Fuzz pedals can be difficult to master and most of us who have tried one thinking it would sound like Hendrix on ‘Band of Gypsies’ were disappointed. I thought a bit of knowledge and a tip I have recently discovered would come in handy.

It will probably be my last “video” post for a little while as I am busy with a lot of personal and professional projects at the moment. I will of course continue to post about The Tone and will come back with video demos some time in 2012.

Fuzz or fuzz?

What is a fuzz tone? For a lot of us guitarists, Hendrix exemplifies the Fuzz tone, or rather tones: warm, rich, with lots of sustain as heard on ‘Band of Gypsies’, or edgy as heard on the famous outro of ‘Axis Bold as Love’. Subsequently, the Fuzz Face pedal, still made today by Dunlop (and made in the 60s by Dallas Arbiter) served as a basis for countless clones. It is thought of as ‘the’ fuzz pedal to get.

The Fuzz Face is still made today by Dunlop - Note it only has a Fuzz (gain) setting and a Volume setting - Picture courtesy of Dunlop USA

Let’s dispel a bit of myth here, the Fuzz Face was not the first fuzz pedal, the Maestro fuzz sold by Gibson and heard on ‘Satisfaction’ by the Rolling Stones is an example of alternative design that was also available in the 60s.

Anyway, the tips I will share here are more directed towards Fuzz Face type pedals, they might not work for other types of Fuzz.

Choosing a Fuzz Pedal: Silicon or Germanium?

I have spent hours trying to decide which to get. At the heart of Fuzz pedals lie transistors. Early Fuzz Face pedals were based on Germanium transistors before switching to Silicon transistors, mostly for reasons of stability. Germanium transistors tend to be affected by the ambient temperature.

The consensus on the sound difference between the two is that Silicon transistors are brighter than their Germanium counterparts. As a matter of reference, it is thought that Hendrix used Germanium fuzz pedals on his first three studio records but switched to Silicon later on, which means that the fuzz pedal heard on ‘Band of Gypsies’ is probably Silicon based.

As always with a true master, the sound is mainly in the fingers and less in the equipment chain: wether using Germanium or Silicon, Hendrix has produced some of the best Fuzz tones ever.

So I would say don’t focus too much on the transistor type if it is your first fuzz. I chose to go for a Germanium based Z.Vex Fuzz Factory as it can do “normal Fuzz tones” as well as completely whacky ones, thanks to some extra settings.

Not so easy

So here you are with your brand new Fuzz Face, or Fuzz Face clone, you plug it into your amp set clean, at a reasonable volume and… it does not sound like Hendrix at all. It might sound thin, aggressive, not at all full like it does on Jimi’s live and studio recordings.

The main reason for the difference in tone resides in the fact that Hendrix often plugged his Fuzz Face into a somewhat really loud and cranked to the max overdriven Marshall amp. These amps can be quite dark to start with, especially the old ones. This”darkness” made up for the aggressiveness of the Fuzz which, by the way, did not come with any tone or eq settings, just gain and volume.

It is hard to emulate this sound at bedroom or practice level with a clean amp. There is a way though…

Using an overdrive placed after a Fuzz to alleviate the Fizziness of the Tone

Without further ado, here is a little trick you can use if your fuzz is too, well, fuzzy or rather fizzy/aggressive. This might happen with bright amps such as my 74 Fender Champ. Just place an overdrive pedal after the fuzz in your effect chain. For this video, I have used a Digitech Bad Monkey, it is rather cheap and has a bass and treble control. I have used the least amount of gain I could on the Bad Monkey and rolled off the “Treble” knob a bit (the same trick can be achieved by rolling off the tone knob found on other overdrive pedals):

I will feature a selection of fuzz pedals in one of my very next posts. Until then, have fun fuzzing away!

But did you know that the distance between a pickup and the strings, also known as pickup height, can be setup easily on most guitars and can alleviate a lot of these problems?

As a general rule, when you move a pickup closer to the strings, you will get more output but also more high frequencies which can become ear piercing. At some extreme settings you might loose some sustain as the magnet(s) contained in your pickup(s) will “slow down” the vibrations of the string.

On the other hand, when you move a pickup further away from the strings, you will loose some of those ear piercing frequencies but get a lower output volume.

Sound Example

Here is an example featuring the bridge pickup of my 1978 Telecaster:

Bridge Pickup of a Telecaster - Left: High Pickup Height, Right: Lower Pickup Height

I have kept the exact same amp settings and have recorded similar clean licks with my Telecaster bridge pickup set very high:

and then lower:

Notice the difference in output volume and high end frequencies.

How to Change the Pickup Height on your Guitar

I will detail here how to change the height of the pickups on Telecasters, Stratocasters and Gibson style guitars. Note that it might be different for other brands, models or eras! Usually, manufacturers will issue precise guidelines as to what the optimal pickup height should be for a particular model. Personally, I prefer to do it by ear as I need to hear the changes through my effect/amp setup.

A last word of advice: in general, when you start turning screws to set up anything on a guitar (truss rod, tremolo system, pickup height, etc.), start by quarter turns, not full turns. Be gentle! In the case of pickup height, a quarter turn might be enough to reach the sweet spot you are looking for. To give you an example, with the bridge pickup of my Telecaster, I almost cover the full spectrum in about two full turns.

