Hey (gear) guys and gals -

I thought it might be fun to post a little something regarding gear, specificall

y that endless hunt for our guitar tone. It?s as much of an obsession for me as
it is for some of you, and I want to share a little of what I?ve learned over th
e past few years. I read through some of the posts in this part of the forum, an
d I can?t get over how much of a positive spin you?ve put on the guitar communit
y. It?s has a tendency to be jaded, and I love to see that you?re getting happin
ess and fulfillment out of it and not frustration.
There are some misconceptions that seem to constantly perpetuate, and I want to
try and bust one of them up right now. Oh, and it should be noted throughout tha
t this all applies to my take on tone. If you like heavy metal, you?ll probably
disagree with everything I have to say.
Distortion pedals ? One thing to keep in mind with distortion ? I should say ove
rdrive pedals, so as to distinguish them from fuzz pedals, which is more of an e
ffect unto itself - is that they?re really made to simulate overdriving an amp n
aturally. Vintage tube amps have a threshold where they break up past a certain
volume. A distortion pedal is used to make that ?break up sound? happen at lower
volumes, which is a reasonable expectation. You can?t turn a ?65 Deluxe Reverb
to ?8? in your bedroom without making a lot of people miserable. Stevie Ray Vaug
han used an Ibanez Tube Screamer (TS-80 , which in the 1980s was regarded as kin
d of a cheap pedal. Here?s the misconception; he didn?t really use that much dis
tortion at all. He did when he was going for that Jimi sound, but listen to most
any early SRV tune and you won?t hear as much break-up as you might think. I he
ar people all the time (I even remember hearing myself) who just dime the ?drive
knob? and think the ?volume? is a master knob for it. It?s a concept known as ?
gain staging? - it has to do with the way that the volume of each part of your s
ignal chain interacts with the next. The ?volume? knob of an 808 is the most imp
ortant. That?s by definition, the overdrive part of it. The ?overdrive? should b
e thought of as the ?cheat? knob. Remember this ? kicking on distortion should m
ake your guitar louder, not quieter. Quiet sounding loud is just strange. Settin
g gain staging will make sure that when you kick the pedal on, your guitar signa
l will get appropriately louder. Again ? Stevie Ray used so much less distortion
than you can possibly imagine. He was loud, and the way it hit the tape (and yo
ur ear) made that sound. I use a vintage 808, which has some properties that I l
ike, but it is by no means the holy grail of tone. It has it?s place, though. Ev
erything does. Just remember that turning that ?cheat? knob too high also cheats
you of the natural tonal characteristics of your guitar. Do work that volume kn
ob, though.
So what if you don?t have the 600 bucks for an 808? Don?t even worry about it. T
here are so many pedals designed to emulate it, it?s not even funny. Purists wan
t the original 808 because of some fairly esoteric microchip differences. The Vo
odoo Labs Sparkle Drive is somewhat close, (and dirt cheap!) but it can also hav
e a really harsh high end. (What?s in a name, right?) I think the Fulltone Fulld
rive 2 is a FANTASTIC update on the 808. The Keeley-modded TS-808 reissue is ver
y close to an 808. These pedals are what I call ?paint chip? close. If you didn?
t have an original 808 to A/B with, you wouldn?t know what you were missing. If
you?re looking for a good ?edgey? tone, check out the Marshall Bluesbreaker peda
l from the early ?90s. Not the BB-2 (bad), but the original. It?s a great beefy
sound that colors strat pickups in a really interesting way. The tone knob is li
ke a ?B.B.? dial. If you feel like your guitar just won?t cut it in the mix with
your band, but you don?t necessarily want more overdrive, check out the Fullton
e Fat-Boost, or the Keeley Katana. Kick it on for a solo, and it?s like having y
our own personal mixing engineer ride your fader. I use a Keeley-modded Boss BD-
2 pedal as well. It?s got it?s own thing going on, and I like it. So many pedals
are cool, and most every one has a place for something. It?s fun to listen to a
pedal and then play to it?s strengths.
Oh, here?s another misconception: True bypass is all-around better than buffered
(regular) bypass. Not so. Think of your guitar cable as a hose, and your guitar
only pushes a certain amount of water pressure out of it. After a certain lengt
h, you?re going to need some more pressure to squeeze the water out. True-bypass
takes the ?in? and ?out? cables of a pedal and connects them as if they were on
e long hose. After a certain length, you?ll get some pretty hefty tone loss. I l
earned this when I unplugged my guitar from my pedal switcher and went straight
into the amp. Guitar pedals without the TB serve as a buffer for the signal, and
naturally keep that water flow going. Yes, sometimes the trade-off can be harsh
; some pedals, while buffering your signal, can also adversely color it, even wh
en in bypass mode. That?s a good time to think TB. True bypass is a concept that
only really took off as a selling point over the last 5 years or so. It won?t k
ill you to have it, but it certainly isn?t the only reason to get a pedal over a
nother one without it.
I Hope that helps you out a little bit. There are so many other things I want to
share with you, where to put your money, where to save it... Maybe I?ll get to
it all over time. I can?t think of anything more exciting than tone hunting, and
I hope you can?t either.
PLAY ON
JM