Advice Needed: Working with a guitarist always uncomfortable with their tone

[Jawshco]

I have a weird situation in my band. My other guitarist and I routinely switch instruments back and forth through out our sets. It's kind of cool because we're both good bassists and good guitarists in our own way. I'm a better lead player than he is, but he's better with metal style rhythms than me. His bass sound is pretty straight forward and by the ticker and mine is more funky & eclectic. So it's fun to mix it up and switch around when it best suits the song.... But playing live in our church and at our small venues necessitates that we share gear.

That's where it gets complicated. I like to get in tune, find a tone I like, and just jam. I've got decent gear, and I run things pretty simple. Even when the tone is slightly off one way or the other I'm usually fine just to keep playing. I don't worry about it. When the sound guy tells me the house mix is too muddy and I need to boost my highs further than I like, I just go with it. It's not my preference, but I trust the guy. But my other guitarist is absolutely debilitated when he feels his tone is off. He becomes physically uncomfortable spends a lot of time tweaking knobs, refining etc.

What I do to help him? It's frustrating to me because in my hands the exact same guitar rig that sounds tightly distorted and controlled becomes a mess of noise and feedback in his hands. That's the weird thing to me. I never get feedback unless I'm sticking my guitar right on the amp, but for him it's constantly present with the same exact gear and settings. Why would changing players make such a difference in something like feedback and tone? We're both pretty good. I'm just taller (could that be it?) and a tad more confident.

I don't want to make the guy feel bad, but it's tough to help him when we're playing the exact same gear with entirely different results.

Any advice?

[StyleOverShow]

Interesting arrangement swapping guitar and bass by sets. Requires flexibility and a reasonably sized ego footprint for both parties involved. Has its liabilities and I think that you just hit the nail on the head.

If you are the sort of person that can engage the guitar playing in a dialogue about 'problem solving' or 'on-the-fly tone adjustment' and kind of walk him through the steps it would help, probably. He has his strengths, his place in the band, just coach him to get in and do his thing.

[AnchorHoy]

Originally Posted by Jawshco

in my hands the exact same guitar rig that sounds tightly distorted and controlled becomes a mess of noise and feedback in his hands. That's the weird thing to me. I never get feedback unless I'm sticking my guitar right on the amp, but for him it's constantly present with the same exact gear and settings. Why would changing players make such a difference in something like feedback and tone?

Technique

Sounds like he needs to learn some pretty basic stuff. Palm muting, for instance. IME another thing that can get you in trouble pretty fast at high volumes is having an overly light touch on the instrument - you need to hit (and fret) the strings with a certain amount of authority, otherwise the miscellaneous noises you don't want take over and dominate the signal that is being amplified