The overdrive choice.
As most of you know there are three kinds of pedals that will give you the “grit”… Overdrive, distortion, and Fuzz. Often the sound is coming from the amp but if its not its coming from one of these pedals. The most common “distortion” sound you here in modern music is overdrive. If you are going to have one pedal that dirties up your sound I would recommend having an overdrive before you buy any other distortion pedals.
Pedals may include: Fulltone Full-drive, Ibanez TS808, Ibanez Tube screamer, Boss Blues driver, Lovepedal eternity, the Timmy, Klon Centaur, Visual sound Route 808, Xotic BB preamp, Damage Control Womanizer, Voodoo lab Sparkle drive, and even the decent little Danelectro cool cat transparent overdrive. There is a fun comparison video here- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZMy_Jt7A1wA
Of course even of the pedals I mentioned there is a variety in price from $39 up to about $400. The cost varies due to quality of design and even more so by the quality of components in the pedal. The technology of an overdrive is pretty old and there is only so much you can change in the style of circuit so that isn’t going to be the biggest impact toward the quality of the pedal. There are so many out there I would recommend putting some in a lineup and see which one jumps out at you for both rhythm and lead lines. Overdrive is often described as the “warmest” of distortions but they vary quite a bit. Without a pretty extensive mod the Boss blues driver is never going to be as warm as the Fulltone full-drive. One of the Big reasons is the Fulltone uses much better components.
I’ll talk more about this in a blog on modding pedals but… most store bought pedals will use a 12 cent capacitor in the tone circuit and a boutique pedal may use a 60 cent cap. Doesn’t matter a bunch if you only make a few for yourself but when you are making 100,000 pedals like Ibanez it makes a big difference. If your pedal cost $25 to make, by the time it gets on the shelf at guitar center they can sell it for $90 and make out fine on each pedal. If they spent twice that (about what I spent building an 808) that would affect the bottom line a lot. Keep your eye out on craig’s list, ebay, and from friends though because you can get a great overdrive and not have to turn to Keeley or Klon to do it.
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Tone Is First In The Fingers
That is very interesting Philip- I'm surprised the Crate V30 amp worked best for you since I've never gotten one to sound good...
-----But, I've learned an important lesson... What sounds good with my fingers might not with someone else's. There are amazing pieces of gear that I sound like crap playing because its just isn't a match for the way I play. It's also the main reason I'll never recommend a particular piece of gear on here--- just cause it sounds great (or horrible) when I play it doesn't mean it will for someone else!
We did an experiment last week:
I set up a Fender Princeton amp with several overdrive/distortion pedals and had me and three other guitarists play as we switched between pedals. All the pedals were either boutique or had been modded to sound as good as possible. We had a custom 808, Fulltone Full-drive, C4 (aka Direct Drive), Boss DS-1, Danelectro Daddy-O, Boss OS-2-- later I also tried a ProCo Rat.
The strange thing was that there wasn't a clear winner. Each of us had a pedal that sounded best when we played it. My friend Charlie said, "What have we learned here? We have learned that we can never recommend a pedal because it depends on who is playing it!" Mind you they all sounded good, were played through a good guitar and a great amp... but there were different stand outs for each of us depending on our attack, approach and a bunch of other factors I can't fathom. It was a great lesson though. Tone is first in the fingers!!!
-----But, I've learned an important lesson... What sounds good with my fingers might not with someone else's. There are amazing pieces of gear that I sound like crap playing because its just isn't a match for the way I play. It's also the main reason I'll never recommend a particular piece of gear on here--- just cause it sounds great (or horrible) when I play it doesn't mean it will for someone else!
We did an experiment last week:
I set up a Fender Princeton amp with several overdrive/distortion pedals and had me and three other guitarists play as we switched between pedals. All the pedals were either boutique or had been modded to sound as good as possible. We had a custom 808, Fulltone Full-drive, C4 (aka Direct Drive), Boss DS-1, Danelectro Daddy-O, Boss OS-2-- later I also tried a ProCo Rat.
