Thursday 3 January 2013

Guitar Pedals Explained



One of the best things about an electric guitar is the freedom that it provides in terms of what kind of sound you want and the sheer variety of sounds and effects that you can get out of it. Thanks to effects, an electric guitar can be just about anything.

Guitar pedals or stomp boxes, as they’re often referred to, is an important piece of hardware used by guitar players to alter, change and customize the sound of their electric guitars and add effects to its sound.

These effects allow you to make the kind of noise you would want to with your guitar, for instance if you want to sound like someone, or allow you to create your own unique sound and define your own style.

If you’re unfamiliar with the world of guitar effects, or want to know what some of them are, here are a few of the most popular ones:

1. Distortion (and Fuzz and Overdrive)

Self-explanatory and extremely-popular are two words that do an apt job of describing this effect. Distortion pedals are the most popular pedals in modern-day guitar-playing, and give your guitar that unclean, distorted sound, usually head in and associated with rock, punk and metal genre music. Distortion can be anything from clean, smooth and melodic tube overdrive to harsh, highly-distorted, heavier and meatier sound. Distortion effects include Fuzz and Overdrive, the latter of which allows you to deliver a good ‘tube’ sound.

2. Delay (and Reverb)

A delay effect essentially repeats the original sound after a set period, usually in milliseconds or longer, creating an ‘echo’ effect of sorts. A similar effect called Reverb uses processing to simulate sound so that it feels as if sound is ‘reflecting’ off the different surfaces, making it fuller (such as the sound heard in a hall or an enclosed venue). Delay/reverb allows you to choose from different room sizes. In the 50s and 60s, musicians regularly used tape-based delays to produce echoes, and some are even designed to sound like some of the spring reverbs of yesteryear, although most modern-day reverbs are digital delay units.

3. Wah Pedals

Often referred to as Wah Wah pedals, these pedals are used to change and filter the tones from the incoming guitar signal, filtering frequencies dynamically using the foot to give a ‘wah wah’ or a ‘quacking’ sound to the guitar. In essence, it is an equalizer that can be varied using the foot in real-time. Not for beginners, since a certain amount of coordination is required to coordinate the movement of the foot with that of your playing.

4. Chorus

The chorus effect is a time-based effect, in which a slightly detuned, modulated and delayed clone of the signal is played along with the original, producing a ‘doubling’ effect of sorts (which can be controlled), hence producing a thicker tone.  The delay can be controlled, helping produce a subtle or noticeable clone-effect to your tone and sound.

5. Flanger

Both of these effecrs are quite similar to chorus – the flanger effect, for starters, was produced by playing back the same sound on multiple tape decks, while an engineer used a finger on the tape reel’s edge to speed up or slow the clone signals. This is in fact why this effect came to be known as ‘flanger’ in the first place. In modern times, the same effect is duplicated by employing digital delays which are set to extremely short times and inverting the signal’s phase.

6. Phaser

Another time-based effect, like the two above it, that lies somewhere in between the chorus and the much-more-subtle flanger. Most notably used by the likes of Rolling Stones and Eddie van Halen on many of their records, the phaser is quite similar to the chorus effect but the signal changes from in-phase to out-of-phase constantly, giving an affect which is similar to a rotating speaker.  

7. Compressor

The compressor or sustain effect limits the dynamic range of a signal, which results in more profound and a noticeably-obvious softer sound, while limiting the louder ones – which means that it is the opposite effect of overdrive. The compressor sustains the notes without degrading the sound quality. This effect is also known as a classic studio effect, and the older compressor effect units were quite noisy, however the modern compressors have certain system that cut off the signal once it reaches a particular level, keeping the sound soft.

8. Multi-effects Pedal

This is the king of all stomp-boxes; the multi-effects pedal as the name implies, includes all of the effects above, as well as a whole host of other effects as well. In fact, a few of the multi-effects pedals have so many effects, they can completely change and alter the sound of the guitar that it doesn’t even sound like one anymore! These all-in-one effect pedals can replace any and all other stomp-boxes/effects-pedals that you might have.

