
Photo 1
Try breaking the signal-chain rules to create new—and dazzlingly retro—sounds for your recordings.
Years ago, while on a meditation retreat in the mountains of Ojai, California, I was reflecting on one of my favorite sayings by Shunryu Suzuki (from his book Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind): “In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert’s there are few.” It was early in the morning, and as the soft blue light of dawn broke over the snow-dusted mountain tops, I had the profound realization of just how narrowly I was choosing to live my life because of my habits and how I was continually and slavishly refining them through my actions. I allowed myself to imagine and feel what life would be like if I let go of ingrained beliefs, and stood squarely in the warm, bright light of new possibilities.
I’d like to invite you to journey with me by exploring the importance of challenging your musical habits and see how to set the stage for inspiration, breakthroughs, and happy accidents.
Before stompboxes were common, there was no need for effects loops in amps. All effects (wahs, fuzzes, phasers, flangers, delays, reverbs) occurred before the amp, sometimes producing gloriously messy results.
There’s no better place to start than by focusing on effects (overdrives, delays, reverbs, wahs, tremolos, etc.) and the order in which they are arranged. Regardless of whether they reside on the floor, in racks, or inside your DAW, let’s shake things up, break our own rules, and see what remains of our old views. I believe this is how we truly gain wisdom. The Dojo is now open.
Look at your pedalboard. Most likely you have a wah, overdrives or other fuzz/distortions, and then effects like chorus, phaser/flanger, followed by a delay, and finally a reverb. If you’re using a multi-effects unit, like a Line 6 HX ($649 street) or similar, you have multiples of all these categories to choose from and the added flexibility to rearrange the signal flow without the hassle of unplugging and moving pedals around on your pedalboard. The options are even greater if you’re using a DAW and plug-ins.
When playing through Fender Princeton/Vibrolux-type combo amps that have both tremolo and reverb functions [Photo 1], the reverb will sound like it is last in the signal chain, although tremolo is actually last. Using real or virtual pedals to experiment, we can evoke that sound and add tremolo after our reverb.
Photo 2
On my end, I’m using EarthQuaker Devices’ Night Wire, a harmonic tremolo ($199 street), and their Afterneath reverb ($199 street) [Photo 2]. Place your tremolo effect after the reverb, grab your guitar and listen to the difference versus an amp. I love the way this sounds. It’s super vintage, retro, and lo-fi. If you have the ability to change the wave shape of the tremolo from sine to triangle or square, do that and keep playing. Record your experiments so you can note how things change without the distraction of a guitar in your hands.
Next, add a delay to the chain before the tremolo. Experiment with adjusting delay times manually, or, if available, use your tap tempo switch and dial up eighth, dotted-eighth, quarter notes, and subdivisions. You can also get some great textures by altering the wet/dry mix and adjusting the feedback as well. Depending on your delay, you might also have multiple types to choose from: maybe an old tape-delay setting (with lots of wow and flutter), or a bucket brigade, or even a reverse delay. Feeling creative yet? And remember, all of this applies to the virtual world of DAWs as well.
Photo 3
Here’s another one to try, and, again, it has vintage roots. Before stompboxes were common, there was no need for effects loops in amps. All effects (wahs, fuzzes, phasers, flangers, delays, reverbs) occurred before the amp, sometimes producing gloriously messy results. You can pay homage to this era and add a new twist by connecting a phaser followed immediately by a flanger. For this, I’m using Big Joe’s Phaser ($159 street) going into Earthquaker Devices’ Pyramids flanger ($299 street) [Photo. 3].
I like to adjust the rate, feedback, and depth settings on each unit with oppositional values relative to each other. For example, on the phaser I’ve set a fast rate, low depth and feedback, and 100 percent wet mix. I’ve inverted those values on the flanger with a slow rate, heavy depth, above average feedback, and 100 percent wet mix. I encourage you to spend a lot of time tweaking these parameters, as there are plenty of possibilities. Just be mindful of your feedback values since you have one unit cascading into the next. Finally, to bring a little danger to the equation, add a wah pedal. Hit record and then listen to how things change.
Most importantly, have fun and give yourself permission to make some crazy sounds! Next time I will explore adding this approach to groups of instruments, like synths, guitars, and drums, and entire sections of a mix. Until then, keep striving for your beginner’s mind and break your own rules. Namaste.
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$149
Marshall 1959 Super Lead
The very definition of classic, vintage Marshall sound in a highly affordable package.
There’s only one relevant question about Marshall’s new 1959 Super Lead overdrive/distortion pedal: Does it sound like an actual vintage Super Lead head? The answer is, simply and surprisingly, yes. The significant difference I heard within the voice of this stomp, which I ran through a Carr Vincent and a StewMac Value Factory 18 kit amp for contrast, is that it’s a lot quieter than my 1972 Super Lead.
The Super Lead, which bore Marshall’s 1959 model number, debuted in 1965 and was the amp that defined the plexi sound. That sound is here in spades, clubs, diamonds, and hearts. Like the Super Lead, the pedal is easy to use. The original’s 3-band EQ is replaced by a single, rangeful tone control. The normal dial and the volume, which together mimic the character created by jumping the first and second channels of a plexi head, offer smooth, rich, buttery op-amp driven gain and loudness. And the high-treble dial functions much like the presence control on the original amp.
