Clean Guitar Vst Free
Spicy Guitar (is free and) is kind of good- it's got physical modeling so you can tweak the settings a lot. It's meant to be an acoustic guitar but you can absolutely still distort it and go wild places. You might also just want to keep it simple and throw some distortion on a piano VST you already have. Spicy Guitar is a free plugin by Keolab which is a physical model of an acoustic guitar synthesizer. The great things about Spicy Guitar is that it has 2 different positions for each chord, chord inversions, one-hand up and down strumming, adjustable strumming speed, assignable switch key.
Like most guitar players, you probably spend a lot of money investing into high quality guitar strings, but sadly, the crisp bell tones that come from new guitar strings is short lived.
The short life span of the gorgeous tones your strings produces is mostly caused by lack of a proper cleaning procedure, but excessive humidity and naturally acidic sweat can also play a part in the altering of your tone.
Naturally acidic sweat and excessive sweating causes the alloys that are using in the manufacturing process of your strings to oxidize which results in the sound of blunt and dull sound, not the bright, ringing sound that you get when you install a new set of strings on your instrument.
A lot of musicians have unrealistic expectations on how long their strings should last, but a lot of manufacturers suggest that you should change your strings out to a new pair after four to ten hours of playing.
In other words, if you happen to be one of the guitarists who plays your instrument every day, you should be changing your strings every week. In the long run, this can become very expensive, because a new pack of strings can run you between $7 to $12.
There are some musicians who enjoy the sound of older, flat strings, which is perfectly okay! There are some guitars out there who happen to only sound at their best with a fresh set of strings on them.
In my personal experience of playing guitar, newer guitars tend to sound the best with new strings, because new guitars are ‘stiffer’ and haven’t had the ‘played in’ experience that older guitars tend to have. On new guitars, a fresh set of strings really help to project the sound you’re producing.
A robust pedalboard simulator, Guitar Rig 5 player is one of the best free VST plugins that comes packed with a Shoegazer’s dream effects: heavy reverb, delay, phaser, chorus, flanger, you name it. Not to mention, you can cut out unwanted “noise” from your final tone through a splendid noise gate which makes those high octane delay. The amp VST comes with two channels – clean and lead. But most of the time you’re probably just going to be cranking up that lead channel for all kinds of metal mayhem and dirty guitar work. Here’s a cool free guitar VST you’ll probably want to add to your library, even if you aren’t much for metal. The TPA-1 emulates a class AB.
A lot of older guitars have great sound, even when playing on older stringed instruments, simply because they’ve been played with and ‘used’ for a period of time.
Quick cleaning method
If you’re not really worried about having to replace your strings on a weekly/bi-weekly schedule, it’s still highly recommended that you clean your guitar strings.
Here is a quick way to clean your guitar strings that won’t be too costly or too long to complete:
- Before playing, apply a quarter sized drop of hand sanitizier on your hands and rub your hands together. The hand sanitizer will kill off the bacteria that’s on your fingers and palms, but it will also remove the harmful oils on your hands that can damage your strings. You can buy a bottle of hand sanitizer at your local drugstore, WalMart, or dollar tree. Using hand sanitizer over washing your hands with soap and water is much more effective at killing off bacteria, but constantly washing your hands with warm water will soften the calluses on your hands and fingers, which may make playing a bit more unnerving on your hands than normal.
- When you’re finished playing your instrument, wipe the strings of your instrument down with a dish towel or a dry cloth. Make sure that you’re wrapping the cloth around the strings and follow the length of the strings with the cloth. You should expect to see the dirt appear on the towel when you’re done cleaning your instrument’s strings.
Even if you don’t happen to have a problem playing on dead strings, you are most likely going to experience problems with tuning. When you play strings for a long period of time, the strings wear down as they mash against the frets of the guitar.
If you have noticed that your guitar doesn’t seem to stay in in tune, try changing out your strings and you may find that the tuning problems will go away!
Step one
The first step you’re going to take to clean your guitar strings is to properly position your guitar to prepare to clean your strings. Free up your hands to do all of the cleaning work by resting your guitar on its back, on a flat surface, like a table, floor, or desk.
Make sure that the head of your guitar isn’t touching anything, as this will ensure that your tuning pegs don’t become damaged in the cleaning process.
