Effects Bay

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 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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So this morning, while drinking my morning cup o’  Joe, I was cruising around Amazon, and stumbled across the book titled “Guitar Effects Pedals the Practical Handbook“. Below is the official description of the book.

Starting with the dawn of effects building and continuing to the present day, this detailed compendium investigates effects pedals and how they can supercharge a guitarist’s sound. Experienced player Dave Hunter offers insight from the top builders and tips on how to get the most from each pedal. The author also dissects chains used by top guitarists in creating memorable recordings. The accompanying CD features standard as well as unusual sounds from a wide range of pedals, and classic combinations used by the guitar greats.

I do not personally own any books about guitar effects (though, I do have  a few on my wish list) but this caught my eye for several reasons.

Number one, I have a friend that is ‘fairly’ new to guitar playing is and is VERY interested in guitar effects, basically what they’re capable and what kind of options effects can provide him. I’m thinking this might be a good guide to help him understand the gist of what’s out there. (I still say the foundation starts with a good guitar and a good amp)

Number two, I personally think it’s interesting that the ‘quest for tone’ and finding that ‘unique voice’ is a desire had by every guitarist, while also the ability ‘clone’ others (ie: aquire the Hendrix tone, etc) is also there. I also think it’s interesting, I’m very guilty of this, to be stuck in a settings rut. Having pedals, and thinking it only sounds good when the knobs are set to X, Y and Z. Our ear is trained to hear what we like.. and what we’re use to. The application, the band, the guitar and the particular song can provide opportunities for absolutely crazy settings, but if you’re not willing to learn what your pedals are capable of (good or bad) how can you dip your toe in that particular pool?

Personally, when I see other guitarists and see their gear, I always pay attention to their settings (if I have the same pedal) just to see what they like and how they use it in their song. Is it a lead boost, do they use it as a rhythm fattener? Do they have the pre-wah or post-wah?

How well do you know your pedals?

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Not sure why I want to go back to this. Maybe because this pedal is absolutely awesome. We had a guest post by Bobby Morelli about the Bad Cat 2-Tone which was extremely great, and I was just re-reading that today.

In my band, our other guitarist uses the Bad Cat 2-Tone in conjunction with a Matchless DC-30. It sounds amazing, and I’m a big fan of the tone from that pedal. To me, there is no other pedal that adds the meat or growl to your tone in a ‘natural’ way. It’s almost like another amp in itself.

My largest.. and I guess only complaint, is the noise. The pedal is noisy, but for heavier work (like what we play) you never notice anything except between songs, etc. The chassis is one of the beefiest I’ve ever seen, and they’re absolutely built to last.

I found this video that nicely describes what this guitar can do.

As with all things, quality does come with a price. This pedal runs around $349 at Musician’s Friend, but it is a pretty amazing pedal if you’re after some awesome tone. Anyone out there have the Bad Cat x-treme tone?

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It’s always remember to start with the best tone you can before pedals. Depending on how you use pedals (lead tones or creating textured tones for rhythm guitar) you could be using a wide variety of pedals. What I don’t like to see is people using pedals to ‘fix’ their tone. I understand from a budget point of view, pedals might be your only option. It’s a hard if you have a solid state amp and are searching for that quality Class A tone. You might get close with some emulators and modelers but in the end, the best way to get a Class A tone is to get a Class A amp. Likewise, I seen a guy trying to model a strat tone on his Les Paul. To me that just blows me away. I think picking up a strat might be a good option to get a quality strat tone. Again, budget is a factor, but if you want anything bad enough.. things will come your way automatically.

As for me, I like to start with good guitar, a good amp, and then build the tones with pedals where I’m trying to fill a tone gap. Usually this is specifically with lead tones. It’s hard to get the boost, thickness and gain with standard amp or footswitch, so your options are to beef/boost it up with pedals. Also if you’re looking for the delay/slap back for rhythm/lead you need to work it with a pedal. A friend of mine once mentioned to me (about delays), if you’re not playing well or if your tone is not-so-great, with delays, you get to hear it over and over and over again.  So start with the source, get the chops, get the gear and get the quality tone foundation to start with.

One thing I didn’t consider is the style of band you play in. Currently, I play in original bands, and have developed my style of playing and sound. I play this way, I sound this way, and that’s all there is to it. But let’s say you’re in a cover band and need to sound like 100 different guitar players… I can understand opting for a modeler of some sort. Usually, the best cover bands I see, the guy has a les paul and a strat and a couple of amps. Seems like that would cover your bases pretty easily.

I’m hoping there will be some discussion related to this post, I’m curious what others have to say about this. I’m really just describing my single point of view.

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