considering the root of sound issues, speakers can often be the problem and are as equally important as the amplifier especially when it comes to creating stable tones.
Guitar speakers come in all sizes and power options, usually better quality speakers will be larger and provide greater volume as well as balancing the tone.
Good quality speakers can range from 15-60 watts and most can be fitted into a cabinet that can be carried by one or two people. Celestion and Eminence are well-known producers of guitar speakers with some affordable prices for those who don’t want to splash out on upgrading.
Guitar Amp With Built-In Speaker
The size of the amp you need is dependent on the size of the space you will play in, and how portable you want it to be. Amps can either come as a combo all-in-one-unit or as the head and cabinets separated into two units, these are usually heavier.
Easy to transport, modeling amps are also popular amongst many guitarists, as they combine two technologies, solid-state and valve, to create a sound where the tone is balanced using a computer program.
A Guitar Tuner
Sounding out of tune can really ruin your hard work when learning the new chords of a song, a good quality guitar tuner can really help you out with that.
Most guitar tuners on the market nowadays are digital and well-built for purpose, some you can easily clip onto the neck of the guitar. They use a sensor and electronic display allowing you to quickly read the note.
Get the Right Guitar Strings for You
Maintaining your guitar strings can really help keep your guitar sounding right, it is worth regularly checking your strings carefully to see if they are frayed or notched. Strings after three months of use are often too worn and should be replaced.
The type of guitar strings can also affect sound quality which is why thicker strings are preferred by more experienced guitarists due to the fact that they create a stronger tone.
Upgrade the Pickups
The pickups on a guitar sense and convert the vibrations from the strings into electrical signals which are then sent to the amp and speakers to create sound.
The pickups in some stock guitars are cheaply made or installed, however they can be upgraded by better quality parts.
New guitar pickups are not costly and can be easy to change yourself, yet it is important to remember poor calibration will affect the performance of your guitar. Therefore, if you are inexperienced or unsure at repairs, it could be worth taking it to a guitar shop.
Consider Getting a New Guitar
Often it is possible to fix a broken and off-sounding guitar especially if its body and neck are still in good condition.
However, sometimes it may be beyond repair or not a quality model to start with which may be causing noise problems or just providing a low-quality dull sound.
There are many well-respected and years old companies producing a wide range of acoustic and electric guitars such as Fender, Gibson, Taylor, and Yamaha.
Improving the sound of your guitar to get rid of any humming or annoying noise will really enrich the experience for any guitarist. This is why getting top-end guitar equipment such as a speaker, amp, noise gate pedal, tuner, pickups or even buying a new guitar may be worth thinking about.
