Johnny Ramone RIP is rolling over in his grave.


+ 1.
Johnny forever

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Fender DG8
Fender MIM Sunburst Telecaster.
Fender American Vintage'52 Reissue Telecaster
Fender Frontman 212R
Fender Mini Twin
Fender Super Champ XD
Fender Champion 600

The power chord is the most popular in rock music. It is also known as a dyad, or two note chord. Sounds weak clean, but powerful with distortion. Just like full chords sound good clean, but muddy and unmusical under distortion. You can also expand your diads for an even fuller sound under distortion, by adding the octaves of the root and fifth. Just make sure there are only two notes, the root and the fifth.

The nice thing about dyads is that they are not defined as major or minor, giving the lead player much more freedom to interpret, instead of being boxed into only certain scales working with a particular chord.

Why do two note chords sound better under distortion than full chords, or even triads? Because of the even and odd order harmonics produced by distortion. The more notes, the more harmonics blend, and they are not all even order with each other, which creates unmusical noise.

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Guitars:
1. mid 70's Ventura MIJ Gibson l6-s clone (Pre-lawsuit) in Black with Rosewood FB and EMG 81 BR/ 85 Neck
2. ESP KH2 Neck Thru
3. 2008 Am Std Strat in 3 tone sunburst

Originally posted by firstrat

IMHO...
Full chords can sound great with distortion, it all depends what you're playing through and how you play it. If you play active humbuckers through a Krankenstein on high gain, yeah, an E major chord will sound like s#!+ However, when one has a low output single coil through an amp like a Marshall JTM45 (Only modified to give 100 watts instead of 30) using a fuzz face for distortion, an E major chord sounds very powerful and musical.
Also, while in some ways dyads are nice due to not being major or minor, it could be a disadvantage, especially if the band has no lead guitarist. Power chords have no real meaning or mood, they are kind of like a loud shout or a battle cry. Cool when used properly, but very annoying if one just keeps doing them over and over again (Unless it is meant to annoy somebody or attract attention, ala punk).

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I traded my car in for a microphone.

[quote="Capo
IMHO...
Full chords can sound great with distortion, it all depends what you're playing through and how you play it. If you play active humbuckers through a Krankenstein on high gain, yeah, an E major chord will sound like s#!+ However, when one has a low output single coil through an amp like a Marshall JTM45 (Only modified to give 100 watts instead of 30) using a fuzz face for distortion, an E major chord sounds very powerful and musical.
Also, while in some ways dyads are nice due to not being major or minor, it could be a disadvantage, especially if the band has no lead guitarist. Power chords have no real meaning or mood, they are kind of like a loud shout or a battle cry. Cool when used properly, but very annoying if one just keeps doing them over and over again (Unless it is meant to annoy somebody or attract attention, ala punk).[/quote]

I agree with everything you just said, including your tag line in the signature that said I don't necessarily everything I say. Exceptions exist to every rule and everyone has differnet taste.

Let's examine what you just said, leaving out bias for super high gain tones or clean and inbetween....

Like I said distortion is overtones, many of them. The more gain and distortion, the more overtones than become prevalent. So if your rig has less overall gain dialed in, you will be able to get away for more complex chord structures since the odd order harmonics don't overcome the even order harmonics. Something I really have come to appreciate over the years.

But when you do go into high gain, something I like to do to get the anxiety out from the day, those chords will start to become noise on any rig. I use all tube rack gear into a Marshall 1960AV 4x12. I also have a small modified SS practice amp that gets fed by a tube pre. With 13 possible different tube voicings/channels overall plus Four SS coupled with a nice tone stacks including graphic eq's, I can find just about any tone I could ever need and more. With all that I still keep the signal path mostly analog, settings relatively simple and the signal sounds pure.

_________________
Guitars:
1. mid 70's Ventura MIJ Gibson l6-s clone (Pre-lawsuit) in Black with Rosewood FB and EMG 81 BR/ 85 Neck
2. ESP KH2 Neck Thru
3. 2008 Am Std Strat in 3 tone sunburst

Yeah, I change my signature on a regular basis, but I feel this one might stay for a while because it's so true ^^

I did some research because I was bored of having fun, anyhow distortion isn't necessarily overtones. Overtones occur naturally when you play the guitar unamplified, they're what make every instrument sound unique. When played unamplified though, they aren't discernible, when you play a middle C all you hear is a middle C. In actuality, you hear a harmonic series of notes, for C it would be C-C3-G3-C4-E4 G4-B-Flat4*-C5-D5 E5-F-Sharp5*-G5-A5*-B Flat5*-B5-C6. Now when distortion occurs, the gain stage is asked to create a bigger version of the signal it has the capacity for. This causes the signal to be clipped, the highs and lows are flattened. Now the overtones can catch up to the main pitch in volume and present themselves in all of their glory. There is much much more to it than this, such as types of signal clipping, wave shapes, etc..but I just wanted to post the general explanation so anybody that cared aside from me could see it. I love when I learn things on this forum, especially beer ^^

That being said, I play through a 76 Fender Champ. Not because I don't love high gain, I do very much so...but when one lives with his parents there are limitations >_____>

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I traded my car in for a microphone.

Capo, firstrat: great info. Thanks for posting!


-Nutter

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I started out with nothing, and still have most of it.

Yea cool. I see some agreement in what I'm trying to say. Anybody remember Tull's Aqualung? I know a dyad is refered more to a perfect 5th than other intervals, but here we have 3rds.

I don't really have an opinion, but I'm a new player (and new to the forum. Hi.) and I am learning a lot from this thread.

welcome, aamm! I hope you find the forum as enjoyable as it usually is! Stick around, it's lots of fun!

cheers

-Nutter