Adjusting Pickup Height on a Telecaster

On my 1978 Telecaster, I cannot find any visible screws to adjust the neck pickup height but the bridge pickup offers no less than three screws (see image below). No wonder as this pickup can be too bright and often needs a bit of adjustment. By loosening (anti clock wise) the screws, the pickup goes down while tightening them (clock wise) brings it closer to the strings. By playing with these three screws, you can have the pickup higher for the lower strings but lower for the higher strings. You can also have it at an angle. Remember the general rule, the closer to the strings the more volume and high end. Mine had to be lowered a bit as I found it a tad too bright for clean work and a bit too rich in “ear piercing” harmonics.

Fender Telecaster - Position of the Pickup Height Adjustment Screws

Adjusting Pickup Height on a Stratocaster

My 1997 Fender American Classics Custom Shop Stratocaster is fitted with Kinman noiseless pickups. Chris Kinman has a great pickup height adjustment guide on his website, make sure to check it out.

Anyway, these pickups produce very different results depending on their height so getting it right for your taste and gear is paramount. Luckily, it is really easy on a Strat as each pickup has two screws (see image below). Loosen them to lower the pickup or tighten them to bring it closer to the strings.

Fender Stratocaster - Position of the Pickup Height Adjustment Screws

Adjusting Pickup Height on a Gibson Style Guitar (here, a 61 Reissue SG)

Gibson guitars are much like Strats with two screws per pickup (see image below): loosening the screws lowers the pickup while tightening them brings it closer to the strings.

Gibson SG - Position of the Pickup Height Adjustment Screws

The Fender Twin Reverb, a classic example of amplifier with builtin reverb

Surf music wouldn’t have been quite the same without these Fender clean guitar tones laden with spring reverb. But listen to Stevie Ray Vaughan’s albums and you will hear quite some spring reverb as well. It shows that electric blues is another style where amp reverb is a common staple. Past spring reverbs, a classic example of studio reverb used partly as a sound reinforcement tool and partly as an effect is Voodoo Chile Slight Return by Jimi Hendrix. The wah wah intro is completely magnified by an EMT plate reverb.

The downside of reverb used as a live guitar effect is that it can be difficult to control in a venue, even a small one, because the venue itself will already have some natural reverb (see my previous post). It might make your tone really muddy which might be why, come the eighties and the advent of cheap digital delay pedals, most guitarists switched to using delays to widen their tone. It is not quite the same thing though and I can sense reverb pedals becoming popular.

Adding a Reverb to your Board

If reverbs have always been present in multi effect units, Boss was until about 10 years ago the only brand that offered a compact reverb pedal. Nowadays, there is a wide array of models on offer. Here is a short selection of reverb pedals :

• Boss RV-5: Boss was the first company to manage to squeeze a digital reverb in a compact pedal. I personally own an RV-3 which can generate Reverb AND delay effects (I will make a demo soon). The RV-3 has been replaced by the RV-5 which has dropped the delays but has gained a spring reverb simulation among other things.
• Electro Harmonix: the Holy Grail and its siblings have become immensely popular. They sport a luscious digital reverb as well as a spring reverb simulation.
• The T-REX Room-mate is digital I suppose but it features a tube for added warmth.
• The TC Electronic Tone Print “Hall of Fame” is the new kid on the block, here is a demo which shows you what you can do with a good reverb pedal (TC also offers the Nova Reverb) :

And finally, here is a demo of the Sole Mate and Reverbamate pedals from Vanamps. They are the only non digital/actual spring reverb pedals that I know of, for those of you who demand the real deal:

Natural vs Artificial Reverb

In an enclosed space, any sound will bounce off the walls, thus creating a king of muffled echo. An extreme case of reverberation is found in cathedrals or caves where any sound can be reverberating for seconds. But even in a small space, you will get some reverberation. Try clapping in your toilet or bathroom and you will probably hear it. In a nutshell, a reverberation unit (commonly known as reverb) is an effect device which aims at reproducing this phenomenon. Reverberation is also sometimes referred to as “ambiance”.

Reverberation is almost as old as recording studios or radio stations. Sound producers and engineers had found out very quickly that recording any source (guitar, voice, etc.) using a microphone placed close to it lacked any sort of “ambiance” or “natural reverberation”, producing a quite unpleasant dry sound.

To solve that problem, a number of artificial ways to produce reverb were invented. The most primitive was to use a big empty room with a speaker at one end and a microphone at the other end to record the effect. Later on, spring and plate reverberation units were invented. Eventually, digital technologies became affordable and reverb units capable of simulating pretty much any space are now available as software plugins, pedals, rack effects, etc. I invite you to read the wikipedia page dedicated to reverberation for more information.

Reverence is a Cubase 5 reverb plugin which uses convolution techniques i.e it uses imprints from actual venues to generate reverberation

When I use a bit of reverb in my videos, this is not to “inflate” the tone, it is just because the microphone I use is close to my amp and misses out on the natural reverb of the room.  Short of adding some artificial reverb, you can change the microphone placement and put it further away from the amp in order to get more of the ambiance of the room, but you might pick up undesirable sounds. It is a matter of experimenting and finding the right spot.

Guitar and Studio Reverb Sound Examples

Here is a short distorted guitar clip. It was recorded by placing a microphone really close to my Fender Champ and no reverb was added. Note how dry it is:

Here is now the same clip with a short room reverb (I have used the LA Studio preset of Cubase 5′s Reverence plugin):

The difference is very subtle but the reverb adds a “roundness” to the tone and makes it a little fuller without being over the top. This is the kind of reverb I often put on my youtube videos. When using reverb for sound reinforcement purposes, it is important to be subtle, the idea is not to hear the effect itself.

