How To Make Your Guitar Sound Like A Synth

• Why not just buy a synth?
• 1. Synth guitar pedals
• 2. Fuzz & Other Guitar Effects Pedals
• 3. Sustainer/ MIDI Pickups
• 4. Playing techniques
• Summary

Synths are amazingly creative and versatile instruments. Just like guitars, synthesisers come in all shapes and sizes. Unlike guitars, which most of the time ranging from clean to overdriven tones and sound quintessentially guitar, synths cover a vast sonic scope, one sound completely detached from another. From soft triangle wave pads to fat bass, retro square waves to bell chimes, string plucks to mellow sine waves, squelchy acid drops to harsh sawtooth waves and everything in between, there’s an endless way to incorporate synth sounds into your music – it’s no wonder guitarists want to get in on the action.

Lucky for you, it’s not difficult to replicate a synth sound on our stringed instruments while still being able to utilise our guitar skills to great effect. There are several options at our disposal in the form of guitar pedals, gadgets and a few free-thinking techniques to create synth tones.

Why not just buy a synth?

There’s nothing stopping you from buying a synth. There are some really affordable options from the likes of Behringer, Korg and Arturia (great for saving presets) that recreate the tones of classic models that shaped house, EDM, hip-hop, R&B and plenty of other electronic-influenced subgenres. Even in rock and metal, the likes of Slipknot, My Chemical Romance, Van Halen and Bring Me The Horizon have all utilised synths. They’re not all that difficult to learn to play either.

However, there’s a lot to say for being able to apply your abilities on the guitar to a synth sound. We have a way of writing songs and techniques that have the potential to sound cool with an alternate synthy tone. You may also be searching for a very particular sound that a guitar and synth-infused gear/techniques can only achieve.

Plenty of synths will also present the challenge of learning how to play an entirely new instrument. Although some synths don’t incorporate a keyboard layout, most do, and the typically high-end models called workstations opt for a piano-like playing experience. On top of that, you’ve got all the different parameters you’ll have to learn how to control to get your desired sounds.

Plus, if you’re planning to perform live, you’ll have to consider how you’ll play both instruments at the same time and may need to adjust your music to be able to jump over to the synth if you don’t have a dedicated keyboardist but still don’t want to play that part on a backing track.

1. Synth guitar pedals

The most straightforward method on the list – get yourself a dedicated synth guitar pedal! This is a sure-fire way of harnessing realistic synth tones based on carefully curated sounds. They work by processing your dry signal through digital algorithms. You’ll find pedals that recreate classic analogue synths renowned for their warmth and grit, more immediate and experimental digital synth influences, all sorts of strings, bell and organ sounds, lo-fi chiptune textures and crushed 8-bit madness. They also incorporate other effects commonly paired with a lot of synths, like arpeggiators and frequency filters.

Guitar synth pedals have come a long way from their earlier days when they were often dismissed for poor sound quality and frustrating latency issues. Today’s releases are genuinely impressive, packing an incredible range of synth tones into compact, stage-ready formats that work seamlessly in live settings.

What makes modern synth pedals so appealing is their versatility. A single unit can provide hi and lo-pass filtering, modulation, oscillation patterns, bit-crushing, compression, and built-in reverb and delay effects. It’s like having multiple pedals rolled into one convenient package.

Top Recommendations

• Meris Enzo X and Ottobit X both stand out as powerful and comprehensive options, offering what feels like an entirely new instrument with seemingly endless sonic possibilities.
• Boss SY-200 is packed full of stellar synth sounds with excellent tone shaping controls and MIDI compatibility.
• Electro-Harmonix Super Ego Plus creates huge sound layering possibilities, infinite sustain and glissandos (gliding from one pitch to the next) with 11 unique effects you’d find in legendary synths.
• Line 6 Helix Stomp is an all-rounder multi-effects processor with surprisingly authentic synth capabilities alongside comprehensive tonal control.

There are several more straightforward compact options as well at more affordable prices. Electro-Harmonix’s Mono Synth is a reliable choice that provides great ’80s-inspired bass and lead tones, and the Boss SY-1 is the compact, more basic version of the SY-200. The Behringer BM-17 Frequency Box is centred around a voltage-controlled oscillator for thick fuzz tones through to full-on modular synth customisation. Heading up in price is the GM-800 is Boss’ fully kitted out version with hundreds of original sounds and insane tone tweaking capabilities.

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2. Fuzz & Other Guitar Effects Pedals

As well as purpose-built guitar synth pedals, you can get in on the synth vibes with a combination of essential stompboxes. Think of the guitar like an analogue synth’s oscillator forming a basic sound wave and then shaping the signal with distortion and filters and layering with modulation and time-based effects. Your pedal signal chain mirrors basic synth architecture: oscillators → filters → amplification/effects.

Silicon Fuzz

At the top of this list of synth-style effects is fuzz, which you can use as a starting point to get a very un-guitar-like synth lead tone. A modern silicon fuzz or distortion with a mix control for endless sustain (and possibly a gated setting for a synthetic cut-off to your notes) gets surprisingly close to a fat square waveform through clipping and adding harmonics. Think thick, soaring melodies found in a lot of dance tracks – that’s exactly what you’re aiming to recreate with this type of fuzz setup. Companies like Electro-Harmonix, ZVEX, JHS Pedals, and Walrus Audio make excellent options for this application.

Filters, modulation and pitch shifting

These types of pedals help move us away from traditional guitar tone and remove the harmonic content that immediately tells our brains we’re listening to a guitar.

Compression helps to create a denser sound and remove the dynamic variation that’s so closely associated with a guitar. Filter pedals make your guitar sound less “guitar-like” by adding and subtracting frequencies, using low frequency filters, and by creating vocal-like qualities using various processing and sweepable/random peaks, a bit like wah pedals.

