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I’ve Got GAS – And I’ve Got It Bad!!!

March 21, 2007 by Unco B

No, I’m not talking about the gastrointestinal waste product, I’m talking about Guitar Acquisition Syndrome. It’s an affliction that plagues guitar players the world over, forcing them to buy more and more equipment so they can achieve the perfect tone. Wonder why guitar players are always broke? Look no further. It’s because they’ve sunk all their money into their gear.

Some people have likened GAS to obsessive compulsive disorder; considering the amount of money some people spend, it could be highly likely that it comes close, but really, it’s not that bad. It’s just that in the quest for attaining the ideal sound, you need to get equipment – and that costs money.

Is there a cure? Not as long as you’re trying to tweak your tone. But it goes away once you get close to your ideal. For instance, I’ve pretty much stopped buying gear since I’ve achieved my ideal – at least for now; and that’s the catch. GAS comes back when you want to change your tone, and the amount of GAS you get is in direct proportion to how big of a change you want to make. For me, last year was a year of complete re-invention. I went from being a primarily acoustic-electric guitar player, to being almost entirely electric, and the equipment I had just didn’t suffice. So, two electric guitars, three amps, and a set of stomp boxes later, not to mention a new PA and recording equipment, I’m pretty much over my GASeous period. I’m pretty satisfied… at least for now… 🙂

Can you control GAS? Actually, yes. I have a very supporting wife who sang for me in a music group before we started dating, so she was pretty familiar with my need for more equipment. Once we got married, we had several debates about me getting equipment, since the money was coming out of our family budget. So after going back and forth, and not getting any resolution, she one day said she’d like to make a deal. Since my regular job provided enough money to support the family and pay the mortgage, I could set up a separate account and deposit all my gig money into it to use as I pleased. But a huge part of the deal was that I couldn’t buy anything on credit or financing. I had to use the cash I had. That was a very fair deal, and it was also a way to curb my GASeous urges.

Anyone else have GAS? Share your thoughts!

Posted in amps, Effects, Guitars, Music | 9 Comments »

Do Solid State Amps Really Suck?

March 8, 2007 by Unco B

A lot of tube amp purists seem to think so, and for the most part, I’d have to agree. But on the flip side, solid state amps have their uses. For instance, under some conditions, a solid state amp actually makes more sense to use than a tube amp. When I gig, I bring two amps with me: A re-tubed and modified Fender Hot Rod Deluxe, and a Roland Cube 60. I play my electrics (ES-335 and Strat with Tex Mex pickups) through the Hot Rod, while I play my Ovation Elite acoustic/electric through the Roland Cube. There’s a practical reason for this in addition to a more personal reason. The practical reason is that I have effect boxes that are specifically geared towards shaping my electric guitars’ tones on the Hot Rod. Having to dial in the effects for a third is just too impractical.

On the personal side of things, I found that my Ovation actually sounded better (to my ears) on the clean channel of the Cube. I wasn’t expecting it, but I think the brightness and high touch sensitivity of the Hot Rod actually made my ovation too bright – it’s already a bright-sound guitar unplugged. With the Roland, I could dial back the brightness of the amp to bring out the Ovation’s natural brightness, and with the built-in chorus, add some subtle overtones that was very pleasing to my ears. I also “cheat” a bit by running a Presonus TubePre right before the amp, and that really warms up my signal. And by the way, the Cube 60 is a VERY LOUD amp; so loud, in fact, that I actually use the tube pre-amp as a gain limiter to control the amp’s volume – otherwise, I’d have to play the amp at around 2.

I also own a Line 6 Flextone III Plus that I use extensively in my recording work. Why? With its controllable direct out, I can get a nice even signal coming from my amp and go directly in to my recording unit. Furthermore, because it’s a modeling amp, I can tweak a lot of different things to create a unique patch that I couldn’t achieve without a lot of signal processing (read: effect boxes) on my tube amp. Note however, that the guitar parts that I play through the Flextone III typically play a supporting role in my songs, but even as support, they play a valuable part.

