Periphery guitarist Mark Holcomb discusses the way he approaches using chords in conjunction with single notes when he writes guitar riffs. FOR TABS, GO TO: www.guitarworld.com/holcomb-ma...
It sounds like an insanely driven tone but in reality it's really just moderate gain at a loud volume and god tier EQ for rich beautiful clarity. i could listen to his chords forever
It took me a long time to figure out what was so special about these pickups, and it finally hit me that even playing a single note on these pickups sounds like its clashing with itself and gives that filthy snarling tone. These are THE metal pickups
90% of those chords are playable in standard tuning as well. They're just chord clusters, add9, sus2, sus4 chords from jazz/fusion derivation. Using them in hi-gain contest and metal songs is freakin awesome and absolutely innovative
That's a killer heavy tone he's got there. I'm usually not a fan of super high gain, but this sounds great. It tight and refined, not noisey or out of control. Nice!
Hollis Prince It's actually not super-high gain. They run through clean overdrives into amp models (AxeFX II) that are driven just enough to get the harmonics singin. Super high gain is not the way to go if you want people to actually be able to hear what you're playing.
I've been listening and following this style of disjointed/schizophrantic single note riffing for 7-8 years now, and I just started to rap my head around it. Then comes along Mark Holcomb and humbles me back to square one.
Aaron Welch Not sure what he is doing, but I believe part of it is a good tube amp and an overdrive with the volume up and gain off. Misha has a video were he does it with a mesa boogie (dual rec I think) and a bulb OD. I won't say I understand what's happening to the signal, but it adds clarity without sucking the gain out. I tried on my rig, which is an Orange Crush Pro 60 (solid state) and a Hotone Grass Overdrive and it works.
Aaron Welch There's a combination of factors, but the biggest would be the pickup set he has in his guitars: the Seymour Duncan Alpha/Omega set. It's an aggressive-sounding set, but it has more moderate output so it can clean up well and is specially voiced so that you can hear all of the notes in a chord voicing with as much clarity as possible. The other factor would be his Axe-FX II.
Cool. I’ve actually been learning theory lately and to be honest, it’s really not hard to grasp, at least on paper. Applying it to the fretboard, and knowing where to go with it is the challenge. It also seems much more useful to someone trying to play lead over a chord progression, than someone who’s just riffing around. Metal is full of riffs that are atonal, dissonant, and chromatic in nature, and they sound awesome. Tons of awesome bands write killer songs with next to no theory knowledge. When it comes to chord tone targeting or using arpeggiated notes in a solo though, theory is only going to help you. Probably why most guys that teach theory or understand it the most are predominantly lead players. Edit: also wanted to say that 99% of the people I see that are teaching theory aren’t nearly as good or creative at guitar as Mark Holcomb. Not trying to make a point, just an observation.
i do this kind of stuff too, every lick ive ever came up with i figure out as many ways as i can to play it and mix that together to get the best sound
There's really not all that much gain in his tone. The amp itself is pushing maybe half OR LESS of what it's gain channel can produce. It's all about how hot the input signal from the guitar is. I know nothing about his pickups, but I'll assume they are mid to high range on the output scale. The pickups themselves obviously have a significant impact on the end result, but for a tone like this I'd say the majority of the tone itself is generated by what he puts in front of his amp (along with the amp's settings of course, but that's basic so I'll pass over that for now). If you have a tube amp (or AxeFX/Kemper/Amp Sim), a simple way to add clarity can be achieved in at least two ways. 1.) An overdrive pedal. (Tube Screamer, FATRAT...) 2.) A parametric EQ. (The same can be achieved with a graphic EQ but it's overly complicated for our application) BEFORE I GET INTO THIS - TURN YOUR FUCKING AMP GAIN DOWN. Set preamp gain at half/noon while you experiment with this. These methods boost the hell out of your preamp. Setting amp gain too high will make a nasty over saturated sound. In many cases, the mud in your tone is coming from the power amp. Keep the Master Volume low unless you're rocking out on something British. ;) Just roll it back, trust me. OD PEDALS: Overdrive pedals have been a staple of gain heavy guitar tones for decades. They are very simple. An overdrive pedal will simply boost the level of your incoming guitar signal (simply making it 'louder/hotter' in terms of line db) before it gets sent to the amplifier. Boosting this signal (ie. adding GAIN, not distortion) will push the amplifier's preamp and power section into clipping much easier. With tube amps/sims, clipping is your friend! This is how thick tone and spongy pick attack is achieved. The peak transients of your picking are smashed by the pre-amp which gives you the oh so lovely CHUG or DJENT that you love. Add that hot signal from the combination of the OD and the preamp to the power section and you get massive amounts of tube saturation. You're literally pushing your tubes to their limit. In other words, you're compressing your signal to be as 'loud' as possible before it hits the amp to coax more natural gain and harmonic content from your amplifier. So when you see a Tube Screamer before the input jack on an amp with GAIN at 0 and LEVEL at 10, you know that the signal is being boosted like a motherfucker so the nectar of the distortion gods can be squeezed from every