Make Some Room

We throw around a lot of guitar “lingo” on any given day here at the store. Eavesdrop on a conversation in the acoustic area and you may hear words like “overtones,” “compression,” and “scooped midrange,” while another conversation in the electric room may contain phrases like “British or American voice,” “60 cycle hum,” or “true bypass.” We do our best to navigate this wide variety of topics and present them in a way that’s easy to understand, a task that’s always easier said than done! In reality, these are things that we, too, are continually learning and exploring in our quest for knowledge and ultimate guitar tones. For some of us, this continues long after store hours have ended or while there are a few minutes of downtime in between customers. I, personally, have settled on a number of YouTube channels that entertain AND educate me which I’ll put on while I drink my morning coffee or while I shower so that I can stay focused and keep track of time (otherwise my showers usually result in me disappearing into some fourth dimension where time and space no longer exist until I remember that I never washed out the conditioner I’d put on). 

One of my favorites is a channel called That Pedal Show which features two gentleman named Mick Taylor and Daniel Steinhardt who explore all things electric guitar and beyond. They recently did a show entitled “Keep It Simple: Better Guitar Tones With No Pedals?” which had a thumbnail with the words “I HATE EFFECTS PEDALS!” front and center. The marketing was effective as I found myself curious as to what topics they might explore. I watched the whole video and found one topic to be particularly interesting as they explored the idea of “Underdrive” rather than “Overdrive.” This was a relatively complex approach that I may explore in a later column (or better yet, you could check out their video!) but it was directly related to the concept of “Headroom.” We have yet to discuss Headroom in depth so it seemed like a perfect topic for one of our columns!

So what exactly is headroom? Merriam-Webster defines it as “vertical space in which to stand, sit, or move” which isn’t exactly applicable to the sound of a guitar. In audio, headroom instead relates directly to dynamic range, the entire spectrum of quiet to loud that a particular source is able to produce. The amplitude of a soundwave determines its volume and is graphically depicted as the vertical space that one of these waveforms produces while time represents the horizontal space. The loudest signals usually result in a peak which would occupy a much larger vertical space than a quiet signal.

Now, where does headroom fit in regarding the guitar? Headroom refers to the amount of input signal we can apply before we reach the maximum amplitude or volume level. For an acoustic guitar, this refers to how hard we can hit the strings and for electric guitars it mostly refers to how loud we can turn up the amplifier (though any pedals in the signal will also have their own distinct amount of headroom). This is why you can strum an acoustic guitar as hard as possible with a thick pick but it won’t get any louder. Once we’ve reached that threshold, we begin to introduce distortion. Most people associate distortion with the sound of an electric guitar found in rock and metal music but distortion occurs in any sound once it has reached or surpassed that maximum level. Acoustic guitars will start to produce an unpleasant harshness when pushed to this point. This is a huge part of why we recommend larger guitars for strumming. Strumming generally results in a much heavier attack than finger-picking does and larger acoustics like Jumbos and Dreadnoughts usually have higher headroom, ideal for accommodating that playing approach. Finger-picking doesn’t require as much headroom and guitars that feature more natural compression are often even better suited for that application!

Electric guitar amp headroom is a little bit different. Most of what we talked about in regards to the distortion once max headroom has been reached still applies and that same harshness can result in solid state amplifiers. Tube Amps on the other hand usually provide a different response when they’ve reached their maximum headroom as the tubes compress and smooth out those nasty frequencies, resulting in that glorious overdrive sound that so many of us know and love. Most players find this crossover point to be the perfect “sweet spot” on the amp, where the headroom has run out and a heavier attack will result in some overdrive while a light attack will remain clean but still retain most of that volume. This is something that we refer to as the “Edge of Breakup,” a phrase that is commonly thrown around in store, in videos, or on guitar forums. But context is key here and different players may take a different approach. David Gilmour of Pink Floyd, for example, relied on his Hiwatt amps which supplied crazy amounts of clean headroom so that he could turn them up super loud but still retain that pristine clean sound, using pedals to supply all of his distortion and overdrive. Our own teacher Sam McPherson on the other hand has pretty much every Fender tube amp from Champ to Twin and chooses whichever best fits the gig and venue so he can turn it up to get that natural tube amp grit and the appropriate volume at the same time (he always sets the volume at noon). An amp’s headroom is something to keep in mind as some players using extra boosts may find themselves not getting the full volume they’re looking for if it pushes the amp into overdrive too quickly. Master Volume amps are ideal for this as you’re able to use the Master control for the overall volume and headroom whereas the other Volume control will push the input signal for the right amount of grit.  Also, higher wattage amps almost always have more clean headroom, which is important to consider when deciding what the right amp is for the gig. 

Headroom is an often misunderstood topic, if not one that many players are ignorant of. It’s important to keep your headroom needs in mind when picking out a guitar or an amp. The good news, there’s almost always a solution for when you need a bit more. Acoustic guitar needs to be louder? Mic it up or install a pickup so you can amplify it! Amp too distorted? Get one with higher wattage or add an external/additional speaker cabinet! Still, having a proper understanding of headroom can help you avoid needing to spend money on something else down the line.
Chris Capitanio, 2021