The strange thing was that there wasn't a clear winner. Each of us had a pedal that sounded best when we played it. My friend Charlie said, "What have we learned here? We have learned that we can never recommend a pedal because it depends on who is playing it!" Mind you they all sounded good, were played through a good guitar and a great amp... but there were different stand outs for each of us depending on our attack, approach and a bunch of other factors I can't fathom. It was a great lesson though. Tone is first in the fingers!!!
Friday, July 17, 2009
The Greatest Amp
What is the best sounding amp?
Is it? :::
Marshall 1959SLP 100Watt Super Lead Plexi Head - cause that's what Hendrix played?
Dr Z Maserati- Like Brad Paisley?
Marshall JMP 100Watt Master Volume Head - Cause that's the sound of AC/DC?
Two-Rock- like John Mayer's?
Vox AC30- Cause thats what The Edge uses on every U2 album?
Fender Deluxe Reverb and Marshal Plexi at the same time like Eric Johnson?
65 amps- like Keith Urban?
Fender Bassman- Like Stevie Ray Vaughn?
Supro, Hiwatt 50, Valco amp- like Jimmy Page?
Eric Clapton? well lets see... he has been all over the map -- Fender Custom Shop Tweed Twin Amp, Cornell Amplifiers with Tone Tubby Speakers, Soldano SLO-100, Marshall 800 series heads, Fender Dual Showman---- geez
That doesn't even scratch the surface.... so what is it?
(more at http://guitargeek.com/)
Shouldn't you just play the best? What's even out there? (http://www.ultrasoundrehearsal.com/sellrent/index.html -- should give you an idea)
Most pros know you need tubes and its better to go with something point-to-point or hand-wired if at all possible (avoiding circuit boards) ... but after that- who knows?
There are so many out there that are fantastic and what matters is what sounds best for your fingers and what sound do you want to go for.
Questions to ask!!!!
More clean or more grit?
- You may want a real clean sparkle tone where you decide to make it dirty with pedals.
-You may want some grit always in the tone and your tubes putting off a bit of harmonic sparkle.
What volume will I be running at?
- If you are playing in a coffee house that seats 50 people you may not want a 100watt head with a 4x12 cab... you'll never get to run it at the volume that sounds best for the amp.
- If you want to use amp distortion you may have to get a smaller, quieter amp that will break up at louder volumes. If you want a clean amp you might need something with a bit more power that you can turn up without it breaking up.
Break up point?
- Somewhat redundant... do you want the amp to break up at lower or higher volumes?
Style?
- Do you want one channel or do you want another lead channel on the amp instead of using pedals?
Simple or Complex?
- Do you want a simple plug-and-play amp with only a volume and tone knob? Or, do you want several knobs where you can control different aspects of the amp and tone?
Size?
- What are you willing to carry around?
I think its good to here guitar players that play similar to you and find out what they use... it helps a little... but you may not play like them- you might just want to;)
There are also some places to get vintage designs or clones that don't cost nearly what an original would cost and are well made amps... like- http://www.ceriatone.com/
Please share any other thoughts you might have!!!
Is it? :::
Marshall 1959SLP 100Watt Super Lead Plexi Head - cause that's what Hendrix played?
Dr Z Maserati- Like Brad Paisley?
Marshall JMP 100Watt Master Volume Head - Cause that's the sound of AC/DC?
Two-Rock- like John Mayer's?
Vox AC30- Cause thats what The Edge uses on every U2 album?
Fender Deluxe Reverb and Marshal Plexi at the same time like Eric Johnson?
65 amps- like Keith Urban?
Fender Bassman- Like Stevie Ray Vaughn?
Supro, Hiwatt 50, Valco amp- like Jimmy Page?
Eric Clapton? well lets see... he has been all over the map -- Fender Custom Shop Tweed Twin Amp, Cornell Amplifiers with Tone Tubby Speakers, Soldano SLO-100, Marshall 800 series heads, Fender Dual Showman---- geez
That doesn't even scratch the surface.... so what is it?