Have a cleaning solution and a cloth or a rag ready to clean your strings. There are some people who prefer to use a paper towel, a dry dish towel, a clean cloth diaper, or a microfiber cloth.
Any cloth or paper product will work for your purposes, but you do want to make sure that it’s a clean, dry, and soft cloth. When using a cleaning solution, make sure that you spray or apply the cleaning solution onto the rag and not directly onto your guitar or onto the strings of your guitar.
This will ensure that excess cleaning solution doesn’t gather on your guitar and damage your instrument.
It’s highly recommended that if you’re cleaning a guitar with nylon strings, use a cloth that is slightly dampened with water to clean your guitar strings. However, if you’re dealing with a guitar with steel strings, there are guitar string cleaners that have been specially made for the steel strings, but you don’t have to use these cleaners if you can’t afford them.
You can use 70%-90% rubbing alcohol can be just as effective as a guitar string cleaner.
With your rag damp and ready to clean your guitar strings, slide half of the bottom of the cloth underneath the strings of your guitar near the bridge or the bottom portion of your strings. After that, you’re going to want to fold the rest of the cloth so that the entire cloth covers both sides of the guitar strings.
Now, you’re going to slide the folded rags along the length of the strings. You’re going to want to make sure that you go all the way along the stings from the bridge of your guitar all the way up to the nut of your guitar.
Make sure that you pay extra attention to the parts of the strings that are located on the fingerboard, as you touch these parts of the strings most often and they’re going to have the most grime on them. Apply downward pressure to clean the tops of the strings, but apply some upward pressure to get the underside of the strings clean as well.
It’s extremely important to clean both sides of the strings to ensure that you’re really able to get the most life out your strings as possible, just as it’s important to clean both sides of your teeth. Don’t fret too much if your headstock happens to lift a little off of its mount or if the tuning pegs happen to get messed up a little bit.
You can always retune your guitar and that will fix the problem! If you notice that when you’re done cleaning your guitar strings that the strings have changed color a little bit or that there is a grey color on the cloth, don’t worry, it’s a sign that you’re actually cleaning the strings!
Step two
You can lubricant on your strings to clean them! In order to do this method properly, you’re going to need to figure out what type of guitar strings you have. If you happen to have nylon strings, lubricating your strings isn’t necessary, as nylon strings are corrosion resistant.
However, if you have a set of strings that are steel, lubricating your strings will keep them from getting dirty, sticky, and corroded. If you aren’t sure what types of strings you have, look at the package that you bought your strings in and it will tell you.
If you don’t have the product packaging anymore, a good way to figure out what type of strings you have is to consider what type of genres your guitar is made to play.
If you have an acoustic or a flamenco guitar, which is used to either play classical or folk music, these guitars usually use nylon strings; electric and bass guitar play in blues, rock, country, and pop genres typically have steel strings.
Next, you’re going to want to spread lubricant onto a rag or a cloth. Use the opposite side of the cloth that you used in step one to complete this next step. However, if you feel like the cloth is too dirty and the oils from your hands have gotten onto the clean side of the cloth, you can use a new cloth for this step.
You’re going to want to use a lubricant that doesn’t contain a petroleum base when you’re cleaning your guitar as petroleum based lubricants have penetrating properties that can damage your guitar over a period of time.
You can use GHS Fast Fret or Dunlop Lemon oil to clean your guitar strings or any other product that has been specifically made for guitars. If you’re not looking to spend any money olive oil or baby oil will do the trick.
You don’t ever want to apply the lube directly to the strings, as there is great chance that you’re going to get excess grease on the guitar fretboard which is extremely difficult to clean up.
Once you have the lubricant on your cloth, run the cloth across the strings of your guitar. Position and fold up the rag the same exact way you did when you removed the grime off of your strings; run the cloth from the bridge of the guitar all the way to the nut of the instrument.
You’re going want to apply pressure to both sides of the strings using your fingers. When this is one properly, the strings will be much shinier looking, oily, and smooth feeling on your gingers when you touch them.
Basic tips to follow
Make sure that you clean your guitar strings after every time you play them. This is important because your skin produces natural oils that combine with dust and dirt from the environment around you, which is going to stick to the strings of your guitar. While this dirt and grime isn’t extremely noticeble to your eye, it doesn’t mean that it’s not there.
