Paul asks…
Are there any good electric guitar pedal boards or amps for £130?
hello i got a electric guitar for christmas but i was wandering if there are any effects pedal boards or decent amps with built in effects for £130?
one effect i am especcialy looking for is delay? are there any good ones that also have the delay effect?
NydiaMccartney answers:
How about 145???? Http://www.amazon.co.uk/Brand-Zoom-Guitar-Multi-Effects/dp/B002VWH3Z0
http://www.zoom.co.jp/english/products/g1/
This is what it sounds like – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R5S6431k20w
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RevXpw4gwAk&feature=related
Charles asks…
Is it ok to connect a multi-fx processor with some analog effects pedals?
I have a Zoom g1xn multi-fx and I’m planning to buy a distortion pedal, is it ok to combine multi-fx and analog pedals in my pedal board? How should I connect them? Does analog pedals come first before the multi-fx or otherwise? Tell me about how it might affect the sound quality.
NydiaMccartney answers:
Absolutely.
Although – I have yet to run across a pedal that can reproduce the unholy amounts of distortion that I have gotten from various Digital FX over the years (ART, Yamaha, etc.).
I went native for a while and ditched all my digital stuff, and just used a Morley distortion/volume/wah pedal (my amp has built in vibrato & reverb), but eventually ended up putting my tried-and-true Yamaha GEP10 back into the mix for that death metal crunch, delays, modulation, and pitch shifter. I continued to keep the Morley in the mix, but eventually it failed, and I swapped out for a classic Crybaby wah.
Most of my fx have been rackmount, so it usually makes sense to plug the guitar into any floor pedals, and then from the pedals up to the rack – but you can experiment with this to get the tone your want.
If the fx (or your amp) have an fx loop – you can grab some extra cords and see what results you get – of course your guitar’s pickups and your amp are going to have a huge effect on the overall sound too.
There are a wide variety of distortion/overdrive pedals out there – I have a Boss OD-1 that is good for basic overdrive – my friend picked up one (I think it’s called an OS-2) that does both distortion and overdrive (or a mix of the two) that is decent. He also swears by the classic Russian ‘Big Muff Pi’ made by Electro-Harmonix – although my other friend picked up the ‘Metal Muff’, and it is fairly impressive as well. Others that I see regularly in peoples rigs are the Ibanez Tube Screamer, DOD Supra-Distortion (my first pedal!), and of course the Pro Co RAT.
The problem I run into with distortion pedals (vs digital fx) is that they tend to sound tinny – no matter how I set them. If they have on-board eq you can mitigate this somewhat by turning up the bass, killing the mids, and giving it a little bit of highs. It also helps to run them off of a transformer instead of on battery power.
The best bet is to find a big-box guitar store like Musicians Friend/Guitar Center that will let you bring in your guitar, amp, & fx, and then try out different pedals. I don’t tend to buy from these places, preferring to give my money to smaller local guitar shops, but they are a great place to try out equipment (don’t take any crap from their employees – tell them that you are doing research before you buy).
Steven asks…
How much would it cost to make a guitar pedal?
I think the question is pretty explanatory. I have never built a pedal before and I was wondering how much I would expect to pay to get all the parts I need to make a distortion pedal?
NydiaMccartney answers:
I wouldnt imagine it would cost that much but, you would need the the basic stuff chassis wiring, circuit-board etc. A simpler alternative if you want to build your effects pedal is www.build yourownclone.com it is a site where you can buy the parts to and build your eeffects pedals. The advantage of this, for example, would be swapping out the stock potentiometer on a wah pedal for one that has for example a higher midrange. This allows you to customise your pedals to your specific preferences/tonalities. Hope this helped !!! :D
Ruth asks…
What brand of guitar pedalboard (pedal board) is most common among professionals?
I didn’t mean multi effects boards. I’m a pretty advanced player, by the way.
NydiaMccartney answers:
Pedaltrain, perhaps… There are so many types, just get a solidly built one.
Donald asks…
How to deal with loud guitar sound and still play?
I’m planning on buying an electric guitar but I’m worried if it gets too loud for my neighbors. Does adjusting the volume help? Another problem is that I don’t have a garage, I live in a town house.
How do you deal with loud sounds and still practice on electric guitar?
Is adjusting the volume good enough?
And I don’t have a music recording studio
NydiaMccartney answers:
You can buy a quiet 5 watt practice amp that won’t be too loud, or you can get a guitar interface/preamp (preamp is the part of the amp that shapes tone, your gain, mid, base, etc.) that you can play through headphones and even plug into your computer and record. You can often get ones that have many effects built in, and that have amp simulations. You can get cheap ones, such as a Line 6 pod, or go all out and buy a Fractal Axe-FX, and there are many options in between. Most preamps can be used with a guitar amp as effects pedals, or plugged into mic interfaces and mixing boards to play live if you want, too.
George asks…
How to make a splitter for a guitar? so i can connect 1 guitars ?
i want to connect 2 guitars to my amp but i have only 1 input. so can any one help me make a splitter ? so i can connect both the guitars ?
NydiaMccartney answers:
If your objective is to connect 2 guitars but only play one at a time, an A/B box is the simple answer.
