Monthly Archives: January 2018

Distorted Reality – A Few Pointers On Using Overdrive And Distortion Pedals

28 Sunday Jan 2018

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Today, I want to talk about Overdrives and Distortion pedals because I feel some players are still confused about this a little bit.

I guess I’ll start to say that I never used a Distortion pedal in its true sense of the word. In order to get a good use out of a distortion pedal, you would have to play through a clean amp as the pedal adds just that – lots of distortion.

Since I use an amp that has an overdrive built in already (as I am sure all of you guys do as well), I choose to go with an Overdrive. What separates an Overdrive from the Distirtion pedal, is that the Overdrive gives your sound that little extra, that sweet boost needed for chunky tight rhythms and signing leads without throwing a ton and ton of gain on your amp. It works differently from a Distortion pedal. You can think of it as a milder version of a Distortion, although this is not exactly it, either.

If I plugged in a Distortion pedal in front of my head, the sound would be way overdriven and saturated. Not a good thing.

Here is how I use the Overdive to get a good sound and I’m pretty sure that most pro players do something in the ballpark.

When I play through a Marshall head (or, any high gain head or a combo) that already has a decent amount of gain, I leave the gain on the head at just about anywhere between 7 and 8.5. I don’t make the head work 100%.

In front of it, I run an Overdrive pedal which is always a Maxon OD-9. (Maxon OD-9 is closely associated with an Ibanez Tube Screamer, so if you are familiar with that pedal, then you might know what I’m referring to) But, any good Overdrive works depending on your taste. In the past, I also used the classic yellow Boss SuperOverdrive and Maxon OD808 which is very similar to the OD-9, but with less bass and more straight cut.

On the Maxon Overdrive, I keep the Gain/Overdrive just at around 10:30/11:00 O-Clock, Tone straight up at 12 and the Level pretty much just like the tone at 10:30/11. No matter what I’m using amp wise, this Overdrive setting works just as good. If the amp’s gain is weak, I might crank up the gain on the pedal.

So, amp’s gain not full tilt and you use the Overdrive to warm up/hot rod the sound. As you can see, I do not make any component work full tilt, which I think helps keep things in check.

See how it works for you. Of course, there can be variations of this depending on amps, guitars, style, etc., but this is pretty sure-fire way to get a cool sound.

In case anyone wants to know how my pedalboard looks like, it is also very simple.

Guitar goes into my pedals in this order:

1. Boss TU-2 Tuner

2. Dunlop Q95 Wah (This Wah is automatically turned on when you step on it. As soon as you take your foot off – it automatically switches off. I like that, because sometimes I don’t have time to worry about clicking it On/Off. It also has a button for 4db boost which is great for solos)

3. Maxon OD-9 Overdrive

4. Some sort of Chorus (Often a Maxon, or a simple Boss Super Chorus). Sometimes I bypass this step all together.

5.Boss NS-2 Noise Supressor, but if my rig is quiet, I even bypass that.

Any delay runs through the effects loop in the head. For the delay, I use a simple Boss Digital Delay stomp box. Many people are suprised when they hear me say that, but that Boss Delay pedal sounds good to me and I just leave it alone.

This is all fairly simple, to the point approach and I always think that the less stuff I got going on, the better the result.

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How To Be A Better Guitar Player

19 Friday Jan 2018

Posted by in Guitar & Music, Inspiration & Motivation

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How To Be A Better Guitar Player …

This must be one of the most common questions I get asked.

But, in general terms, my answer is always true and simple. Invest in your learning. Invest in your abilities. Attend classes, workshops, take lessons and don’t be afraid to hang with players that are further along than you are.

Don’t spend all of your money on gear to “improve”. This is a cheap way out and never works. This reminds of the golf guys who spend double for a ball that goes 5% further. These small percentages only matter after you have put in the time, when it makes sense to spend for that little extra.

Remember: new gear gets old fast – new material on the guitar stays with you for a long time. Ask yourself – how committed am I to really get better? And, do my current actions and routines support that? You already know the answer, I suspect. And, practice.

Can You Learn How To Play The Guitar Via You Tube?

16 Tuesday Jan 2018

Posted by in Guitar & Music, Inspiration & Motivation

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I hear quiet a bit of chatter about guitarists learning things by watching instructional videos on You Tube. Let’s face it – You Tube is full of amazing information and many guitar instructors strut their stuff all over the net. Heck, even my “Metal For Life” instructional videos have been seen by close to 4 million people.

It can be fun watching a snippet of a new guitar idea and then taking it even further or taking the challenge of learning something new note per note.

There is one ceveat. That is a lack of a bigger plan and constructive feedback.

It is hard to get amazing on the guitar by jumping from one video to another.

A student is unaware of what he or she doesn’t yet know. This is not always the case, but often is. Students will also spend a lot more time watching videos on the things they like and less on videos that focus on their weaknesses.

So, although it is certainly helpful and indeed possible to get very good on your instrument by watching You Tube lessons – you can speed up the process quiet a bit by studying with an experienced teacher who can present you with a program or a plan to help you build all aspects of your playing.

A good teacher will also give you extremely valuable feedback on your playing. It is sometimes very difficult to be objective about your playing simply because you are too inside of it. It is hard to step back, be honest and hear yourself with a “different” set of ears. This is what great teachers are for.

So, if I had to give some advice for best and fastest results – I’d recommend both. Learn all you can from You Tube and find a great guitar teacher that is truly interested in teaching you.

Dominating On The Guitar In The New Season

03 Wednesday Jan 2018

Posted by in Guitar & Music, Inspiration & Motivation

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One thing I realized over the years is that there is no magic wand or anyone that will come out of your computer screen to make you better as a guitar player, songwriter or anything similar. In short – the greatest way to achieve progress is to define goals of what you would like to accomplish with your guitar playing and start chiseling away at them as the year progresses.

But, being general leads us nowhere as well. We must be specific. Not so specific that you will have every day planned out, but I recommend you thinking of 3 major things you want to do with your music or playing in the p-coming Fall, Winter or whatever season is coming up.

Your goals could look something like this:

1. Get way better at alternate picking

2. Write 8 really great songs

3. Play a show with my band or play live at least once (Open mic, workshops)

Or … maybe something like this:

1. Learn and nail the solo for “I Don’t Know” by OZZY note for note

2. Learn how to change strings on my guitar so they hardly ever go out of tune

3. Learn all the notes on my guitar across all the strings and on the entire fretboard

You can make them as challenging as you want depending on what you want to get done, how much time you have for playing guitar and so on. It is important to keep the big 3 in mind as the year goes on. Sure, you can get other things done, but you would be surprised how close you can get to accomplishing your goals if you keep an eye on them and work little at a time as the year goes on.

Getting the big 3 on paper first really helps. It keeps them in plain sight, gives you something to strive for and having three goals is much simpler to process than trying to get “great” by picking up your guitar, noodling and doing the same thing a week later.