Wednesday 2 January 2013

Playing and Performing Live 101



Here is a great list of tips and tricks, what to do and what not to do and general tips and advice (and essential gear to carry) for guitar players planning on taking the stage:

Things to Do Before the Gig

1. Practice. And I don’t mean in the last 10 minutes, I mean getting an ample amount of practice way before the date of the performance and well in advance. The more, the merrier. The amount of practice that you get will be crucial to your performance. Getting a few good practice sessions under the belt can be of immense benefit; think of the practice hours that you put in as providing you with a familiar path that tells you exactly where to go and how you’re going to get there.

2. Check your instruments and your equipment – specifically your guitar and amp. Your guitar should have a fresh set of strings installed, and it should be tuned up and ready to go. Make sure that you tune up your back-up guitar as well (yes, carry a back-up, more on that in a bit). Your amp should be in good shape, and set up properly for the performance. And perhaps as importantly, a good-quality guitar cable can make all the difference as far as good (or bad) you sound. In addition, check if you have everything that you’ll need, such as picks, a tuner, capo, etc.

3. Turn on your amplifier around 5-10 minutes before the start, as this allows the tubes to warm-up sufficiently before you start playing.

4. Make sure that you (a) warm-up before the performance, and (b) check your equipment before you take the stage. Warming-up is essential, as we’ve discussed plenty of times on this blog – it allows you to play and perform at optimum levels, and readies you for the performance mentally as well as physically.  Check all guitars, amps, pedals and gear backstage, or during the sound-check, including the volume of your pedals and guitars.

5. Always carry water with you on the stage. You may think that you won’t need it, or if it might be a better idea to hydrate sufficiently before taking the stage, but you’ll be surprised how quickly your mouth can dry up and how thirsty you can get after just a couple of minutes! Always carry a water bottle with you on the stage.  

6. Once you get on the stage, remember to introduce yourself and your band, each and every one of them by name would be a good idea.

List of Essential Gear:

As a guitar player planning to play live, here is a list of essential gear that you should carry with you and have on you:

1. Spare guitar: This is essential, because there’s really no way of knowing when there might be a problem with your guitar, and if something happens to your guitar in the middle of a performance, or the gig, well, it can be quite embarrassing if you don’t have a backup. Which is why it is essential to carry one with you at all times. Make sure that your backup guitar is in good shape, works, and is properly tuned.

2. Spare strings: This is easily every guitar player’s worst nightmare! Like it or not, your strings will break sooner or later, and it can be quite awkward if you don’t have a backup guitar, or worse, you’re not carrying spares. Always carry a few sets of spare strings to save you from embarrassment of having to stop during a guitar solo!

3. A tuner: I say this from personal experience: nothing can be quite as embarrassing as playing live in front of people on a guitar that hasn’t been tuned, or a badly-tuned guitar! Remember that as a guitar player, you’re as good as your guitar. A terrible-sounding guitar will reflect badly upon you, whereas a guitar that plays well and sounds good will allow you to put in a pitch-perfect performance. So keep a tuner handy.

4. Spare picks, strap(s) and cables: The simple fact is that things can be lost or they might break. Carrying spares relieves you of any headaches if (or rather when) that happens. Carry at least 5 picks with you and keep them in your pocket for easy access. Similarly, bring a guitar strap in case it breaks, and keep spare cables on you that are long enough for the stage.

Things to Avoid Before the Gig

1. DO NOT drink or get high before the gig! Ever! Stay away from alcohol or drugs at all costs.

2. Share gear and equipment. Never make the mistake of sharing gear or expect to borrow strings or picks from someone else; make it a rule to carry your own gear as well as spares.

Things to Do After the Gig

1. Give yourself a pat on the back for a job well done, and congratulate your band members as well (if you were playing with any, that is).

2. If it wasn’t a great performance, don’t beat yourself up over it, learn! Don’t let it get you down, and learn from your mistakes. If you know where you fell short, you know what you’ll need to do in order to fix things and not repeat the same mistakes the next time.

3. Feel free to have a drink or two, post-performance, however keep in mind what bad hangover feels like while you’re at it.

4. Learn from your experience, take something away from every gig. Learn from your mistakes and make sure you work on fixing them and that they don’t happen again. Make sure that reflect back on your performance as a whole, and that you take something away from it and learn something from experience.