By not cleaning your strings after every time you play them, you’re going to cause extra stress to your strings, which I turn is going to shorten the life span of your strings.
Cleaning your strings on a regular basis will help to slow down the oxidation process that breaks your strings down faster.
A lot of musicians highly recommend that you clean your guitar strings while you’re playing. If you happen to performing in an enviornment that’s dusty, hot, humid, you’re sweating under the lights, or you’re nervous and you’re prone to sweating, it’s a great idea to wipe down your strings during a playing session.
Whenever you take a break in between your songs, like when you are getting out your new sheet music or a drink of water, take this time to clean your strings. That way, you won’t have to do as much work on your strings after your performance!
Also clean your strings before your sessions, if you feel the need to. If you happen to let your instrument to sit exposed to the open air or it’s been a long time since you’ve played your instrument, you may want to consider wiping down your strings before you use it.
This will help to make sure that no dust or dirt has settled onto your strings before you start playing, which will help to prevent the natural oils from your hands to combine with the dust and dirt on your strings.
Frequently Asked Questions
If you’ve never cleaned your guitar strings before, you’ve probably got some questions about the entire process. Don’t worry, we’ve got your back!
Q: Will my guitar be hard to play if it’s oily?
A: Not necessarily, as many musicians find that playing on oily strings is a lot easier because it’s easier for your hands and fingers to slide across the strings.
Q: Can I use coconut oil on my fretboard?
A: I would highly recommend that you don’t use coconut oil on your strings or your fret board, as coconut oil can turn rancid. If you happen to have a fretboard that’s comprised of darker wood, use mineral oil or lemon oil. However, if you have a maple guitar fretboard, don’t use lemon oil.
Q: Will disinfectant damage my guitar strings if I use it to clean my strings?
A: You won’t want to use any type of disinfectant such a Lysol or Dettol because your strings are going to rust. Dilute the disinfectant in water and then use paper towels to dab the disinfectant onto your strings.
Q: Can I use WD40 on my guitar?
A: Don’t ever use WD4O on your guitar, as it is a cleaner and a not a lubricant. WD40 will either completely ruin your guitar’s fingerboard, which will result in costly repairs.
Q: How much pressure should I apply to the strings of my guitar?
A: The more gentle you are, the better. If you happen to apply too much pressure to your strings while you’re cleaning, your strings may go out of tune. If this happens, you’re going to need to re-tune your guitar before you go ahead and play it again.
Q: What do I do if there’s too much oil on my strings?
A: If you happen to decide that the feeling of the oil is greasy and uncomfortable for you to play on, you can take a dry paper towel or cloth, fold it in half, and remove the excess oil from your strings in the same manner that you cleaned them in.
Q: Do I have to clean the strings on my acoustic guitar?
A: No matter what type of guitar you’re playing, you should perform some type of your strings. This is especially true for your acoustic guitars as if you don’t take care of the strings on your acoustic guitar, the amount of stress that dirty strings place on your guitar can cause cracking in the finish between the bridge ad the end of the body of your guitar.
The best way to ensure the longevity of your acoustic guitar is to clean your guitar strings.
Q: How often should I clean the body of my guitar?
A: It’s recommended that you clean down the body of your guitar on a daily basis if you use your guitar on a daily basis. Unless your manufacturer suggests otherwise, car polished work fine on the lacquered parts of your guitar body, the back of the neck, and headstock of the guitar (while the strings are not on the guitar).
However, if you happen to be cleaning an electric guitar, ensure that you’re not touching the pickups or any of the electronics on your instrument with any type of guitar polish or liquid, as this will ruin the electronics on your instrument.
Q: Should I bother to clean the guitar neck?
A: You’re going to want to use the same cloth that you used on your strings to rub down the guitar neck of your instrument after you use it. Whenever you decide to change your strings, you’re also going to want to clean your fretboard, because you don’t have any strings on the fretboard to interfere with the cleaning process.
If you happen to have an unfinished mahogany or a rosewood fret board, rub steel wool of the finest grade in a circular motion between the frets and then across the entire length of the fretboard, as this will help to quickly loosen up and clean off some build up that is resting on your fingerboard.
