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Guitar Effects - What are your Favorites?
Sunday, January 07, 2007
Posted by: Source Audio | Posted in: Tips and Tricks,
Do you remember the first time you heard "All Along the Watchtower" by Jimi?Or "Walking on the Moon" by the Police?
Or "New Year's Day" by U2?
How could a guitarist ever forget those unmistakable, yet otherworldly sounds. Most people who are not guitar players would think "wow, that's bizarre" and leave it at that - but when a guitar player hears a compelling new sound, immediately the mind goes to work trying to figure out the pieces that make up the sonic puzzle. Then - we go about our task of trying out and setting up different effects pedals, with the goal being our own individual fingerprint of tone.
The easiest way for me to get a smorgasboard of effects was via a Boss pedalboard, with 5 Boss or Ibanez effects of choice lined up. You could use chorus, delay, overdrive, with good, if not generic results - yet the ears and mind needed something with higher sound quality - something to inspire new music - which is the goal for all gear purchases. I got much closer when a friend showed me how to put the delay in the effects loop of my amp, so I could use a volume pedal to create violin-like volume swells, and then come up into the previous delayed note with a new note, creating a harmony with myself.
That was taken a next step when I played a friends vintage Univibe, and I instantly came up with new guitar parts, that I would not have with my old pedalboard. I could finally see that the use of effects was an important as the guitar or amp. When I first played the Hot Hand - I was thrilled by not only the new way of triggering the wah - but of the fantastic shimmering sound. I immediately came up with a cool, funk-y rhythm part, and recorded a nice harmonized arpeggio to a tune that I posted up on MySpace.
What are your favorite uses of effects? What interesting uses of effects have you come up with for your music?
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