(more at http://guitargeek.com/)
Shouldn't you just play the best? What's even out there? (http://www.ultrasoundrehearsal.com/sellrent/index.html -- should give you an idea)
Most pros know you need tubes and its better to go with something point-to-point or hand-wired if at all possible (avoiding circuit boards) ... but after that- who knows?
There are so many out there that are fantastic and what matters is what sounds best for your fingers and what sound do you want to go for.
Questions to ask!!!!
More clean or more grit?
- You may want a real clean sparkle tone where you decide to make it dirty with pedals.
-You may want some grit always in the tone and your tubes putting off a bit of harmonic sparkle.
What volume will I be running at?
- If you are playing in a coffee house that seats 50 people you may not want a 100watt head with a 4x12 cab... you'll never get to run it at the volume that sounds best for the amp.
- If you want to use amp distortion you may have to get a smaller, quieter amp that will break up at louder volumes. If you want a clean amp you might need something with a bit more power that you can turn up without it breaking up.
Break up point?
- Somewhat redundant... do you want the amp to break up at lower or higher volumes?
Style?
- Do you want one channel or do you want another lead channel on the amp instead of using pedals?
Simple or Complex?
- Do you want a simple plug-and-play amp with only a volume and tone knob? Or, do you want several knobs where you can control different aspects of the amp and tone?
Size?
- What are you willing to carry around?
I think its good to here guitar players that play similar to you and find out what they use... it helps a little... but you may not play like them- you might just want to;)
There are also some places to get vintage designs or clones that don't cost nearly what an original would cost and are well made amps... like- http://www.ceriatone.com/
Please share any other thoughts you might have!!!
The Tone Conversation
I am well aware that every guitar player is different and the same setup doesn't work for everyone... and even if it did... how boring would that be. But, I would like to start a conversation that might be helpful to start thinking through tone and how to approach it or what has worked for people. A couple things!
1. Having great tone will not make you a better player- so practice because the thing that impacts tone the most is your fingers!
2. You don't have to have a Dumble or Trainwreck amp with vintage guitars from the 50's and 60's with a pedal board that consists of Keeley electronic effects with a Eventide delay, Klon Centaur Overdrive, Xotic preamp, Z-Vex something or other, ect... to have great tone and sound like you.
You don't have to spend thousands of dollars to get "that sound."
We'll talk about good sound and smart shopping. Whatever topics you guys want to talk about we'll do that. I've just noticed that I keep having the same conversations with people and maybe we could streamline some info to be informative and helpful to each other.
When I came to Cincy I was playing a Fender Hot Rod Deluxe amp (not bad- just not that interesting) and some store bought cheap-o pedals I threw together. It was a massive improvement on the solid-state amps with on-board effects I had before that but I was needing a major over hull. Thanks to the amazing guys here I had a new world opened to me and started learning about electronics, building and modding pedals, amps, guitars, ect... I started learning there is musical life outside what you see on the shelves at Guitar Center and Sam Ash.
The quest for tone is pretty personal so--- lets just help each other find what works for us.
1. Having great tone will not make you a better player- so practice because the thing that impacts tone the most is your fingers!
2. You don't have to have a Dumble or Trainwreck amp with vintage guitars from the 50's and 60's with a pedal board that consists of Keeley electronic effects with a Eventide delay, Klon Centaur Overdrive, Xotic preamp, Z-Vex something or other, ect... to have great tone and sound like you.
You don't have to spend thousands of dollars to get "that sound."
We'll talk about good sound and smart shopping. Whatever topics you guys want to talk about we'll do that. I've just noticed that I keep having the same conversations with people and maybe we could streamline some info to be informative and helpful to each other.
When I came to Cincy I was playing a Fender Hot Rod Deluxe amp (not bad- just not that interesting) and some store bought cheap-o pedals I threw together. It was a massive improvement on the solid-state amps with on-board effects I had before that but I was needing a major over hull. Thanks to the amazing guys here I had a new world opened to me and started learning about electronics, building and modding pedals, amps, guitars, ect... I started learning there is musical life outside what you see on the shelves at Guitar Center and Sam Ash.
The quest for tone is pretty personal so--- lets just help each other find what works for us.
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