Tuesday 1 January 2013

Best Bang-for-the-buck Guitar Amplifiers



Buying a guitar amplifier is as important a decision as buying the electric guitar itself. A cheap or underperforming guitar amp will make you sound horrible, even if you pair it up with a $1100 Gibson Les Paul Studio!

On the other hand, a good amplifier can even make a rookie sound like a pro (well, sort of)!

Too many times I’ve seen technically-adept and talented guitar players and musicians go on the verge of giving up playing the guitar, simply because they couldn’t sound good or sound like they wanted/hoped/expected to, despite going through different guitars and even spending big on really expensive guitars.

At the end of the day, it turns out that their problem was their cheap-ass amplifier all along.

So it is essential to remember that an amp is instrumental (literally!) when it comes to the sound produced by your guitar. A good amp can be the difference between sounding great, or well, not-so-great.

This purpose of this article is to serve as a guide which lists down some of the best amplifiers out there on a budget. So here are a few great amplifiers that beginner as well as experienced electric guitar players can get without breaking the bank!

(Since this is ‘bang-for-the-buck amp guide’, it was essential to list the prices. All prices have been taken off online sources such as MusiciansFriend or GC, and were accurate at the time of writing).

1. Fender Blues Jr. III ($549)

Yes, Fender’s Blues Junior III is a bit pricey, and not exactly a ‘budget’ offering, but I simply HAD to put it up in this list. This tube amp sounds fantastic, and it will make amateur guitar players sound good! The amp contains 3x 12AX7 preamp tubes, as well as 2x EL84 power tubes. The Blues Jr. III belongs to the Hot Rod series of amps, arguably one of the most popular and widely-used guitar amplifier series out there. Simple, no-frills, reliable and loud are just some of the words that can be used to describe this amp. The Jr. III packs 15W of power, a spring reverb, reverb, master, middle, bass, treble and ‘fat’ switch and volume controls, along with a 12” Fender speaker. If you have the greens, dump your old amp and go get. this. now!

2. Vox AC4VTV ($249)

I’m a big fan of Vox amplifiers (who isn’t?!), they are universally used and loved amplifiers, and the AC4VTV tube-amp is one of the reasons why. This all-tube practice amp is the modern version of Vox’s (now) 51-year-old AC4 amplifier (way back from the 60s). It contains the El84 power tube of the original AC4, and has a 12AX7 pre-amp behind a custom-made Celestion 10” speaker. Also comes with a built-in power attenuator, which means the amp retains a full tone at lower volumes, ensuring you don’t lose that classic tube tone even at the lowest listening levels. And if that wasn’t enough, Vox made sure that the AC4VTV looks as retro as possible and is a solid amp in terms of build quality that can also take a fair amount of abuse between gigging or performing!

3. Marshall Class 5 ($250)

The first version of the Marshall Class 5 combo amp came with its fair share of problems. Last year, the all-new, revised version of the Class 5 combo amp say the light of day and it was a much-improved product for one of the biggest musical instruments and amp manufacturers in the world! The Class 5 provides true Marshall tube-tone at an excellent price. Its 1x10 tube amp packs 5W of power, that does a great job of recreating the Marshall sound, that class A tone, and a rich and smooth distortion heard in some of the bigger amps, and it does it in a much small combo amp. It features a top-panel with volume, treble, middle, and bass control – as simple as it gets. It houses 2x ECC83 preamp tubes, and 1x EL84 power amp tube. The amp is built in the UK. A great budget amplifier!

4. Fender Mustang 1 ($110)

The Fender Mustang 1 is an outstanding practice amp, with an even better price! It packs 20 watts of pure power under the hood, as well as an 8” speaker. People who’ve used the Mustang 1 say it’s one of the most versatile amplifiers out there because there’s a lot to play with, not only on the amp itself, but because the amp comes with the excellent FUSE program, which allows players a lot of options as far as tone modification is concerned. The amp has 24 onboard present effects, including the usual chorus, tremolo, phaser, plus many delay and reverb effects. One of the best aspects about the amp is the sheer power that it packs; 20W might be a bit excessive particularly for a practice amp, but it makes the amp more multi-purpose and versatile. For the price that it’s going for right now, it makes for an excellent proposition.

