The Most Important Guitar Effects Pedals for Aspiring Rock Musicians

There are a mind boggling amount of guitar effects pedals about and they come in all different shapes and sizes. What is an effect pedal you may ask? An effect pedal is a device that is put between your guitar and the amplifier to alter the output sound. A pedal is made up of numerous components put into a case. The sounds that you can achieve from various effect pedals are quite extraordinary.

Guitarists today use more effects than ever and are evident to the sounds of bands such as Pink Floyd and U2. Numerous effect pedals are used in succession to complicate the sound. There are two main pedals out there. One is the multi effects processors and these contain numerous built into a single device. Alternatively, individual pedals focus on giving you one sound and not more than two. Such pedals involve you playing around with settings in order to get your intended sound. Many amplifiers these days have built-in sounds for you to use but they are not as versatile as pedals. This is because it is hard to utilize more than one sound simultaneously on amps.

Pedals cost from $60 or £40 upwards and include a broad range of prices. Specialist brands include Boss, Marshall, Pete Cornish, Electro Harmonic, Yahama, Dunlop and Digitech. As a budding guitarist, you could easily wipe your bank account clean upon purchasing guitar effects pedals due to the countless variety out there. What I recommend is that you only purchase one pedal for each main sound.

Recommended guitar effect pedals

Delay and Reverb sounds give a strong echo sound and is great if you are really playing live. This sounds professional like and is very convincing. Distortion and gain guitar effects pedals are widely used with electric guitars and are certainly used in lead and solo guitar playing. This adds crunch and meat to your sound and certainly does sound sweet. As stated previously, multi effects processors are a great for beginners as they have access to all the different possibilities right in front of them. All of these mentioned are the essential pedals that you must have in order to sound great.

After you have gotten hold of the main pedals, you may want to look for a few more to sound even great! A wah-wah effect allows the sound pitch to be constantly changed through the use of a pedal. This was heavily utilized by Jimi Hendrix. Added effects include Flanger, Chorus and Phase shifter also know as a uni-vibe. These pedals sound slightly similar to each other, however they do sound beautiful. Chorus and Flanger pedals sound very sweet and made famous by David Gilmour and created the sounds of Pink Floyd. Most of these sound best with little to no gain or distortion.

Sound great by increasing your sound. Read further details of the latest guitar effects pedals

Author. Ameen Jabbar http://pinkfloyd-guitar.com

Guthrie Govan On The Suhr Riot Distortion Pedal

Guitar virtuoso and Suhr artist Guthrie Govan tells The Music Zoo about the Suhr Riot Distortion pedal.

6 Essential Elements To Getting The Best Rock Guitar Tone

Getting awesome rock guitar tone is not hard. I have heard professional players play through low-quality, out-of-tune, distorted equipment and it sounded great! This says 2 things; one - your tone is in your hands, two - distortion is a good thing and on your side! In most history of the speaker, the goal was to be crystal clear, not until some rocker decided to turn his amp up too loud and distort the sound,real rock guitar tone was born. As an added fact, I forget who, but some famous guitarist actually used to buy radio brand shack speakers (because they sounded the worst), and then cut them with razor blades to get the sound they were looking for... beautiful. Ok, let's move on to the 7 essential elements to getting the best rock guitar tone.

1. Big Frets - While some people would disagree with me, especially because Les Paul's are known for not having huge frets, while some custom models have awesome, fat, big frets, big frets are essential for many players to play precisely and get the tone of rock guitar. Big, high frets give you a lot of space for your fingers to grip the strings, manipulate, move, bend, slide, tap and caress the strings. This is why many rock, shred machine guitars have big, high frets... Ibanez's, Jackson's, Stevie Ray Vaughan Strat's, BC Rich's, etc... because high frets are good for rocking and shredding on, simple as that. The fret size that has been known through time as fat, juicy frets is the Dunlop 6105 Jumbo Frets.

