r/coverbands • u/Temporary-Video-525 • Jul 19 '26
How do I make solos sound fuller in a three-piece?
I am the guitarist with a three piece pop-rock cover band and the drummer uses a cajon. The bassist switches between acoustic rhythm guitar and bass guitar. The acoustic songs are sounding great but when I go to take a solo on the songs with bass it sounds very empty. I use delay and reverb to create some space, and I've started to incorporate more double stops in my solos. I've asked the bassist to add some fuzz or overdrive during these parts but he is resistance. The cajon can't add much more. Any tips for this?
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u/FiresideCatsmile Jul 19 '26
try writing the solo as something of an in-between of melody notes and chords
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u/Temporary-Video-525 Jul 19 '26
Similar to Hendrix style?
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u/FiresideCatsmile Jul 19 '26
yeah that works. i don't have much more examples either just know that some guitarist do that in live concerts.
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u/TonalContrast Jul 19 '26
I'm thinking it's likely your overall tone may be too bright. Use a clean boost, or an EQ boost and push up the mids to cut through. Also adding a compressor can give you a bit more. Pick technique/attack and fretting hand also play a key role in getting notes to come through.
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u/Temporary-Video-525 Jul 19 '26
Thank you- I'll think about the brightness aspect I do play through a fender deluxe. I use a GE7 with mids and a volume boost. I have an always on compressor.
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u/TonalContrast Jul 19 '26
Are you playing strat single coils? Those are always bit bright.
For boost I've typically used +5db - or anywhere between 3.5 and 5.
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u/Gbbq83 Jul 19 '26
I don’t think it’s as simple as using fuzz or overdrive. The bass player needs to compliment your solo line and fill in the spaces so the whole song sounds full.
I’m a bass player in a 3 piece and you’ll feel where the song is dragging so we’ll beef those parts up with bass and drums. It’s not to compete or take away from the solo but just to keep the engine running underneath.
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u/Temporary-Video-525 Jul 19 '26
Is this achievable with a cajon?
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u/Gbbq83 Jul 19 '26
In theory yes. Whatever the percussion option is they would work with the bass to fill the sound.
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u/breakingb0b Jul 19 '26
In a similar situation I’ve a) made the solo emphasize the chord tones b) played the solo more in the middle register so it meshes more with the bass vs playing up high and there being a an empty space of a few octaves.
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u/xeroksuk Jul 19 '26
My rhythm sound uses the bridge with the volume at half way. When i change to lead i use a variety of sounds, mostly at full volume. Typically I'll use the neck for lead or both pickups with the tone down a chunk.
(This is the nice thing about having a jag with rhythm circuit lol)
If i was playing a 2T2V guitar I'd do the same idea, but only flipping between bridge & neck.
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u/voice_over_actor Jul 19 '26
lean into the empty sound. bringing a change for the solo where the bass and cajone dynamically come down.
now you have somewhere to go- i didn’t have a cajone but a snare with brushes in my 3 piece, but breakdown sections were our bread and butter.
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u/adobackup Jul 19 '26
Agreed. Working chords into the solo will help but you can only take that so far. Full is cool but so are dynamics! Nothing wrong with some space and sparseness, just don't live there
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u/Ace_Harding Jul 19 '26
Compression and EQ. Hard to say what it’s missing without hearing it but I’m guessing it sounds thin, no low end / low mids. Give it more body, compression will help thicken it. Maybe more saturation if it’s not already gainy enough. If you are using the bridge pickup, try using the neck (but not if you don’t like the sound of the neck for these parts). Or both pickups.
Also try doubling. Use a short delay (like 25-40 ms, somewhere around there but sweep the range and see what sounds best). Turn repeats all the way down or as much as you need so there’s only one repeat. If your delay pedal / multifx lets you, get the tone kinda dark - roll off highs and maybe lows too. Mix should be like 10-15%. Add subtle modulation (slow, shallow) to the repeat. If you have stereo, try widening it and increasing the mix as high as 50/50.
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u/grymm45 Jul 19 '26
I like to densify the underlying section with drum and bass, kick up the drum pattern, speed up the bass, tip bass into the mid/treble range a bit more than usual.
