Guitar Effects Advice

Guitar Effects Advice

Guitar effects pedals can add a whole range of tones and sounds to a guitarist playing that would not otherwise be achievable. It is quite possible for a guitarist to spend more on their effects than on their amp or guitar to sculpt the correct tone. Pedals can also degrade tone quality, so understanding how to set them up is important to minimizing these issues.

1. The "Best" Pedal

o The tone qualities of pedals are subjective, so there is no such thing as a best one. Any well built pedal is likely to have a guitarist get more out of it. Even having a larger range of settings is not necessarily a good quality for everyone. A distortion pedal with a higher level of gain will work for someone that will turn it up, but for lower gain users, it would not usually allow the same level of fine tuning as a pedal with a smaller range. Advice on reliability and quality is useful when looking at pedals, but tone and function are subjective from player to player.

Pedal Order

o The order of effects pedals is important, but there is no single correct setup. Changing the order of the pedals will usually alter the tone and the function of the effects when combined. A volume pedal in front of many pedals will alter the signal strength going into the pedal, which can greatly alter how that effect functions (particularly with something like distortion or overdrive), while a volume pedal after an effect will alter the signal strength, but mostly maintain the tone characteristics of that pedal.
The most significant exception to this rule are tuners, which function the best at the front of the chain (or in the separate tuner loop that is a feature of some amps). Tuners need to measure the pitch of the guitar strings, and will be much better able to do this with as pure of a signal as possible. Tuners are not going to provide a good reading after many effects, since many of them do have a minor effect on pitch.

True Bypass and Buffered Effects

o There is a misconception that true bypass is automatically a good feature on a guitar effect pedal. In some cases this is true, but in other cases, a guitarist would likely be better off with at least some buffered effects. True bypass pedals basically route the signal directly from the pedal input to output when the pedal is off. A buffer pedal will have the signal go through some circuitry, even if the pedal is off.
True bypass pedals are usually better for guitarists with only a handful of pedals. Passing the signal through buffer circuitry will alter the sound a little bit, but true bypass is not all that different in tone from passing through a guitar cable. On the other hand, guitarists with massive pedal boards will find that adding buffered pedals to the mix will help improve the signal clarity and definition. If only true bypass pedals are used in these longer chains, then it ends up being equivalent to passing the signal through a long enough guitar cable that the signal will start to degrade. Buffered pedals help to maintain the signal strength through these longer pedal boards by helping to boost and clear the signal.

Guitatist Stage Skills

This article will hopefully give the reader some basic pointers that might help improve how a performer looks and presents him or herself on stage. I've also included some pointers on how to build a music set. It is mostly intended for acoustic players who also sing since playing or singing alone is a little easier to do. Other guitarists might also benefit from the pointers, but if you've been on stage for a while, you probably already know them.

Placement

The closer you are to the edge of the stage, the closer and more personal you are to your audience. This is where you want to be.
If you are in a group of players, stepping forward will bring you closer to the audience and "upstage" the others in the band. You want to do this if you are soloing or the lead singer. Of course, if the guitarist is soloing he should step forward and the singer should step back.

Eye Contact

To make an audience feel that you are looking at them while you are playing, look just over the tops of their heads. For me, I divide the audience into 'Left', 'Right', and 'Center', and move the direction of my gaze every so often. Eye contact is not a bad thing, but it can get distracting. The "over the head gaze" should be the default with the occasional eye contact. Do it while you practice, not just on stage.

This also means you won't be able to look at your guitar much. That is usually OK for chord strumming, but will take some work if you are playing a difficult piece and singing with it, too. For me, when I am practicing a difficult piece, I try to find out if looking at my hand placement while I'm not singing is adequate or if I have to keep an eye on things. If the former, I start practicing looking at the right times. If the latter, I move the microphone so that I can see my fretboard out of the corners or bottoms of my eyes. It isn't perfect, but it helps. Obviously the best way is to practice not looking at all, but this isn't a perfect world and practice time is limited.

Facial Expressions

The single hardest thing I had to relearn was scrunching my eyebrows when I was concentrating. To avoid looking like I was scowling all the time, I cultivated the habit of raising my eyebrows a bit during difficult (well, ok, difficult for me) passages.
Get a mirror. Start paying attention to what you are doing while you play. And smile. Look like you are having fun. The audience will forgive a multitude of mistakes if they see you having a good time. I cannot tell you how many times a piece has gone badly and people still seem to enjoy it because I enjoyed it...which brings me to my next point:

MistakesPretend like they didn't happen. Flub through it and keep going, and also know that once in a while you are gonna crash and burn so bad that you can't pretend. Don't scowl or get frustrated. If at all possible laugh it off, make a joke of it and keep going. In fact, you might even have a good one liner or two to cover the really bad ones: "Bad hands! Bad, bad hands!" or something like that.