2. Big Strings - Big strings are essential to big rock guitar tone because they contain the more mass, therefore move more air, creating a larger magnetic field, resulting in the speakers moving more, in essence, rocking more! Big, fat, juicy strings bring out the lows of the guitar and also make your high's more precise, louder and evenly balanced in volume to the other strings. Bigger strings also give you more grip, allowing you more control and manipulation over the guitar strings. Big strings are even more essential on guitars that are de-tuned... once you de-tune a guitar, the strings slack a lot and when you strike the strings hard they go out of tune, so most rock guys who de-tune most of the time; like down to D, C, B, A should use some pretty heavy strings. My recommendation is use at least 13's if you are tuning down crazy low. However, if you are a regular or Eb tuner, try to use 10's or 11's on your guitar, they won't rip your hands apart and will give you much better tone. For your info, Stevie Ray Vaughan used 13's and it is said he used to have to super glue his fingertips on after shows... that's rocking!

3. Humbuckers - You want humbuckers on your guitar for a couple reasons. The main one is that is produces more sounds, it is 2 magnets, not just 1, so there is more sustain, tone, and most of all, when pushed, create more distortion... hoo ray! We love distortion here! Another thing that makes humbuckers cooler than single coils is that they are quite. Don't you hate how single coils buzz? Isn't it really annoying when you think there is someone in the room with you, but it is just the buzz of your neck pickup? I know you have... admit it... anyways, humbuckers are quite, produce more sound, more distortion, killer sustain and most of all look cool! Go out and get some humbuckers for your axe today. It's ok, you won't be dissapointed. Even the cool mini humbuckers that fit into a single coil slot sound great and if you really don't want to miss your single coil twang, you can get a coil splitter or a push-pull volume or tone control to switch your mini humbucker into a single coil. Aren't humbuckers great?

4. Locking Tremolo System (aka Floyd Rose) - Why do you need a locking tremolo system? You need it because to do all the cool airplane whammy divebombs, kitten purrs, and extreme harmonic divebombs you need a locking tremolo system. Why? because they do 2 things, the first is stay in tune during all this chaos and abuse you put your poor guitar through, but also because these systems are the only ones designed for these kind of advanced guitar, and musical maneuvers, attempted by many, but successful and perfected by few. If you want to see some cool stuff on guitar divebomb whammy's check out Van Halen, Steve Vai, Joe Satriani or some unknown guys on YouTube who are really great! Go have a ball going crazy on your new locking tremolo system equipped guitar, and have a smile on your face after because your beauty if still in tune, ready to rock on... wherever you take it!

5. Distortion - What is distortion? Why is it important in the equation of getting good rock guitar tone? Well, distortion is the crackling of sound. You probably know that, but just in case, the question now becomes, what is a 'good' crackling of sound. The secret is in the ear of the beholder, so really only you can decide what good distortion is. Try lots of pedals and different amps and try to figure out what kind of distortion makes you sound best. Some people like bluesy, overdriven type of distortion, while some people like total chaos, fire-breathing inferno distortion, and let me tell you, if you are looking for it, it is out there, in some strange colored pedal. Distortion helps us cover up our mistakes, but not only that, but it makes you feel cooler inside, sustain notes and make them breathe, and much more. Try to do some research on guitarist that you like their tone, and see if you can find what kind of pedal and amps they use.

6. Feeling - If there is one thing that you need have to get the best rock guitar tone you are capable of, it is to put all your feeling, attention and focus on what you are doing. Once, back when I was in music school, a well respected musician said to me, was "Once you are done learning all that stuff, you have to learn to forget it and then the magic starts to happen!" So, feel the music, feel it in your heart... take everything you know and touch the celestial, play the things you really want to, let the music take control and just give it all your energy letting the spirit of music flow through row body, into the strings, through the cord, into the amp and making the speakers wail! Feeling... it is a beautiful thing

Eric Stein has played guitar over 16 years, taught guitar for 4 or so years of his life at Offbeat Music in Lake Zurich, he taught a lot of people how to play guitar. Eric runs MonkFunk Music Community giving independent bands and musicians free music enhanced websites. His new site How To Play Rock Guitar .com is going to be an amazing guitar website unlike any others and will help teach more people guitar than Eric ever could have on a personal level, please check it out: How To Play Rock Guitar .com

