Many metal guitarists ask themselves the same question: how to get Swedish death metal guitar tone? If you’re looking for an answer, we got you covered! In today’s blog post, we are going to highlight the best ways to achieve this kind of sound. If you’re an enthusiast of metal music, you will definitely enjoy these recommendations. So how can you make your sound like that?
Don’t worry, you don’t have to sacrifice any goats to get the Swedish Death Metal tone! In fact, it can be easily achieved with the right gear – most importantly with the right guitar effects, the right amp and the right settings.
Interested how to get the Swedish death metal guitar tone? Check out the five tips below that will help you achieve it. Let’s go!
1. Use The Right Pedal
Although there are a lot of guitar pedals out there, the BOSS HM-2W is one of the most popular models among metal guitarists. We did some research and it seems that most of musicians on YouTube and guitarists on various forums recommend that specific model to achieve the Swedish death metal sound. From what I’ve read, it’s also often used by such bands as Entombed, Dismembered and At The Gates. If you’re a fan of this genre, you most likely recognize these names!
What’s interesting, the HM-2W model doesn’t cost a fortune. Any fan of Swedish death metal should definitely consider adding it to their pedalboard. If you’re interested to hear how it sounds, make sure to check out she sound demo below. To be honest, it’s absolutely spectacular!
Unfortunately, currently there are some problems with accessing this pedal in guitar stores and online. It probably won’t be an issue in the future, but if you’re reading this article and you can’t find it, here’s another great pedal that you can check out – BOSS Waza Craft MT-2W. Feel free to check it more details about this pedal below. There’s also another sound demo so you can compare it with the previous model.
2. Use The Right Amp
Of course, using the right amp is also really important when it comes to Swedish death metal. If you’re looking for new gear, make sure to check out our recommendation for the best amps under $1000. You may think that you need a huge and loud amp to achieve this kind of tone, but it’s not necessarily a good idea. The truth is that the pedals mentioned above tend to be uncontrollable at high levels. In fact, according to our research, bands like Entombed used small amps for their recordings. So you probably don’t need anything bigger than 20W. Feel free to check out our recommendations in the article linked above. You will definitely find something suitable! Alternatively, we recommend checking out this Marshall JCM800 on Amazon.
Although it’s a bit expensive, it will definitely be a good fit for all kinds of metal music. We highly recommend check it out further if you’re looking for the best gear suitable for Swedish death metal genre.
3. Experiment With The Settings
How to get Swedish death metal guitar tone? When it comes to guitar pedal settings, everything has to be on max. There is no other way!
In terms of the amp, all the specific settings will depend on the amp that you are using. Still, make sure to lower the mids and keep the crunch and lead channel at around 4 out of 10. Some people mention that using a clean channel with zero mids and a metal distortion can do wonders too, but again – it all depends on your amp. Generally using any amp that has a clean channel and using the effects listed above should work. Nevertheless, make sure to experiment with your amp settings to get that desired Swedish death metal tone!
4. Change Your Pickups
Another great thing that you can do in order to achieve a death metal tone is changing your pickups and in worst case scenario, your guitar. Of course, if you have a Stratocaster with three single-coil pickups, it will be difficult to achieve a death metal sound with these simple methods. Which pickups are best for Swedish death metal? Well, it’s a tough choice. There’s quite a lot great pickups available online. We recommend checking out Seymour Duncan TB 6 pickups which offer an absolutely monster gain. They’re really popular and in fact, they’re not expensive at all. You can check out the sound demo below. Sounds amazing, right?
5. Use Drop Tunings
How to get Swedish death metal guitar tone? Use drop tunings! They can significantly improve your guitars tone. If you’re not familiar with them, you should definitely find out more about what they are and what they can do with your sound. Using Drop D, Drop C and even Drop B will definitely be a good idea when it comes to Swedish death metal. How to do it? Well, there are a lot of videos on that matter on YouTube. We recommend starting with the Drop D tuning. In fact, there’s a few ways that can make this tuning sound really heavy. Make sure to check out the video below to see how you can achieve that.
Summary
Hopefully, now you know how to get the Swedish death metal tone. If you try all of these tips, you will definitely come closer to getting that sound. As you can see, there are a lot of factors that affect the final tone. Good luck – I’m sure that you can achieve that! If you know more tips about that topic, feel free to share it with other players in the comment section below. I’d be more than happy to see what you guys think.
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