Digitech PDS 1700 Chrous\Flanger

One of the oldest pieces of gear I still use is the Digitech PDS 1700 Chrous\Flanger:

This is a two in one unit that sports a very lush, 80's style Chorus and a very flexible Flanger that can be as subtle as a doubler, an almost chorus sound at the lower time settings to total Jet effects with all possible combinations in between. Couple that with a Stereo output (more like Clean & Dirty), and you have a very nice, flexible unit.

The one foot switch is for selecting the mode, the other for enabling the effect. When you are jamming and you do not have time to fool with Rack Effects, this unit cannot be beaten. There is NOTHING like old fashioned knobs when you are on the go and in a rush.

Read my full Blog Here

Roland Micro Cube

In my quest to find a small and portable practice amp, I ran across the Roland Micro Cube:

This is a really nice practice amp for the price (around $100-125). It runs on AC with an adapter or 6 AA Batteries for when a plug isn't available. It's only 2 Watts, but if you're playing somewhere small enough for this amp, that's plenty loud.

There are plenty of controls to get the sound you're looking for. There are several "Modes" for deciding on the overall shape and structure of your Tone. There's an Acoustic Clean, JC Clean (Like the old JC Amps), Black Panel Overdrive, Brit Combo Distortion, Classic Stack (Think Rush \ Marshall), R-Fier (Very Hot Distortion) & a Mic setting for using it as a PA.

Once you pick what base sound you want to work with, you can fine tune the sound using the Volume, Tone and a Gain controls. There's a Tuning Fork on board that's Touch Sensitive and includes not only the standard "A" tuning, but also 2 chromatic steps down so you can tune to E, Eb & D respectfully.

There are 2 Effects available at one time via 2 separate controls. You have your EFX control with a choice of Chorus, Flanger, Phaser & Tremolo. The Depth of each is adjusted by how much you apply where the further the right you turn it, the "Wetter" the sound. The Delay\Reverb Control works exactly the same as the EFX control and has a nice assortment to choose from.

The back panel has a few goodies as well:

There's a 1/4 Recording out \ head phone output and an Auxiliary in for adding a sound source to practice to like an MP3 player or an iPod. Overall, this little amp is the best thing since sliced bread IMO. I can take it to BBQ's for jams with my friends, stick a mic in front of it for larger venues and still get a huge sound and practice at a volume that doesn't make my neighbors want to kill me. I highly recommend this unit, or one of the other newer versions like the Micro Cube RX, if you want the Feeling of playing loud without the Volume & Hostility associated with it.

Read my full Blog Here

Guitar Strings

Let's take a few minutes and discuss Guitar Strings. I use two different brands, GHS & D'Addario depending on which guitars they're going on and what type of sound I'm looking for.

On my earlier model Ibanez guitars, I use GHS Boomers (steel wound), 9's over 10's for that old fashioned heavy sound from the 80's. They sing nicely and are fairly bright, so that works out very well with the Maple body of the older guitars. I have a bunch of Destroyer II's and an old Roadstar tuned down to D and these strings seem to work well on them. Plenty of low end with the bite of a steel string for clarity.

My Ibanez JS 1200 has a Floyd Rose licensed tremolo from Ibanez and has a brighter sound. I prefer using a Nickel wound string that can stand up to the punishment for a rounder tone. My strings of choice on this guitar are the D'Addario XL Nickel Wound (EXL 120) in a straight 9 gauge. This cleans up the low end and the higher strings have more body than a normal steel string.

I will point out that when my high "E" breaks on my JS 1200, it usually does it under the nut and I don't know it until I run out of travel on the fine-tuner and unlock the nut, so I'm swearing by the D'Addario's on that guitar. The GHS Boomers always seem to break somewhere down by the Bridge, but usually only after extreme punishment, so they work well on the older style guitars IMO.

I'm not a big fan of too many other stings out there, there's so many of them that it really comes down to personal preference.

Read my full Blog Here

Boss DS-1 Distortion Box and Mods

Along the way to looking for a signature sound, I ran across a Boss DS-1 Distortion:

This Distortion box was one of Joe Satriani's main sources of his signature sound for a while. This was recently replaced with his Vox Satchurator, but this unit stayed on his pedal board for years. This unit has a nice crunchy sound right out of the box. Couple this with a decent amp\cabinet combo and you have a viable gigging solution for when you don't need a full blown stack.

I found that I like this unit set with a pretty high gain, tone around 9 O'clock and volume set to the clean sound. It does well on a 9-volt battery but I recommend an external power supply for your entire pedal board for reliability like the 9 Spot Combo, the top rated Voodoo Lab Pedal Power 2 Plus or even the original Voodoo Lab Pedal Power ISO-5.

If you find the sound lacking out of the box, there are several mods available for this pedal.  The best one out there seems to be the Robert Keeley mod, here's a link to his site: http://www.robertkeeley.com/product.php?id=10. Here's a head to head comparison from Youtube showing the Stock unit vs the Keely mod:

 For those that aren't feint of heart, you can actually do this mod yourself. Here's 2 sites that demonstrates what you need as a Do-It-Yourself mod: http://www.instructables.com/id/Modify-Your-Boss-DS-1/ and http://www.erikhansen.net/pedalmods.php. I think the first site gives better instructions and pictures but I'd read both as an FYI on just how to apply this mod and the problems\precautions on working on your own equipment. 

Read my full Blog Here

Vox Satchurator

One of the most interesting stomp boxes I own is the Vox Satchurator:

This unit was designed by Joe Satriani and replaced his Boss DS-1 Distortion box on his pedal board. When I first tried this unit out, I set all the controls to 12 O'clock (as pictured above) and immediately got a very nice and responsive Bluesy tone. With a little tweaking of the controls, Gain almost max, Tone around 9:30, Volume around 10 O'clock, I had nailed Joe's tone. By increasing the gain to max, I got even more sustain and harmonics out of it.

