The following is a guest post by Jeremy Cohen. If you are interested in guest posting, please contact me!

In my role as a bass teacher, I often am asked, “what effects pedals should I get?”

The simple answer is that bassists really don’t need pedals, but then I follow that up by telling what the most useful effects for bass are. A an octave pedal  is definitely one of these. It is an effect which adds an octave below the note you are playing and it is a simple way to enhance the sound of a bass. Pino Palladino made a name for himself with extensive use of an octave pedal with a fretless bass. You can hear this most notably on the song, I’m Gonna Tear Your Playhouse Down, recorded with Paul Young. Here’s a nice live version (a little faster than the original). Keep listening to hear what he does at the end of the song.

Of course, in my role as a freelance bassist, I often bring a large pedal board with me. This usually causes the other players to groan, “oh, no, please don’t use those!” If I brought every pedal I owned, they would go into shock. However, once I start playing, I use the pedals sparingly. When I use the octave pedal, generally one of the other musicians will turn around and smile at me.

Over the years, I have owned a variety of pedals including the Boss OC-2 pedal and the EBS Octabass. Now that I have had the MXR M288 Bass Octave Deluxe for a while, I can say that this pedal gets the sound for which  I have been searching for years.

One of the features necessary in an octave pedal is good tracking and this pedal definitely tracks well, not only for single notes, but also for double stops (two notes at once). When using an octave pedal, just make sure you don’t play notes below A. The pedal may be able to produce those sounds, but your speakers won’t. I generally try to avoid going below C.

The next feature you need in the pedal is the ability to mix your straight bass sound with the octave sound and once again this pedal comes through using a control which is called Dry. Turning this dial all the way to the left will give you just the octave sound and to the right will give you almost no octave sound. You will want to start with the control and the middle and then adjust it to get the blend you want.

The unique feature of the MXR pedal is that it has two distinctly different octave bass sounds. MXR calls one sound Girth and this is a clean and smooth octave-below sound. The other sound is called Growl. This sound has more bite and to me it sounds very much like a synth bass doubling your notes. The two sounds have independent controls and can be blended together, giving this pedal a wide range of available sounds.

There is also a mid-range boost switch and the particular frequency and intensity of this boost can easily be adjusted with an internal slide switch and trim pot.  I like the sound of this boost the way it was set at the factory, but your mileage may differ.

Other features of the pedal are its extremely small size and internal circuitry which will keep the unit functioning properly even if the battery voltage starts dropping. The pedal is also true-bypass, which means that your signal completely bypasses all internal circuitry when the pedal  is switched off.

The instructions that come with the pedal include three sample settings: Sub Slap, Sub Rock, and …. Playhouse. (hmm…)

The price of this pedal is not out-of-line with that of other pedals of this type, especially since the Boss OC-2 pedal has now become collectible and prices for that one are going up steadily.

I strongly recommend this pedal for anyone who is covering songs on which the original recording had a synth bass part or a synth doubling the bass part You could also use it on a song in which the guitar is doubling the bass part. Then you will free up a guitarist to play a different part.  It also will instantly make any solo stand out. These are uses in which the pedal works for me and you will probably find some more uses once you have the unit.

One more feature I almost forgot to mention is that the pedal is blue so it matches my main bass, a Mike Lull M4V with a custom blue sunburst finish! Next time we meet, I’ll talk about other types and models of pedals which might be useful for a bassist to own. Happy bass playing!

Jeremy Cohen has been playing bass for over 40 years. He works as a bassist in the S.F. Bay area and is first call bassist for a variety of bands. He is known for tasteful, solid playing, sight-reading ability, the amount of preparation he does before gigs, and his ability to walk into any situation (with charts or not) and fit in.

He also has taught many students over the years and is extremely proud of all his students. Read what Matt Freeman of Rancid has to say:
http://www.jeremycohenbass.com/BParticle.09.pdf
Read, listen and see more about him at http://www.jeremycohenbass.com
His CD is on sale at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/jazzexpress

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The following is a guest post by Jon Patton. If you are interested in guest posting, please contact me!

There’s a certain mystique and excitement in finding a new effects builder: not just someone whose boxes are rare sights on pedalboards, but someone developing something beyond clones of the same old tired, overdone circuits. So on the first snowy day of 2012, I made my way up to Joppa, Maryland, to talk with Luke Orsie of Luck Duck Pedals and demo a few of his creations. Luck Duck Pedals are made in Orsie’s home, where he hand-builds each pedal, right down to the etched circuit boards.