Fulltone Plimsoul

Andy here with Proguitarshop.com and today we're checking out the Fulltone Plimsoul Overdrive/Distortion. This simple pedal combines the best of both worlds, the soft clipped tones of a screamer type overdrive and the growl of hard clipping pedals such as the Fulltone OCD. With the Fulltone Plimsoul, you can blend in each stage to create fat, complex overdrive and distortion like you've never heard before. The smooth, bluesy uncompressed overdrive resides in the Plimsoul's sustain knob while the symmetrical clipping of stage 2 tells you how much realistic power tube style distortion it's delivering by a responsive LED. This extremely dynamic pedal cleans up by light picking or your volume knob, not to mention the Fulltone Plimsoul can take anywhere from 9 to 18v for all the headroom and cleanliness you need. Like all the Fulltone products we carry, the Plimsoul Overdrive/Distortion is high quality and true bypass. - proguitarshop.com

Virtual Studio Technology - VST Plugins

One thing that makes digital recording even more rewarding, and more fun, is Virtual Studio Technology, or VST.

I'm not going to get too technical with my definition here; I couldn't if i wanted to.

Virtual Studio Technology is software emulation of hardware devices, usually in two categories. Instruments, and effects.

The instrument VST's can simulate "real" instruments mostly due to another technology called sampling. A real instrument such as a piano is "sampled" by making many recordings of a real instrument. The instrument is recorded playing hard, and playing soft. Different nuances of the instrument are also recorded such as the fret noise of slipping your fingers on acoustic guitar strings. All of this is controlled by a MIDI controller. Usually a MIDI controller is a piano type keyboard, but it can be a guitar, and even a wind instrument. When you play a note on the keyboard, you are actually playing a recording of the note on a different instrument. You can play chopsticks on the piano keyboard and hear it as a harp, a guitar, or even a human voice!

Most of these VST's come on a CD or a DVD. It is not unusual for the files for a complicated instrument to over 5 gig in size.

There are complete orchestras available including sections and solo instruments, as well as individual instruments from all over the world. This technology is so common that you are hearing virtual instruments on pre-recorded music, on a daily basis.The amazing thing is that if the VST instrument has been constructed well, it really feels as if you are playing the instrument. VST instruments are inserted into special places in the DAW for recording. A VST can cost as little as $20.00, or many hundreds. There are many great free instruments as well. 

The other main type of VST is an effect. This is an emulation of hardware audio effects such as reverb, delay and compression. There are a vast number of effects available. I should point out that these emulations both for instrument and effects are in most cases very accurate. I own a hardware synth and a VST of the same synth, and they are impossible to tell apart.

Also in the category of VST effects are programs that simulate guitar effects, amplifiers and stomp pedals. You can plug your guitar in dry and add a distortion pedal, delay, and the tone of a particular amplifier such as a Fender.

Many of these effects are added via the mixer view, especially when you are mixing down a finished product. There are special VST's for mastering as well. These are usually combinations of filters and effects that specialize in making a full mix.

Virtual Studio Technology really completes your digital home studio.

Alan Orr is a musician of over thirty years and a digital composer living in the mountains of New York State. This will be a series of articles on the subject of home digital recording. The next will focus on the Digital Audio Workstation software. You can find an easy guide to home digital recording at [http://www.daw.hotconcept.net] You will cover all the essentials, from what you need to start, to quantizing your music, all in a couple of hours. [http://www.daw.hotconcept.net]

Guitar Metal Tone - 7 Tips to Get Heavy Tone For Your Instrument

So you may have learned to play guitar, but you really want a nice guitar metal tone. With a guitar tone that sounds truly metal, only then will you be able to shred and play breakdowns with confidence.

To achieve a nice rounded guitar metal tone, there are a number of very slight adjustments and variations that need to be made to your guitar and your equipment. Here are 7 tips to get the metal sound on your guitar that you want.

1. You need a guitar that is made for playing metal.

Guitars that are built for fast action and finger movement are very good for playing music of the metal genre. Electric guitar brands like Jackson, Schecter, and Ltd. supply lots of natural guitar metal tone.

2. Play with amplifiers that supply generous amounts of distortion with high wattage.

Marshall-style amplifiers supply good amounts of distortion with lots of wattage for clarity. However, refrain from boosting the distortion levels to 10 since that will only create white noise that is not very pleasing to hear.