5. Fender Frontman 212R ($300)

Fender advertises this solid-state combo amp as ‘powerful, affordable and ridiculously affordable’ and that aptly describes this amplifier. This Fender offering packs a real punch – 100 watts of power, which makes it loud as hell, and a whole host of high-end features that Fender only offers on some of its more-expensive amps – such as dual 12-inch speakers pumping out 100W of solid-state power (50W each) with enough depth and clarity, ideal for just about any practice session, as well as playing in large venues. Moreover, there are two selectable and versatile audio channels (including a dedicated 3-band EQ for each channel) which provide clean, warm, crystal-clear tones (ideal for jazz) on one end, as well as amazing distortion and overdrive (becoming the perfect hard rock and heavy metal amplifier). The Frontman 212R also has those ‘classic Fender looks’. There’s also no need to purchase a channel footswitch separately, since the amp comes with one.

Monday 31 December 2012

The Ultimate Electric Guitar Buying Guide



If you’re in the market for a new electric guitar, and if you’ve been thinking of getting your very first electric or upgrading to one, you’ve come to the right place!

Buy a guitar – any guitar – is a major decision and a big thing for any musician. There’s so much to choose from that choosing a guitar can quickly become quite overwhelming – there are a lot of brands to look at, and an even larger number of guitars to choose from. Then there are countless other things to consider, such as different specs, wood types, and of course budget considerations.

The fact is that with some basic knowledge about electric guitars, coupled with a little bit of research, buying a new electric axe can be as easy as shopping for, well, just about anything else!

Here’s my version of the electric guitar buying guide, that will enable you to get an instrument that it best suited to your needs and budget:

Setting the budget

Before we start, it is essential to set the budget for your purchase; how much money would you be willing to spend on your guitar. This goes for just about anything that you purchase; setting a budget for your purchase is essential.

A good guitar, made by one of the more well-known brands out there, for instance, come for as low as $100, and can go as high as $10,000 – at times even higher! Set a budget for your purchase, so that you don’t end up overspending. For instance if you set a budget for $400, your primary aim would be to look for the best-possible guitar within your budget.

The key takeaways from this are that (a) it is important to set a budget, and then stick to it, and (b) always buy a branded instrument!

Electric guitar basics

Like I said before, a little basic knowledge about electric guitar will go a long way in helping you choose one.

The most important thing you need to know about electric guitars is that unlike acoustic guitars, they produce no sound themselves. This is because unlike ‘hollow-body’ acoustic guitars, electrics are solid-body instruments, made out of wood of course (more on this in a bit). The sound that you hear from an electric guitar is produced electronically: by means of an electromagnetic pickup, and external amplification. Let’s see how this works:

Electric guitar bodies usually house one or more pickup(s) – these are electromagnets installed beneath the strings that convert string vibration into electronic signals. These electric signals are then passed through an externally-attached amplifier, hence producing the sound that you hear.

Pickups come in different types and kinds. The quality of the pickup is one of the important factors when it comes to determining a guitar’s sound and its overall quality. Guitars with high-quality pickups produce the best sound, and hence are quite pricey as well.

Amplifiers, or amps, for short, need to be bought separately – which ends up adding to the cost of the package. Like it is important to buy a good electric guitar, it is equally essential to invest in a good amplifier. Like you electric guitar, your amplifier will remain with you for a long time – maybe even longer than your guitar does. For instance I’ve bought and sold many different electric guitars over the years, but my trusty old Vox VT30 has remained my faithful companion for a good part of the decade now!

Different types of electric guitars

There are 3 different kinds of electric guitars:

1. Solid-body: The most common type of electric guitar design. The first solid-body electric guitar was the Gibson Les Paul. Solid-body electric guitars can take just about any shape or design. Solid-body electrics are the most commonly-found electric guitars out there.

2. Hollow-body/semi-hollow body: Hollow-body electric guitars are essentially acoustic guitars with a pickup on them, making them ideal jazz instruments. Similarly, semi-hollow electric guitars, also known as semi-acoustic or acoustic-electric guitars, are best-suited to the blues or the jazz genres. Both these types of guitars have hollow-bodies similar to acoustic guitars, but with the additional ability that their sound can be easily amplified, if you’re playing in a large space, for instance.