And here is now the same clip with a lot of Plate Reverb (using the Plate Reverb 3s preset of Cubase 5′s Reverence plugin):

Note how wide the tone becomes but also how different it is from the original. You can really hear the reverb, one could argue that in this case, the reverb is too pronounced and is rather used as an effect.

And now listen to the same solo alongside other instruments. For this first clip, there is no reverb at all:

By adding a dose of plate reverb to every instrument, you get a better sense of depth and a bigger overall sound:

Some of you might prefer a drier sound but more often than not, the point is that reverberation is a timeless and indispensable studio tool.

We will explore in Part 2 of this series of posts the use of Reverb as an effect. This next post will feature a list of reverb units to add to your pedalboards, stay tuned!

I used this setting to remove the midrange as well as the useless frequencies for a guitar (below 82Hz):

So basically, the midrange frequencies at 250Hz, 500Hz, 1kHz and 2kHz were reduced by various amounts.

Here is the result without the equalizer:

Here is the result with the equalizer:

Pretty cool although keep in mind that the body of your tone is in the medium and an heavily scopped tone might just drown in the mix, you have to experiment!

It is something you can probably do with an equalizer pedal as well as using your favorite software. To accentuate the effect, you can bring up the lows and highs while reducing the mids.

For these clips, I have used my Custom Made guitar by Robin Bully going into an Analogman modded TS9 then into an Analogman modded Boss DS1 then into a Boss DD-3 delay and finally into my trusty 5W all tube Fender Champ miked by a Rode NT4.

The settings on the amp and the pedals were:

• DS-1 level 11 o’clock, dist 4 o’clock, tone 8 o’clock
• TS9: level 12/1 o’clock,   drive 2 o’clock, tone 8 o’clock
• Amp: Volume at 2.5, Bass at 10, Treble at 2.5

In this first part, I will present one of the oldest modulation effects: the Phaser also known as Phasing or Phase-Shifting.

The MXR Phase 90, one of the most famous phaser pedals - Photo by Pia Jane Bijkerk

Phaser or Flanger?

The first thing I should clear up is the difference between phaser and flanger as I often see in forums that people get confused. Phasing is created by using a series of filters (all pass filters) associated with an oscillator whereas flanger is created by using a very short delay. I am over simplifying here but know that they do sound different. Phasing tends to sound a little “crazier” and has no real equivalent in the real world. Flanging, on the other hand, sounds like a jet plane taking off and is akin to a real world sound effect known as “Doppler”.  I will write about flanging in part 2 and focus on phasing in this post. For those of you wanting to know more about the science and the electronics behind our beloved phaser pedals, have a look at this wikipedia page.

Who uses a phaser?

The phaser effect is used in almost every genre but some are more phaser friendly than others.  Used with a non distorted clean tone, it is for instance very popular in reggae: listen to the solo of “No Woman No Cry” on the live at the Lyceum by Bob Marley for a prime example of phased guitar.

Funk is also a genre where phasing is king. It enhances rhythm licks and can be an alternative to a Wah (although they are two different things).

When it comes to big rock tones, Brian May of Queen and of course Eddie Van Halen are big phaser users. The first Van Halen album is almost a demo of  the MXR Phase 90, listen to the Intro of “Atomic Punk” or “Ain’t Talking about Love” and you’ll know what I mean.

Timeless Classics: the MXR Phase 90

You will find information about other models after the videos below but I have decided to present and demonstrate the MXR Phase 90 first. This little orange pedal is to phasers what the Tube Screamer is to overdrives: the standard. I have recently acquired a vintage phase 90 and I must say the hype is not unfounded. It is really warm and although it has only one setting (“speed”), you can get a lot of different sounds out of it. With the speed setting between 10 o’clock to 12, it goes straight into Van Halen territory whereas at higher speeds, around 2 o’clock, it is reminiscent of some tones Hendrix got with his univibe pedal.

If you are in the market for a Phase 90, it can get confusing as there are several models to choose from. The very first 1970s unit had no LED and “Phase 90″ was written using a type of “handwriting” imitation. Thus, these pedals are nicknamed “Script”. Around the end of the 70s, the lettering changed to capital letters and these models are nicknamed “Block”. The sound did not change much between these two early versions though.

MXR went bust in the 80s and the brand was resuscitated by Dunlop. No less than three versions of the Phase 90 are currently manufactured by MXR. The entry model, orange with a LED and “Block Lettering” is the most affordable. The thing is it does not sound quite like the old stuff and tends to provide a more “pronounced”, less subtle phasing effect. In order to address these issues, MXR also sells a reissue model which sports a “Script” logo and has no LED or external power plug. It does sound more subtle and is closer to the old 70s models.

The third model in the range, the Eddie Van Halen or EVH Phase 90 has a little switch to go from a modern “Block” tone to a more subtle vintage “Script” sound. A fourth custom shop model was sold until recently, it was orange, with Script lettering and a led and its model number is CSP-101. People who have opened it apparently found out that it was an EVH model without the block/script switch which seems quite redundant to me and might explain why it seems difficult to find it anywhere. For a sound comparison between the entry level “Block” Phase 90 and the Custom Shop “Script” model, have a look at this video by gearmanndude.

Phase 90 Video Demos

Here are three videos showing my Vintage MXR Phase 90 in action: first clean then placed before the distortion and finally after the distortion. I show different settings in each video and at the end, I add a little delay using my Boss DD-3 to show how it plays with a phaser for an ultra spacious tone.

Phase 90 with fairly clean amp first:

Gear used for the video: Fender American Classics Custom Shop Stratocaster with Kinman AVn Blues pickups, 1974 Fender Champ Amplifier (Volume at 3, Bass at 10, Treble at 2.5).

