Two Guitar Players in One Band | Thomann

Kris and Guillaume share their personal experience on how to make two guitarists can sound great in the same band. Do you have any great tips on the matter? Let us know in the comments.
Recorded in Presonus Studio One: bit.ly/S1Pro6
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0:00 intro Jam
0:41 Introduction
2:16 The tone
5:53 Two guitars with different tone
7:00 Different parts
9:10 Dynamics
10:33 Conclusion
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[@chipcaronte]

The ending with Amon Amarth though...... That was a sweet treat!!!!!!!! Nice!

[@lexzbuddy]

When I teach people to play guitar, one of the 1st songs I teach them is "Ain't No Fun (Waiting 'Round to Be a Millionaire)". It demonstrates the 2 guitar synergy so well. You end up with a ghost guitar when you play it and it's a case in point of how and why to do it. So, if you're in a 2 guitar rock band just starting out, give this song a go. You'll be surprised at the response.

[@frankhubner3019]

Danke für eure tollen Ausführungen!

[@taufikbaihaqi8889]

Thank you for this video ❤

[@kevinturvey8213]

brilliant advice & demonstration - gold dust!

[@ThomannsGuitarsBasses]

Cheers Kevin! 🙌 //Kris

[@SomeKindOfMadman]

Very helpful and super cool advice, Kris and Guillaume, to keep in mind if playing with another guitarist. Tele and LP combo is always a great choice.

[@ThomannsGuitarsBasses]

Thanks buddy! Yeah, tele and LP (or tele and a P90 guitar) is a killer combination indeed. Tons of clarity and midrange. 🙌 //Kris

[@henryfuller69]

The tone on your guitars are amazing 👏

[@ThomannsGuitarsBasses]

Thanks a lot Henry! //Kris

[@derekclacton]

Strat and Les Paul combo worked best for me in a classic rock band context but Thin Lizzy sounded great with two Les Pauls!

[@jjjddd231]

There's always exceptions to the 'rule'. Status Quo is a great example of a classic rock sound where both Francis and Rick are playing 1960s telecasters through the same amps (which have changed over the years). Their boogie rock sound was fantastic - they just naturally complemented each other.

[@DMSProduktions]

Boring song, boring song, boring song! Status Quid.

[@damasterkarej]

I wanted to get second DSL20CR to run two on stereo. But since started playing with drums and bass I am turning towards DSL20 head with 212 cab.

[@derekclacton]

Great demo and tips, chaps! 👍

[@ThomannsGuitarsBasses]

Thanks a lot Derek! //Kris

[@StephaneBergeronPixelyzed]

Awesome videos as usual guys! What mics are you using on the cabs? In my band, I'm the only guitar player but we have a keyboards player so I'm still competing in the mids with the keys. What helps is that, usually, the "texture" and "timbre" of the sounds are quite different. But we still try to get out of each other's ways mostly using stereo panning. As most keyboard players, he uses wide fat sounds panned hard left and right with varying movement in the stereo field. I myself use different strategies depending if I play my normal "analog" rig which is mono or my Helix which I use in stereo. With the analog rig, when I play with my 4x12, I use 2 mics. Not because my signal is stereo but because I have 2 types of speakers in X pattern in it (2 x H75 Creambacks and 2 x V30s). I pan them maybe 60-70% left and right. It mostly frees the center and I'm still avoiding the fully panned keys. In our in-ears it sounds great. We usually ask the FOH sound person to do the same. With the Helix, I play a wider stereo field but the dry guitar is still mostly centered. I have to say that, in our style (neo-prog), I pretty much always have chorus (stereo), delay (stereo) and reverb (stereo). Delay is set so the repeats are panned off center (the Helix delays are great for that). So in in-ears, I usually pan myself more generally left and the keys more generally right with each as wide a stereo field as possible. The Helix is newer so we'll probable tweak the strategy going forward. I realize that live, those panning strategies would have less of an impact than in regular headphones or in-ears. So we still try to have as different "sounds" as possible so that our tones are as distinct as possible even if the listeners does not get a full stereo effect. We certainly usually play very distinct parts so that makes it easier to separate us in the sonic field of the band. We also sometimes play in unison so our different timbres make the whole thing sound bigger. Works for us but your tips here are really spot on!