3. Chambered: Solid-body guitars with sealed chambers carved into them, in order to decrease their weight and increase resonance. Not very common at all.

Wood types

The wood type, along with the pickup of course, has a big bearing on the guitar’s tone and sound, most importantly, as well as its playability, feel, build-quality, and longevity/durability. The wood used in a guitar’s construction also determines the price of the guitar – electric guitars made from commonly-found wood types are cheaper to produce (and hence cheaper to buy) than some of more expensive, more-uncommon wood types:

1. Alder: light-weight wood, which provides a balanced tone. Used mostly to construct the body.

2. Ashwood: The most-commonly used wood in the construction of solidbody electric guitars. It has a high sustain, a well-defined midrange, and an overall balanced tone.

3. Basswood: Light in weight, and has a warm sound.

4. Mahogany: Used in body and neck construction, medium weight, with a warm sustain.

5. Maple: Used in body, neck as well as fretboard construction, similar qualities to mahogany. Bright sound, great sustain and excellent for dense, hard and fast playing.

6. Rosewood: Used mostly in fretboard construction. Plays smooth, fast and has a warm tone.

7. Ebony: Expensive! Very hard wood type, smooth-sounding and ideal for fast playing. As far as sound goes, very bright sound with a long sustain.

8. Pau Ferro: Expensive, used only in high-end guitar fretboard construction. It is a very hard wood type like ebony, and brighter-sounding than rosewood and warmer than ebony.

Pickup types

As I mentioned earlier, the pickups that are used in the construction of an electric guitar have a big impact on its sound (along with the wood-type of course). The 3 most common types of pickups used on modern-day electric guitars include:

1. Single-coil: This pickup has a single magnetic bar surrounded by an extremely fine piece of wire, that produces an electric current each time the string vibrates within the pickup’s magnetic field. The single-coil pickups are the most basic kind of pickups, used on some of the earliest electric guitars. It is still the most commonly-used pickup type used in guitars.

2. Humbucker: A common problem associated with single-coil setups was the humming noise produced during playing. Enter the humbucker pickup: these pickups counter the humming noise by two coils wrapped opposite each other, eliminating any humming and instead producing a smooth, round tone. Read more here.

3. Piezo: The main advantages of Piezoelectric pickups is that they do no pick up any other magnetic fields, eliminating any hum or feedback, making the guitar ‘silent’ and ideal for practice. They are made of a crystalline material, which produces a very small electric current. They also require ‘pre-amplification’ before they are fed to the amp.

Neck types

This is generally split into 3 types:

1. Bolt-on necks: Bolt-on necks were considered to be the pioneer in terms of mass-production of the guitar, as well as making the electric guitar cheap and affordable. Attached to the body by 4 screws, running through the back of the body and into the back of the neck. Due to its qualities, it is the easiest to replace or repair as well.

2. Set neck: Refers, in simple terms, to guitar necks glued to the body of the guitar.

3. Neck-through: The first two kinds of necks usually consisted of two separate pieces, attached to the body by screws or glue. Neck-through refers to guitars constructed with a single piece of wood, starting from the headstock all the way to the tail.

Guitar price

Bear in mind that buying quality does not mean that you HAVE to spend big. You’ll be surprised to know that you can get some amazing electric guitars for under $500 – as low as $100-200 even! Look at instruments made by the likes of Squier and Epiphone such as the Squier Telecaster or the Epiphone Les Paul; these are quality guitars – perhaps the closest you can get to the real Tele or the LP – and don’t cost an arm and a leg!

Buying a guitar should never be a difficult thing to do, provided you have a fair amount of knowledge, and know-how of what you’re getting yourself into. Remember that a guitar is an investment, and ideally, you would want to get the most out of your investment, and for it to last you long.

Quality guitars don’t come cheap, a good Les Paul, for instance, could set you back by $1000. Similarly, PRS, Jackson, Ibanez and Fender instruments cost a good amount of money. If you have deep pockets and if some of the guitars that you like fit in your budget, go for it. If not, there’s plenty of more reasonably-priced alternatives to be looked at!