Add a Gritty Clean Tone
Since we will be adding notes and embellishing our open chords, we want a basic tone that can handle a bit of nuance and some fuller voicings- it can't be too distorted or we'll lose the details. Dial in a lightly overdriven tone by either turning up the gain just enough on your amp, or you can use an overdrive pedal. Overdrive is a milder form of distortion, but it's the same basic sound.
You don't want your tone to be noticeably overdriven- just clean with a bit of "grit" to it. So increase the overdrive until it's a little too noticeable and then dial back from there. The volume is set to match the bypassed volume and we'll leave the tone at 12 'o clock for now.
I'll be using a Fender Telecaster for these examples, which is famous for its bright tone. This guitar has two single coil pickups and a three-way switch engaging either the warm sounding neck pickup, the nasaly and bright bridge pickup, or the in-between setting which engages both.
I'll be using the middle position for these examples. The Telecaster used in all styles of music, but is very often associated with country. It's also used a lot in rock too, and it's one of my favorite instruments.