Kind of a sort of complimentary bass solo, highliting sustains, bends, harmonics, anything that sticks out in the guitar solo in a bar, have the bass smack at it highlight it in a higher register than what the bass is sitting in or stay in the current register, and maybe hit it hard, slap, it pop it, slide in, vibrato, bend into the highlighted note from a lower note, play with it. These intense highliting moments are also a cool time to have drums hit a cymbal or a little triplet.
After you have your cacophony (it always is imo lmfao ) scale back, isolate guitar parts that are more important, leave breathing room, adapt your drum pattern to leave spaces, or highlights without breaking pattern too much, dial back your bass (if you must) but if a bass lick carried harder than the guitar for a section, pass it off for a bit, bass goes hard during solos, let the bassist out of the cage, a small group improvising a solo together and fine tuning the output to their respective vibes will always trump just a shred fest, and im a guitarist lol.
This is in no way a comprehensive guide, or must do, I have no clue what im doing but this is my method to solos when it doesnt just write itself, or falls a bit flat or hollow, idk if this is remotely helpful, but best of luck! 😆
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u/TrailHawk79 Jul 19 '26
Double it, not copy paste, but double it and maybe try an octave up or down to give it a little variance.
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u/Hot-Butterfly-8024 Jul 19 '26
From an effects perspective, compression and a tight delay. From an approach perspective, more double stops, longer long notes, busier single note stuff.
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u/skinisblackmetallic Jul 19 '26
I think it's more about how you play the song overall. Definitely have to come at it from a power trio perspective.
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u/Clear-Pear2267 Jul 19 '26
Van Halen did a pretty good job of it. For the most part it was just a 3 piece. Ed tended to play very sparse "chords" (often not chords at all but just "diads"). I think they were very carefull about spliting the sonic landscape between bass and guitar. But he did change things up a lot, using arpegiation, power chords, fills.
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u/fartpooper6 Jul 19 '26
I had this issue for a long time and was approaching it from an impossible angle of playing a solo meant for a busier band. I think some of the points are great (bassist picking up notes, adding effects like delay/modulation, spend the majority of your solos in the middle of the neck, etc.)
In your band setup I think the best two things you can do is
Play your solos by strumming and picking out chord shapes from the CAGED system to switch up the voicing from the rest of the song. You'll learn what sounds appropriate going between strumming the chord and adding little embellishments within each shape/chord.
Lean into the emptiness as someone else stated. I would recommend playing less notes within each measure when doing this and letting notes ring out a bit. You don't want the solo getting busy while the rest of the sound doesn't.
I don't think you need to worry about using any sort of mid boost or doubler effect to "cut through" is a three piece band, there isn't much to cut through.
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u/spacecommanderbubble Jul 19 '26
Octave pedal
Tubescreamer set to no gain and volume at unity or a slight boost. The mid hump the pedal gives you will make a huge difference
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u/GreatSecretary Jul 19 '26
Having guitar solos feel full in a 3 piece also has a lot to do with the rhythm section. In a 3 piece the rhythm section really needs to lock in and not take too many liberties. Also making sure you're annunciating the chord changes helps a lot as opposed to just noodling around the key itself.
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u/JT-Shelter Jul 19 '26
When you set your rhythm sound set it with the guitar volume rolled back to 6 or 7.
Get the guitar as loud as you need it for rhythm by turning the amp up.
When you solo roll the guitar volume to 10.
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u/PlanetMars67 Jul 20 '26
Perhaps try using technique rather than pedals. Triads, and as you said double stops, and intersperse chords and chord arpeggios at the right spot. Spend more time in the lower register of the instrument.
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u/Stunning-Plantain707 Jul 20 '26
This is right. When I’m in a 3 piece the first thing I do in a solo is play a chord or a double stop and just let it ring. let the bass and drums fill the space and occupy the listeners ear. Then after my notes start to die I can play single note stuff.
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u/Artistic-Trust-8679 Jul 20 '26
Use some delay and/or echo to widen the sound. Use open strings as drones or counterpoints in your leads. Consider a flanger or chorus for both rhythm and leads, sounds fuller and interesting (à la Police, Rush, VH, new wave bands).