And now placed before a distortion. Note how the 10 o’clock speed setting is very Van Halen-esque whereas the 2 o’clock setting goes into Hendrix territory:

Gear used for the video: Fender American Classics Custom Shop Stratocaster with Kinman AVn Blues pickups, 1974 Fender Champ Amplifier (Volume at 3, Bass at 10, Treble at 2.5), Analogman modded Boss DS1 Distortion (Dist at Max, Tone at 8 o’clock and Level at 10 o’clock).

Finally, here is how it sounds placed after the distortion. Note how more pronounced the effect is. I personally prefer to place it before the distortion:

Gear used for the video: Fender American Classics Custom Shop Stratocaster with Kinman AVn Blues pickups, 1974 Fender Champ Amplifier (Volume at 3, Bass at 10, Treble at 2.5), Analogman modded Boss DS1 Distortion (Dist at Max, Tone at 8 o’clock and Level at 10 o’clock).

Alternatives to a Phase 90

There are other models than the MXR Phase 90 but before you choose a phaser pedal, you have to know that phasers have a certain number of “filter stages” (remember, phasers are built using a series of filters). The number of stages has a great influence on the tone. In some ways, the more stages, the more pronounced the effect. Basic phasers such as the recently reissued MXR Phase 45 have only two stages and they are quite gentle. 4 stage phasers are the most commonly heard on records, uber famous examples are the MXR Phase 90 or the Electro Harmonix Small stone, both used by David Gilmour in the 70s. If you want that classic 70s phaser tone, chances are you will want a 4 stage phaser.

Companies like Boss went further with their phasers and the now discontinued PH-2 had 10 or 12 stages depending on the position of its mode button.  I own a PH-2 and although it is not a bad phaser, it tends to sound quite out-worldly and I find difficult to use it to reproduce the Van Halen rock tone or the cleaner reggae/ 70s funk tone. The replacement of the PH-2 in the Boss line, named PH-3, is a digital pedal and can emulate the tone of 4, 8, 10 and 12 stage phasers. I haven’t tried it but I gather from various sources that it is versatile if not very warm sounding.

The settings on a phaser can go from only one speed button (MXR Phase 90 or 45) which decides how fast the tone “swirls” to three knobs called Depth, Rate an Resonance (Boss models). Depth is the ratio between processed and unprocessed sound, Rate is the speed of the oscillations and Resonance is a setting that allows to take some of the processed signal and send it back to be phased again which creates super crazy effects.

There is a bit of a debate as to where to place a phaser in the effect chain. In most multi-effect units, it is placed after the overdrive/distortion stage but I must say that I got very good results by placing my Phase 90 before a distortion as seen in the videos above. As always, experiment!

Let’s also not forget that phasing sounds great with keyboards, especially with Fender Rhodes electric piano sounds as well as pads. It even sounds good with bass! If you lend your phaser to your keyboardist or bassist, he/she might not want to give it back, you are warned!

Other noteworthy phaser models

On the second hand market, another great model is the Maestro PS-1, good luck to find one. As far as I know there is no clone on the market.

Boutique manufacturers have also come up wit great models such as the Retro-sonic Phaser which is an MXR Phase 90 clone with more settings. Let’s also mention the Pigtronix EP1 which is as whacky as it gets.

Finally, for those on a budget, the Ibanez PH7 is a good alternative with 4 and 8 stage modes.

Fattening your tone: the “guitar hero” delay effect

Here is a personal favorite of mine, the type of delay that countless 80s guitarists used pretty much all the time to season their fierce solos. I have reproduced it using a Digital Boss DD-3 as well as an Analog, darker sounding Electro Harmonix Deluxe Memory Man:

Gear used: American Classics Stratocaster with Kinman pickups -> Analogman TS9 -> Proco RAT 2 -> Marshall JMP-1 preamp plugged direct into the recorder

To recreate this type of delay using a software plugin or multi-effect, set a delay time around 350 ms, 3 or 4 repetitions and a mix level of about 25%. Results may vary depending on your exact equipment. As always, experiment to find out what you are most confident with and most importantly what the song you are working on exactly needs.

Fattening your tone: the slapback echo

I have written a complete post about it so I will only give the audio examples here. The slapback echo is the “mother of all delays”. It consists of only one short repetition. As simple at it may seem, it is a very effective tool as shown in this video:

Gear used: 78 Telecaster -> Proco RAT 2 -> Fender Champ

In the video, the slapback delay is generated using Cubase 5′s delay plugin with the following settings:

You can achieve the same type of tone with a Boss DD-3 and the following settings: Mode 200ms, E.LEVEL at 12 o’clock, F.BACK at 9 o’clock and D.TIME at 4 o’clock. You might want to vary the E.LEVEL or D.TIME to taste. It is easy to reproduce this effect with any other model of delay, just set the “delay time” between 70 and 200ms and the “feedback” quite low in order to have just one repeat.

Fattening your tone: Multitap delays

When one delay is not enough, use several of them! Known as “Multitap Delay”, the use of two or more delay units multiply the possibilities. Here I show the Boss DD-3 and the Electro Harmonix Memory Man together. Note that I had to reduce the delay time on the DD-3 compared to the first video, reason being that the previous settings were too close to the Memory Man and did not create enough of a swirl:

Gear used: American Classics Stratocaster with Kinman pickups -> Analogman TS9 -> Proco RAT 2 -> Marshall JMP-1 preamp plugged direct into the recorder

Again experimenting is the key here. I have used two delay settings that were quite similar but you can also use two delays with very different settings like a short one and a long one. At some stage, Joe Satriani was using three delays at once: one with a short delay time, another one with a medium delay time and a third one with a long delay time. It gave his tone almost a reverb like feeling.