3. Make slight boosts to the high and low ends on the amplifier.

By adding some low and high tone on your amplifier, you'll allow your instrument to cut through the mixes better in order to give a really crunchy metal tone. Don't cut out the mid-range completely however. You want your tone to retain weight from all sound ranges.

4. Try metal-zone and overdrive distortion pedals.

Companies are making guitar pedals just for this type of guitar tone. Read some online reviews on metal guitar tone pedals before purchasing however to make sure they will supply the distortion that you really want.

5. Adjust the tone knobs on your guitar.

A small adjustment on your instrument can make the difference between a good and bad guitar metal tone. Make sure your tone knobs are cranked all the way to maximum to ensure a strong and clean attack on every note.

6. Use compressor pedals or rack pieces for an extra punch.

Some metal guitarists like a lot of punch on stage and so they'll use compressors. Try a compression pedal or rack piece to give more bite to your attacks.

7. Use thicker guitar picks.

As minuscule as this tip appears, using softer or more flexible guitar picks can actually soften the sound of your guitar tone. Try thicker guitar picks in order to create harder hitting notes when playing metal riffs.

There are, of course, other things that can be done in order to get a great metal tone for your guitar, but these can get you started. Remember, that even though a metal tone uses distortion, do not over do it to the point of creating something ugly for your fans.

Are you interested in more fast guitar tips? Check out my guitar blog, How To Guitar Tune.

Fender Classic Player Jazzmaster & Jaguar - The Test

In the beginning, Leo created the Telecaster. Keith and Bruce were happy. On the second day, Leo created the Stratocaster. Jimi and Eric were in ecstasy. On the following days, Leo created the Jazzmaster and the Jaguar, which, although intended for jazz, found followers within the surf music scene of the 60s and the rock music scene of the 90s. Today we'll be testing the 2008 edition of these mythical guitars ...

A Little History Lesson ...

The history of these two models is not trivial. In 1958, Leo Fender, father of the famous Telecaster and Stratocaster, decided to take advantage of his reputation and try to seduce jazz guitarists with a model logically called the Jazzmaster. With a rosewood fingerboard, a floating vibrato, new pickups, and a warmer sound than the Stratocaster, Leo thought he'd please jazzmen at the time. Unfortunately, its tendency to feedback prompted them to ignore it. However, the Jazzmaster began to interest groups in the surf movement like The Ventures and The Fireballs. Leo, always on the lookout, took advantage of this interest and came out with a model specifically designed for the surf music scene in 1962: the Jaguar. With a shorter scale (24 inches), single coil Stratocaster-type pickups, 22 frets, a spring-loaded rubber string-mute, and a notched side plate that made it less prone to interference, it was the ultimate surf guitar. Unfortunately, the surf music scene went out of fashion in the 70's and production of Jaguars and Jazzmasters was stopped in 1980.

These models were then set aside for a few years until indie rock bands in the early 80s such as Sonic Youth or My Bloody Valentine saw in this guitar (which was affordable at the time and gave ample feedback), a good way to satisfy their experimental sound cravings. By strumming the strings behind the bridge they could get a unique chiming sound as well as produce sympathetic resonance due to the low break angle over the bridge. Following this rediscovery, the Jazzmaster and Jaguar were reintroduced into the Fender catalog in 1986 with Japanese 1962 Reissue models.

2008 saw the birth of the "Classic Player" series, made in Mexico and at relatively affordable prices. To celebrate their 50th anniversary a "revision" was in order ... This test will be of a Jazzmaster, a Jaguar with single coil pickups, and a Jaguar with Humbuckers.

Face Lift

For those who have never laid their hands on a Jazzmaster or a Jaguar, the first striking feature is the size of its asymmetric body, larger than that of a Telecaster or a Stratocaster. However, the balance is perfect, because the guitar was originally intended to be played seated (the jazzmen, remember!). The traditional main differences between the two models are both the short scale on the Jaguar (24 inches as opposed to the 25.5 inches on the Jazzmaster), and different pickups: P-90-type single coils on the Jazzmaster differ from the single Stratocaster-type ones on the Jaguar. The pickups on the Jazzmaster in fact have a warmer and rounder sound than those of the Jaguar, which are brighter.