Here’s his creation process is in a nutshell:

He then passes the box to Brittany Howard to add unique artwork. I wanted to add a special note about the art, because it’s what first brought these pedals to my attention. I’m a bit of a sucker for both hand-painted stompboxes and cartoons. Although some people don’t care what the pedal looks like, when a small builder is just starting out, eye-catching visuals help set them apart. Making each box a one-of-a-kind collectable doesn’t hurt, either. Here’s Britanny Howard talking about her process:

Though he has dabbled in cloning some well-known time-based and tremolo effects for custom orders, Orsie managed to find some of the creative space left in the dirt pedal market with his bread and butter pedal, the Luck Duck Overdrive. The LDO puts two common clipping modes (LED and MOSFET) into the same enclosure with a familiar 3-knob control layout. Orsie gigs regularly with his band, and the 2.0 version of the LDO reflects the tweaks he made after frequent live use.

The pedal matched excellently with a Vox AC30, with a more assertive character of its own compared to other open overdrives like the OCD.

Here’s what it sounds like [Disclaimer: I am a writer, not a videographer! I kept the demos as simple as possible]:

We used a Fender American Standard Telecaster and Vox AC30 (amp settings here) for all demos.

The “Wah”ddle is a wah with a toggle to switch between extreme sweeps on the wah/whoa continuum. The defaults are very close to Vox (“wah”) and the Crybaby (“whoa”). Internal trim pots can give you more control over the sweeps. Although some other builders (e.g. Area 51) are making multi-flavor wah pedals, the simplicity of being able to go between the two most classic voices with a single toggle switch is appealing. An optional improved buffer makes the wah play nicer with dirt pedals. Somewhat rare for a wah, it also has true bypass switching.

Usually I prefer a Vox’s wah to a Crybaby, but this one surprised me. The “whoa” side was a great match with the AC30 and LDO. The pedal sweep was smooth all the way through without any obvious bumps.

Here’s a demo, first clean, then with the LDO:

The Comrade Duck is a limited edition pedal, a somewhat unusual silicon-germanium hybrid based on the Electra distortion. It has asymmetric clipping (meant to mimic power tube distortion) and a bright switch. It has a much raunchier character than the LDO.

I had fairly high hopes for this pedal, but it did not match up with an AC30 as perfectly as the LDO. The lack of a tone knob on an already fairly bright pedal meant overemphasizing the AC30′s chime without filling out the sound. And like most asymmetric clipping pedals, the harmonics created make chords unpleasant. But it fared much better on single-note lead work—producing a thick, complex sound. I’d like an opportunity to try the pedal with a Fender or Marshall, or with a cranked lower-wattage Vox-style amp, before passing final judgement.

Here’s the video:

I hope you’ve enjoyed this tour of this small but promising pedal builder. You can find Luck Duck Pedals on Facebook. Be sure to check out the photos of their work for extended descriptions of the pedals. Luke Orsie can be contacted at luckducksboxhotmailcom. Additionally visit them on Etsy and Flickr.

About the author: Jon Patton is a writer, musician, and (unfortunately) day job schlub in Baltimore, Maryland. He writes music reviews for Driftwoodmagazine.com and makes guitar noises in the band Midway Fair.

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The following is a guest post by Dan Vuksanovich of WhyISuckAtGuitar.com. If you are interested in guest posting, please contact me!

I’m a classically trained guitarist and a former information technology consultant, which makes me a guitar nerd with an insatiable craving for the latest and greatest technology. I also play in a local cover band, for which I need a tonally flexible rig which is easy to transport and doesn’t break the bank. The solution? You guessed it: amp and effects modeling.

My rig consists of a Line 6 HD500 with a QSC K8 powered PA speaker for stage volume. That’s it. All my gear combined, including my guitar, weighs less than fifty pounds. I used to drive a Mini Cooper and had room for all my gear with tons of room to spare. While our other guitarist and bassist are lugging in their tube half stacks, I’m at the bar having a beer.

Yup. I’m the weirdo on stage with nothing behind me but the wall, the “amateur” who hears the whispers and snickers of sound guys behind my back. All the whispering and snickering stops, though, during sound check. This past Saturday I literally had a sound guy insulting my rig to my face during load in. He was desperately searching for a way to not let me go direct into the house PA. I asked him, nicely, if we could just give it a try. He said OK. I played for about 10 seconds during sound check, paused, and then heard him say sheepishly, “Uh, that actually sounds pretty good.”

