STOMPBOXES

I've spent the last couple years buying guitar effects, reading about them, experimenting with them at home, using them at gigs with good and bad results, etc. There are many, many variables as soon as you plug one electric guitar into one amp with one stompbox. With multiple effects, it gets exponentially more likely that you will get a bad sound, and exponentially more likely that you won't be able to figure out why. I've made a large number of stupid mistakes, even though I only played a small number of gigs. Thus, the information below is the result of much idiocy, wrongheaded assumptions, oversights, onstage stress, etc. (As my band can tell you, if you ask them. A representative quote-- "If you had a real pedalboard, we probably could have played one more song.") Here are a few guidelines that work for me.

1. Do not try anything at a gig that you haven't already tried at home.
2. Do not assume that something will work at a gig, even if it worked at home.

I know that is not exactly encouraging advice. Here's what to do with the information-- keep track of every detail when you get a good sound. Write it all down, but remember that in a live situation, there may be another variable you're not aware of. If you really are on top of all the knob settings, a mysterious bad sound at a gig may be fixable with a small knob adjustment. If you're lucky.

A couple of the most common head-scratching problems-- dying batteries can kill your volume with some pedals, esp. Tube Screamers. Tone can dry up if you use a lot of pedals and cables-- sometimes buffers and line drivers can fix this problem. I get good results by including a Boss tuner and digital delay, which add a little juice to my signal (on top of doing the jobs I bought them for). For more info on this topic, check out Dave Hunter's book "Guitar Effects Pedals," or this link
analogman.com/faq.htm#buffer

3. Volume knobs on your pedals are VERY interactive, with your other pedals, your guitar, your amp, etc. If you set one pedal's volume knob wrong, you can stomp on a pedal (even a different one) and suddenly get much quieter, or even drop out completely. I solve this by putting fuzz/boost/distortion/overdrive pedals in one of two categories--

A. pedals that should make me louder
B. pedals that should color the sound, but without making me louder.

It's easy enough to set them for either category-- just compare the volume with pedal on and pedal off, and tweak the volume knob for the exact volume change that you want. Keep in mind that if you do this with a lower amp volume than you will actually use when performing, the adjustment may be slightly off. I've had pretty good luck with this, but be careful. Keep in mind-- if you're adjusting all of this onstage before you go on, club owners and patrons may freak out. Practicing making these adjustments at home is wise, so you can do it quickly at a club.

4. Treble boosters don't work so well with Telecasters played through Fender amps. (clarification-- if you use an Analog Man "Beano Boost," the low range boost will give you some excellent sizzle with your Fender gear. Avoid the treble boost setting with a Tele, unless you enjoy getting tone lectures from other guitarists.)

5. Get all of your guitars shielded, because if they buzz a little without pedals, they'll buzz a lot with pedals. A good repair guy
can do this for you and it could change your life, especially if you're a vintage Fender amp/single coil guy like me.
(Gary Wright in Annapolis, Maryland shielded my guitars for me. He also works on tube amps. He helped me get rid of a lot of horrible buzzing caused by amp and guitars. You can contact him at garywright2@hotmail.com)
If you have a clue about soldering and things of that nature, check out this great site--www.guitarnuts.com/index.php
(even if you have no clue about guitar repair, reading the info on this site may convince you to get your guitars shielded. )

6. Put your compressor before your distortion.

7. If one fuzz pedal sounds killer, adding another fuzz or two won't necessarily sound even more killer. It might sound hideous. (Of course, hideous is a relative concept--)

8. Check out these sites--

www.analogman.com/
for pedal modifications, terrific knockoffs of classic and unavailable pedals (often improving on the originals), and other great stuff that Analog Mike either builds or sells. Analog Man's stompboxes are not cheap, but everything I've bought from them has profoundly changed my sound and playing. In some cases, a pedal made or modified by Mike makes me feel like I bought a pricey boutique amp-- as far as I'm concerned, anything that makes me sound this good is worth the money. If I use a pedal every time I plug in, I'm getting my money's worth. In the old days, I bought many pedals that never really got the sound I was looking for. Since I've started buying from Analog Man, my main problem is deciding which great sound to use.

www.geofex.com/
this is the site of the brilliant R.G. Keen. I don't understand even 1 percent of what he's babbling about, but if you want technical info about how pedals, amps, etc. work, this is the place. (Check out his "Disortion 101.") Keen was kind enough to answer some of my dumb questions about "oscillation" a while back, and I got the impression he would have been happy to answer even more. If you're interested in building your own pedals, he's got lots of ideas about that, too.

9. I'll probably regret saying this, as soon as the guitarists on the web read it and want to put in their two cents, but I've found that often I can get closer to some player's sound with the right pedal than with the right guitar or amp. I use a Tele and a Fender Deluxe Reverb, and I've been able to ape the sounds of many Gibson and Marshall players. I've concluded that many pedals can more or less obliterate the "natural" sound of a guitar or amp without breaking a sweat. That being said, ideally you should use a good guitar and amp along with your pedals. I'll let you decide what "good" means.

10. Maybe I should have put this one first. Pedals, effects, stompboxes, and the like are MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS. This means you need to LEARN HOW TO PLAY THEM.
This is partly just following the directions of the makers about settings et al, but in most cases you need to adjust your playing to get the best sound out of a pedal. In other words, buying a couple pedals won't make you sound like Eric Clapton did in 1966 (or 1967.) You will also have to learn how to play like Eric Clapton. If a vintage Fuzz Face could actually make a lousy guitarist sound like Jimi Hendrix, it would be worth the insane collector's price you have to pay to get one. The legendary Roger Mayer, who worked on Jimi's pedals and was often with him in the studio, says that when other guitarists played through Hendrix's gear they sounded awful. (My advice-- don't buy an overpriced EBay vintage pedal. Just buy the AnalogMan knockoff, and practice more.)

(I'll probably add to this, but I'm putting it up for now. let me know if you have questions or comments.)