If you do happen to complete this step, make the time to make sure that you wipe away all of the fibers and the loosened dirt with a clean cleaning cloth once you’re finished.
It’s a great habit to get into to put a t-shirt, towel, or a cloth into the sound hole of the instrument and to point the headstock to the floor while you’re using a steel wool, as this will help to ensure that no debris gets into other parts of your instrument. After that, you can rub a fretboard oil on the side of the neck that has the frets to help prevent any build up in the future.
Conclusion
Your guitar strings are one of the most important parts of playing your guitar- you can’t play your instrument without any guitar strings!
Strings can become extremely dirty very easily, which can lead to a negative impact on the lifespan and the quality of sound that the strings produce.
Keeping your guitar strings clean and in optimum condition can help to elongate of the life of your strings!
Danny grew up playing anything that looked like a guitar. Since some kids just don’t know how to grow up, he continues to write about guitars because you can do that these days.
Amp simulator plugins offer realism, dynamics, and the convenience of authentic amp tones without needing to record a physical amp. For this reason alone, amp simulators are at the height of popularity with bedroom studio players.
When it comes to clean guitar sounds, many programs offer impressive tube amp clean tones. Whether it’s for blues, country, funk, metal, jazz, and ambient players.
And on the subject, this post serves as a round-up of some of the best amp simulator plugins for authentic and realistic clean guitar sounds. Value for money, price, features, and versatility are also heavy influencers on this list.
The Audio Capturing Device
Before I delve into the list, it first has to be said you need a high-quality audio interface with good pre-amps for ensuring a clear signal into your PC.
The reason is a quality interface will capture your guitars analog signal and convert it to a clean and transparent digital signal within your chosen amp simulator plugin and DAW.
This will improve your clean tones realism, clarity and, responsiveness. It will just sound plain better in a mix and sound more authentic in comparison next to a real tube amp.
No plugin in the world can produce a crystal clear dynamic tone without having a quality input into your chosen amp software.
Therefore, ensure you invest in a professional capturing device whether that be an audio interface, DI box or a mixer.
Now let’s get into it. Here is a great pick of amp sim plugins for fantastic clean tones for your DI guitars.
1. AmpliTube 4 (IK Multimedia)
- Price: €299.99 (Max version)
- Standalone: yes
- Win/Mac (64-bit only)
- Demo version: yes
Amplitube 4 has cemented itself as one of the most popular paid amp simulators offering an all in one tone factory aimed at guitar tone freaks.
This software boasts one of the best-emulated collection of iconic amplifiers and effects with an incredible amount of tonal versatility for all studio recording and experimenting needs.
The full paid versions of Amplitube 4 can cover the full spectrum of genres but this program has been lauded with its sonics and true dynamics when it comes to clean guitar sounds.
Amplitube 4 Clean Sounds
Amplitube 4 uses some of the best emulation technology to capture and produce dynamics and response similar to a real tube amp for your DI guitars.
This software boasts hyper-realistic tones as tone studio creator providing the guitar player with an infinite amount of options for sound.
All of these can give you lush boutique cleans sounds, or ambient, and spacey tones to darker clean tones for the heavier genres. There is no limit to the sounds you can create and tweak.
Amplitube 4 includes classic amplifiers from Fender, Marshall, Hi-Watt, Soldano, Orange, Mesa Boogie, etc, combined with a large selection of stompbox and rackmount effects to play with.
When it comes to effects you have a choice of compressors, EQ, reverbs, delays, tape echos, overdrives and many more for dialing in your perfect clean sound.
The Cab Room
The ‘Cab Room’ allows you to customize microphones, cabinets and microphone placement.
Even the recording ambiance can be altered overall offering an immersive experience when sculpting a palate of perfect guitar tones for recording or practicing. https://powerupmf898.weebly.com/blog/premium-tech-tool-guided-diagnostics-lab.
The ‘Cab Room’ successfully adds an extra dimension of realism and allows you to fine tweak your perfect guitar tones.
Official Fender Amp Packs
Another hefty reason why Amplitube 4 is seen as one of the best amp sim plugins for clean tones, is largely down to the Official Fender amp pack collection.