Another important point that I’d like to make is that with a modeling amp, you get a very consistent tone. In a lot of cases that consistency can equate to “boringness,” but for my uses, I can create a background guitar part knowing that I won’t have to do much with it in my recording software. Also with respect to consistency, once I’ve dialed in a tone on my Flextone, it sounds pretty much the same throughout a wide range of volumes. That’s very useful.

The downside of a modeling amp is that, well, your sounds are models. While modeling technology has certainly come a long way, you can get close to a particular tone from a tube amp, but it’s not quite the same. Another thing that I found is that with a full-blown modeling amp like the Flextone III, it actually sounds horrible on stage; especially if you’ve introduced distortion into the patch. There’s a lot to be said about the interplay between pre-amp and power amp tubes in producing a distorted signal. Modeling amps just can’t capture that 100%. But I will say that played clean, it’s tough to distinguish between the two types of amps, especially if you put a tube pre before a modeling amp, like I did with my Cube 60.

So the moral of the story boys and girls is that modeling amps don’t suck. For me, they’re very useful for specific purposes. In all others, I’ll take a tube amp any day.

Posted in amps, Guitars, Music, recording | 5 Comments »

Review: The Taylor T5 ~ Is it an electric? Is it an acoustic?

March 8, 2007 by Unco B

A friend of mine recommended that I try out a T5. He was raving about how cool it looked, and how you could switch from acoustic sound to a full-blown electric. I was a little dubious, considering that that’s really just modeling, and frankly, it was nothing new to me). Parker Guitars did this with “The Fly” well over a decade ago. But to be fair, I went down to my local GC to check one out and see what all the hype was about. So, under the guise of “Honey, I need to run some errands. I’ll be back in a couple of hours,” I ventured to my local GC, and played it for over an hour. The following is the result of that session with the Taylor T5:

Oops! Before I start on the actual review, I played the T5 through three amps: A Fender Acoustasonic Junior, a Fender Hot Rod Deluxe, and a Roland Cube 30.

Fit and Finish:

All Taylor guitars look great, and the T5 is a real beauty. I played a T5 with a beautiful royal blue finish – very sexy. The T5 also lives up to the Taylor standard of construction – all their guitars are very well-built. As far as acoutrements are concerned, personally, I’m not a real fan of low-profile knobs (when I’m in the middle of a song and want to make an adjustment, I want to be able to feel the knob – ooh, that didn’t sound good), but the knobs on the T5 fit in with its design nicely.

Feel and Playability:

The T5 has a nice narrow neck – very similar to my Strat and Ovation Acoustic/Electric – which I love, so moving around on this neck was amazingly easy and very comfortable. Acoustic players who are accustomed to wider necks will need a little time to get a feel for the neck, but should adjust pretty quickly. I had an easier go of it myself from playing my Ovation. When I first got that guitar, I had a bit of a break-in curve, but now it’s the type of neck I prefer.

Sound:

I know that I may piss some people off when I say this, but as far as sound was concerned, I was a bit disappointed. Based upon my conversation with my friend who raved about it, and lots of glowing reviews I read on Harmony Central and Musicians’ Friend, I was expecting a lot more with respect to tone – especially since the T5 starts at $1999, and goes up from there. I used the same evaluation process on the three amps I played the T5 on: On both amp and guitar, I started out by setting all the tone knobs to the mid settings. Guitar volume was set to midline, and since I was in a shop, I had to set the Fenders pretty low (they use logarithmic volume pots), while the Cube 30’s gain could be cranked while leaving the volume at a comfortable level. From there, I played the guitar in three different ways: 1) Fingerpicking; 2) strumming (using a straight sweep strum, and a percussive, attacking strum); 3) Then just playing various lead patterns in clean and high-gain modes.