last bit of your amp's electronics. The GAIN is at 0 because you don't want to add artificial clipping. The LEVEL is boosted to encourage the amplifier itself to clip, providing you with the uber chugga tone of your dreams while maintaining a high level of clarity. (The clarity is achieved because you specifically altered your tone to emphasize natural clipping from your amp and not by adding 'artificial distortion'. DISTORTION BAD - OVERDRIVE GOOD! As for the Tone knob, most people like it maxed, but it usually sounds best around 2:30-3:00 o'clock. A PARAMETRIC EQ: The Parametric EQ method does exactly the same thing BUT it allows you to sculpt the signal from your guitar to complement the amplifier you are playing through. Basic Setup: Starting off, throw a PEQ pedal/unit between your guitar and your amp. A high-pass filter is ESSENTIAL here. High-pass is how you keep things TIGHT. Cut your low end with a High-Pass at around 150hz with a strong Q to pull all the muddy garbage out of your signal (your guitar's natural frequency range is strongest around 900hz/2khz. This is why anything below 100/150hz can be cut with no repercussions). Now use the LEVEL knob/slider and boost the FUCK out of it. Hear all that saturation going on? Yeah, that's right. There is the distortion you want with the clarity you need! Sculpt your tone further by accentuating different frequencies in the tonal spectrum. 1400hz is a nice sweet spot on most guitars if you're trying to achieve that metallic 'djent' sound. So set a tight Q around 1400hz and boost it by a few db. Feel it out. Feel free to cut some of the really high pitched noise with a low pass. Don't set it too low or your tone will DIE. Flat as a pancake. A little bit of fizz is crucial to having a cutting tone. I wouldn't cut anything at all under 10kHz. If you ask me, the PEQ method is best for achieving clarity. It adds little to no tonal coloration to your tone. It's my go-to for heavy tones and sharp Thrash tones alike. The really important part is this: EXPERIMENT as much as possible! These two methods will change your tone drastically. If you experiment, you might find another avenue to uncharted tone territory. Just play around; boost this, cut that! Don't be shy! Most importantly... Find your own sound! A unique tone is always an ear-catcher! Build upon your influences and try to break new tonal ground! Have fun!
It's like Mark was made by the gods to play guitar. Everything he does sounds sounds and looks amazingly natural, like he was just born with this skill.
It feels for me, a bit, that is like a metal jimi hendrix, cause it's big cool chords, with nice phrases that both connect rhythmically and outline them chords. Really awesome and full of dynamcics
dropless2002 There's possibly a new Haunted Shores album on the way, but that's not too far removed from Periphery, as Misha Mansoor is also involved in that project as well.
There's no way in hell I can fret that chord the way he does, but I found that I can fret the two lower notes using my middle finger while using the other fingers to fret the remaining notes. It's still very uncomfortable and I would find it very hard to switch in and out of that chord quickly. But hey, at least I can do it.
I physically can't barre the 6 and 5th strings with my thumb while maintaining a 5 fret stretch with the rest of my fingers I have no idea how he is doing that.
steeledavis79 i got ao lucky on this but if you google the tt/957-872 you will come across a clothing brand called Tom Tailor...thats the brand...i couldnt track down the jacket for you though
Yes!!!! Figure 1 and 2 are ear candy!!! I’ve always wondered what it would sound like in a song.... *plays immaterial by haunted shores* EUREKA!!!! Awesome video! Awesome guitarists! Awesome column. Thanks guys!
As I've mentioned in other videos, these are jazz chords. It's nothing new, just jazz chord variations with distortion. I use them all the time myself. Love the guitar pattern by the way. I'm not a PRS fan, but that guitar looks like a nice hot cup of joe!
+Brandon Gordon I think the title is using "building" in the sense that he's "integrating" or "adding" the chords to the riff instead of "building" the chords into the riffs. I originally interpreted it as the former, too.
Hey Guys, this is Mark from Periphery working his nuts off in a series of technical videos getting more and more tired as the videos go on in the same seat for what seems hours on end. Yeah, they are paying me for it but as you can see the reason why I'm still wearing my jacket isn't because its cold, I just want to get back home and chill....... Thanks Mark for your time though, you're amazing. Cheers.
Ricky Booby He's using an Axe FX 2 XL (I think. Whatever the newest one is). I would guess he's using either the Peavey 5150 sim, or the Friedman HBE sim. He's also tuned to Drop C (CGCFAD)
Tones sound awesome! Haunted Shores this all of this awesomeness. But when I first listened to Haunted Shores I had no idea how attractive Mark was... But damn.
Fat Milky hardly. Ever listen to classical piano? The greats had the fundamentals perfected, but still demanded that the art express emotion in the purest way possible. Theory is important, but good musicians understand that it’s only the art explained in an academic sense. Check out the Baroque era of music. One of the main goals of composers of that era was to convey emotions, and paint musical pictures for the listener to enjoy, and interpret.
***** It's because you won't learn chords like that in books, they're too complex harmonically, these are not even jazz chords. I think i've heard Misha say that they usually noodle with intervals until they find chords that sound huge and intricate. Mark is certainly more than able to tell you the name of the chords by spelling their intervals but that wouldn't be of any use