Selling the Music SetThings I learned as a disc jockey:

1. Sell 3 songs in the set in the reverse order that you will play them. In fact, that last song you talk about should be the next song, or the song after that, that you play. Give them too many songs and they might decide to leave because they don't like 2 or 3 of them.

2. Never "back sell". In otherwords, introduce your song before you play it, never after you are done.

3. Never apologize. If you hose something up, keep on going. If you are unsure whether you can pull a song off, don't apologize before you play it ("Here's a new one I'm still learning", "Here goes nothin'", etc.) or just drop the song.

4. Keep your talk times short. Work on how you talk, too. Odds are they don't care what you have to say, but what you do or don't say and how you say it can hurt you. The rule of thumb being: KISS (keep it simple, stupid). You might even script it out and get a second opinion if you have to.

5. I didn't learn this as a DJ, but by watching other performers: Do not tell personal stories about yourself or your music. Save the personal stuff for the between-sets mingling.
Building the SetMore things I learned as a disc jockey: if the songs you are playing are your own, or are material the audience won't know, it helps to have a well-known song on either side of the unknown material. It keeps the audience more comfortable with being introduced to new things.
As far as tempo, if you have 2 slow songs in a row, make that 3rd a little more upbeat. Vice versa, too.

Dealing with RequestsHave a sheet of paper and pen sitting out front. When someone asks for something you don't know, tell 'em to put it on the paper and you will put it on your list of "songs to learn". Tell them tips that fold will increase the odds of it getting learned, too. :-)
Lastly, there is always a time and a place to "break the rules".

I hope these pointers help.

Look after your Axe!

Am I the only guitar player who is a little anal-retentive about my guitars? I’m always hesitant to let people pick them up. I take a mental note of belt buckles and zippers on anyone who comes near them. In the back my head I think “is this the day my guitar gets dropped?”. Don’t even get me started on the panic that ensues inside my head when children get involved.

Even though I go a little crazy when it comes to the safety of my guitar, I do (or don’t do) things on a daily basis that could be harming in the long run. So, I have compiled a list of things manufacturers always tell you to do, but you probably don’t. Well, I know I am guilty of at least the first three of these. If you really truly are concerned with keeping your guitar mint, these should be second nature to you.

Here are the 10 maintenance rules that everyone should follow to keep their guitar in pristine condition:

Wash your hands before playing. Your hands are oily and dirty. Washing your hands before playing can preserve the fingerboard as well as prolong the life of your strings.

Before you put your guitar away in it’s case always wipe it down with a damp cloth to remove any hand oils that may be on it. Not a wet cloth, just a cloth that is slightly dampened.

Put that guitar in it’s case! Yeah, it’s fun to display them for everyone to see, but your guitar doesn’t like to be exposed to anything. It doesn’t like changing temperatures, changing humidity, or direct sunlight.

You know those black canvas gig bags? Yeah, forget they ever existed. Get a real hardshell case.

Properly humidify your guitar. Get a case humidifier and find out what the manufacturer of your guitar suggests the relative humidity should be.

Have your guitar’s bridge and neck setup properly for the gauge of strings you are using. If you change string gauges, have your guitar setup properly for the new strings. Obviously you don’t want to do this too often. If you know how to do this yourself that is great! If you don’t, you might want to get a professional to do it.

Keep your guitar clear of any heavy temperature changes. Wood expands and contracts. If the temperature changes too quickly it expands and contracts too quickly – this is bad.

Change your strings on a regular basis and never remove them all at one time! Remove one string at a time to replace them. Keeping your strings at the proper tension will keep that neck healthy.

Play your guitar every day. Thats right – play it. What happens when you leave your car parked for a few months and then try and start it up? It doesn’t really like that very much, whether it tells you or not. Run your guitar through it’s paces, it’s good for it.

Follow the above steps, and never, ever, let anyone else touch your guitar. Only kidding.
Obviously these are rules that only people with full time guitar techs can follow. Maybe the most diligent of us have the persistence needed to keep up such a strict maintenance routine, but thats not me. Your guitar won’t fall to pieces of you don’t follow these tips, but if you do it will guarantee that the guitar will live longer than you.

What are you guilty of and what tips did I miss?