[@ThomannsGuitarsBasses]

Thanks for the comment Stephane! We are using Neumann U67 mics for the guitar cabs. Cheers //Kris

[@namrametal]

Amon amarth on the tele/lp at the end 🔥

[@horschy4856]

Such a great, powerful riff 💪

[@ThomannsGuitarsBasses]

We just had to do it, haha! What a HUGE riff! //Kris

[@CountNetsrac]

@@ThomannsGuitarsBasses But Julia is missing 😥 Especially since the chorus bass line is sooo cool

[@user-cs1jo4gp2e]

Hi guys ! My two euros question . Between Riff/Solo and rythme , wich low and high middle ? Any preferences ? Thanks , it was helpful .

[@PooNinja]

Leave some freqs open for the other to fill! Different tones that complement each other.

[@Emlizardo]

Thanks for the great video, guys, Awesome tones, great advice. Come to think of it, a lot of my favorite rock stuff relies on 2 guitars: Rolling Stones Captain Beefheart "Trout Mask Replica" Television "Marquee Moon" Richard Hell and the Voidoids Early 80s King Crimson Opeth

[@tiki_trash]

Thin Lizzy

[@ErebosGR]

The easiest, quickest way to have tone differentiation is to cut some mids on one guitar and boost the mids on the other. Or if you have the money, just buy different speakers for each cab.

[@kevinturvey8213]

you could do worse than break down a few beatles tracks to show how J&G intertwined their guitar parts - absolute masters of the art!

[@ThomannsGuitarsBasses]

That sounds like an awesome idea! The only problem is their label. If you dare playing even just a few seconds of a Beatles song your video gets banned. 😅 We'll try to give it a go one day. Cheers //Kris

[@SonegPanasoneg]

Hey Thomann, Why do you send b-stock guitars instead of new ones if the client is not from Germany or EU? Ordered new expensive guitar and got repaired b-stock

[@SandauxBeats]

In Foo Father's set up, will this be right? Dave - center Pat - pan right Chris - pan left

[@benford1726]

My personal advice for two guitars is for one of them to be a Tele and the other one to be anything else

[@Lorneplumber]

Typically I will use my helix transpose to put the guitar in the correct key when I'm always playing CFGAm cowboy chords :)

[@ESANANIKONE]

C'est vous amazing in a band.

[@yetimatzenightcat8702]

Passt 👍

[@olafnelsonduerksen9676]

That Outro sounds just massive, even without Bass and Drums.

[@ThomannsGuitarsBasses]

Haha, thanks! That's mainly because it's a massive riff. //Kris

[@chipcaronte]

​@@ThomannsGuitarsBassescan you explain this massiveness???... You were playing in E Standard!!!!...

[@mikeymouse7171]

Two guitarists who „want“ to play together vs. two (or even only one…) „Egos“, who want to show off… this is IMO as a „problem“, as finding a proper guitar tone and arrangement…

[@nathancourtney2006]

Thanks guys, play on.....

[@shader26]

I think you tried to cover too many styles, and it would also have been great if you had cut scenes between conditions. Also harmony guitar is a great thing with two guitars. Another less used, one guitarist uses a capo (think of songs with open chords here) where the one guitar is playing open chords, the other has a capo somewhere also playing the same chords but of course with different shapes such as open E shape in the normal, and a capo on 4 C shape, or capo 2nd fret D shape…etc.

[@VolatileDave]

I prefer the Metallica black album way: just keep tracking guitars until it sounds nice and thicc :D

[@ThomannsGuitarsBasses]

Haha, yeah that works too! You gotta play really tight to succeed with that though 😅 //Kris

[@lexzbuddy]

2-1/2 minutes of apologising before you tell anyone, anything is not required. Just cut to the chase, honestly, that would be much better. Please, stop apologising and justifying yourselves.

[@andrewericelliott9488]

Whilst all this is valid - the most important thing to get right is being in tune. Two guitars not in tune with each other = massive tone suck

[@Alfgunnarp]

Eq :)