Pedalboard In Action

Since I recently posted about my pedalboard, it's only fair that I show you what it actually sounds like. This is an outtake from a 10 minute recording I made by mic'ing up my Park G10 practice amp (basically, a Korean made solid state Marshall). On this piece, you'll hear my Les Paul Double Cutaway guitar (check it out here) using the rythm (neck) pickup, playing through the Boss overdrive and delay units (set to a slight slapback). I'm kicking in the Phase 90 at about a third of the way through the track with an extreme, Leslie-speaker type setting, then roll it back for a slower phasing effect. Check out the crunch this latter setting adds to my tone, I just love it... Oh yeah, the backing track is played on the Boss RC-2 Loop Station (this loop came stock with the pedal). Enjoy!

Live Guitar 1.mp3

Reptile

Here's a recording I made this evening. The song is called Reptile, one of the numbers we're doing with my band, Sixorange. The lyrics were written by Mark Theis, music by yours truly. I also sampled a recording posted on freesound by sagetyrtle (that's the howling wind you hear at the beginning and end of the track). I used my trusty old Samson USB condenser mic for both guitar and vocals. I'm not very happy with the quality of the latter but it's only a demo, it'll do. Oh, by the way, I did get a little carried away, as I sometimes do, and hadn't noticed how late it was. I have a rather "civilized" neighbour who believes that the best way to let me know that I'm too loud is to turn up his stereo, thereby ensuring that everyone gets their fair share of late night entertainment in the building. And he has to have horrible taste judging by the stuff he puts on. (Luckily, my mic didn't pick up his crap oompah techno record :)...) Anyway, dude, if you ever read this, next time you hear me banging away on my acoustic and howling at the moon, feel free to ring my doorbell and tell me to shove it face to face. I ain't gonna bite you...

Reptile (acoustic)...

Going Acoustic

Just had some of the best time tonight. The band decided to bring acoustic instruments for rehearsal and it worked out great. The dynamics of the songs just came out much better that way. We'll keep working on our program like this, it just sounded so good... For one, we could actually hear each other. And I guess it was better for the vocalists as well, not having to fight my 100W amplifier. Anyway I can only recommend it to anyone who gets stuck with working their sound. It's a change of settings and it therefore makes you think differently about your songs. And you also hear a lot more, stuff that you miss when your volume is maxed out. It's really worth a try.

In Effect

Check out my new pedal board. Unpacking and hooking up all my pedals had become quite a hassle, so I finally decided to dish out the cash. I also bought a Phase 90 to complete my floor arsenal. Here's the signal path: Ibanez LU10 tuner -> Cry Baby GCB-95 -> MXR Phase 90 -> Boss OD-3 -> Boss DD-3 -> Boss RC-2.

Originally, I intended to use Guitar Rig 2 running on my laptop in the effects loop of my amp. Although GR2 has an unbelievable amount of effects and awesome amp, speaker and mic emulations and sounds great live, it proved unpractical for many reasons. First, the laptop is much too delicate for the stage. Second, the many features GR2 offers are overkill for a player like me, who tends to use a constant tone throughout the set.

I therefore decided to rely on trusty old stomp boxes. The only effect I had initially was my Cry Baby wah-wah pedal. I then got the Boss OD-3 Overdrive to give me some boost for solos, but I grew fond of the nasal character of its tone. Then I found my old Marshall Drivemaster, which I’ve been using a lot for the last couple of months but has fallen out of favor recently. It tends to be slightly too brash for my taste. I received the RC-2 Loop Station as a gift from my wife this Xmas. That’s an awesome practice and songwriting tool. I love it to death at the moment. However, I haven’t been able to integrate it into my live playing, mainly because of its accuracy. Drummers are less so ;), so the loop eventually falls out of tempo…

Anyway, when I got this far in collecting pedals, I began to think about what other effects I will need. I was definitely sure about a delay pedal, though. I decided to get the Boss DD-3, which is simple enough. It does up to 800 ms of delay but I usually have it set to a slight “slap back” echo to add a little space to my leads and clean guitar parts. I can also play around with the knobs for some weird sound effects. I knew I could also use some sort of modulation effect. While recording at home with GR2, I got into using phaser effects for nice liquid rhythms and outlandish warbling. I chose the MXR Phase 90 for its crunchy tone and utter simplicity. The fact that the rubber cover on the knob allows you to change the speed of the phasing effect with the tip of your shoe while playing, is a great plus.

I now feel that I have a nice array of sonic tricks in my bag to keep stuff interesting without overdoing it. With the new pedal board, I have everything set and powered up, so all I have to do is plug into my amp and play.