Guitar tone 103
Nov 12, 2009 Uncategorized
Pedals!
This is the fun part. The choices in pedal land are RIDICULOUS!!! There are more Overdrive pedals than ever, all with there own take. It is easy to get sucked into this world, and forget to play your guitar! I have been there, and I think of the hours I have spent researching, buying and selling, listening to clips, and I wonder how much better I would be if I had just practiced more or written more tunes… Anyways, personal rant over. This is also a really fun thing to do, so do what makes you happy.
There are some basic sounds for Live guitar playing that need to be covered in most band situations. Clean, Crunch, and Lead. The studio is a whole different world. I won’t go there unless some folks ask.
Let’s talk overdrives only for now.
lo-gain, vs. high-gain, etc. all those terms are used to describe more crunch or less crunch. Decide what you like, then dial it back about 30% and you will have a good live tone. I am convinced that the bass has just as much to do with a good Overdrive sound as a good pedal or amp. Anyways, here are some styles of Overdrive to check out:
Tubescreamer style: smooth sound, added midrange, sorta lo-gain. Great with Fender style amps. There are a thousand variations on this circuit for more bass, less midrange, less gain, less compression…. blah, blah, blah. Some good ones to check out: Lovepedal Eternity and it’s variations. These pedals smoke. I don’t own one, but I have played through a Kanji and a Kanji 9. Wow, possibly the best I have ever heard… I use a Fulltone Fulldrive 2 Mosfet model. I like this pedal a lot. Set up correctly, it is an awesome pedal…
Rat style: More gain, like a distortion, just super nasty and super cool. there are a bunch of these too.
Amp style: This is a weird category, but these overdrive pedals just sound more like your amp. Think boosted amp and you are there. I have a Box of Rock by Zvex that I like and a Timmy overdrive. These both respond like a good amp, they change when you change the volume control on your guitar.
Ones I like: Fulltone FD2 Mosfet, Timmy, Zvex Box of Rock, Xotic RC booster, BB preamp and various clean boosts that push my amp just a bit more.
A sample setup would look like this: Guitar that you like that you can get a bunch of sounds out of, because you practice that way (Remember??) — OD pedal —- amp. The 2 stage ones like the FD2 allow a clean sound (no pedal) light crunch (pedal on) and either a boosted sound or a more crunchy sound. super simple…
Recovered!!
Nov 12, 2009 Uncategorized
My L6 was returned!! 1 week after it’s theft, to the same hallway it was stolen from. Weird, but cool. New dings! and an even cooler story. Thanks everyone for your extra eyes!
Keep practicing!
Tags: Charlotte, Gibson L6s, Guitar, stolen guitar