This official amp bundle provides some of the best-emulated Fender clean tones from any amp simulator on the market today.
This ultimate pack contains the simulated versions of Fenders ‘golden gems’ including the 59 Bassman, 65 Twin Reverb, the 65 Deluxe Reverb, Pro Junior, and 64 Vibroverb to name a few.
The tones are some of the most vibrant and dynamic clean guitar sounds perfect for any country, blues, jazz, rock or ambient player.
2. BIAS FX 2 (Positive Grid)
- Price: $299
- Standalone: yes
- Win/Mac
- Demo version: yes
BIAS FX 2 from Positive Grid is a premium amp simulator suite and another heavy-weight within the guitar plugin community.
BIAS FX 2 includes a huge library of amps, cabinets, effects, microphones all fully customizable with a simple drag and drop system. All aspects of your desired rig are fully customizable within your virtual signal chain for creating an army full of guitar tones.
BIAS FX 2 boasts a huge selection of sounds, ranging from vintage cleans, dirty distortions and modern metal.
BIAS FX 2 Clean Tones
BIAS FX 2 uses a refined DSP engine for delivering the best emulation technology offering sonic realism and genuine amp tones from the major players in the amp and effect industry. Hence why it makes this list when it comes to amp and effect realism.
This popular VST plugin offers a range of clean sounds ranging from lush Fender cleans, vintage tones, modern tones or custom amp combinations. Clean tones are responsive and dynamic providing a wide tonal spectrum of sounds depending on your tastes and level of experimentation.
BIAS FX 2 offers all you could want from a premium amp sim plugin for an infinite palate and possibilities for clean sounds.
BIAS FX2 – Guitar Match
‘Guitar Match’ is a new and innovative feature unique to any amp sim software plugin. ‘Guitar Match’ essentially analyses the output and pickups of your guitar and emulates the sound of a host of different guitars ranging from classic and modern guitars.
Meaning your Les Paul guitar with humbuckers can be altered to a piercing and sparkly tone similar to a Telecaster or Stratocaster with single-coil pickups. Guitar match essentially emulates different guitar pickups and certain guitar characteristics.
This feature can certainly lend itself useful for clean sounds as if you lack a guitar with single coils, humbuckers or P90s. This software can fill in the gap of a pickup that you do not have in your collection of guitars. A nice feature to have!
3. Helix Native (Line 6)
- Price: $399 (Elite version)
- Standalone: no
- Win/Mac
- Demo version: yes
Line 6 are no strangers to digital effect modeling with Helix Native being the amp sim plugin for a complete tonal library bursting with features.
Helix Native boasts the most amp and effect presets on this list but does come out as the most expensive option featuring…
- 62 amplifiers
- 37 cabinets
- 104 effects
- 16 microphones
The software features a responsive and realistic catalog of amps emulated from Fender, Bogner, Soldano, Orange, Marshall and many more.
The range goes all the way from vintage boutique amplifiers to metal high gain monsters which can be fully tweaked and customized.
For clean sounds especially, users will like the number of effects and dynamic effects to go with the large list of vintage and boutique sounding amps for creating awesome John Mayer and Eric Johnson tones. Another plus is that the Helix accepts custom IR’s for more custom sounds allowing more versatility.
The interface adopting sliders may not be as visually appealing than other premium sims. Yet, this can be seen as more efficient and less distracting on the eye and gets straight to the point of creating and tweaking tones easily without any hassle or distractions.
4. Scuffham S-Gear
- Price $129
- Standalone: yes
- Win/Mac
- Free demo: yes (15-day trial)
Scuffham S-Gear is a budget-friendly amp simulator and a worthy contender on this list. S-Gear offers tons value including a handful of amps and features for the price compared to the other premium amp sims.
S-Gear offers 5 presets simulating a range of Mesa Boogie, Marshall, Soldano, and Fender amps.
Guitarists placed in the blues, country, rock and ambient category will enjoy the ‘Custom 57’ which is modeled from a classic Fender Twin Reverb. Producing vintage and crisp cleans all the way to warm and silky overdrive sounds.
The ‘Wayfarer’ is a versatile amp also modeled and voiced to sound like classic American sounding amp with a twist. This amp has lots of headroom for dialing in sweet clean sounds and can be tweaked sound more modern tones.