So how do I do it? How am I the one guitar player who can coax direct tones from his modeler that don’t feel like an ice pick in the ear? Here are some best practices for getting good live sound from a modeler:

Not all modelers are created equal – There are lots of wild claims out there about tone quality by companies that make amp modelers and multi-effects units. The problem is that tone quality is subjective, so the manufacturers can basically claim whatever they want. Now, I’m not going to tell you what you should and shouldn’t buy, but I will say that if you buy a $99 entry-level modeler, don’t expect it to sound like a $3,000 Axe-Fx. My POD HD 500 cost about $500, and for my purposes it gives me the best bang for the buck. It might not sound 100% as good as an Eleven Rack or an Axe-Fx, but let’s be honest here, I play at local bars and clubs, not Madison Square Garden.

Your home amplification method matters – The way you amplify your modeler when you’re not playing at a venue is a huge consideration. The goal here is to make your bedroom setup as much like a live setup as possible. Enter the QSC K8 powered PA speaker. Yes, it cost me $600. Yes, that’s more than the cost of the POD, but I need to be able to hear what my tone will sound like when I get to the venue, and what better way to do that than with my own personal PA? Let me state the inverse of this for total clarity. If you run your modeler through an amplifier, even if it’s directly into the effects loop, the amp will color the sound… a lot. Therefore, if you try to go direct into a house PA after you’ve tweaked your sound through your amp, you’re in for a shock because it will not sound even remotely like you remember it sounding at home. What you need is a full frequency, flat response (FRFR) powered PA speaker. This works out perfectly because at home the PA speaker will be your amp, and at the venue you can use it as a personal monitor for stage volume that you can control.

Be the opposite of a kid in a candy store – All those models! All those effects! I can make my guitar sound like an alien spacecraft if I want to! Time out. Listen, there might be 600 amp models and 4,000 effects to choose from, but all you really need is a few usable live sounds. I’ve got four: acoustic, clean, crunch and saturated. Instead of going crazy and filling up every available effects slot just because it’s there, spend some time researching a typical signal chain for the type of sound you want. For example, my saturated sound is the one I use most on stage, so I needed to make sure that it was just right. I started with the assumption that I would use one of the high gain amp models, noise gate, reverb, and potentially a distortion pedal to smooth out the gain. I’ve got a bunch of empty effects slots and one empty amp model slot (I could run amp models in parallel if I wanted to) but my sound is just the way I want it.

Listen… really listen – There are plenty of ways to dial in awful tone with a modeler. You’ve got to use your ears to find something that works, probably even more so than with a real amp. Being an 80′s metal guy, my initial assumption was that I would use the Marshall high gain amp model. No matter what I did, though, I couldn’t dial off the shrill high end on the Marshall. I tried the Mesa Dual Rectifier model instead, and it was perfect. It gave me exactly what I wanted: a sleazy, nasty tone at the lower frets for chugging and riffing, and a sweet singing tone at the higher frets for soloing. I experimented with a few distortion pedal models to smooth out the gain as much as possible, but couldn’t find one I liked, so I decided to try compression instead. Bingo! That was the one missing ingredient and it completed my saturated tone.

Some sound guys will help you – One night we had a sound guy who I thought was just interested in insulting my rig again, but it turned out he wanted to help me out with my sound. There’s a difference in volume between bedroom and stage can create some EQ problems. At bedroom volumes my sound was not quite powerful enough so I cranked up the bass, which sounded great. At stage volume, though, the bass simply too much and the sound guy told me as much. He used his equipment (and his ears) to help me EQ, and I’ve had those settings dialed in ever since. He also helped my fine tune the levels of my patches so that I could switch back and forth without forcing him to use the faders to bring the volume up or down.

Modeling isn’t perfect, and it isn’t for everyone. Does our other guitarist’s tube half-stack sound better than my POD? A little. Is it worth it to me to lug around over 100 pounds of gear in an SUV to make my tone a little better? Absolutely not.

Ultimately you’ll have to make your own decision, but I can assure you that quality live sound with a modeler is possible. You just have to avoid the pitfalls.

About the author: Dan Vuksanovich received his Master of Music degree in classical guitar performance from the Peabody Conservatory of The Johns Hopkins University in 1999. He currently teaches and blogs about how to get better at guitar via his website, www.whyisuckatguitar.com.

