With its increasing popularity, many guitarists, especially metal guitarists, are looking at how to create a good djent sound.
What is djent in the first place? My friend once joked, “it’s the bridge part in Master of Puppets”. In my opinion, djent isn’t necessarily a sub-genre of metal, but rather just a style of playing. Emphasizing rhythm and odd timings, getting a good djent sound is more about how you play.
But there are things we can do with our equipment to improve our djent sound. I’ve fiddled around with it enough to share some of my experiences in trying to achieve a djent sound. I’m no djent monster, so don’t expect groundbreaking stuff, but this should at least get you started.
Getting Our Djent-able Gear
Just like most other music genres, certain equipment will perform better in a djent setting than other equipment. From the guitar you play, all the way to your pedals. Let’s go over some of the gear to use when playing djent.
Guitar
Using a six-string guitar to play djent is certainly possible, given you down tune the guitar to something low like B or A. To achieve this, you need to use some pretty heavy gauge strings like the following:
More strings are better, though. Having extra strings, specifically low strings, will give you the heavy, punchy sound you want for djent.
Perhaps the most common are seven-string guitars. They are also easier to start learning on if you’re only getting started playing djent.
My brand of choice would be Ibanez since their guitars are extremely good quality. The more strings your guitar has, the sturdier you want the neck to be, so a high-quality guitar is the way to go.
For something entry-level, the Ibanez Gio GRG7221QA is a good option. If you want something high quality, that will sound great, I would go for an Ibanez Axion Label.
If you’re a more advanced player and you want to reach an even lower note, the next level up from a seven-string is an eight-string guitar.
Eight-string guitars are luckily not too much more expensive than seven-strings. Like this Ibanez RG Standard RG8.
For a more premium version, the Ibanez Meshuggah Signature M80M is the perfect option. Meshuggah are considered the creators of djent, so a signature version of their guitars is an obvious choice.
Pedals
Getting your djent sound right actually involves a fair bit of pedals to control how the sound works. Apart from a distortion or overdrive pedal, there are three pedals I would recommend getting.
Noise gates, like an MXR M135, will help eliminate noise between note hits. The silence between each note will help emphasize each hit.
To keep the level of the notes consistent, don’t go over a certain volume. Instead, use a compressor pedal. The Boss CP-1X has a few nice features as well as a small indicator LED.
Because djent involves a lot of low-end frequencies, using an EQ pedal will help reduce the low-end and keep the tone from being too muddy. Something like a Behringer EQ700 will also work just fine.
As for overdrive/distortion, you want to get something high-quality to get the best sound. The Revv G3 is a nice all-in-one solution with adjustable ‘aggression’ levels.
Amp
For the amp, it’s really up to your personal preference, but there are a few that most djent guitarists swear by.
The one thing that is a must though, is going with a stack setup and not a combo amp. A stack will give you the power for an impactful and heavy djent sound.
For the amp head, I would go for one of these three: an EVH 5150III, Peavey 6505+, or Mesa/Boogie Triple Rectifier.
A very good budget option would be the Bugera G20 Infinium. My buddy has one, and I tried it during a party at his den. The quality of tones you could extract out of that mean little pocket-friendly machine is insane.
Just like amp heads, which cabinet you choose is entirely up to you. Two good options are the Orange PPC412-C or the Marshall 1960AX. Marshalls are, of course, far more time and battle-tested, and Oranges tend to be quite polarizing. But anyway, like I said, you can safely go with your personal choice when it comes to the cabinet. Just don’t cheap out too much on it for obvious reasons and you should be good.
Amp Sims
Digital audio has gotten to the point where it is comparable to analog audio.
The quality of digital audio has become virtually indistinguishable from analog audio, which has caused many guitarists to trade in their stacks and pedals for amp and effects processors.
People like The Edge have even started replacing their bulky amps with amp simulator pedals (he’s seen using Universal Audio UAFX pedals live).
These setups have the obvious advantage of being much easier to transport than amp heads, cabinets, and jam-packed pedalboards. The only thing you need is your guitar, the processor, and a guitar cable.
The other advantage is that these processors allow you to emulate virtually any amp or effects pedal you want. This means that you can customize your sound almost endlessly.
If you’re going with an effects processor, two good choices are the Line 6 Helix or the Fractal Audio Axe-Fx MKIII.
Setting Amp EQ
Because you’re playing an instrument on a lower tuning, you’re going to have much lower frequencies than normal.
For getting a djent guitar tone, this means that you want to set the bass on your amp very low to avoid making the sound too muddy, think about 2-3. Push the mids up to max (8-10) and use the treble to shape the tone.
Conclusion
If you have all of these pieces in place, you’ll be able to achieve a great tone for playing djent.
But just remember, the real key to playing djent isn’t just in the gear you have, but also in how you play it. I know several people who’re able to tackle djent just fine on a six-string!
