What do clean, edge of breakup, low gain, mid gain, high gain mean to you?

[metropolis_4]

I was laughing yesterday because I watched a gear video and the guy said “here’s my clean tone” and proceeded to play something that sounded like early AC/DC.

I remember another video doing “mid gain” comparisons and it was like early Metallica level distortion.

It made me realize we all have a different concept of what these terms mean for us.

So I thought it would be interesting to hear what you consider a good example of each of these gain levels. Feel free to post clips or just names of songs!

 

[JasonE]

For me, clean is completely clean. I have friends that play what they call clean and it has some breakup in it. I don't want any breakup, even if I hit the strings kind of hard.

The edge of breakup would be clean but would breakup just a little if I dig in with my guitar volume up all the way.

Low gain is a step up from there. It has breakup but is a light breakup. I find certain clipping types with pedals work better than others for this tone.

Medium gain is a bit of a range of gain tones for me. I would put a lot of classic rock into this bucket. Van Halen on the first two albums were much less gain than after that. I would put those in this.

High gain is something I very rarely use these days. It is just too much for me. I am not a fan of how compressed things sound and feel. I am really appreciating lower gain as I have gotten older. Don't get me wrong, I listed to some hard rock and like it a lot. I just don't play those types of tones. I think of high gain as a metal tone, not that all metal songs use high gain sounds.

 

[DrewJD82]

I suppose I never computed this until just now, but I suppose what I call edge of breakup is more of a way of playing than it is a tone/level of distortion, because the amp IS breaking up where it’s set, I’m just controlling how much the breakup comes through with my picking hand.

this is what I consider EOB-


This sentence makes sense to me- ‘I like to play on the edge of breakup with a lo-mid gain tone’ because I would be using a low to medium gain tone to play on the edge of breakup.

After that it starts getting contextual based on the genre, like medium gain in metal doesn’t mean the same thing it does in country.

 

[PLX]

I suppose I never computed this until just now, but I suppose what I call edge of breakup is more of a way of playing than it is a tone/level of distortion, because the amp IS breaking up where it’s set, I’m just controlling how much the breakup comes through with my picking hand.

this is what I consider EOB-


This sentence makes sense to me- ‘I like to play on the edge of breakup with a lo-mid gain tone’ because I would be using a low to medium gain tone to play on the edge of breakup.

After that it starts getting contextual based on the genre, like medium gain in metal doesn’t mean the same thing it does in country.

It's all relative..

I think one man's "clean-to-edge-of-breakup" is another man's "clean-to-edge-of-divorce-and-I'm-taking-the-dog".

 

[DrewJD82]

It's all relative..

I think one man's "clean-to-edge-of-breakup" is another man's "clean-to-edge-of-divorce-and-I'm-taking-the-dog".

That sounds fucking great, but for some reason I’m surprised your cteobaittd is dirtier than my cteob.

 

[JasonE]

I suppose I never computed this until just now, but I suppose what I call edge of breakup is more of a way of playing than it is a tone/level of distortion, because the amp IS breaking up where it’s set, I’m just controlling how much the breakup comes through with my picking hand.

this is what I consider EOB-


This sentence makes sense to me- ‘I like to play on the edge of breakup with a lo-mid gain tone’ because I would be using a low to medium gain tone to play on the edge of breakup.

After that it starts getting contextual based on the genre, like medium gain in metal doesn’t mean the same thing it does in country.

To me, that is low gain. My definitions of these tones comes from playing country in the 2000's. You really want that super clean tone for some things and at other times, you want it to break up a bit. That is why I like to get it to where it will break up just a little if I dig in for those tones, or if I hit the amp with a booster to push it into a low drive.