Played clean with fingerpicking and lead playing, the T5 was very nice on all the amps; great clarity and sustain, though I really had to pump up the bass and turn down the treble on the amps to achieve a rich sound – especially on the Hot Rod Deluxe which, even with brightness off, plays pretty bright. Strumming in clean mode was pretty ugly on the Fenders – the guitar sounded like an acoustic plugged into an amp – very flat sounding, and no amount of EQ tweaking or reverb helped. Plus, when using a percussive strum pattern (think Michael Hedges), I would get an annoying popping sound. Probably has to do with the very touch-sensitive pickups, added to the touch sensitivity of the Fender amps. On the Cube 30 though, since I could apply some chorus, the tone cleaned up quite nicely, and helped dissipate the high end. If I was to use the T5 clean with a straight tube amp or acoustic amp, I’d run it into a compressor, a chorus, and then run the entire signal thorough a sonic maximizer – and possibly add an EQ pedal to texture the sound better.

In high-gain mode on the Hot Rod, the T5 actually sounded very nice. Even though I had to play at a lower volume, I could crank the drive and get a real nice distortion out of the T5. I think this is where the body vibration from the hollow body comes into play. It actually sounded a lot like my ES-335 in that mode; very pleasing to the ear, with a big, rich sound. With the Roland Cube 30 in the modeling channel, the T5 performed great with the gain at about midway, using the all the non-acoustic amp models. In the acoustic model on modeling channel, the T5 actually sounded VERY good, but then again, that’s a modeled sound.

Overall:

The Taylor T5 is a pretty nice guitar. Would I pay two grand and up for it? I don’t think so. I look at this guitar as being similar to a Line 6 Variax 700, which has a lot more features and guitar models built into it, and costs more than half the price less (I know, the T5 is NOT a modeling guitar)! Then again, I wouldn’t buy a Swiss Army Knife type of guitar period, mainly because even though it may sound real close to what it’s modeling, it’ll never get the exact voicing that the original gives you. For instance, if I want a thin, single coil sound, I’ll use my Strat. If I want a richer, boomier presentation, I’ll use my ES-335 (I’m also in the market for a Les Paul Double Cutaway, which I just adore). For acoustic/electric work, I’ll use my Ovation shallowbody.

Posted in gear reviews, guitar, guitar gear, Guitars, Tone | 139 Comments »

Turn that F&%kin’ Thing Down!!!

March 6, 2007 by Unco B

The Dr. Z Air BrakeAfter many years of using solid state amps, I finally started looking at tube amps; specifically, boutique tube amps. I’ve looked at and played several from folks like Dr. Z, Mesa, King Amplification and a bunch of others. But boutique amps are VERY EXPENSIVE. And upon the recommendation of a very knowledgeable acquaintaintance (mentioned previously), I purchased a Fender Hot Rod Deluxe to tide me over until I could afford the $2500-$3500 for a boutique amp.

But no matter what boutique tube amp I decide to buy, one thing that struck me about about tube amps is that they’re LOUD!!! Yeah, I know, a lot of that comes from the types of volume pots installed on many amps, but irrespective of that little issue, tube amps just rock the house with their tonal clarity and their ability to punch through a mix. Unfortunately, they can get so loud that they squash the rest of your band (let alone shatter the eardrums of your audience), and that’s the bad part because most tube amps, especially Mesas and Marshalls just don’t sound right until they’re cranked and really pushing their power tubes. But in small to medium-sized venues, you’ll have people running for the door!

So I went looking for a solution where I could push my power tubes but not break windows (or in a specific personal instance, not have the next-door-neighbor calling me at 1 am to “turn my f&*king amp down”). In any case, the answer lay in a box called a power attenuator. There are several types, and I won’t bore you with technical details, but the gist of a power attenuator is just that: it attenuates the signal coming from your amp. You simply place it between your amp and your speakers and it outputs a lower signal – thus lower volume. What this means is that you can crank your amp to the level that you’d like and achieve an overdriven tone, but do it at a significantly reduced volume level.