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The following is a guest post by Steven Williams. If you are interested in guest posting, please contact me!

My name is Steve I work for a music shop and am a massive guitar enthusiast. I enjoy writing about guitars and accessories. I enjoy learning new things about instruments and pedals and sharing information to anyone that wants to hear it.

Are you a Cry Baby? But just need a little advice, well I will be reviewing the different types of Jim Dunlop Cry Baby pedals to give you a bit more information about them and help you choose the correct one for you’re style of playing. The Cry Baby pedal is already an iconic figure in the guitar world thanks to users such as Slash, Eddie Van Halen and most famously Jimi Hendrix. The pedals are capable of performing a wide variety of various effects from the ‘wokka-chokka’ sounds to a cutting lead tone. From then Jim Dunlop has gone on to make a large variety of different models but are they really different?

But before we start comparing the different models we must clarify exactly what they are and how they work. Basically the Cry Baby takes the middle and upper frequencies and then filters and emphasizes them. The pedal then controls the frequency at which it is operating and allows the guitarist to play through the frequencies giving the famous ‘wah’ sound from which the Cry Baby gets its name. Then from here a few elements can be altered to change the characteristic of the sound, the amount of emphasis (or the Q) can be changed as well as the range of frequencies being let through. In addition to these the analogue circuit within the pedals can be altered to have different characteristics and effects and we will look at the 3 most popular varieties.

The Jim Dunlop Cry Baby Classic: This model is identical to the original one used way back at the birth of Rock and Roll with. However the components used haven’t been used in decades thanks to unavailability. So for the older generation of players looking for the warm vintage sound then the Cry Baby classic is ideal. In fact the only differing factor from the pedals used by Hendrix is a hard-wired bypass and a Fasel inductor, which means its even better.

The Jim Dunlop Cry Baby Original: This model is based on the original design but with a few minor enhancements to boost performance and reliability. Infamous due to its fixed Q tone and frequency range, which means the classic ‘wah’ tone in abundance.

The Jim Dunlop Cry Baby Q: Pretty self-explanatory what this is going to offer you, of course a ‘Q’ control. This means the emphasis on the effect can be increased or decreased along with a volume boost. You also receive an ‘auto-engage’ feature which conveniently activates the pedal when you place you’re foot on it.

These are just the 3 of the main models of Cry Baby’s, there are many more models each offering you different features and characteristics. The best way to find out which is the right one for you is to do you’re research and simply hear them for yourself.

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The following is a guest post by Nick Williams of IHateBarreChords.com. If you are interested in guest posting, please contact me!

Guitarists from many musical genres – perhaps most notably the rock scene – have used to various effects to give their music a unique sound. Simple effects like distortion give rock music its distinct “crunching” sound – a non-musical friend of mine describes it as grinding metal – while “wah-wah” (popularized by Hendrix) and other odd effects do strange things to an electric guitar’s sound that can’t really be put into words. Finding out what the various effects sound like is easy enough, with some help from YouTube, but typically you need an electronic device called an effects pedal (or distortion pedal or some other variant) to achieve these sounds through your own playing

These pedals are often – though not always – pretty expensive. Their prices can rival that of the guitars themselves and this can make them seem somewhat inaccessible – at least in the short term. Being in such a situation personally, I was determined to find a way to experiment with all the possible effects while I saved up to buy a proper pedal and did quite a lot of digging to find a way to do so – though it wasn’t nearly as hard as I expected.

The first thing I needed (and that you need if you want to use a computer to mess around with effects) is a 1/4 inch to 3.5 mm jack – aka a little connector that lets you put the end of your guitar cable into one end and plug the 3.5 mm extension on the other side into the mic jack of your computer. In short, you’re routing your guitar signal directly into your laptop instead of running it through an amplifier*.

Next you’ll need a software application called Gnuitar. I’m a Linux user so I went looking for a cross-platform solution that works on both Windows and Linux (and I think Mac as well). It’s free and it requires no setting up whatsoever (other than selecting your effects). You just need to connect your guitar to your laptop (or any computer) as explained above and run the application. You’ll see a start button that will trigger the program to start outputting the incoming guitar signal through the speakers. Finally, you’ll notice a very diverse set of effects to choose from : (i)  two different distortion settings (ii) tremolo (iii) whammy (iv) wah-wah (v) reverb (vi) chorus and so on – plus some filters to help weed out any unwanted noise.

