Sound Advice: Rabea Massaad - Tips to Get Great Guitar Tone

On “Sound Advice,” D’Addario artists offer tips, tools, and resources to take your playing to the next level. For today’s episode, Rabea Massaad walks through his approach to dialing in excellent guitar tone. Rabea gives tips on how to improve finger tone, pick tone, pedal tone, amp tone, and more.
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[@Bad_Phil]

Agree with all points; Also relatively new strings add to the harmonic content, especially important when recording. 🤘🏻

[@joseph_lacy]

The defining word here being “relatively” new. If you bring brand new strings into the studio they won’t stay in tune as easily!

[@ronlight7013]

Rabea comes across as a bit more settled and not so overwhelmingly a metalhead as in his online persona of a few years back. Good to see.

[@Jason-kv7cm]

I think he’s evolved tremendously as a musician.

[@harshtruth9148]

What’s wrong with bring a metal head? And btw, Listen to his albums, he’s far from a metal head he’s very well versed but I am curious what’s wrong with metal heads? U one of those guys that give the stink eye when I tell him I drop tune to drop A with 12 gauge mammoth slinky’s? I ask because I get that a lot. I’m curious, what’s the problem?

[@tonypoore440]

@@harshtruth9148 since no one has given you an answer, I'll try. Nothing wrong with being a metal head, it's about tone, and most of today's metal is super overdriven and distorted with pedals to the point that It takes out the fingers and pick attack in making your tone. That's from a purist standpoint and most of the things Bea was talking about wouldn't change anything for a slack tuned, overdriven, and distorted guitar sound. That's what I think those people mean when it sounds like they are putting down metalheads. Stick to what you like and don't worry about it, at the end of the day it's just an opinion, and everybody has one.

[@nomadman123]

Don’t forget about the Sanantone tone. A little bit of that Texas twang. Great video!

[@jasoncrump1886]

Appreciate you Bea your an amazing musician brother.

[@adamr3899]

Even better than the snyder cut!

[@markconger8049]

Great intro to tone. And I’m not a guitar player nor a musician! That said I was waiting for a mention of pickups. Also, I’m curious if it is feasible to have something custom made to achieve a tone like no other. Many of the famous guitarists have their own techs and hand made stuff so I was curious if that is just too costly for someone to have done once.

[@walkingonoldtracks]

I think you can split it in to two categories in order to get a good guitar tone: Category 1: requirements, category 2: preference. Category 1 is things that aren’t compensateable. Strings, pickups, working electronics & cables, correctly set up guitar(including fret height/wear). That also covers the basic playing techniques, so that there is no fret buzz ect... And then there is category 2: Here it matters how you play the notes, which in the end makes you stand out from a machine. How you pick the string, how you press and play the note. Aaand of course the whole gear aspect: tone wood, which pedals, which amp, and how to tune these pieces in.

[@rajdeep.banerjee]

Greetings! My sincere thanks for the wonderful sharing! 🤘🏻🙏🏻🤘🏻

[@michelemacri34]

I agree completely with Rabea

[@BootlegBil]

Hmmm? I wonder which strings he uses? There's differences between each gauge of string. Ultimately, it's down to whatever you find most comfortable to get the tone you really like.

[@matejzamecnik8817]

Ny xl

[@tonypoore440]

@@matejzamecnik8817 NYXL's are THE BEST strings you can get. They stay in tune better, sound better, and last longer than all the others. They cost more, but I wouldn't put any other strings on my guitar.

[@gregorystone9459]

e 13 B 13 G 13 D 14 A 07 E 02

[@zmongi1]

Rabea is the man.

[@continentalbreakfast1354]

This is, how you say? Epic.

[@stevet.4974]

4:29 those tasty Strat licks are killer. EVH said it man..... you gotta have a beautiful tone straight out of the amp before adding anything. Ive wandered through the tone universe for 40 freakin years but seemingly now have arrived at a real good place. I don't know if you mention it or not but Ive noticed my tone is super better when my guitar is in tune and I play stomping out time with my foot. Of course your not going to Stomp Motorhead (unless you really really want to) but you get the idea.

[@harshtruth9148]

Love ya Rabea, probably the greatest guitar progress over the years I’ve seen. Watch a video from 5-6 years ago of him then watch today, he musta been practicing 24/7 because he is so much better now it’s crazy. Btw, I can’t stand Ddarrio strings, I’m an Ernie ball guy myself.

[@allenwelden7099]

Bea has awesome tone, check his channel out

[@mrmohantyexperiments]

Can you hear cops in the beginning or is it just me ? Lol

[@walkingonoldtracks]

Haha yeah😂😂

[@Jason-kv7cm]

Chicken picks are by far the best sounding picks for a bright thick sound. Only con about them is they have 0 grip.

[@electricurinal]

Fun fact: There are actually 9 sounds with a strat with a 5-way switch. Just like in the old days of a 3-way having in-between settings if you can find them giving you 5, same is true with a 5-way switch. There are additional tones between every setting if you listen closely and find them.

[@carbonharmonics]

Man just play hard rock. The best "finger tone" ever produced is Slash beating down "don't damn me" on YYI1

[@MB-rv9dx]

Reminds me of a guy who works at the gas station near me ⛽️

[@jordanpratt9384]

So its not just in the fingers.....imagine that.

[@paulystark2890]

Don’t forget the tone of our women when we play too loud bro! 😂