Adding ambiance and space to your presets is as easy as dropping in delays, reverb, and modulation for adding the cherry on the top to your clean tones. all wrapped together with a simple to use interface.
S-Gear may not be loaded full of presets and features compared to the big boy sims such as Amplitube 4 and Bias FX 2. However, for a fraction of the price, you can get enough tones and sounds for a range of genres for professional recording and experimenting needs.
5. Kuassa Amplifikation Vermilion
- Price: $39+VAT
- Standalone: yes
- Win/Mac
- Demo version: yes
Vermilion is a solitary amp perfectly voiced for clean and low to mid-gain tones. Although this plugin can do many tones (including high gain.)
It has to be said that Vermillion shines the most for vintage Fender style clean tones suitable for blues, country, ambient, rock, funk, jazz and many more.
Features
- 3 amp voicings (vintage, vintage, modern)
- Clean and an overdrive channel
- 5 different matching cabinets
- Tremolo
- Reverb
- 4 microphones (condenser, dynamic)
- Customize microphone placement
- Noise gate
Presets can be loaded and custom ones can be created with a simple interface for quickly creating and loading up pre-made and custom tones.
Clean sounds are warm, lush and can do a range of sparkly American tones perfect for the players in the softer genres.
Use the gain to push the amp into crunch, overdrive moving towards the rock territory. There are different amp voicing to change the sonics from a vintage tone to a modern voicing depending on your tastes.
When it comes to value, this software is excellent for dipping your toe in the amp sim world before splashing out on a premium software.
This sim can do high gain metal tones but not the best. However, if you are more concerned about clean, crunch and overdrive sounds then Vermillion is a great choice.
Other Mentions
Here are some other worthy choices that sadly did not make the cut!
Guitar Rig 5 Pro
Guitar Rig 5 Pro is another amp sim suite supplying accurate and authentic tones emulated from amps from Fender, Hi-Watt, Marshall, Roland, Orange, Mesa Boogie, etc. Including lots of rack effects, distortion, reverb, delay, etc.
I remember using Guitar Rig 4 religiously before I switched to other sims. However, Native Instruments have stopped all software support to Guitar Rig products.
So I cannot fully recommend a product that is not fully supported. But that’s not to say the program is not a reliable, functional, and great-sounding amp sim plugin.
Softube Vintage Amp Room
Says exactly what it is on the tin! Softube provides a handful of emulated vintage amps offering a great range of throwback guitar tones from the 60s and 70s. The plugin is affordable and is best served for vintage amp enthusiasts who want boutique guitar sounds in stripped-down plugin.
Vintage Amp Room also has a pleasing interface allowing users to customize microphone positions and for the price offers great classic guitar tones. For vintage clean tones especially this software is a great option.
Recording a physical amp can be more of a hindrance as you need to set-up microphones, understand microphone placement and have a suitable environment without annoying other people.
You are also limited to the capabilities of your amp. However, keep in mind, there is no right or wrong option it all boils down to personal preference which method you prefer.
Amp Sim Clean Tone Top Tips!
Ensure that you properly set the levels ie gain staging to avoid clipping and a dirty signal when trying to achieve a pristine clean guitar tone when recording DI guitars.
Use a DI box connected to your Audio interface which will lessen the output signal to your interface helping it sound smoother and less digital.
Keep the gain low on the virtual amp for clearer clean tones and get your volume from somewhere else. Either the interface gain, an external compressor or a virtual compressor within your rig.
Pickups that provide a hot output can cause clipping and a hotter signal so be wary of what pickups you are using and adjust accordingly. Some interfaces have a ‘PAD’ button to take the edge off.
A hot signal causes break-up and pushes the tone into a slight overdrive when you dig into the strings which are undesired for pristine and transparent lush clean guitar sounds.
Thanks for Reading
Hopefully, you found this list helpful will take your guitar recording, experimenting, and clean tone requirements to the next level. See you soon!
Before you go….
Do you play bass? If so, you need to read my next post…”9 Best Amp Simulators for Bass Guitar.” It’s my comprehensive round-up of the best amp sims for the bass players featuring the best amps, effects aimed for the bass players out there.