The Analog vs Digital Debate

After seeing these demos you might want to go shopping for a delay pedal and must be wondering: “analog or digital?”. We have to go back in time in order to understand why there are several types of delays on the market.

The Electro Harmonix Deluxe Memory Man Analog Delay and the BOSS DD-3 Digital Delay, two very popular models

Tape Based Delays

Earliest delays were tape based. They were even created using studio recorders. One tape head would record and another tape head would play the same tape a very short time later creating the first artificial echo in history: the slapback echo. It was limited to one repetition and the delay time was short. Nevertheless it almost shaped an era in terms of sound as early rock’n roll and rockabilly records made a heavy use of it and not only on the guitar but also on vocals and drums.

Some companies were quick to create “echo” units with tapes inside to reproduce this effect. Eventually these tapes units became more capable and could create a whole range of delay effects and not only slapback echos. Among these legendary units, there is of course the echoplex used by Jimmy Page, the Binson Echorec used by David Gilmour on early Pink Floyd records in the 60s or the Roland RE series. A distinct feature of tape based delays is that each repetition is a bit “degraded” due to tape coloration which is a feature that guitarists came to love.

Analog “Bucket Brigade” Delays

In 1969, the Bucket Brigade analog delay line was invented. It allowed effect manufacturers to create delay units that did not required bulky tapes which needed to be replaced and maintained. The delay in a pedal was born. Analog delays did not sound quite like tape based delays but did feature a “degradation” of the repetitions which were darker than the original. Small sized and cheaper, they became guitarists staples. Popular models included the Electro Harmonix Memory Man (still made today) and the BOSS DM-2 and DM-3.

Digital Delays

In the eighties, alongside improbable hairdos and shoulderpads, digital audio technologies became widespread and made their way into recording devices, musical instruments and effects.  Digital delays were born using the same type of technologies that samplers used. They would digitally record the incoming signal and replay it a number of times. The thing about digital delays is that the repetitions sound really clean, not degraded when compared to a tape based or analog delay.

This is something that people found cool at first but you know guitarists, some of them did miss the warmth brought by the uncleanliness of old analog delay units. This explains why these are still sold today, together with their digital cousins. The most expensive digital delays had clear indications of the delay time to the millisecond which is something that analog or tape based delays lacked. This was a big advantage and a lot of guitarists jumped on the digital bandwagon for this reason. This is the case for The Edge and David Gilmour who had gotten tired of their unpredictable analog delays

Boss has the claim to releasing the first digital delay in compact pedal form in 1983: the DD-2. It was quite quickly replaced by the DD-3 which is still made today! The DD-3 lacks recent features I mentioned in Part 1, such as Tap Tempo or musical subdivision. Also it has a resolution of “only” 12 bits which makes it not entirely high fidelity but it does not matter that much with a guitar. I really like my DD-3 as I think it sounds good and can create all sorts of delays, perfect to fatten your tone in a digital way. Boss also offers the compact DD-7 or the twin DD-20 which offer Tap Tempo and musical subdivisions.

Analog Emulation or True Analog Tone?

A number of recent digital delay pedals include “recreations” of tape based or analog delays where the audio degradation of the repetitions is simulated. It is a good way to get a tape or analog type of delay tone without having to find an actual tape unit and without sacrificing modern features like Tap Tempo and musical subdivisions. Boss has even released a digital recreation of the popular Roland RE series. The pedal is called RE 20 and seems to have quite some fans. Other models capable of tape and analog delay recreations include the Line 6 DL-4 and Echo Park, the TC Electronic Nova Repeater and Nova Delay, the BOSS DD-20 and DD-7 or the brand new Joe Satriani designed Vox Time Machine. Kudos to the Ibane DE-7 which must be the cheapest of the lot. Now, as always, do these digital recreations sound exactly like the real thing? Maybe not, but it all depends on your preferences and what your ears are telling you. It sure does work for a lot of people including pros.

The tc electronic Nova Repeater can emulate the sound of tape and analog delays

If you want the real analog thing, know that quite a few high end boutique manufacturers are making analog delay pedals based on Bucket Brigade devices. Check them out: Analog Man AR20DL and ARDX20, Diamond pedals Memory Lane 2, Retro Sonic Analog Delay, etc. Let’s not forget non boutique manufacturers such as MXR with the Carbon Copy delay, Maxon with the Analog Delay Pro or good old Ibanez with the AD-9. And of course, Electro Harmonix is still making the legendary Deluxe Memory Man which has now a lot of little brothers of all sizes. This includes the Deluxe Memory Boy, a digital/analog hybrid which sports an analog circuitry as well as features such as tap tempo and musical subdivisions which are usually non existent in analog pedals.

Analog Delay vs Digital Delay: Sound Examples

Here are two audio examples showing the difference between analog and digital delays.

First, using my analog Electro Harmonix Memory Man, note how each repetition is darker than the previous one, that is what gives analog delays their warmth. For some extra shimmer, the Memory Man features a chorus/vibrato which I have set to zero in this example:

Then my trusty Boss DD-3, note how repetitions are not getting darker as they go, this gives digital delays a certain sharpness:

The Electro Harmonix Deluxe Memory Man Analog Delay and the BOSS DD-3 Digital Delay, two very popular models

The Basics

What a delay does is repeat the notes you are playing on your guitar once or several times, each repetition being usually softer than the previous one. You encounter a similar effect in nature when shouting in a valley or a cave. The time between the repetitions can be chosen through a “delay time” setting on most units. It is usually labelled in milliseconds and ranges from a few milliseconds to several seconds for the most sophisticated models. The number of repetitions is usually defined by a “feedback” setting. Most units also offer a “level” or “mix” control which determines the amount of dry signal versus the delayed signal. Often, delays are also called echos. There is a difference though: delays can have an infinite number of repetitions whereas echos have a limited number.