That’s it! Your computer now works as a distortion/effects pedal and all you need is a little 1/4 inch to 3.5 mm adapter that costs about one dollar and maybe an extra cable (see below). You can now mess around with all the cool effects you’ll be able to rock out to with an actual pedal (and hopefully be more motivated to save up and invest in one). I should point out that the software effects sound great but they don’t compare to an effects pedal dedicated to the purpose and it does sound pretty artificial when compared side-by-side with an authentic piece of quality gear. Still, it’s great for experimenting with different sounds and practicing when an actual pedal isn’t handy.

* You might need to run it through your amplifier before running it into the mic jack on your computer (thus requiring an extra guitar cable) depending on how strong (or not) the signal from your guitar pick-ups is (and the thickness of your strings). If you have to do this, be VERY careful to turn the amplifier up only as much as necessary so the software can pick-up the signal and process it. It’s very possible to damage your sound card by feeding it too much signal from the amplifier so use only as much as you need and you’ll be fine. You probably won’t even need to run it through your amp though.

I hope you enjoyed this post as much as I enjoyed writing it – and I hope my guide works for you. If for some reason you have trouble, you can email me at adminihatebarrechordscom and I’ll do my best to help you out. On that note, I’d love it if you visited my guitar forum or just checked out my website.

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The following is a guest post by Kevin Ian. If you are interested in guest posting, please contact me!

Hello kind readers! It has been quite some time since my last column. For my next series of posts, I decided to try something different: deconstructing my band’s music to show the use of various techniques I have discussed in earlier posts.

I will take a new song every few weeks and break down the basic chord formations and how I utilize various compositional techniques.

Hanged Men (http://thecommonmen.bandcamp.com/track/hanged-men-2)

This is one of the easiest songs off our newest album “Let it Burn.” It is also very typical in it’s angular guitar parts and post-punk influence.

The intro is a simple dyad of Dm (from low to high E A D G B E)

X X X 7 6 X

The second half to this riff is Dm F Bb A7

The second guitar comes in here with octave D C D E outlining various intervals of each chord.

When the main riff comes in again, the first guitar is “answered” by a second guitar playing

X X X 10 10 X

This second dyad finishes the rest of the Dm chord in the verses and provides a “call and response” feel to the riff itself

The chorus is another simple progression of Bb C Gm F Bb C Gm A7

There is nothing too special about the guitars during the chorus, but it is noteworthy to mention that while one utilizes full harmony chords

Bb X 8 8 7 6 X

C X 10 10 9 8 X

Gm X 5 5 3 3 X

F X 3 3 2 1 X

A7 X 0 2 0 2 0

The second guitar plays simple power chords with only the root and fifth of each chord. The result is a fuller sound and a bit more power when doubled by the bass.

I have included a video which includes the original recording of the song. Other bands that employ such techniques are pretty common amongst other post-punk bands and is very recognizable in the genre.

I hope you have enjoyed this new installment!

Kevin Ian’s band The Common Men can be found on iTunes, Spotify, Amazon and CD Baby. They will soon be on Pandora and have been garnering favorable reviews for their latest release “Let it Burn.” All of that information can be found on their main page http://www.thecommonmen.tk or via their Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/thecommonmen

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The following post is a guest post by Michael S. If you are interested in guest posting, please contact me!

Digital multi-effects pedals. Plug-ins.

You probably just cringed. Most guitarists who consider themselves worth a lick (puns!) can’t stand the thought of running their ax through anything that boasts “modeling” as if it’s an adequate substitute. Because hey man, there’s nothing like the real thing, right?

There was an article in the November 2011 issue of Premier Guitar, “The Beauty of DI” by Paul Allen. It talks about how people typically trash talk digital effects and usually lack all the knowledge needed to make such statements. I’d like to add, as an aside, I think that people get a little pretentious about shit because they think that’s how gear heads are supposed to act. Been guilty of it myself at times. And with ads and reviews coming at us from everywhere, abusing and overusing words like “tone” and “boutique” until they’ve lost all meaning, who can blame us?

The article’s not bad. It’s the column Tone Tips From The Road. Cool insight from a working musician.