The hot ticket right now seems to be the THD Hot Plate. But there are others out there as well. Personally, I like the Dr. Z Air Brake because it has a very simple set up (just two knobs), and is much more versatile right out of the box than the Hot Plate. This is because it automatically adjusts to the proper impedance of your amp; whereas you have to get a specific Hot Plate model that matches your amp’s impedance level. Choose the wrong one and you could be in a world of hurt! So I’ll be going with the Air Brake.

However, since I have a home studio, I will also be purchasing the Weber Mass 100 because it has a EQ’d DI direct output that I can run directly into my MBox 2. That’s very useful for studio work, but way too complicated for stage work. Besides, even though I only play with 4 effect pedals (BBE Sonic Stomp [you gotta get this – or better yet, get a rackmount sonic maximizer], Ibanez TS-808 Tube Screamer, Boss DD-3 delay, and Boss CE-5 chorus), I have more than enough knobs to twiddle with, and the Air Brake is simple enough to use on stage – two knobs. I tend to be a set it and forget it kind of guy and only like to channel switch to my gain stage or switch the TS-808, so the less I have to play around with, the better.

Anyway, if you’re a guitar player who’s in search of maintaining your tone but saving your eardrums – as well as those in your audience – then a power attenuator is the thing for you.

Posted in amps, Effects, gear reviews, guitar, Guitars, Music | 3 Comments »

Shaping Your Sound: It’s a Balancing Act

February 28, 2007 by Unco B

 

How you sound is important, and what sounds good to you is an entirely subjective thing. A lot of guitar players want to sound like other guitarists – that’s not a bad thing. Hell, I’d love to sound like Eric Johnson or Joe Satriani or Stevie Ray Vaughn myself! But whether or not you want to sound like some other guitar player, or create a sound that’s unique to you, you need to take into account what shapes your overall tone.

Unfortunately, many guitarists, especially inexperienced guitarists don’t understand tone shaping all that well. They think that just because they get a certain stomp box, they’ll sound just like their favorite guitarist. But getting the right tone involves a lot of different factors, but they boil down to three different areas. And how you balance those areas will affect how you sound. NOTE: This deals more along the lines of equipment as opposed to the guitarist, who of course is the main factor in getting tone; in other words, how you play affects how you sound, so technique is really a huge factor.

The Tone Triangle

The tone triangle

The diagram above is what I call the “Tone Triangle.” It simply is a graphical representation of the three factors that influence your overall tone: Power, Clarity, and Density. Power is a function of your volume, whether set from your guitar, volume pedal, or amp; or by using a booster or overdrive pedal. Clarity is the cleanliness of your tone. I tend to think of clarity or cleanness in terms of the amount of distortion or lack thereof that is present in your tone. Density is the “fatness” or “thinness” of your tone. For instance, a Strat has a fairly thin tone as it doesn’t produce much in bass area. An ES-335 or Les Paul however, have dual humbuckers, so they produce a much wider range of tone; thus the “fatter” tone.

So what’s the point to all this? What you do to tweak your sound will affect the shape of your tone triangle. Note that there’s no bad shape to the triangle. Its shape just changes based upon the tweaks you make. And understanding how that shape is affected will get you a long way towards knowing what kinds of pedals to buy or adjustments you have to make. So armed with that idea, let’s look at the three corners of the tonetriangle.

Things That Affect Power

Power is a pretty easy thing. Pump up the volume, add an overdrive or boost, and the net result is a generally louder sound. But keep in mind that power has an inverse relationship with clarity. The more power you add, the lower your clarity, as your signal will tend to distort at higher power levels.

Specifics: Volume adjustment (guitar, amp, volume pedal); overdrive and boost pedals.