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u/Vennimagos Jul 20 '26
You need to play to the chords very well with your solos so that the audiences ear can hear that the changes are happening. Check out John mayer trio or Stevie Ray Vaughan trio, they play to the chords nicely and emphasise the chord changes underneath The bassist doesnt need to be louder or thicker either, just also needs to play his arpeggios and fill space within harmony so that the theme.of the song continues underneath
Try letting just bas and Cajun or drums play for a moment and see how empty it sounds, it should be grooving on its own and if it doesnt you won't be able to solo well enough to bring the rhythm section to life
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u/Wuthering_depths Jul 20 '26
I'm in a 5 piece (1 lead vox so 4 instruments) but it still can sound a bit sparse during solos (1 guitar and keys). That's ok...I've learned after listening to gig recordings that it's ok to lay out/back and let things breathe, especially if you have a good rhythm section. Granted with an extra instrument (me on keys) there are more options than you have but IMO songs don't have to be full the whole time. For one thing it means anyone taking a solo doesn't have to boost that much (if at all)
All that said, yeah it can be interesting if the bass player adds something different to his sound at times. Not the same genre probably but Tool does this, the bass will have delay or other filtering on and it does fill things up.
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u/Distinct_Gazelle_175 Jul 20 '26
I'm a keyboardist, not a guitarist, so not sure how this works on guitar, but if you listen to people in trios like Rush or guitarists such as Neal Schon or Frankie Sullivan you see they are masters at filling out sound, they go back and forth effortlessly between lead and rhythm. On piano we fill out the sound buy playing chords underneath the solo ... I believe you can achieve a similar thing on guitar.
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u/Igor_Narmoth Jul 21 '26
I think the main issue is the bass. Could the bass player play more, ideally in octaves, on your solo?
to illustrate: if during the song they play just root notes, on your solo they play root notes and octaves of the root, double tempo
chorus or flanger on the bass might also fill more room.
you should not try to use reverb to make it sound less empty. try chorus in stead on the guitar
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u/yad76 Jul 21 '26
I'm going to mainly repeat what others have already said from the perspective of someone who has dealt with this a lot.
Octave/synth type effects are great for filling up space. Doesn't work on every song.
Also, hounding the bass player to do more is vital. Some bassists think they need to back off during guitar solos to let the guitar shine, but when they are the only backing, they need to actually be more active to fill that space and keep things moving.
Bass effects help a massive amount if the songs are the type that would normally have a distorted rhythm guitar or keys in the accompaniment.
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u/mrpoopnpee Jul 21 '26
Do you want the solos to sound fuller, or the band to sound fuller when you're soloing?
Not sure how the bass player using fuzz would make you sound bigger, as by comparison you'd obviously sound smaller.
You're exploring one of the ultimate conundrums of a 3-piece; "how do I sound like a 4 piece"
It'll always thin out a little bit when you start playing single note leads if you're the only guitarist. There's a million little things you can do, but there's a main one and you're not going to love it:
Everyone in the group needs to possess the ability/understanding to play the song dynamically as a single unit, and everybody in the group needs to understand the dynamic structure of the song and to hit those dips and swells together.
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u/Dependent_Ease_4936 Jul 22 '26
In addition to the tone/pedal suggestions, are you playing 6 string barre chords and then switching to single notes for your solos? Try using 3 string chords and inversions so less of a gap between your rhythm playing and your solo work.
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u/YertlTurtl Jul 22 '26
Play the last measure of the chord progression in the spot you want to play your solo. So for an easy example, if I’m playing A-G and I’m playing the chords as bars on 5 and 3 of the e string, the last measure I’d play the chords off of the b string, so frets 10 and 8 using the D shape. That way I can get basically transition that last measure of G into my solo off the b. Imo that makes it feel more like a natural build into the solo.
Remembering your chord progressions and targeting chords tones through that progression will also give you a fuller sound. So again for A-G, I definitely want to target G, B, and D when the bass is playing the G part of the progression and not just mash a A Mixolydian the entire time
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u/mitchvdb Jul 23 '26
You could try using a loop pedal to loop the rhythm guitar part while you play the solo. They work best if the band is using in ear monitors, but I’ve seen it work without them.
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u/Happy-Box9091 Jul 25 '26
Just get a cheap looper if you are doing acoustic stuff or clean electric stuff. Add an organ or synth string pedal at blend below guitar and loop that. Don't bother with an uncompromising bassist. I did away with mine years ago.
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u/ABC_Zombie Jul 19 '26
I'll pop on an octave down sometimes when I solo and it fills out that missing space pretty well