Pitch shifting offers a way to push your guitar out of its natural octave range. Try an octave up for a synth lead or an octave down for a bass synth. Chorus works great with pitch shifting, resembling multiple slightly detuned oscillators.

Apply some modulation like ring mod, flanger, phaser or tremolo to get the signature sound you like, and finish up with some reverb or delay to bring width and dimension. Turn the mixes up high to round out the stringiness of the classic guitar tone.

Keep in mind that you’ll want to use certain playing techniques in combination with this effect setup to get your guitar really sounding like a synth. More on those techniques later.

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3. Sustainer/ MIDI Pickups

One of the most distinctive characteristics of the electric guitar sound is the sharp pick attack when you strike the strings and the strings connecting with the frets. That percussive element is exactly what sets guitar apart from the smooth glissando of a lot of synthesizer sounds (not to say you can’t get plucky tones or even make them sound like guitars). When you use hammer-ons and pull-offs, you get closer to that seamless synth feel since notes blend into each other without the initial attack. The challenge is maintaining sustain without constantly picking new notes.

Sustainiac pickups

Sustainiac pickups solve this problem by eliminating the need to pick strings altogether. Instead of leaning into the natural decay of a plucked string, these specialized pickups project notes at consistent volume levels, giving you unlimited sustain. This allows you to move around on a single string or across the fretboard without the typical dynamic rise and fall that defines traditional guitar tone. The result is much more synth-like in its consistency.

Schechter offer some excellent premium guitars fitted with Sustainiac pickups in the neck position, including their Reaper-6 FR S models and even the Synyster Gates Custom S signature model.

MIDI Pickups

For even greater flexibility, MIDI pickups from the likes Roland, Boss, and Fishman trigger any sound you’ve programmed in a separate MIDI device. Think of it as turning your guitar into a controller for external sound sources. You could connect a MIDI pickup to a multi-effects pedal or even a DAW via an audio interface and access fully customised tones that you’ve crafted specifically for your needs. All iPhones have MIDI and Garage Band capabilities, so there are some incredibly easy ways to try out MIDI functionality and synth sounds. Essentially, you’re no longer limited to guitar tones at all – you can play piano, strings, brass, or any synthesizer patch through your guitar. Each string can even trigger different sounds simultaneously, opening polyphonic possibilities that traditional guitars paired with pedals simply can’t achieve.

Top MIDI pickups include the Roland GK-3 or the Boss GK-5 which is also available in a bundle with their next-generation GM-800 Guitar and Bass synthesiser pedal for a total all-in-one guitar synth kit.

Both approaches have their strengths. Sustainiac pickups keep you firmly in the guitar world while adding that crucial sustain element to make synth-like playing possible. MIDI pickups can completely transform your guitar into a universal controller for any sound you can imagine.

4. Playing techniques

If you want to try emulating a synth with your guitar right now with no extra gear, there are a few techniques and methods you can use to help achieve a more believable tone.

Using guitar controls

Your guitar’s built-in controls can be surprisingly effective for creating synth-like effects without any additional gear. Synthesizers commonly use faders and tremolo effects, and you can mimic both directly from your guitar.

Try this technique: play a chord or single note, then gradually turn your volume knob from zero up to full and back down again. Match your tempo to whatever feel you’re going for. The key trick here is to pick the string while your volume is set to zero then fade the sound in. This eliminates that distinctive “guitar pluck” that immediately identifies the sound as coming from a guitar rather than a synthesizer.

For an even smoother synth-like tone, switch to your neck pickup and roll your tone control down significantly. This gives you a warmer, rounder sound that’s much further removed from typical bright, twangy characteristics of electric guitars. The combination of volume swells and rolled-off tone creates something much closer to big fluffy synth pads.

Tapping and legato

Creating convincing synth tones involves more than just dialling in the right effects – you’ll need to approach the instrument differently. Playing your guitar as if you’re tickling the old synth keys means focusing on techniques that eliminate percussive pick attack.

Legato technique will for most players be an accessible starting point. This involves stringing together sequences of hammer-ons and pull-offs without picking individual notes. Once you get comfortable with this approach, you can even move fluidly between strings, creating seamless melodic lines that flow more like synthesizer parts than traditional guitar licks.

Tapping requires greater mastery since it involves using your picking hand to directly fret notes cleanly. Start by hammering down on frets with whichever finger feels most comfortable – many players find their middle finger feels most natural to use. As you get more confident with basic tapping, experiment by using multiple fingers and even tapping over chord shapes to create more complex harmonies. Legendary jazz fusion players Allan Holdsworth is one of very few guitarists who could meld these techniques flawlessly in his own distinct brand of playing.

Both techniques help you move away from the staccato, percussive nature of picked guitar and instead draws you into interconnected phrasing that characterizes synthesizer performance. The goal is creating long, flowing melodic lines where each note connects seamlessly to the next, just like you’d hear from a keyboardist working with sustained synth patches.

Summary

Now we’ve covered all the ways to make you guitar sound like a synth, you can mix and match these techniques and gear recommendations to get a convincing sound while still being able to imprint your identity as a guitarist onto your music.

Synth pedals are going to get you closest to the synth tone you desire right off the bat, but other combinations of fuzz and distortion, filter pedals and phaser, flanger and chorus are going to give you a taste of synth with the right settings. If you’re feeling adventurous, then the right guitar pickup will get you closer to the type of sustain and synthetic textures you’re after.

You can enhance these tones with your playing, using tapping, legato, volume knob swells to create all the pads, chunky basslines, quirky leads and arpeggios you love from synths!

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