Things That Affect Clarity

As discussed above, gain has a negative effect on clarity; not that this is a bad thing. I myself can appreciate a creamy smooth distorted signal. But distort too much, and what you get is a mess. In fact, with an overly distorted signal, even though you might pump up the volume, your sound will just get lost in the mix. So with clarity, you have to really balance how much distortion is appropriate for what you’re playing and who you’re playing with.

Let’s take a bit of time to discuss distortion. Generally, there are two types of distortion. The first distortion is the result of high input gain, while the other type is the result of signal manipulation. Both are completely valid, but each produces completely different types of sounds. Distortion from gain or overdrive tends to be on the bright and gritty side, while distortion from dedicated distortion pedals tends to be thick and smooth. The combination of both kinds creates a very big sound indeed – sometimes too big for some applications, so be careful how you’re applying distortion. With respect to distortion pedals, my advice is to play a bunch of different kinds. The same goes for overdrive pedals. Again, it’s all about personal preference, but it’s also about the type of music you play. It doesn’t make a lot of sense to play with a lot of overdrive and distortion if you’re playing jazz or pop; on the flip side, playing a really clean tone with death metal is absolutely nuts!

Clarity is also affected by how you EQ your rig. Put too much bottom-end in your sound, and you’ll sound muffled. Dial in a lot of treble, and you’ll sound thin or at higher volume levels, you’ll sound piercing. So you have to be careful about how you balance your EQ.

Specifics: Again, volume or gain; distortion and overdrive pedals. EQ. Modulators such as reverb, chorus, flange, and phasers also affect your clarity.

Things That Affect Density

As mentioned above, density is about the fatness of your tone. This can be affected in a lot of ways, not the least of which is the type of guitar you play and the pickups they employ. In general, single coil pickups produce a thinner tone, while humbuckers have a deeper and richer, thus denser or “fatter” tone. The type of amp you play out of can either thicken or thin out your tone. For instance, Fender amps are clean and bright, while something like a Vox AC30 produces a thicker overall tone.

As far as effect pedals are concerned, the most common pedal used for adjusting signal density is the compressor. I’m tired, and this entry is getting long so for a good discussion of how a compressor works, read this great article. An overdrive pedal can also serve to thicken your tone if used at lower drive levels, but it’s tricky, and you have to do a lot of tweaking depending upon the guitar you use.

Specifics: Type of pickups you employ;compressor, overdrive pedals.

Wrapping It Up

Notice that I didn’t mention specific brands or pedals in this discussion. This is because tone shaping is such a personal thing that to give advice on specific items to purchase would be a disservice. What I wanted to do was give you an idea of the kinds of things that can affect your tone triangle. So go out and shape your tone!

Posted in guitar, Guitars, Music, Tone | 3 Comments »

Sometimes you have to tweak a bit deeper…

February 17, 2007 by Unco B

Fender Hot Rod DeluxeA few days ago, I got a Fender Hot Rod Deluxe, and as I mentioned, I was just blown away by the sound. As I’ve mentioned before, there’s nothing like the tube sound, and according to articles I read and people that I’ve spoken to about this amp, it’s a great entry-level tube amp that you can a lot of mileage out of. Since I’ve gotten it, I’ve been playing it at least a couple of hours a day – it’s that good!

After a few days of playing it though, I started feeling that there was just something not completely right about the sound. Mind you, compared to my modeling amps, the sound from this amp could be compared to swimming in hazy waters, then coming into a crystal clear patch of water. But still, the clean channel felt just a little “flat,” and in the drive stage – even with my TS-808 adding heavy overdrive – the distortion was choppy.

