Doubling guitar parts when you’re recording is pretty common, but can take some practice. You can double either rhythm guitar parts or guitar solos.
We double parts to make the sound bigger. Think of an orchestra vs a string quartet. In an orchestra, you may have several instruments playing unison – but even the best musicians playing unison will still have slight differences in time, articulation and intonation. These slight differences make the line sound thicker. It’s a good thing.
The main challenge in doubling is remembering precisely what you just played – particularly with solos. The first pass may be easy, but when you go back to double, it’s hard to repeat the performance exactly. You’ll find that your attacks, cut-offs, vibrato, bends and intonation will be a little different in your doubling pass – even just a few seconds after you play the first pass.
Sometimes the second pass leads you to go back a modify the first pass to something that’s easier for you to remember, but don’t be in a big hurry to that. That first pass may have some magic that you don’t want to lose.
