Having spent my formative years playing loud guitars in rock bands with varying levels of success, I’ve picked up on a few different kinds of phenomena. One phenomenon that happens primarily in dual-guitar bands is that of “Guitar Wars.”

Guitar Wars is what happens when you have two guitar players in the same band who have difficulty hearing themselves over what the other guy (or lady!) is doing. Guitar Player #1 will be having difficulty picking out their parts in the mix, so they lean over and turn their amp up. With Guitar Player #1 louder in the mix, Guitar Player #2 now has trouble hearing their own amp, which they also promptly turn up.

It’s a vicious circle, and it rarely ends well. If you’re reading this and you’re thinking “Yeah, I know what he’s talking about,” it is wildly plausible that you are or have been caught in the crossfire of Guitar Wars.

If you find yourself engaged in Guitar Wars, please take these following steps:

1.) Leave the volume on your amp alone. Go for your mids instead. In many cases, you can help pick yourself out of a muddy mix by adjusting the MID and PRESENCE knobs on your guitar amp. This will keep your overall volume relatively unchanged, but will help augment the frequency range that the electric guitar “lives” in.

2.) Identify the situation early and with tact. When your other guitar player is playing way too loud, address the situation the best you can without damaging his or her feelings. Always remember that guitar players are very sensitive, and one misplaced sarcastic remark can cause ten gigs’ worth of whinging and sulking, even when you’re right. Use “we” instead of “you” whenever possible, even if you really mean “you.”

INCORRECT: “Hey, IDIOT! Turn that thing down! I can’t even hear the *&^% drums! It sounds like a swarm of bees anyway.”

CORRECT: “Dude! We are just killing the drums over here. I’m having a little trouble hearing the vocals, too. Maybe we should recheck our levels before the soundguy yells at us?”

3.) Use different/contrasting guitar tones and parts when applicable. I remember in the 90′s when it was cool to have two guitarist who would both “scoop” their mids and tune down to drop-D or lower. While there’s still a place for that in music today, I always found it curious that so many bands would consist of two guitar players always playing identical parts, usually on near-identical rigs.

Is the other guitar player going for a heavy wall-of-sound distortion? Try complementing their parts with a clean-toned arpeggio. Other guitar player is furiously strumming at open, jangly chords? Try rolling off the tone knob, and playing a soaring, sustained single-note line.

BONUS: It’s more fun to write and arrange this way, and it’s easier to pick out individual parts instead of always wondering “Why is my palm-muted low-E chug as not loud as the other guy’s palm-muted low-E chug?”

4.) When all else fails, fire the other guitar player. Alternately, you can quit and take the drummer and bassist with you.

Do you have a “Guitar Wars” story of your own? Please share it in the comments section!