How to Make Your Electric Guitar Sound Like Heavy Metal

Odds are, if you’re reading this blog, you’re a fan of modern heavy metal guitar. But like many of us, you may have found it difficult to dial in the sound you hear in your head or on your favorite records.

You may have found yourself down the rabbit hole of searching for just the right new piece of gear that will tie it all together. And you may also be painfully familiar with the common rebuttal to the never-ending quest for gear: “the tone is in the hands.”

This is true enough, but not the whole story. Your guitar matters, your signal chain matters, and how you dial in your settings can make a huge difference. You won’t sound like Josh Travis playing a Telecaster through a Fender combo amp without some serious modifications, at least. You’ll need the right gear to represent your playing faithfully.

But it’s also true that the gear doesn’t make the player, and you’ll need to be invested in the journey of being the best player you can be and mastering the techniques that are specific to the genre.

With more options than ever in the current information ecosystem, it can be hard to know where to start.

This article will lay out all the fundamentals of dialing in a modern heavy metal guitar tone, the gear you’ll need, and how to use it to get a great-sounding heavy metal tone up and running so you can get back to the project of being the best player you can be.

Amp Sims

Although it’s perfectly feasible to get a great heavy metal guitar tone from a traditional amp, there are a few practical drawbacks. In most cases, you’ll need additional gear like a noise gate or compressor/boost pedal, and miking up the amp for recording can be cumbersome.

Enter the amp simulator!

Amp sims have come a long way in recent years: Rack unit hardware options like the Axe-Fx and Kemper offer more flexibility for sculpting a tone, and these are great units. But more recently, software-only amp sims like the ones made by Neural DSP and Mixwave are low-barrier-to-entry options that come straight out of the box sounding incredible.

This new generation of virtual amps is designed to be cost-effective and get you up and running quickly. Many of them come preloaded with artist presets that sound great straight away, and you would be hard-pressed to find a better entry point into modern metal guitar tone.

If you are just beginning your heavy metal tone journey, this is the best place to start. And even if you’re a seasoned veteran in the style and you’ve stuck to your guns with a traditional amp and cab setup, it’s worth seeing what a modern amp sim can do for you.

They’ve been designed with the modern player in mind, and although the amp sim aims to emulate a traditional amplifier in principle, they also tend to offer a tightness and responsiveness that can often outperform a traditional amp for heavier styles.

Amp Settings and Signal Chain (You May Need Less Gain Than You Think)

I will often reach for the gain knob first when dialing in a tone, and usually not to turn it up!

A relatively low gain setting on the amp allows for more clarity, dynamic range, and tighter muting for punchy, rhythmic passages. You can compensate for this by placing a boost pedal before the amp in the signal chain. This has become common practice, and it’s a technique that’s been around for quite some time.

In the analog days, the Tube Screamer pedal was often the go-to for boosting the input signal going into the amp. More recently, the Horizon Devices Precision Drive has become a staple in the genre. Many of the amp sims mentioned above also feature a built-in option for adding gain before the amp with a virtual pedalboard. Just bear in mind you’ll be distorting the signal at two different stages in sequence, so you won’t need much gain either on the amp or the pedal.

Adding this boost before the amp allows you to drive the preamp harder, remove some of the low end from the signal (which tightens up the sound), and pull back on the amp gain for a clearer and crisper tone.

You will also want to make sure you include a noise gate in the signal before the amp to cut any background hum or unwanted string noise between notes. No matter how good your technique, a noise gate really is essential for a modern heavy metal guitar tone. Just make sure the threshold is set appropriately so that it doesn’t choke the life out of your performance.

A good way to dial this in is to adjust the threshold so that some string noise is just barely audible when sliding the fretting hand over the strings (without picking). This is, of course, down to taste, and there’s a range of options depending on your playing style and the desired sound, but this should give you a good place to start and tweak from there.

 Drop Tuning and Scale Length

Scale length refers to the distance between the nut and the bridge of a guitar.

Most guitars feature a 25.5-inch scale length, which is broadly considered standard. A baritone scale length, which is designed for guitars meant to be played in lower tunings, features a longer scale length—usually 27 inches. What this means is that a guitar with a longer scale length will have higher string tension compared to a standard scale length, assuming the tuning and string gauge are the same. This can make a big difference in the playability and intonation of your guitar in lower tunings.

This is one area where it took me far longer than I would care to admit to realize the value of a baritone scale length for heavy styles of music played in dropped tunings. The longer scale length offers more clarity, better intonation, and allows you to strike the strings with more attack without the note going sharp, especially on the open strings.

I would venture to say that anything below Drop C really calls for a longer scale length unless you’re willing to use significantly thicker string gauges, which can affect the tone and playability. If you are serious about playing in low tunings, a 26.5- or 27-inch scale length will make a world of difference.

Muting the Strings Above the Nut

You might have noticed some modern players using a fret wrap or placing a strip of foam between the strings just above the nut. This helps mute any unwanted resonance from the strings above the nut, especially during staccato passages where accented notes are quickly muted to create a tight, percussive sound.

Even with a heavily gated tone, you may notice a faint ring that follows from tightly muted chugs or accents. This may be one of the simplest ways to clean up your sound instantly for a punchier, more modern tone. A fret wrap is a cost-effective purchase to that end, but even a strip of paper towel or foam can be a quick fix that’s well worth trying at home. I can guarantee that the difference will be quickly apparent.

Technique: “It’s (Almost) All in the Hands”

And finally, yes, the tone is in the hands. Your playing style is ultimately the most significant variable in your overall sound. If you’ve ever had the experience of hearing a jazz player plug into a metal signal chain, you might now be remembering the screeching feedback, the scratchy string noise when changing positions on the fretboard, the swelling sound of the open strings resonating in the background. No disrespect to jazz players, they have their own unique skillset, and many metal players would be lost at sea when asked to read a chord chart or improvise over a jazz standard. 

Taming a high gain amp (even with relatively low gain settings), muting ringing strings, and coordinating the left and right hands for punchy and tight riffs is its own set of skills. The most fundamental for a modern metal sound are an aggressive and consistent picking hand, and string muting. 

If I can offer one simple, practical exercise: start recording yourself regularly and listen back critically. Pay close attention to both what you like about your playing and what needs improvement. Are there any unwanted noises? Are all notes clear and precise? Are you playing in time? Listening back objectively will help you refine your sound and technique in ways you might not notice while playing.

Conclusion

So there you have it—a tried-and-true approach to achieving a great heavy metal guitar tone. If you’re looking to dive deeper into the world of modern metal playing, Riffhard offers in-depth lessons from some of the best guitarists in the genre, along with an engaged online community of like-minded players. Whether it’s technical exercises, song breakdowns, or gear advice, there’s no better place to take your playing to the next level.