How do you make that sludgy sound on a guitar?

[Trent215]

So I've been wondering how do you make that sludgy, chunky sound with the guitars that you hear in sludge and stoner metal with bands like Mastodon or High on Fire as good examples...

Does it have to do with the type of amp or tuning or muting or what?

[AsHopeDies]

my guess would be it's a combination of the guitar they are using the the tuning method.

[yamahadrummer]

7 string, or tune to b on a six string. turn your low and high up and turn your mid all the way down.

[Al Paccioli]

If you like that sound I recommend 'Dopethrone' and 'Morbid Tales', if you haven't heard them already. And that one Hellhammer release too.

[Edgecrusher]

So I've been wondering how do you make that sludgy, chunky sound with the guitars that you hear in sludge and stoner metal with bands like Mastodon or High on Fire as good examples...

Does it have to do with the type of amp or tuning or muting or what?

Tune down to drop C.

Tuning down to B on a 6 string gets messy, and string tension becomes
an issue. Turn up the bass 75% and the mids down to 25%

[yamahadrummer]

Tune down to drop C.

Tuning down to B on a 6 string gets messy, and string tension becomes
an issue. Turn up the bass 75% and the mids down to 25%

well i used to have a 7 string, or if im tuning down to b on my six i usually get .11 strings so its not that lose.

[Edgecrusher]

well i used to have a 7 string, or if im tuning down to b on my six i usually get .11 strings so its not that lose.

Yes, but getting new strings on is kinda a pain in the bitch, when C is only
a half step difference to B. 7 string guitars FTW, though. I'll never go back
to 7, and I'm getting my 7 string Hellraiser on Saturday, possibly.

[yamahadrummer]

well, you gotta change your strings every so often anyway (monthly for me) so you could just try it next time.

[Fungus Amungus]

Down tone the guitar and use a grunge/distortion pedal.

[ackland]

Kyuss.

10 kyuss

[GiveItAway]

So I've been wondering how do you make that sludgy, chunky sound with the guitars that you hear in sludge and stoner metal with bands like Mastodon or High on Fire as good examples...

Does it have to do with the type of amp or tuning or muting or what?

I don't know either of those bands so I listened to a couple on youtube. The Mastodon sound doesn't sound amazingly sludgy to me, I'd suggest a really wide bass guitar sound probably with a lot of 120hz and some 50, one guitar focused on the mid range (overdriven) and another quite crispy (distorted) one for clarity.

As for high on fire, don't use treble to get clarity, try find it with the mid. Use overdrive and not distortion. The trap to fall into would be to pump up the bass on your amp, don't, the bass guitar is filling out the low end not the guitars at all. Find a crunchy overdrive, heavy strings, look at what guitars they use, looks to me like they use laney amps which are crunch city and play fucking hard.

Also please make sure you have the right haircut to play this sort of music.

[Al Paccioli]

Also please make sure you have the right haircut to play this sort of music.

Listen to this man.

[Trent215]

I don't know either of those bands so I listened to a couple on youtube. The Mastodon sound doesn't sound amazingly sludgy to me, I'd suggest a really wide bass guitar sound probably with a lot of 120hz and some 50, one guitar focused on the mid range (overdriven) and another quite crispy (distorted) one for clarity.

As for high on fire, don't use treble to get clarity, try find it with the mid. Use overdrive and not distortion. The trap to fall into would be to pump up the bass on your amp, don't, the bass guitar is filling out the low end not the guitars at all. Find a crunchy overdrive, heavy strings, look at what guitars they use, looks to me like they use laney amps which are crunch city and play fucking hard.

Also please make sure you have the right haircut to play this sort of music.

As in shaggy stoner hair? Then check!

[Solaris]

Kyuss.

10 kyuss

Je suis d'accord!

[dark_lotus_999]

Nahh, forget the other recommendations and check out EYEHATEGOD http://youtube.com/watch?v=x9jKiJTfFnw, Weedeater http://youtube.com/watch?v=SQkTQIN_5Fk, BONGZILLA http://www.myspace.com/bongzilla420, Electric Wizard http://www.myspace.com/electricwizarddorsetdoom,

[ocpunk37]

buy a BOSS HYPER FUZZ

sounds like a chainsaw.... great shit

[dark_lotus_999]

Ohh yeah I forgot to say Jimmy Bower tunes his guitar down 1 and 1/2 step down and uses a whirlwind A/B/Y selector, MXR I35 smart gate. And He was the pioneer of Sludge.