As far as changes go, there are new pickups (Special Design Hot Single coils on the Jazzmaster and the Jaguar, and Enforcer humbuckers for the Jaguar HH) with a higher output level and thicker sound than the original models. Note that the pickups on the Jazzmaster have height adjustment screws, as do the P-90-type pickups. A Tune-O-Matic-type bridge resolves the "jumping strings" and intonation issues of previous models. In addition, the floating tremolo has been moved in closer to the bridge and the angle of the strings in relation to the bridge is now greater. This will increase sustain and reduce sympathetic string resonances behind the bridge. You lose that little characteristic chiming sound that was obtained by strumming the strings behind the bridge (Sonic Youth loved that sound). With this new bridge and the the fact that the tremolo has been moved in closer, it loses a little of the character of the original guitar, but gains in accuracy and stability.

For the maple neck, Fender has chosen a "C" shape, a rosewood fingerboard, a 9.5 inch radius (flatter than the original), 21 medium jumbo frets (for the Jazzmaster and 22 for the Jaguar). The body is alder for all three models and hardware is Fender/Ping vintage style.

As for looks, be aware that the Jazzmaster is available in black or sunburst finishes with a 4-ply Brown Shell pickguard, the Jaguar special (single coils) in red or sunburst, and the Jaguar HH (humbuckers) in white or sunburst. Lastly, the guitars are delivered in a gig bag and hardware is chrome.

Sound and Playability

As for electronics, the Jazzmaster has two independent circuits (lead and rhythm) via a selectable 2 position switch, each with their own volume and tone. There's the classic three-position switch for selecting pickups (neck, bridge or both). The Jaguar with single coils replaces the 3-position switch with a system combining three 2-position switches. The first two switches enable/disable the bridge and neck pickups respectively while the third switch activates a high-pass filter. This filter lets you easily pierce through a mix! Lastly, the Jaguar with humbuckers has even more possibilities! There's, in addition to the adjustments mentioned above, a master kill switch that lets you completely cut the sound of the guitar, and two controls to mix the humbucker sound with the split sound( Humbucking/Single-Coil Blend Control), and this for each pickup. The sonic possibilities of this guitar are enormous!

The craftsmanship on these guitars seems flawless and there weren't any intonation issues during the test. The neck is agreeable to play and one will quickly find their bearings, while the hardware seems built to last. As for controls,only the Jaguar HH may pose some problems at first: for novices, the number of knobs/switches takes some getting used to, especially in gigs where stress can complicate things.

Once plugged in, one is surprised by the power delivered by the pickups. The Jazzmaster has a sweet sound but which is quite thick and with a significant output level for single coils. It allows you a bit of versatility in terms of sound with good clean tones that are rich and full.

The few sound samples were recorded with a Sennheiser MD 421 microphone in front of a Brunetti Mercury EL34 amp. Here's a sample of the "clean" sound palette of the Jazzmaster: clean1, clean2, clean3, clean4, cleanchords and cleanfunk. And three examples in overdrive: ovd1, ovd2 and ovd3.

The Jaguar with single coils is similar to a Telecaster with its chimey sounds; true happiness for clean-sound lovers! Nevertheless, distorted/overdrive sounds are also quite nice: it's got that twang that we all know and love! Examples: dist1, dist2 and dist3.

Lastly, the Jaguar HH, with two humbuckers, is the overdrive king. It's simply a joy to play in drop D with the distortion pedal on! It's heavy and fat with sparks flying everywhere (ex1, 2 & 3)! Cobain fans will be thrilled. The opportunity to mix in the split pickup sound gives some interesting results in clean and overdrive (ex1, 2 & 3) and, as said before, gives the guitar enormous sound possibilities. The knobs can certainly be difficult to master at first, but it's worth the effort.

Conclusion

It's difficult to to be picky when confronted with these guitars! They look and sound great and are a joy to play. The only criticism that can be made by Jazzmaster/Jaguar traditionalists might be about the changes made to the bridge and tremolo location. While they facilitate adjustments and improve intonation to some extent, they slightly change the original character of these models . But for an average price of around $900, Fender delivers high quality guitars. Yes, they're made in Mexico, but hold their own when compared to certain more expensive models. It's a good reason to take the plunge and buy one of these mythical guitars!