Later on in the issue, in an interview with the band, Mastodon, guitarist Bill Kelliher mentions that he recorded 20 seconds of a solo on the band’s recent album using AmpliTube, and the rest he did in studio, the traditional way. I’ve listened to the track’s solo and I’d like to be able to say “Oh man, I totally hear the difference! WHAT A TONE SUCKING DIFFERENCE!” But honestly, that’s just wishful thinking, and probably is related to the fact that I happen to “know” it’s digital modeling at play. Sounds just fine to me.

Finally, I want to talk from personal experience. I used to be the guitarist in an 80′s dance band that worked steadily. I’m no longer with them, but they’re still going strong, making tons of dough. Their music varied drastically in terms of sounds and effects. You had U2, Duran Duran, Depeche Mode, Prince, The Cult, Bon Jovi, Tears For Fears, Erasure…and I wanted to produce sounds as accurately to the record as possible.

Originally, I had a rig of about twelve pedals that gave me every sound I was looking for, but there was a huge problem, I had to change the settings drastically between songs, which amounts to wasted stage time. So I took a chance at the high school dance with a missy who was ready to play, and despite hating a Digitech RP50 I had owned years before, bought a Digitech RP1000.

In short, it rocked. It did the job well and it did it in a timely fashion. I won’t say “BEST THING EVER! TUBES ARE OBSOLETE! SUCK IT, TONE-WHORES!!!” but I will say that the Digitech RP1000, and other pedals like it, are exceptional tools that guitarists shouldn’t write-off.

Two videos to check. One is a video I made showcasing some of the 80′s sounds I created. I have speech bubble links up on the video so you can jump around easily to different sounds. If you like ‘em, or think you can make ‘em better. Email me at insightfool25yahoocom, and I’ll see what I can do to get you the X-edit file.

The second video is way better. Because the guitarist is better and has a better studio. It’s guitarist Llexi Leon recording the Eternal Descent album. He recorded the entire album using the Digitech RP1000 through the front of a Marshall and comes up with some amazing sounds. I owned the thing and I don’t know how he got sounds this effing good. Check it!

All I’m saying is, I know it’s tempting to write off digital multi-effects and plug-ins, but they can definitely be useful, and that ignoring the stigma around them might help you create, which is the important part of this whole musicians thing we do.

 Michael S. is currently the bass player of Sam Cooper & The Sleepwalkers. You can check them out at . Also, he does pedal demos, reviews, and other music-type things here at http://www.youtube.com/user/StatusMusicDesign.

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The following is a guest post by Danny Dyson. If you are interested in guest posting, please contact me!

First of all, there is no absolute for great tone. What is there to factually and tangibly reference a ‘good’ tone? Obviously, there is no such thing as a tone meter.

While some guitarists are chasing a specific tone that they’re hearing in their head, there is a general ‘tone’ that you can aim for as a guitarist.

A good tone will (usually) not be too shrilly on the top end, and no too loose and saggy on the low end, with a good amount of midrange coming through. The goal is to get a focused sound that is pleasing to the ear, and extends off the stage into the audience naturally.

"The tone is in you fingers, not in your amp or effects" - Steve Vai

The best part is that killer guitar tone is very attainable with the right knowledge. I see far too many guitarists getting caught in the trap of the latest pedal, processor, amp, etc. The list goes on and on.

While your fingers can influence the tone you achieve with you guitar, there are some practical things that will help you on your journey toward good tone.

Changing Guitar Picks

One of the cheapest and easiest ways to tinker with your guitar sound is to experiment with different sizes and gauges of picks. A thicker pick tends to produce a darker sound, while thinner picks are more likely to produce a brighter sound. Although, super thick picks often produce a tone with less depth.

U2′s ‘The Edge’ has been known to use picks with some sort of grip on them such as the Dunlop Nylons or the harder to find Herdim picks. Supposedly he holds the pick backwards so that the grip part of the pick strikes the strings, which creates a bright ‘chime’ tone.

Changing String Gauges

Another easy way to alter your sound is via experimenting with different string gauges. A guitar strung with extra light gauge strings will sound completely different than the same guitar strung with medium or heavy gauge strings. It should be noted that changing string gauges on a guitar generally requires an intonation adjustment. Also, don’t forget to change your strings regularly. Old ‘dead’ sounding strings can make a $3000 guitar sound like a $300 guitar.

Experiment With Different Pickup Heights

Good quality pickups will produce a more complex and interesting sound. If you guitar sound is boring and lifeless, try getting some new pickups installed. Learn how to tweak you pickup height to optimize your guitar’s response. This makes a lot more of a difference than you might think, and in some unexpected ways!

