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== Guitar Tone ==
Guitar tone in thrash metal is typically heavily distorted, reducing the instrument's dynamic range. This allows palm mutes to have similar dynamics to unmuted notes. While many modern amplifiers feature distortion that allows saturated distortion without becoming "farty" in the lower frequencies, earlier thrash bands used amplifiers that could get fuzzy or muddy when pushed to extreme distortion, particularly on palm mutes. This reduces the clarity of notes' fundamental frequencies as well as reducing the audibility of players' pick attack. To counter this, boost/overdrive pedals or pre-EQ was used to "tighten" the distortion tone, focusing the distortion on the midrange and treble frequencies but retaining clarity of the fundamental frequency for each note. Thus, listeners could hear the individual notes being played, even during fast passages with heavy distortion.
Reverb on distorted rhythm guitars is used subtly if at all, delivering a very "raw" guitar sound. Rather than rely on reverb to fill sparse passages, players filled the space by playing quickly and rarely pausing or sustaining notes/chords.
Clean guitar tones were often used for intro sections or bridges. These generally used pristine clean tones with little to no distortion, offering extreme contrast with distorted tones. This allowed compositions to use minor and suspended chords with their qualities clearly heard, as well as bearing more similarity to classical-era guitar tones.
[[Category:Guitar]]