The pedal is sturdy and handsome too. A heavy-duty metal enclosure evokes the classic black-with-gold-plate plexi look and a vintage-grille-cloth motif. Switches and knobs (the latter with rubber sides for slip-free turning) are ultra solid, and–refreshingly–there’s a 9V battery option in addition to a barrel-pin connection. Whether with single-coils or humbuckers, getting beefy, sustained, historic tones took moments. I especially delighted in approximating my favorite Super Lead head setting by flooring the high treble, normal, and tone dials, and turning back the tone pots on my Flying V, evoking Disraeli Gears-era Clapton tone. That alone, to me, makes the 1959 Super Lead stomp a bargain at $149.Two guitars, two amps, and two people is all it takes to bring the noise.
The day before they played the coveted Blue Room at Third Man Records in Nashville, the Washington, D.C.-based garage-punk duo Teen Mortgage released their debut record, Devil Ultrasonic Dream. Not a bad couple of days for a young band.
PG’s Chris Kies caught up with guitarist and vocalist James Guile at the Blue Room to find out how he builds the band’s bombastic guitar attack.
Brought to you by D’Addario.
Devilish Dunable
Guile has been known to use Telecasters and Gretsches in the past, but this time out he’s sticking with this Dunable Cyclops DE, courtesy of Gwarsenio Hall—aka Jordan Olds of metal-themed comedy talk show Two Minutes to Late Night. Guile digs the Dunable’s lightness on his shoulders, and its balance of high and low frequencies.
Storm Warning
What does Guile like about this Squier Cyclone? Simple: its color. This one is also nice and easy on the back, and Guile picked it up from Atomic Music in Beltsville, Maryland.
Crushing It
Guile also scooped this Music Man 410-HD from Atomic, which he got just for this tour for a pretty sweet deal. It runs alongside an Orange Crush Bass 100 to rumble out the low end.
James Guile’s Pedalboard
The Electro-Harmonix Micro POG and Hiwatt Filter Fuzz MkII run to the Orange, while everything else—a DigiTech Whammy, Pro Co Lil’ RAT, and Death by Audio Echo Dream 2—runs to the Music Man. A TC Helicon Mic Mechanic is on board for vocal assistance, and a TC Electronic PolyTune 3, Morley ABY, and Voodoo Labs Pedal Power 3 Plus keep the ship afloat.
Ernie Ball, the world’s leading manufacturer of premium guitar and bass strings, is proud to announce the release of the Pino Palladino Signature Smoothie Flats, the newest innovation in flatwound bass strings.
Developed in collaboration with legendary bassist Pino Palladino, these signature sets are engineered to deliver an ultra-smooth feel and a rich, warm tone that’s as versatile as it is expressive. Available in two gauges—Extra Light (38–98) and Medium (43–108)— Smoothie Flats are crafted with a precision-polished cobalt alloy ribbon for low tension, flexible playability, and deep vintage-inspired sound.
Ernie Ball: Pino Palladino Signature Smoothie Flats Bass Strings
Product Features:
- Precision polished for an ultra-smooth feel
- Cobalt alloy ribbon winding for a rich, deep sound
- Flexible, low-tension design for superior playability
- Trusted by Pino Palladino for studio and live performance
Pino Palladino Signature Smoothie Flats bass strings are available at Ernie Ball dealers worldwide.
Cool compression profile that yields blooming and nasty fuzz with fangs. Simple. Excellent value!
Not a ton of variation in the fuzz’s simple controls.
One big, bad, and very boss no-frills fuzz.
On the surface, fuzz is an almost barbarian concept—a nasty sound that’s easy to grasp in our imaginations. But contrast David Gilmour’s ultra-creamy Big Muff sounds with James Gurley’s free and visceral fuzz passages from Big Brother and the Holding Company’s Cheap Thrillsand you remember that two different fuzzes, in the hands of two different players, can speak very different languages. The latter artist concerns us here because Gurley did his work with a Jordan Boss Tone, which is the inspiration for the Ananashead Spirit Fuzz.
Ananashead’s Pedro Garcia has a knack for weirder 1960s fuzzes. HisMeteorite silicon Fuzzrite clone, for instance, is a knockout. This take on the two-transistor Boss Tone is equally thrilling, and genuinely idiosyncratic when it runs at full tilt. It exhibits tasty inherent compression, and transient notes ring out as pronounced and concise before blooming into full viciousness—a quality that shines when paired with neck-position humbuckers (and which probably made the original circuit appealing to Spirit’s Randy California, another 1960s Boss Tone devotee). That tone profile gives the Spirit Fuzz meatiness that stands out among ’60s-style two-transistor circuits, and the sense of mass, combined with the pedal’s intrinsic focus, makes it superb for tracking. The Spirit loves humbuckers, which coax real sweetness from the circuit. But it was just as happy to take a ride with a Jaguar bridge pickup and an old Fender Vibrolux with the reverb at 10. Sounds painful, right? On the contrary, it was one of the most haunting fuzz sounds I can remember playing.