What Should I Buy?
Goodbye Speakers And Hello Pedals?
Now that my gigging days are behind me, I only play at home, at very low volumes so as not to upset the wife/neighbours/kids/dog – yes, I am officially old! I use a small bunch of pedals and effects into a modest practise amp, but I find that I’m tending to use headphones and/ or listen directly through my computer when recording. I notice there are now pedals/ devices designed especially for this – ie removing your amp from the direct sound equation. Which are the ones I should be considering? Not too pricey please! James Pickering, via email You are definitely not alone, James. It’s been clear for a while that a belting valve amp really isn’t appropriate for most home use, and while digital modelling technology goes a long way, there’s traditionally been an either/or dichotomy. The kind of devices you’re talking about are a big step forward in that respect. Now, there are other routes – attenuators/ direct boxes/speaker sims from the likes of Two Notes and Universal Audio – but you’re talking about losing the amp completely.
product demo’d by Guitarist, but then when I listen to other demos on different channels, the sound can be so different it could easily be an entirely different product. Can’t you lot just standardise your production methods so we have some sort of uniform standard? Or if not, how do I understand or trust anything I hear, because all the effects, EQ and other trickery is surely telling lies? I think this is relevant to Q&A because it is about guitar sounds after all. Ben Looker, via email It’s absolutely relevant, Ben – perhaps the most relevant thing of all now that everybody watches demos online. Clearly there are a number of variables here. First and foremost, who is playing? Put John Mayer and Dave Murray in exactly the same studio with exactly the same gear, and they’re going to sound quite different. Secondly, it’s worth remembering that no product really has ‘a sound’ in isolation, especially pedals. For example, the humble Ibanez Tube Screamer sounds radically different when it’s hitting a clean Fender amp or a heavily overdriving Marshall.
Lastly, as you allude there are many, many production decisions: microphone choice and position (or direct recording), room size and shape, EQ, compression etc, not to mention whatever happens during the digital encode before and during whatever output/upload process takes place. There are no lies in all of that (usually), just creative and stylistic decisions. A single microphone in front of a guitar speaker is an incredibly ‘unnatural’ sound compared to what your ears and brain perceive stood in the room. Then once you get into finished music, the guitar sounds often end up differing significantly from what the guitarist was hearing in the live room once they’ve been EQ’d and mixed. It doesn’t mean you can’t trust online demos, but it does mean that it’s probably worth putting some time into understanding what you’re actually listening to, as a precursor to shortlisting the gear you want to try for yourself. Hope that helps.
YOU GOT ME FLOATIN’
I have what feels like an insurmountable problem with my Strat (mid-2000s Classic Series). I like the feel and response of the tremolo when it’s set floating, as per Fender’s suggested settings. But I think I prefer the sound of the guitar when the bridge is against the body (and string bends feel more positive too). I think it sounds ‘thicker’ with more sustain and resonance. Is this even possible, and if so what do I do about it? Vincent Foster, via email Vincent, all problems are simply opportunities when you look at them from another angle. Your first opportunity is to get another Strat and have one set up each way. That’s the logical way forward, but if, for whatever reason, that is not practical there are a couple of things to try.
First, try another spring in the vibrato cavity. It will pull the bridge back a little bit and just give you a slightly stiffer feel to the vibrato – you may have to loosen the springs on the tension claw, too. If you adjust the tension so the bridge plate just sits on the body, you might find you still have adequate vibrato action and positive string bends, though of course it won’t be as ‘springy’ or free as with it fully floating.
If that doesn’t work, you could look at a device such as the Tremol-No (as used by Guthrie Govan). It’s a sliding bar arrangement that sits in the place of one of your springs. When locked it holds the bridge tight so you can do those country and pedal-steelstyle bends as you would with a non-vibrato guitar, without the vibrato moving. When it’s unlocked, the bridge is free to move as usual, and there’s also a ‘no-upbend’ mode. Good luck.