Use Less Overdrive / Distortion

Use less than you think you need. I’m not sure of the physics behind why this is, but whenever I hear myself back on tape or hear someone else playing through my rig, I’m always struck by how much more distortion there is than I thought when I was playing. Also most amps do sound better cleaner.

Pedals: Less Is More

“True Bypass” is the big buzzword in the effects world these days, but it might not be the best option in every scenario. Learn where this format can maximize your tone, and where another approach might be a better way to go. In general, the more pedals you have, the more tone you stand to loose.

Tubes Are Better

Clued-in guitarists know that those glowing glass bottles are still the way to go for juicy rich tone. Tube amps not only saturate in a more manageable way producing a more pleasing distortion character, they also last longer. And don’t fool yourself: your amp is much more important than your guitar in creating a good tone. A cheapie Mexican strat can sound good through a high-quality rig, but nothing sounds good through a cheap trashy solid-state amp. Having said all that, there are great sounding solid-state amps out there, but they are the exception.

Find a Good Rhythm Tone

Most guitarists spend about 90% of their time practicing lead, but only 10% of their on-stage time actually playing lead. In between, you need to be able to make whoever is singing or playing sound good. When on stage, listen, REALLY LISTEN, to how your sound contributes to the overall sound of the band.

Leave The Bass To The Bassist

Rarely should you actively try to have more bass on your guitar. If you’re using a graphic EQ pedal to ‘fix’ your rig by adding more bass, something is wrong.

Your Say

How do you normally pull a good tone live? Have you discovered any tips that would help the rest of us?

About The Author

Hi, I’m Danny Dyson and I’m the writer and creator behind http://www.RockYourGuitar.com.  I have been playing guitar for over 20 years now and love it more every day.

I hope through my blog I can inspire and be inspired by other musicians. Music is a journey, and this is my way of sharing that.

You can check out my blog here: http://www.rockyourguitar.com

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The following is a guest post by Omar Findlay. If you are interested in guest posting, please contact me!

In this review I’m going to be talking about the SoundBlox Bass Envelope Filter, a new toy from the folks at Source Audio. It’s a funky little effect for your bass if you’re looking for something to spice up your pedal board a bit. This will definitely do the trick, and despite the minimalist interface, it has a lot under the hood.

Overview
The BEF has 21 preset envelope effects, which is an offering that other filters lack. The interface contains a minimal number of knobs (4) and each are clearly marked for their functions. The pedal itself takes up a little more space on a board than one might prefer, but it’s a minor thing since there are much larger pedals on the market. The power jack and input/output jacks are easily accessible and don’t get in the way. Time to plug it in and see what it can do!

The effects
The first thing that you’ll notice about the BEF is that it has 21 presets, each of which have a core setting, and are further adjustable with the other three knobs. The effects are categorized by filter setting (peak and notch, single/triple peak, 2/4-pole low pass, phasers) and all have their own unique sounds; he manual explains each effect in detail, which is very handy. The other three knobs allow you to get the exact sound you’re looking for once you’ve found your desired effect; ‘tone’ selects the centre frequency, ‘speed’ sets the filter’s attack and decay, and ‘sweep range’ determines the direction (negative/positive) and width (narrow/wide) of the frequency sweep. Any combination of those three knobs gives you access to thousands of sounds, which you’ll be discovering daily.

Extras
Source Audio has made this (and its other pedals) Hot Hand ready, which means that you’re able to plug in an accessory (sold separately) to the unit and manually control the filter sweep with your hand, finger – whatever you attach the ring to – thus making it similar in operation to a standard bass wah pedal. The Hot Hand is very useful because it gives you additional control without you having to adjust the pedal during a performance. Plus, the ring looks cool. What more could you ask for?

Pros and cons
pros: 21 presets, plus the ability to adjust them and get tons of different sounds out of them. This unit is also very easy to use and quick to learn.
Cons: no wet/dry knob (very minor issue).

Conclusion
If you’re looking for a good envelope filter that can do what the others can and more, don’t overlook this pedal. It’s versatile, it looks cool, it’s got 21 presets, a ‘handy’ accessory, and best of all… it costs less than the others but does just as well. Sure, there’s no save function for all the settings you’re going to find, but that’s a small price to pay for something that is very well-designed and very capable.

