Guitar Gear

Many years back, I was jamming with a few guys and I got to the jam a bit late. So when I got there, I hurriedly set up my gear, switched on the power and started playing without doing a check of my pedal settings. In transport or while I was setting up the level knob on my reverb got turned way up. So when I started playing, my sound was awash in this syrupy-soupy reverb.

There was an older, cranky dude who was playing at the time. When he heard my guitar, he stopped and yelled out, “Hey! Use your f-in’ mix knob!”

I laughed, flew him the bird, told him to piss off, looked down and was shocked to see that most of my pedals needed to be set. So I quickly made the adjustments, and went back to playing.

Unfortunately, the guy wouldn’t let it go, and when we took a break, proceeded to lay in on me about my ambient sound. For the life of me, I can’t remember his name, but I again told him to piss off and that I had made the adjustments, and being young and brash and hot-headed at the time, probably added some zingers of my own. But in the end, it all worked out.

What sparked this memory was a demo video I watched this morning of the Walrus Audio Slo Multi-Texture Reverb pedal. It’s a cool pedal if you’re into that ambient sound, but since I don’t play much ambient-style music, it’s not a pedal that I’d consider adding to my rig.

And despite my little conflict all those years ago, the dude had a point: Overdo anything, and you’ll sound like shit. But I need to qualify that.

Set the level of your effect – any effect – relative to everything: the song, the band, the style, etc.. For instance, if you’re playing a funky song, an ambient reverb will not work. The staccato nature and the quick, syncopated patterns of the rhythm guitar just don’t lend themselves to anything with a long decay. That’s not to say don’t use reverb at all, but just don’t slather it on.

But this can be said of any pedal. I pick on reverb a bit because I’ve seen too many players overdo this effect. But to be honest, whenever I’ve seen any player overdo an effect, a lot of that has to do with the player not taking into account the context in which he or she is playing.

For me, I have two pedals that are almost always on: Reverb and Chorus. But I set them such that their contribution to my sound is extremely subtle. If I turn either off, you hardly noticed a difference, but once I switch them on, there’s just a bit “more.”

Now that’s me. The styles I play are mostly classic rock and reggae. And one could argue that reggae uses a lot of reverb. There is a lot of reverb in reggae due to the most popular amp used in reggae is a Fender Twin. But I’m not a big fan of spring reverb either, so I almost always dial it back.

For me at least, I have this thought that I want to hear as much of the natural sound of my guitar as possible. Or if I’m playing electric guitar, the fundamental tone of my rig sans effects. I add on mod effects sparingly so I can get my sound. But also, doing that makes ME work harder.

I’m a firm believer that your tone is in your fingers. Effects can seriously hide flaws in technique. When I’m woodshedding, I almost invariably plug straight into my 1958 Fender Champ. Talk about exposing mistakes! That amp is truly a WYSIWYG amp. You mess up, it’ll let you know.

Circling back, yes, use effects. They add texture and depth to whatever you’re playing. But as that cranky, old dude said: “Use your f-in’ mix knob!”