This was cool. I'd like to see a deep dive into your pedals and setup. Does wiring sequence matter. What's your process when trying to mimic a sound or create a new one? What kind of pedals do you recommend for beginners, what to stay away from.
Hey thanks Reese! The wire sequence (or signal chain) does matter. The way I order pedals is probably more on the common side of things, but there's no wrong answer if you're inventing sounds and stuff. Generally speaking, reverbs are typically last, with delays 2nd to last. If you use a volume pedal it makes a huge difference where it is, because if it's pre-distortion / boost, over drive, etc... then the vol. pedal will act as a gain knob, and affect drive, and not really the true volume. So my volume pedal is after the gain/drive section but before the delay and reverb. So I can fade off that volume and the delay and reverb will still do their thing to whatever's left on the signal. It makes for smoother transitions. What I'd recommend for a beginner would depend on budget. If you can spring for $500 ish, i'd get an HX Stomp... cuz it can do pretty much anything all by itself. The HX Stomp is equivalent to having like a 100 pedals in front of you. I mean dozens of amp/cap models, + zillions of effects. The Positive Grid spark is half that amount and can do tons and tons of stuff, all controlled from an app on your phone - a great beginner tool. For beginners, I'd get something like one of those two mentioned that is a multi effects unit. Or even cheaper is a Line6 POD. Just stay away from pedals that do one thing. Wait on that stuff. Your phone can be a tuner, so you don't need to buy one. When trying to mimic a sound, I'll do a little bit of research first... ie: The Edge typically plays through Vox AC30, Slash through a JCM 900, and then you can pick apart what effects are going on a song by song basis. Generally speaking there's not as much distortion as you think. Like a typical AC/DC sound is darn near clean, compared to like a Metallica sound. Beginners tend to over distort tone. I hope that helps!
Nice work, bro!!!
Thanks Ed!
This was cool. I'd like to see a deep dive into your pedals and setup. Does wiring sequence matter. What's your process when trying to mimic a sound or create a new one? What kind of pedals do you recommend for beginners, what to stay away from.
Hey thanks Reese! The wire sequence (or signal chain) does matter. The way I order pedals is probably more on the common side of things, but there's no wrong answer if you're inventing sounds and stuff. Generally speaking, reverbs are typically last, with delays 2nd to last. If you use a volume pedal it makes a huge difference where it is, because if it's pre-distortion / boost, over drive, etc... then the vol. pedal will act as a gain knob, and affect drive, and not really the true volume. So my volume pedal is after the gain/drive section but before the delay and reverb. So I can fade off that volume and the delay and reverb will still do their thing to whatever's left on the signal. It makes for smoother transitions. What I'd recommend for a beginner would depend on budget. If you can spring for $500 ish, i'd get an HX Stomp... cuz it can do pretty much anything all by itself. The HX Stomp is equivalent to having like a 100 pedals in front of you. I mean dozens of amp/cap models, + zillions of effects. The Positive Grid spark is half that amount and can do tons and tons of stuff, all controlled from an app on your phone - a great beginner tool. For beginners, I'd get something like one of those two mentioned that is a multi effects unit. Or even cheaper is a Line6 POD. Just stay away from pedals that do one thing. Wait on that stuff. Your phone can be a tuner, so you don't need to buy one.
When trying to mimic a sound, I'll do a little bit of research first... ie: The Edge typically plays through Vox AC30, Slash through a JCM 900, and then you can pick apart what effects are going on a song by song basis. Generally speaking there's not as much distortion as you think. Like a typical AC/DC sound is darn near clean, compared to like a Metallica sound. Beginners tend to over distort tone.
I hope that helps!