Thanks for reading

For more information about Omar Findlay, please check out his blog at backtobassics.wordpress.com. Omar is also in the band Edo & the Best (Visit them on MySpace and Facebook)

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The following a guest post by Brian Porter of Porter Pickups. The guest post is a very detailed procedure on how to replace pickups in your Fender Strat! If you’re looking to change/replace pickups, please take a look at Porter Pickups, he makes some fantastic pickups that are starting to find themselves in boutique guitars and in guitars of musicians looking to improve their tone. Check out PorterPickups.com for sound clips and make sure you follow them on Twitter and Facebook.

If you are interested in guest posting or submitting a guest review, please contact me!

Installing Strat Pickups. Step by step for putting new pickups in a strat style guitar.

Tools for the Job: -25-40Watt Soldering Iron-Solder -Phillips Screwdriver -String Winder -Tweezers (Optional) -Wire Cutters
Remove the Strings String Winders can save some time here.
Remove Pickguard Screws Remove all screws around the perimeter of the pickguard. Don’t touch the pickup or selector switch screws yet. If the strings can’t get out of the holes in the backplate, you might need to remove this as well.
Keep Screws in a Safe Place Put all the pickguard screws in a safe place, so you don’t lose them. Nothing like having a pickguard with one missing screw!
Pickguard is off….
Flip Pickguard Over…. It will still be attached with the jack wires, and the ground wire to the bridge, so make sure you carefully turn it over and don’t pull too hard on it.
Find where the wires go One wire from each pickup will go the the selector switch… Usually the white or “hot” from the pickup. In this case, the middle pickups “Hot” is yellow.
And one wire from each pickup will be soldered to the back of the volume pot…. The black wires from the pickups will be the “ground” Refer to wiring diagrams from places like www.guitarelectronics.com to make sure everything will go back in the right place. Watch where the neck, middle and bridge wires connect to the switch!
Unsolder Old Pickups Touch your soldering iron to the metal portion of the switch. The solder will heat up, and you can remove the wires from the old pickups. Eye protection is a good idea here.
Repeat the same process and unsolder black ground wires from the back of the volume pot…
Wires are now off! Time for some new tone!
Remove old pickups from pickguard Unscrew the pickups from each side, and keep the existing screws for mounting the pickups (We’ll use these again)
Pickups are out!
Spring or Tube? Many Pickups come with either a spring or a tube. We prefer to use the tube for pickup mounting, but you can use the same springs from the old pickups if you would like.
New pickups ready We’re installing our Porter 1960′s Strat pickups for this one.
Time to give this guitar a great new sound….
Install new Pickups Spring tube shown here with the cover on
It compresses and works to raise and lower the pickup height… For now, just make sure the pickups are sticking above the pickguard, we’ll fine tune the height later.
Pickups in!
Tape wires To make a neat wire path
Route the black ground wires Pull them past the bridge pickup, and tape them together near the volume pot.
Cut black wires to length Remember, they will solder to the back of the volume pot, so cut them near the middle of the volume pot.
Prep wires for soldering Here we are using vintage style cloth “push back” wire. You can push back the outer cloth to reveal the wire inside. For other plastic coated pickup wires, you.ll need to use a wire stripper. Leave about 1/4″ for soldering.
Solder to volume pot Put some solder on your wires before soldering to the back of the volume pot. This will make the connection easier. You might also need to put some more solder on the volume pot. Heat up the solder with your iron, and attach all three wires. Tweezers come in hand here since the wires can get hot.
Solder wires to switch Repeat the cutting, push back/ stripping of the white (Hot) wires and solder them to the appropriate lugs of the 5-way switch. Refer to a wiring diagram if you get lost. In this picture it is Bridge, Middle, Neck (Left to right)
Check your wiring job Turn the pickguard over and tap on the pickup magnets with your screwdriver to make sure they are making a sound at the right positions (1-5 on the selector switch). Shown here is the checking of the bridge pickup. If the neck and bridge are backwards, you can reverse the wires on your selector switch.
If it works right , put it back together Put in all the pickguard screws, and restring the guitar. After you have the strings on and can play it a bit, adjust the pickups heights to taste. Usually a nice balance between all three pickups volume wise is a good idea. Some people like the bridge “hotter” so they will raise that pickup higher than the other.

Enjoy your new pickups Often times a great playing guitar can be upgraded with new pickups for a lot less than buying a new guitar. If you have questions about pickups, please visit us online at www.porterpickups.com

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