How to Adjust Guitar Amplifiers to Get the Rock and Roll Sound

The guitar amp has dials that allow you to change how the sound of the guitar strings comes out of the speakers. The one that changes the sound the most besides volume is probably your gain control. Guitar players can get a range of sounds out of an amp and here's how to get what you would call a "rock and roll" sound.

Step1

Get your volume down to a moderate level, maybe 1 or 2. You'll be playing around with dials that might change volume, so you don't want to start out too loud.

Step2

Check your bass/treble levels. These are levels that control the "brightness" of your sound; for rock and roll, you probably want a good amount of treble.

Step3

Turn off or turn down any special controls such as reverb. A little reverb can be OK on an electric guitar, but a lot will not get you a rock and roll sound but more of an emo/experimental/'80s type sound.

Step4

Find your gain control. Most guitar amps have them, but some don't. Your gain control lets you create a different, rock guitar sound. Start from 0 and slowly increase your gain. Play stings on the guitar and listen to the sound get different, fuzzier or "more electric." The gain control breaks up the sound to make it distorted (and guitar players refer to no gain as "clean").

Step5

Continue to turn up your gain slowly, listening to the sound and turning down the volume as necessary. On some amps, turning up gain means turning up volume as well.

Step6

Strum chords like you would on a rock song at progressive levels of gain. When you get to the sound you like, stop. Turning your gain all the way up will get you a sound that's more like heavy metal than rock.