To clarify, a delay unit should at least offer three settings: delay time, feedback and mix/level. More recently, delays have been incorporating many other settings which I mention further down.

Delay Time and Tempo

You will often read or hear that the delay time should be set according to the tempo of the song you are playing. I don’t think this is always true. If you are using the delay to obtain a rhythmical effect (think The Edge from U2 or Pink Floyd’s “Run like Hell”), then yes the delay time should follow the tempo of the song. But if you are using the delay to fatten your tone (as we will see in Part 2), I don’t think following the tempo of the song is so important.

Using the delay for rhythmical effects: the infamous dotted eighth

The Edge, U2′s guitarist, has made the use of rhythmical delay effects his trademark. In the beginning of  his career in the early 80s, he was already using a delay to make out as if he was playing more notes than he was actually playing. The trick was that the notes “played” by the delay were in sync with the tempo of the song which gave U2′s songs an amazing “pulsation”.

At the time, he was only using analog delays which means the settings had to be done “by ear” and that is not that easy. It also meant that the drummer had to play in sync with the delay. This led The Edge and U2 to drop the delay on their second album (“War”). It was of course back in full force on the subsequent albums on songs like Pride or Where The Streets Have No Name, probably helped by the arrival of digital technologies.

It is easier nowadays to get the same kind of effect using a digital delay unit or a software plugin which allows you to set the delay time to the millisecond. The basic “U2 delay effect” is obtained by setting the delay time to a “dotted eighth”. The feedback should be set so that you have about three or four repetitions and the level/mix quite high, at about 50%. Then, all you have to actually play are eighth notes, the delay will do the rest (see the audio examples below). Note that a dotted eighth is equivalent to 3/16th of a note.

Here is the formula to calculate the delay time so that it falls on a dotted eighth:

delay time in ms = (240000/tempo)x3/16.

Let’s take an example. At a tempo of 120 BPM, divide 240000/120, you get 2000. Multiply 2000 by three and divide by 16 and you get 375ms.

Here is an audio example at a tempo of 120BPM, WITHOUT any delay first:

Then the exact same thing augmented by a delay set at 375ms, 3 or 4 repetitions and mix at 50% (I have used the delay integrated into my Boss MICRO-BR recorder with the feedback at 13):

Pretty cool!

Some pedals spare you the cumbersome calculations and allow you to actually do this while playing alongside a drummer in real time, and without any prior knowledge of the tempo. They do so thanks to two extra features that most delay pedals don’t have: a “tap tempo” function and a setting that allows you to choose the delay time based on a “musical” subdivision (dotted 8th for instance). The Tap Tempo allows you to “tap” a pedal in time to set the value of the delay time “on the fly”.  So on these particular models, you can select “dotted 8th” and tap alongside your drummer and voilà, the delay should automagically be in time.

These models include the BOSS DD-20 Digital delay, the Line 6 Echo Park,the TC Electronic Nova Repeater or the super duper boutique high end Providence CHRONO DLY-4. A lot of pedals have got a Tap Tempo feature nowadays but not that many have the ability to select a “musical” subdivision. A note to BOSS DD-7 users: there are a few musical subdivisions (including dotted eighth) that can be selected using the mode selector, check out the manual.

Finally, know that the dotted 8th is not the only interesting subdivision, it is just one that has been used time and again on numerous hits. As always, feel free to experiment! There are two really cool websites you might want to check out if you are into using delays for rhythmical effects: this one by Tim Darling which deals with everything “The Edge” and this one by David Battino which is more generic.

In Part 2 of this series of posts, we will see how we can sound like a guitar hero by fattening our tone using a delay. Stay tuned!

Boss SD-1 and Analogman modded TS9

I will write here about combining two overdrive pedals and I will leave distortion and fuzz pedals for future posts. As I show in a video below, you can get interesting tones out of two overdrive pedals. Why not use just one pedal but with more gain, you might ask? Well, the answer is that two overdrive pedals don’t sound like one pedal with more gain. In addition, it gives you more tonal options since you can switch one of the two pedals on, or the two together. That makes four different tones in total if you count the clean tone.

But you have to know that some combinations work and some don’t. It is hard to predict how two overdrive pedals will interact. By not working, I mean that it might sound overly squashed or very fizzy. Getting the right settings is also very important. I find that when you use two overdrive pedals together, it is rarely a good idea to have one (or the two) with the gain maxed out. Try with lower values first.

I have recorded a video showing how my Analogman modded Ibanez TS9 plays with a stock Boss SD-1. Both pedals have the drive and level at 12 o’clock. The tone is at 9 o’clock since my Fender Champ amplifier is quite bright. The SD-1 is placed after the TS9.

The resulting tone is quite tight and focused with a good sustain. “Focused” is the important word here, this is where two overdrive pedals put together differ from one higher gain pedal.

Here is a video where I show my clean tone first, then I switch the TS9 on, and then both pedals:

The amplifier was miked with a Rode NT-4 and recorded using a Boss Micro-BR. The recording was then transferred into Cubase 5 to optimize the volume and add a hint of reverb. The guitar used is a Fender American Classics Custom Shop Stratocaster fitted with Kinman AVn blues pickups.

