By virtue of their electrical properties, tubes generate a special waveform when they're saturated, which is why tube engineering has tremendous tonal advantages over solid state or DSP solutions, particularly for crunch and lead sounds. Tubes enter the saturation zone gradually or softly, which lends tube-driven tone its trademark yet totally unique character.
View post (Who's guitarist style do you like best?)
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I really should listen to some Blind Guardian. I would have to say at the moment Alexi Laiho has one of my favourite styles of playing at the moment. I guess its what i want to sound like. I love the really cool heavy riffs and the soloing is very neoclassical which i also really like.