[+] Look
[+] Finish
[+] Neck
[+] Pickups
[+] Intonation
[+] Price
[+] Changes that bring the guitars up to date ...
[-] ... But slightly change their original character
[-] I'm hooked. I want one now!

Sarit Bruno manages content and editorial line for Audiofanzine

AudioFanzine offers benchmark testing/reviews of products, software or instruments and articles of a tutorial nature, all of which are systematically illustrated by exclusive videos or audio extracts. Addressing a universal audience, both amateurs and professionals alike, Audiofanzine.com addresses musicians as well as sound engineers, home-studio recording enthusiasts, and audio and lighting engineers.

Chicago Iron Parachute Wah - Pre & Post Distortion

www.ToneFactor.com

Ibanez Steve Vai Jemini pedal video

www.nevadamusic.co.uk Steve Vai introduces his signature distortion pedal.

The Top 3 Effects Pedals (Almost) Every Guitarist Needs

When setting up your guitar pedal board, you are more than likely to spend hours and hours in the shop trying to decide which pedals you need in order to pull an awesome sound with your guitar/amp combination.

As tempting as it is to buy every pedal in the shop, you will most likely only be able to afford a few pedals when starting out.

So to help, here is a list of the top 3 pedals every guitarist needs.

1. Tuner: A tuner is the most important pedal in my opinion. If you aren't playing in tune, than it's going to sound bad full stop. One of my favourite tuners is a bright Korg LED style tuner. A really simple tuner that is really easy to see when you look down at your board. There is nothing worse than no being able to read the tuner when it's dark on stage.


2. Overdrive Pedal: I once heard a guitarist say, "A good overdrive pedal is like a favorite pair of old jeans." This is true in so many ways. A good overdrive pedal should be a staple part of the guitarists tone.
   Classic examples of this pedal include the Ibanez Tube Screamer and the Electro-Harmonix Big Muff. A few more modern effects pedals incorporate valves, but usually these still run at voltages that are too low for the valve, resulting in a "starved plate" configuration that generates harsh and buzzy distortion. Distortion pedals usually also provide signal gain, which can be used to drive the input stage of the pre-amplifier harder, resulting in further distortion and, in some cases, higher volume.


3. Delay Pedal: A delay takes a sound and repeats it back without altering its tone or pitch, like an echo. You can alter the time between each repetition, measured in thousandths of a second, or milliseconds. Available in Analogue or Digital. The most obvious example is The Edge of U2, whose classic guitar parts couldn't have been written without a delay pedal.

In summary, there is no right or wrong when choosing guitar pedals. One of my favourite aspects of the music industry, is that someone is always trying something new and breaking the 'traditional' rules. That being said, with these 3 pedals you should be able to pull most good sounds with the right amp/guitar combination.

The Daily Guitar aims to provide news, updates and inspiration for guitarists of all levels. Whether you are just starting out, or your a seasoned pro, this website exists for you.

All the best,

Danny Dyson
http://www.thedailyguitar.com

The Boss GT-10 Guitar Effects Processor

Boss has a long tradition of providing effects processors for guitar and bass. From it's instantly recognizable individual stomp boxes to fully fledged multi effect processors, Boss continues to improve upon the science of digital modelling and realism for digitally generated guitar sounds.

GT stands for 'great tone' and the distortion sounds do represent a big leap forward primarily due to how the pick attack and dynamics react against your playing, just as if you were playing through a real tube amp. Of course there is still a massive way to go before digital modelling could ever come close to a tube amp but nonetheless these effects processors are improving.

As you'd expect from Boss the range and quality of the effects in this unit are excellent and you pretty much get the entire range of Boss pedals. Almost all user reviews describe them as very transparent, powerful and crystal clear. The unit gives you a lot of possibilities in terms of how you mould your guitar sound and on the front end of the unit it's tried to make it very simple and easy, even for complete novices, to achieve a good quality guitar tone across a wide range of genres.

On a personal note I didn't like the Wah Wah sounds so much but having said that it's always possible to use your own external wah pedal. The unit is build like a tank, looks great and seems very roadworthy. I would expect to see it being used a lot by local musicians gigging around town especially due to its portability and sound versatility.