Http://www.musiciansfriend.com/amplifiers-effects/dod-vac270-a-b-box
It’s cheap enough to buy, but if you really want to build one, it’s about the simplest project you can do. You can find plans all over the web. Basically, you need a switch, 3 jacks and a box to mount them in. If you already have the soldering tools, you might build it for half the price of buying one.
If you actually want to play 2 guitars through the same amp at the same time…(not advisable) then the simplest and least expensive approach is a Y cable. Http://www.musiciansfriend.com/accessories/live-wire-1-4m-dual-1-4f-y-cable This isn’t ideal because each guitar can sap power from the other. Effect pedals or even tone settings on one guitar might effect the other guitar a bit. It’s not ideal, but can work in a pinch.
Neither of the above options are ideal because you’re still sharing the same volume and EQ settings for both guitars. You might consider a small mixing board to combine the guitars and shape the volume/tone. Of course, the best option is simply to spring for a second amp……
Helen asks…
Does having a preamp pedal make a huge difference in my guitar’s effect chain?
I’ve been checking out the Electro Harmonix tube preamp pedal.
NydiaMccartney answers:
In short, the answer is yes and no. You will boost your signal, which will increase overall gain, but may also increase noise.
You want to put a preamp pedal as closer to your guitar, cable-wise, as possible, as a preamp takes a quiet sound and amplifies it – the more cable in-between, the higher the chance of noise being amplified along with your signal.
The direction that I’ve gone is to have my tech install an onboard buffer circuit right into my guitar. What this does is takes my high-impedance signal straight off of the pickups and turn it into a low-impedance signal. This lets me drive long stretches of cable and multiple pedals with no tone loss (depending on the pedals, of course).
This guy built the buffer circuit by hand, so you won’t find it anywhere, but other companies make buffer circuits or on-board preamps that you or your tech can install right into your guitar. Or you can find a circuit over the net and make it yourself, if you are inclined in that direction. Just be careful if you do, don’t electrocute yourself or anything.
The benefit, again, is that you amplify signal, not noise, keeping your tone pure.
A low-impedance signal will make it sound like you have more highs than you did before, which may require some adjustments on your pedals and/or amp. It probably won’t raise your overall signal level much, so it won’t necessarily drive your amp any harder, but extra treble can be a very very good thing, as more treble makes it easier to hear you overdriving your amp with less gain, improving clarity.
You can also think about getting EMGs or other types of active pickups, like Seymour Duncan’s active pickups. Basically they’ll function like an onboard preamp, boosting the crap out of your signal and hammering the front of your amp with oodles of gain. With a good buffer circuit, you can combine the two for even better results….
Look into the onboard stuff before you look into an external pedal, at least if you have one “go to” guitar. I don’t think EH makes bad pedals, I just haven’t used them cuz they’re expensive and I really have to spend my “music money” as efficiently as possible.
Saul
Mary asks…
Can I plug my computer and my guitar to a distortion pedal?
I found a way to plug my guitar directly into my PC. It sounds really sterile. Can I connect a Distortion Pedal to it so I can have a beefier sound?
BQ- What are some things that are not guitar or bass amps but you can use them like one.
For example, I used a Karaoke machine as an amplifier.
NydiaMccartney answers:
No You need an amp or an effects board with built in amps sounds to get the right sound.
It needs to process the guitar signal.
But yeah go ahead will not give you a true sound but whatever works
Mandy asks…
Which guitar effect pedal should i get of the following:?
I am contemplating between:
- Boss GT8 Multi Effect Pedal
- DigiTech GNX4 Multi Effect Pedal
- Boss GT10 Guitar Multi Effect Pedal Board
- Line 6POD X3 Live Guitar Multi Effect Pedal Board
Which effect pedal should i get?
NydiaMccartney answers:
Eden M -
While all of the multi effect pedal boards you list are pretty decent, I personally recommend the POD over the others. Here is my take:
The Digitech will have good sound and Digitech builds great products. There is a wide array of effects available which is important.
I felt that the GNX4 pedals don’t have as much access to the effects switches – the foot space of each switch is small and the pedals are flat against the whole board. I didn’t like this, as I felt like I really had to dance on the board to get the pedal to switch patches. I also didn’t like where the up and down bank pedals were placed. It seemed hard to access.
The Boss products are also excellent. The switching is a bit better – there is more foot area on the pedals. I had the same issue with the Boss pedals as I had with the Digitech – the bank switching is in a poor location (my opinion).
With the POD X3, I felt the construction of the device was better. Though the patch switches are small, they are similar to stomp box switches and seemed to be able to hold up better and provide easier access to the effects. The up and down bank buttons were better located (on the end as opposed to up near the top of the boards surface).
The clincher for me was the modeling. I felt the the POD provided a more realistic modeling of the amps and speakers that I wanted. I used to have a Marshall JCM 900. I sold it when I got my POD Pro. I keep an X3 as a backup.
When I compared the output of the POD to the original Marshall signal (no effects) I felt that I could get the device to emulate the Marshall almost perfectly. The best part was the ability to route the signal directly to the recording interface. The Boss and Digitech were not quite as good in my opinion.
Hope this helps.
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