So this got me thinking. The slapback echo, also known as slap echo, was very common in the 50s and 60s. It was created by recording with a tape recorder and playing back the same tape a fraction of a second later using another “head”, generating a single repeat type of short echo. Its use is very obvious on early rock’n roll and rockabilly records, particularly on vocals. It can also be heard on the guitar on a number of Hendrix tunes like “Voodoo Chile Slight Return” where a slapback echo augmented by an old plate reverb creates a really cool dripping kind of tone. It is easy to reproduce with today’s analog or digital delay pedals as well as software plugins.

I experimented with my recording software (Cubase 5) and put together this video that shows the same tone without and then with a slapback echo. I think it is pretty cool, I might use it more in the future!  See after the video for some slapback settings for the Cubase delay plugin and the good old BOSS DD-3 delay pedal.

For the basic tone I used my 1978 Telecaster with a Fender Champ tube amp and then kicked in a Pro Co RAT 2 distortion pedal (settings on the RAT 2: DISTORTION at 2 o’clock, FILTER at 3 o’clock and VOLUME at 2 o’clock).

In Cubase I used the following delay settings:

With a BOSS DD-3 digital delay pedal, the following settings will give you a nice fattening slapback echo: Mode 200ms, E.LEVEL at 12 o’clock, F.BACK at 9 o’clock and D.TIME at 4 o’clock. You might want to vary the E.LEVEL or D.TIME to taste.

It would be easy to reproduce this effect with any other model of delay, just set the “delay time” between 70 and 200ms and the “feedback” quite low to have just one repeat.

You probably all know the devastating feeling of playing the best solo of your life only to be told later on by members of the audience that nobody could hear it!

A nice affordable clean boost pedal: the MXR Micro Amp

In 2010, one could think this is a trivial problem but it is not. This is essentially due to the fact that a volume or gain modification anywhere in an effect chain can have a big effect on the overall tone. Unless you are a rock star and your sound engineer knows exactly when to boost your volume, there is a number of solutions to this problem that I will list in this post.

Using the guitar volume control or a volume pedal

The first solution that comes to mind is of course to use the volume control of your guitar. After all, why is there one? The problem is that reducing the volume of your guitar will reduce the amount of signal sent to your pedals and amp thus directly change the amount of distortion/overdrive in your tone. It can fit certain styles like blues rock where rhythm work is not as dirty as lead work. For instance, Jimi Hendrix made use of this extensively on stage:  he could go from clean to dirty just by manipulating the volume of his guitar (note that the stratocaster is especially good for that). It also works well if you are more of a clean tone player. Using a volume pedal at the beginning of your chain is the same thing as using the volume of your guitar except it might be more progressive. You will have the same problem though: reducing the volume will reduce the amount of overdrive or distortion from any device placed after.

Using an amp with multiple channels

Another solution is to use an amplifier with 2 master volumes or 3 or more channels so that you can dedicate some of them to rythm work and some of them to lead work: usually these amps are not the cheapest and offer slightly different tones depending on the channel but they can be a good solution. For example, the high end models of the Marshall JVM series feature 2 master volumes and are programmable which makes them very flexible. Note that for those of you who need tons of distortion for their rhythm tone, a lot of 3 channel amps (especially those made in the 90s) won’t cut it since the middle channel is often tailored for crunch tones rather than devastating ones.

Using two overdrive/distortion pedals

This is a very flexible solution: you can set the volume of one pedal in “rhythm mode” and the one placed after in “lead mode”. In lead mode, you can have the two pedals together for more gain or just the lead pedal. It can be tricky to switch from rhythm to lead but it is doable especially with BOSS or Ibanez pedals which have a large switch. One stomp and you can switch off a pedal while switching on the other one. Combining two overdrive/distortion pedals is a broad topic in itself and I will soon post about it. A few recent distortion/overdrive pedals feature a “boost” switch to increase the volume for lead work, check out the Satchurator and the upcoming Ice 9 overdrive designed by VOX for Joe Satriani or the ZVEX box of rock.

Using a multi-effect unit or a modeling amp

Those of you with super sophisticated gizmos don’t have much of an issue since you can program rhythm and lead patches. They can even sound good plugged straight into a PA. This is not something that purists love but I have used my Line 6 Pod straight into a PA for gigs with very good results.

Using a clean boost or volume pedal at the end of your chain

If you play against a clean amp and all your overdriven tones come from pedals, this is by far the easiest solution. A clean boost pedal will take the signal and make it louder without altering it. I personally use a BOSS LS-2. The LS-2 can also be used as a looper to switch between 2 chains of effects or use them in series, each chain having its own volume.  I have heard the MXR micro amp is also pretty good placed after a chain of effects to increase the overall volume, not to mention all the boutique clean boost pedals. I stress that you need to have a clean amp with enough headroom because otherwise the extra volume might make the amp clip (which can also be a cool effect). Alternatively, most equalizer pedals feature a general volume control and will be able to get you a nice boost, check out the BOSS GE-7 or MXR 10 band EQ. And of course, you can also use a good old volume pedal but at the end of the effect chain rather than at the beginning as mentioned earlier in this post.

The BOSS LS-2 can act as a clean boost or a more sophisticated looper able to manage two effect chains each with their own volume

If your dirty tone comes from your amp, it is a bit trickier. People have had good results using a booster and or a volume pedal in the effect loop providing your amp offers such a facility. Be careful what kind of pedal you use. Most of them are OK but some of them won’t work in an effect loop since the signal strength is too different from a guitar output (check out the impedance). Check also that your effect loop has an adjustable level because in this case it will probably adapt to any pedal.