For the bedroom musician practising at home it's an ideal toy to play around with and some of the sounds you can achieve with the Boss GT-10 are huge! Go and try one out.

Payo Perry is a well recognized online author. Be sure to read his most recent expert reviews on guitar lessons. The site contains lots of extra tips for how to learn acoustic guitar.

Fuzz pedal shootout Fulltone 69 Analogman Sunface BC108 Plum Crazy FX Fuzzy Lady Monsterpiece NPN

A whole lotta fuzzy goodness here. THis is in response to an email wanting to hear the Plumcrazy Fuzzy Lady along with a bunch of other fuzzbox effects units. I used a Kingbee Relic Tele and the Fender Blues Junior amp

Gig Tips For Bass Players - Gig Tip 9

OK, so you've learned how to play bass and you're now playing for a gigging band. This series of articles will help you get over some of the problems all bass players encounter when they play live. Gig tips 9 looks at being professional at sound checks.

If you're playing for a band at a gig and someone else (ie not the band) is doing the sound - whether the venue or a production company - here are some dos and don'ts for the soundcheck.

Once you've set up your amp and your bass - and you're happy with your onstage sound - put your bass in its stand and wait for the sound engineer to ask for some bass. Don't stand on the stage playing a medley of your greatest licks. I call it 'music shop syndrome.' You see it every saturday morning in music shops up and down the land. There's no place for this at sound checks. Save your medley of licks for when your friends come over for a beer...or a coke...or a coffee (delete whichever doesn't apply to you).

If you use pedals or effects, it's your responsibility to make sure that the different sounds you use have similar volume levels. Don't expect to give the sound engineer a copy of your set list and say something like: 'Uh man, I use distortion in Hysteria and my pedal is really loud so you might need to bring my level down for that one.'

Spend some time at home with your rig and get the volume levels with your effect pedals to be approximately the same as the volume level without your effects pedals.

When the sound engineer calls you up to give him some bass so he can get a line level and start applying EQ to your channel, don't pull out your medley of cool licks again. Instead choose a line from one of the tunes you're going to play and just play it. If you've got a tune where the bass line covers a lot of ground on the neck pick that one. That way the engineer will be able to hear the lows and the highs and should be able to EQ and set up your channel.

Remember: you'll impress the engineer more by giving him a feed that he can do his job with than by playing something flashy. His job is to make the band sound good. It's in your interests that he does a good job, and you can make it easier for him.

The other area you need to sort out is monitoring. At some gigs this will be the same engineer, at really big gigs you might find you have the luxary of having a monitor engineer. Once all the main channels have been sorted out the engineer will ask for the band to play together so he can adjust the front of house mix. Once that's done to his satisfaction then the monitor mixes will be sorted out.

Now it's common for sound check levels and actual gig levels to be very different due to the adrenaline kick you get from being in front of an audience. So when you're setting the monitors don't be too picky - make sure you can hear yourself, the drums, the keyboards and the singers in that order.

A sound engineer can make you sound great - or he can wreck your sound. People in the audience won't know why the band doesn't sound good, they'll just know it wasn't good. Sad to say I've been on the receiving end a couple of times of sound engineer sabotage - and it's not much fun (and it cost my band work and money too).

So help the sound engineer as much as you can.

If you want more bass related info, head over to my how to play bass website where you'll find video lessons, articles, reviews and much more. There's also a weekly ezine you can sign up for - in return for signing up you'll get a PDF file with 5 cool bass lines in - and each week's ezine features a bass line in music notation and bass tab. http://www.how-to-play-bass.com

This article originally appeared in my free weekly ezine.

Seymour Duncan SFX-04 Twin Tube Mayhem Distortion Guitar Effects Pedal

This is the latest guitar distortion pedal in the Twin Tube line from Seymour Duncan and it's well and truly built to achieve a mid-range scooped metal guitar sound. The pedal also features a boost button which will put your distortion over the top for solos. The tubes in this pedal are 62051 pentode tubes which will last a lifetime without needing to be replaced and will deliver great distortion for everything from old school metal to modern thrash.

