Tone Tips from a Random night…

So here I am… not having updated my blog in awhile, and playing more than I was before. I’m currently working a pretty long/tiring clinical rotation and have not had a lot of energy past going home and sleeping. 9 more months before I wrap this school thing up!

Without further to do: wow… my tone sounded awesome this past month! Now I try to figure out what I did…..

Some Inspiration…

Our worship team is going through some transitional phases as we have a new leader. She is an incredible, exciting vocalist… but knows nothing about music. Therefore we as the band are having to work with finding the correct keys and modeling into her style. Its tiring, exciting, and a complete dichotomy of feelings. We have had several really great services and we have had several not so great practices/performances.

So what do we do then?

I for one get some musical inspiration to help inspire

Another update….

Okay, I’m back.

This last reprieve and time of “no posting” was not my fault– my computer died. I’m beginning work on my Doctorate Thesis so I definitely need a comp for that. Now I’m start polishing the 5 post I already have written and get them ready to publish here.

Thanks for chillin’ and waiting for me to pop back up!

-Larry

Pedalboard 101: a question….

So I’ve been writing this blog awhile… and am getting a ton of hits on pedal board setup and questions how to do so. This question I received last was this one. I really liked the way it was asked and thought I would post it and my response.

hey! Great post… very informative, even though sadly, lots of it is over my head. I’m a worship leader at my church and I’m just slightly transitioning to my electric guitar as we’re doing more of the upbeat Lincoln Brewster type songs, and I’m using a Korg multi-effects processor pedal thing… and I just don’t see many people doing that, and am guessing I can tweak the sounds to my liking a little better using a train of pedals? Honestly I’m just trying to find that ‘appropriate’ church distortion/groove sound that is still hard core and sounds good, but isn’t the metal blasting away everyone kind of sound. I guess I’m asking what you think a good set of pedals (from scratch, including tuners/volume, etc.) would be to get crackin’ at finding a good mix of acousticy/strum sounds, with some good distortions and choruses as well?

Also, I know this sounds silly… but I don’t see how people transition so well between one song and the next, say you need to adjust your distortion… if you’re using say, the SD-1, then you’d have to bend down, turn the dial to crank down the distortion, and hope it’s right… that just doesn’t seem to be what people do, what is normal practice for getting different sounds throughout a set w/out literally tweaking the pedals between songs? Or do you just find a distortion that seems to fit them all?? Thanks in advance! —-

On the multiunits: yeah, I don’t like them. Did once, but they just don’t respond/breathe as well as actual analog effects do! The difference is astounding if you were to A/B them. That said, the newer “multi’s” that I would recommend is the Line 6 M13. This little guy can be tweaked quite well, and responds mostly the way an amp/analog effects do. I have been impressed with the tones I’ve heard from this thing. That said, my ear can tell some difference between a stomp box overdrive and the M13 overdrives, but the other effects (delay, modulations) are fantastic. Of course, as soon as I said I could tell the difference, a buddy of mine tweaked his to a point that sounded great and proved me wrong. So if you are on a budget, I would recommend the M13.

The best part of pedals is you have exactly what you want! You can add, remove etc…. and you get what you need! I’m assuming you are doing Lincoln-type music and maybe some Hillsong stuff. It helps to know your guitar, but we’ll just talk about the basics here and follow-up on the others. If I were leading worship with an electric guitar (as now I play lead and sing background) I would reduce my current board and probably use something like: compressor, 2 to 3 overdrives, tremolo, delay. Boom. That is all. Maybe a reverb. But thats pushing it– KISS method: Keep It Simple Sucka.

If I have to sing I don’t want to have to switch out so many effects, and I won’t be performing as much as I would be concentrating on Rhythm and staying on-key vocally! So for me, the actually pedals I would use would be: a smooth compressor (my fav: Barber Tone Press), high gain overdrive (my favs: Barber Small Fry, Fulltone OCD, Visual Sound Hyde, Hermida Audio Mosferatu) followed by 1 or 2 low gain drives (favs: Hermida Audio Zendrive, PaulC Tim, Barber LTD, Analogman Tubescreamer mod) then a tuner of your choice that mutes when you step on it, then a tremolo (preferably with tap-tempo) and a delay(with tap tempo, my favs: Line 6 Echo Park, and Boss DD20).

As for finding your “place” in the distortion/overdrive: Here is how I approach it. 1) I have 3 ODs on my board. Each is a different flavor. Each handles a different amount of gain. Boom, problem solved. I use this way sometimes. I also make sure the pedals (like the Zendrive) have a lot of headroom- where they aren’t too compressed and retain dynamics of playing. As in, hit a string soft, they are soft sounding, low gain. IF you hit the strings HARD, they ring back hard, medium gain. This also makes stacking drives (like my Small Fry INTO the Zen) sound incredibly good, smooth, and natural. 2) Lately I have been using the “classic method”. (which is what I would do if I were leading). The classic method comes from a time where no one used pedals, and only had amps for the drives. What they would do is set up their amp’s distortion with the volume on the guitar turned about halfway. Once they found that spot, their rhythm was set. Less volume would mean less drive, and a more clean sound. If they cranked the guitar’s volume, you had more gain/volume- thus a lead sound. I do this with the pedals with a lot of headroom (Zendrive, Analogman TS9 and SD1 among others…). Set to a nice rhythm with you guitar turned down. Nice light gain sounds. When I go into a heavy chorus/bridge, I only need to turn up to get harder/more gained sounds. If thats still not enough, I punch another “light” gain drive to boost it in volume and gain. Instant lead sound. I do the same thing with the high gain pedal: use it at 1/2 volume for the good crunchy stuff, more guitar volume for even heavier stuff or a lead sound, and if I need more, I boost with another low gain (this time the low gain is in the front, instead of pushing into the pedal).

But eventually you’ll find a pedal that fits almost everything. 80% of what I do (or have done) I used only an Analogman TS9 or the Zendrive (and now the Tim). The other 20% was clean (compressor usually) or heavy gained (which the TS9 and Zen couldn’t really do so well).

Good luck!

This has spurned some other thoughts from me… so look for them real soon!

brief update…

Wow… where has the Summer gone?

I know I have promised posts. I have gear reviews… I have a ton of ideas… but no time!

In this crazy career path I chose, I have to finish this crazy hard school. And since Neurology is a course which I enjoyed so much the first time that I opted to retake it again this Summer to actually get a passing grade– well, my time has been limited and blogging has falling to the wayside.
I will be finishing all the time-suck stuff by Aug 7, and should… SHOULD be back into regular posting by then.
I hate that my last few posts are reasons why I haven’t posted….

See you ’bout August 10th!!

-Larry

Update:

I haven’t forgotten you guys!!!

I currently have a demo recorded of the Barber Small Fry. I don’t love it, but its not bad. But then I realized- it doesn’t do the Small Fry justice!

See, I recorded it in a shootout with the Zendrive for a comparison. And it did well, yes. But thats not where it excels at! I have started to try to record another of the Small Fry at my favorite settings so you can really grasp the flavor of this beast.

Besides that, this summer is busy. Life is busy, right? I am more relaxed, but still working in clinic and I have boards scheduled for August. Cram time again!

Anyway, look forward to some more posts very soon. Hopefully I can pull this Small Fry one off rather quickly!

-L

New Edition to the Family…

So.. the “stork” (USPS) came by today and delivered a  new family member.