Before I bought the Hot Rod, I had read a bunch of articles and talked to a few very knowledgeable amp technicians about how the stock tubes that come with the amp are biased pretty low – in other words they run at a lower output level so they last longer, but this has an effect on the sound. So, armed with that input, I took my amp to King Amplification in San Jose, and none other than Val King (the owner and designer of King Amps) took a look at the tubes. My intent all along was to swap out the stock Groove Tube 6L6GC’s and run up the biasing just a bit higher based upon my reading, but Val did a thorough check of all the tubes and various voltages in the circuits, and I actually ended up not only swapping out the power tubes, I replaced the pre-amp tubes as well because they were just slightly distorting at low volumes. According to Val, that was probably causing the “flatness” in tone I was experiencing. So he replaced both pre-amp tubes and also replaced the phase inverter tube. Now, the sound that the amp produces is crystal clean, and has a lot of ringing overtones! I’m very happy.

I’m scheduling to have another mod made to the amp, and that is to tighten up the distortion even more in the boost channel. The new tubes helped a lot toward this, but I want a subtler, creamier distortion – it’s still a tad choppy for my tastes – so I’m going to have it adjusted. I’m also going to have the volume pot changed from a logarithmic-style volume pot to a linear one – it’ll make it much better for controlling the amp’s volume.

Posted in guitar, Guitars, Music, Tone | Leave a Comment »

Information Is Power, But For Guitar Gear, It Usually Means A Lighter Wallet

February 15, 2007 by Unco B

In my last entry, I recommended that anyone who was in the market for a tube amp should read the excellent article by Randall Smith (president of Mesa Engineering) on the different tube configurations before making their decision. So, armed with that information, I started surfing the web on different kinds of tube amps. No telling, my head started spinning. When you start getting serious about getting a tube amp, the challenge in finding one is not just about understanding tube configurations and what they all do, it’s also sifting through the literally hundreds of boutique tube amps out on the market. After a couple of hours, I was admittedly pretty forlorn.

But a chance conversation led me call to Tone Mechants in Orange, CA. I’ve got to tell you, this was the most useful conversation regarding tube amps I’ve ever had! Instead of trying to sell me one of theirs, the guy recommended that I go down to my local music equipment store and get an entry-level tube amp; specifically, a Fender Hot Rod Deluxe. This is a two-channel tube amp with three 12AX7’s for pre’s and 2 6L6GC power tubes, and a good starting point for anyone who’s new to tube amps. The guy’s reasoning was that there’s a lot of snake oil out on the market today with boutique tube amps, and you should take as much time as possible to find the right one for your needs. While you’re searching, you can get a starter tube amp that will get you familiar with the sound and technology of tube amplification, and you won’t break the bank in the process.

So… I went out and bought one last night at Guitar Showcase for only $589.00. 🙂 I also bought a seemingly universally recommended stomp box: An Ibanez TS-808 tube screamer overdrive, along with replacing my BOSS CE-5 Chorus and DD-3 Digital Delay boxes. This morning, I’ve VERY tired because I just couldn’t stop playing last night once I got it all set up! I’ll talk more on the details of the amp a little later, but the moral of this story is:

Watch what you research… You wallet may get a lot lighter! Ciao!

Posted in guitar, Guitars, Music | Leave a Comment »

If you’re thinking about buying a tube amp…

February 14, 2007 by Unco B

…then you’ve got to read this article about tube amplification written by the president of Mesa Engineering, Randall Smith. Beware, you should have a good hour or so on hand to go through it (I read it in two sittings, myself). In any case, it’s just about the best article I’ve ever read on how tube amps work, and what it means when someone says, “Class A” or “Class AB” configuration. And if you’re someone like me who is currently in the market for a good tube amp, this article completely demystifies all that stuff a salesman will bandy about to get you excited about an amp.

As they say, information is power. With this article, you should be able to make a really good, informed decision on what kind of tube amp will suit your needs best. For me, after reading through this article (I actually re-read several sections just to make sure I understood what he was talking about), I’m going to be looking for a two-channel setup that’ll give me Class A and Class AB operation, so I have maximum versatility. But I’ll let you read the article – I understand the concept, but I don’t think I could explain it any more clearly than what Randall did.

Posted in amps, guitar, Guitars, Music | 1 Comment »

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