Stoner rock, or doom, or sludge, or whatever you want to call that glacial-paced, drop-tuned, fuzzy sub-category of hard rock, has blossomed into the de rigueur genre of today's heavy music underground. Everywhere I go the kids are cranking up Sunns and Oranges and lining up fuzz pedals at their feet. I can't see a local show or stop by a rehearsal space without being pummeled on all sides by lumbering, down-tuned, tri-tone riffs, pounding toms, and saturated, infrasonic drone. It might sound like I'm complaining, but that is not the case. I've spoken before in these pages about my love for the slow and heavy, and bands like Kyuss, Fu Manchu, and Clutch have been part of my musical DNA since I first picked up a guitar. But enough about me, let's talk about the kids. As this style of rock is approaching its popular zenith, there are more and more young players discovering this music for the first time, being inspired by the new wave of stoner and doom bands and, hopefully, digging in the crates for older records by the elders of the genre. As these players begin to pick up guitars and try to figure out what makes this music tick, inevitably questions arise, usually about the gear and techniques used to forge the heavier-than-heavy tones that give it its seismic sonic impact. With that in mind, I've assembled a few handy tips, mostly for newcomers to the stoner and doom universe, for adding extra weight and sub-sonic rumble to your guitar sound.
Tune low
This is a fairly obvious one, but I would be remiss to not mention it. Dropping down below E-to-E standard guitar tuning for stoner, doom, and sludge style riffing helps a lot in the heaviness department. That's not to say that heavy music can't be created in standard tuning (the first two Sabbath albums, for instance), because ultimately heaviness isn't just about who plays the lowest, but dropping down to D or C standard certainly adds some weight to slow, evil rocking. A side effect of low tunings, and one that isn't often acknowledged when people talk about stoner rock guitar, is the lack of tension in the guitar strings and how that influences the sound. When a player in a dropped tuning whacks an open chord the strings stretch a little more than they would in standard, vibrating just a little further out of tune before they settle back into place. To my ears, this slight extra wobble in the strings when a chord is walloped is a crucial element of the droning dissonance that makes this music so unique.
Heavier strings
With dropped tunings, oftentimes a heavier set of strings is called for. When tuning down one or two whole steps below standard, the extra string tension added by going up a string gauge or two helps keep the low end from getting overly mushy, and it helps the guitar stay in tune. For players who normally play 9s or 10s, a set of 11s is a good place to start. Of course, you probably don't want to go too heavy, as the extra slack in the strings and the added vibrations that result from it are a distinctive part of stoner tones. Another benefit to switching to a heavier string gauge is the extra bass frequency content that is a natural byproduct of extra metal vibrating near your pickup magnets. Extra bass is good. By the way, for those who aren't aware, moving up to heavier strings will require some intonation adjustments, and possibly a full setup if the guitar's bridge and nut aren't equipped to handle thicker strings.
Pickups
Unlike many other forms of hard rock and contemporary metal, stoner tones are not typically created using high output and/or active pickups. High output pickups can get too muddy in the context of this music, and active pickups tend to be a bit too "hi-fi." The stoner aesthetic leans much more towards the classic, dynamic sound of loud, primitive tube amps being pushed by moderate output, PAF-style alnico or ceramic magnet pickups. Keeping the output in check enhances dynamics and helps maintain clarity when the fuzz is piled on. Naturally, most players will opt for humbuckers, both for the extra low-end and the quieter operation, but a set of P-90s might also do the trick with the right setup. As to whether one should use the neck or bridge pickup, I'd say it depends on the song and the situation, but a lot of players flick the switch to the neck position and leave it there.
Amplifiers
If you want big, defined, bass-heavy tones produced at punishing volume, you must have an amplifier with abundant clean headroom. This means lots and lots of watts, either tube or solid-state. In the stoner rock world, Orange, Sunn, and certain Ampeg amplifiers have long reigned supreme, though newer, doom-oriented amp companies like Verellen and Hovercraft have been making inroads with new designs that are purpose-built for big sounds and huge, tight bass. Speaking of bass, some players seeking bottom-heavy guitar tones plug into bass amps. High-wattage tube bass amps, like the vintage Ampeg V4B, lend themselves well to this purpose.
Big cabinets
When playing through a gigantic amplifier, it only makes sense to pair it with an appropriately gigantic cabinet. Obviously, the added volume of multiple speakers is important, but big cabinets also tend to produce more bass frequencies. 4x12s are the standard large guitar cabinet, and an oversized 4x12, like those made by Orange, Verellen, Hovercraft, and others, will really churn out a heaping helping of low-end chunk. Another option to consider is a bass cabinet. Pairing a 2x12 or 4x12 with a 1x15 bass cab can produce a monstrous tone that blends the mid-range punch and definition of the 12-inch speakers with the extended low-end response of a 15.
Pedals
Some players get all of their dirty tones from the amp, but most use some kind of distortion or fuzz pedal as well, either for their main dirty sound, or as an alternate tone. I and my Tone Report Weekly colleague Nicholas have written about pedals for stoner and doom tones before in these pages, wherein a handful of pedals were recommended, but in these glory days of the pedal boom, there are so many great fuzz and distortion pedals out there that narrowing it down to just a few is a difficult task. Classic choices include the Electro-Harmonix Big Muff, Univox Super-Fuzz, and the Pro Co Rat, but there are many small companies building fuzz pedals specifically for beefy, bassy tones. Verellen's Big Spider and Hovercraft's Ionostrofear are two fine examples from two companies that understand what heavy is all about.
Getting a rig together for stoner and doom tones will likely require quite a bit of testing and experimentation before an ideal setup is arrived at. As with all things music, there are no rules and no magic formulas. Relish any opportunities to experiment, and don't be afraid to try unconventional setups to find your sound.