The beauty of this “end of chain” boost solution is that you can boost either your clean tone or your distorted tone which gives you a wide variety of tones for soloing.

Note that placed at the beginning of the effect chain, say right after your guitar, a clean boost pedal will have a different effect. If it is placed before a distortion/overdrive pedal, the more gain is dialed, the less the clean boost will have an effect on the overall volume, it will rather have an effect on the amount of distortion (this is because a side effect of distortion or overdrive is that the tone gets compressed). With a moderate amount of gain on your overdrive/distortion stompbox,  a clean boost will fatten your tone and moderately increase the volume which is like going from the crunch to the lead channel on a 3 channel amp. As always when unsure, just experiment!

Conclusion

Solving the lead volume issue is linked to your style of playing and one or several solutions amongst those I have mentioned in this post might be available to you. And don’t forget that the volume is not everything and your tone will have to cut through the mix as I have explained in a previous post. Also you might want to check another one of my posts about the use of compressors at the end of your effect chain, it is a possible solution to boost your volume for solos although I have not always found it workable in live situations.

And even if you think you don’t have these problems, try to take notice at your next practice session or live gig, you might realize your tone can be greatly improved. I will cover live situations here but a lot of these tips are valid in recording situations as well. The biggest difference is that in a recording situation you have always some sort of possibility to rectify the tone during the mixing phase but a live gig is a fleeting moment…

Too many effects?

I know that the first thing that people do to be more “present” is to just turn the volume up and up and up… We have all done it. This might work but will ultimately ruin the overall sound of the band as you will be over present, dare I say deafening?

There is a few changes you might want to try before pumping the hell out of your volume knob:

1. if you have a lot of spatial effects such as delays and reverbs, you might want to turn them down or even off, at least just to see if your guitar cuts through the mix better. Remember that the presets on the shiny new multi-effect unit that you have just bought are probably “over the top” to make it sound better when you try it out in a shop.
2. If you have a setting for mediums on your amp (or modeling amp, distortion pedal, multi-effect, etc.) you might want to try to increase it. On its own, it might make your sound unpleasant as a majority of us love “scooped” tones but, in a band situation, that might give you more presence. The body of the guitar tone is in the mids. And this is probably why the Tube Screamer is such a popular pedal as it has a mid range hump that will make it cut through the mix.
3. Lower the gain: apart for styles that require extreme amounts of gain such as death metal, I often find that lowering the gain, even if it makes some licks harder to play, will give you more dynamics, expressiveness, and ultimately an improved presence.  It will require some readjustments in your playing but it might we worth it.
4. Play less: I know us guitarists have a tendency to want to “show off” but remember that, sometimes, a song might be best served by very simple licks or chords. Try to think of how your guitar should fit with the rest of the band and listen to your band mates, this is not a competition! And also if you play with a second guitarist and/or a keyboardist, try to find complementary parts and not to play the exact same thing (think Rolling Stones here).

The good old MXR Dynacomp - this model is from 95

But I find they can also be very useful in recording situations especially when you cannot crank an amp or when you have to record direct. After all, compressors were not primarily invented to be guitar effects but they originated in the studio and are used in recording and mixing situations all the time, not only to avoid distortion but also to put forward some parts, smooth a bass line or increase the sustain of a guitar part, etc. The list of applications is endless.

So, a while ago, I was recording direct using my trusty Marshall JMP-1 preamp and I was using the clean channel with my pedal board laden with overdrive, distortion, delay, etc. in front of the preamp.  I found the tone to be a bit static and unrealistic. I then decided to try using a compressor, a BOSS CS-3 modified with the Monte Allum opto plus mod, in the effect loop of the JMP-1. So yes that means that all my other effects were placed before the compressor kicked in.

This is counter intuitive for guitarists as you are always told to put a compressor first in the chain but sometimes rules are meant to be broken. Note that some guitar compression pedals are not exactly studio grade so results may vary but I was quite satisfied reproducing the same trick with a standard MXR Dynacomp, the compressor of all guitar compressors (my model has nothing fancy, it is unmodified and was made in 95).

The resulting tone was more realistic and lively be it clean or colored by overdrive or distortion pedals. The difference is subtle but, to me, having a bit of compression at the end of the chain mimics the natural compression of a clean but loud tube amp.

I have recorded a demo using my Fender Stratocaster equipped with noiseless Kinman pickups, a RAT 2 distortion and a BOSS DD-3 Delay into a clean Marshall JMP-1 plugged directly into the sound-card (an EDIROL FA-66).

Here is the tone without the compressor:

This is not bad but not very smooth.

Now, here is the same tone with the MXR Dynacomp placed in the effect loop of the JMP-1 preamp. The effect loop level is set so that only 80% of the tone go through the compressor:

I find that it is smoother and has more sustain. I also find that harmonics come out better.

And here is the same configuration but this time with the effect loop set so that all the tone goes through the compressor:

Even smoother… The Dynacomp had the output on 3 o’clock and the sensitivity quite low, on 10 o’clock.

I have tried the same trick using a BOSS CS-3 with a Monte Allum modification:

The CS-3 had the following settings: Level at 3 o’clock, Tone at 10 o’clock, Attack at 10 o’clock and Sustain at 11 o’clock.

So girls and boys, just experiment and try to put that compressor at the end of the effect chain especially after a modeling or tube preamp if you record direct. I also suspect that a low volume amp could benefit from having a good compressor in the effect loop.