The Twin Tube Mayhem allows the tubes to really reach their full potential with a 100% vacuum tube signal, this also allows for the maximum in dynamic range to be achieved. As already stated, the pedal is built for metal guitar and the levels of distortion are already very high even with the knob at just 25%. In the higher reaches with the distortion levels on maximum you get some great harmonic response particularly on artificial harmonics produced with the pick.

The boost function is selectable between 4 to 8dB which allows you to set up the correct levels between your rhythm and lead sounds. As with most quality pedals of this kind it features a true bypass and is very quiet in its operation due to a encapsulated toroidal transformer. The pedal is clearly built to last and it's circuitry is housed inside a very rugged steel chassis which should be ultra dependable no matter what kind of abuse it suffers at gigs or on the road.

If you're in the market for a metal distortion pedal and want to stay true to tube distortion then give this pedal a try. It's from a quality manufacturer and getting good review ratings from the other people who have bought it.

The author has a popular online product review site. Be sure to check out his latest expert report for a Ludwig drum set [http://www.ludwigdrumset.net/] where you'll also find lots of information and bargain deals on a child drum set [http://www.ludwigdrumset.net/child_drum_set.html].

boss mega distortion md-2 demo

boss md-2 using a marshall mg100hdfx with a marshall 2x12 cab and ibanez. this is just a demo to give you an idea what this pedal sounds like. check out my other boss demo's . feel free to comment & rate.

Earthquaker Devices Dream Crusher guitar effects pedal demo

www.earthquakerdevices.com The EQD Dreamcrusher demoed with a les paul and dr z amp

Best cheap Electro Harmonix Double Muff Distortion Pedal

Cheap "Electro Harmonix Double Muff Distortion Pedal" Discount review update price today

How to Cook Frozen Hamburger Patties

Jen Trani's Distortion Pedal mhlo.co www.mahalo.com Visit HIPCOOKS! ‪www.hipcooks.com Frozen hamburger patties are a delicious and easy meal to make! Let Tristan show you how! Check out all of Mahalo's Cooking videos here www.youtube.com Check out these related Mahalo pages: How to Cook Trout: www.mahalo.com How to Grill Salmon: www.mahalo.com How to Make Perfect Sushi Rice: www.mahalo.com How to Make French Toast: www.mahalo.com How to Grill Ribs: www.mahalo.com How to Make Sushi: www.mahalo.com How to Bake a Potato: www.mahalo.com How to Cook Roast Beef: www.mahalo.com How to Make Yorkshire Pudding: www.mahalo.com How to Make Mashed Potatoes: www.mahalo.com Check out these Mahalo How-To Playlists: How to Use Facebook: www.youtube.com How to Use Adobe Photoshop: www.youtube.com How to Speak French: www.youtube.com How to Speak Italian: www.youtube.com How to Speak Japanese: www.youtube.com How to Speak Spanish: www.youtube.com How to Get into Shape: www.youtube.com How To Become a Pharmacist: www.youtube.com How To Become a Photographer: www.youtube.com How To Get a Job: www.youtube.com How To Make Cocktails: www.youtube.com How To Make Coffee Drinks: www.youtube.com

Vanessa Hudgens Nude Photos, New Weird Al Video, and more on TWIYT #57

Jen Trani's Distortion Pedal mhlo.co Today on This Week in Youtube #57, Vanessa Hudgens is nude again, Weird Al goes Jib Jab, and Casual Mafia has a man crush! Join Lon Harris and Shira Lazar as they rip through the hottest videos blazing out of Youtube (just as long as you are geeky enough to handle it)! Amazing footage of a horse crashing into a car: www.youtube.com Baby throwing in India: www.youtube.com Weird Al Yankovic - CNR: www.youtube.com Biz Markie - Just a Friend: The Literal Video Version: www.youtube.com It's a CANDY BRA!!!: www.youtube.com Washington Post's New Editorial Team-TDAAWC: www.youtube.com Seven-Year-Old Utah Boy Makes His Getaway: www.youtube.com Man Crush: www.youtube.com edarem - Walker, Texas Ranger: www.youtube.com Vanessa Hudgens NAKED PICS !!!: www.youtube.com Global Geek Week (PhlashYo): www.youtube.com How One Geek Will Change the World!: www.youtube.com Global Geek Week (Dinomy): www.youtube.com