This is the only Distortion box that I ever had that responded extremely well to lowering the volume on the guitar. There's no appreciable drop in Volume when you do this until you get down to around the "8" position on your guitar. Here I found a nice chunky rhythm tone and going to a lead tone was as simple as turning up the Volume again.

There are 2 other controls to explore. There's a Pad switch for when you are running a hotter effect in front of it like a Wah, and then there's the "More" button on the right. The "More" button provides exactly what it sounds like, More Distortion, Sustain and Gain. Here we start to leave the Satriani sound and move on to a heavier and more harmonic driven tone. This is helpful if you want to move away from his signature sound and explore all the various uses of this box.

Overall, I am impressed with this unit and would recommend it to any player looking for a well rounded Distortion box. Thumbs up and thank you Vox for working with Joe to get these out to the general public.

Read my full Blog Here

Rocktron Hush Noise Suppressor, Rack Mount

After spending who knows how much time getting the Tone and Responses I wanted from my Guitar, I noticed that when I wasn't playing, my rig was Noisy! Keyboardists ignore this post, everyone else listen if you are working from an Analog source (Guitar, Bass, Drums & Vocals). Silence and the Lack of Notes is sometimes more important than any note you play so Silence IS Golden sometimes. So to remedy that problem, I purchased a Rocktron Hush Noise Suppressor, Rack Mount to quiet the system down:

This is one of the hardest pieces to explain what it does unless you are in front of my Rig and can hear what happens when I turn it off and on. There are 2 Controls that need to be explained. The first Control is the Noise Gate. So you can set the minimum amount (Threshold) of Gain Inputted to get the Gate to open before you hear anything. That's the easy part to explain to you...

The hard part is explaining what the other control does... Hiss is a High Frequency (Usually) and attenuates as you increase the high frequencies of your Instrument. This unit has a Backward Expanding Gate that acts as a High End Frequency Filter that pushes your Sound below the Threshold that you set. So if you are using a Distortion Box (Notorious for Hiss), you can dial up the Hush to offset that, eliminate the Hiss, and it adds more Mid-Range to your Source.

This piece would work on Vocals, Bass, etc. and I consider it one of THE most important Gizmos in my Rack! This reduces Ear Fatigue to the Audience as well as making sure that when I'm playing a rest, it truly IS a rest without any unwanted ambient noise from my system. Well worth the small investment!

Read my full Blog Here

Effects in a Loop vs Effects on the Input Jack

Let's take a moment for a Tips & Tricks on where to put what effects. Don't forget that everything that happens Pre-Amplifier Input Jack makes the basic sound for your Instrument. That works for most any analog Instrument like Guitars, Basses and Keyboards, etc. The most important part of this to remember is the "Gain Structure". It's very easy to overdrive your Input, but that's not always where you want to gain Gain!

I use several floor effects chained with my Ibanez Ax's before they hit the Amp, let's explore this for a minute. I have a Vocal Harmonizer first in the chain (DigiTech Vocalist Live 4 Harmony-Effects Processor), and then a Digitech Harmony Man for my Guitar:

I have a Morley VAI-2 Steve Vai Bad Horsie 2 Contour Wah after that:

I run this direct to my amp from the floor after the Wa Wa to my ancient Rockman EQ (Posted previously) and then to the input of the Amp. I use a Shure Wireless setup to get the signal, without any wires, to the beginning of my chain so I have no cables holding me back. Yeah, nobody does this. my wireless is on the floor and isn't at the amp, but it's quiet and works well as an alternative to trying to run these type of effects in the Effects Loop. They just really need to be front end to get the performance out of them as they were designed.

This type of thinking works for ANY Instrument where you need to control the Effect vs the Gain to get the right sound post Amp. If you wanted to add distortion to a Keyboard or Bass, this is where you place it in the chain. Adding any sort of Lead Boast here just adds to the Gain Structure and adds no real appreciative value to the volume of the Instrument because you will simply run into the limiting and clipping circuit that protects most Amp's Input Jack. Distortion happens before and through the Pre-Amp, volume happens after, remember that rule!

If you are looking for a Lead Boast, try running an EQ pedal in the effects loop of your amp, it takes a + 3Db before anyone can hear the difference in volume. For each 3 Db you need to DOUBLE the power in the chain. If you want a 6 Db gain on Lead, you need to double the original volume and then double it AGAIN to get any appreciative results. To simplify: For every doubling of Audible volume, the power needs to be increased 2X. The Human ear can't really distinguish less than a 3 Db increase, so it's best to think in Threes when it comes to this sort of application.

The best way to measure Db, or better known as Sound Pressure Level (SPL), is to buy a Digital meter from Radio Shack. The Digital units can do RMS and Peak, were as the Analog units are limited in their response, so you will not get an accurate reading. You can purchase one here for slightly less than $50: Radio Shack Db Meter-Digital or shop around for a better deal. Here's a few links to other Meter Options: Scosche makes one for around $28, American-Recorder-Technologies has one for around $70, Extech offers one for around $90,Galaxy has one for $60, Pyle makes a Mini Meter that fits in your pocket for around $35, Parts Express makes pocket meter too for $30 and the COOLEST one I found is this one that runs on your Android as an Application: Professional dB (SPL) Meter

You do NOT want to add gain in your Effects Loop unless you understand Distortion! It's best to set any unit you have in your Loop to a Unity (0 Db) gain setting. If you are looking for a Lead Boast in the Loop, you might want to run - 3Db or -6 DB so that your "Boast" is really unity gain. You can probably push the Loop +3 Db without too much Distortion, but a +6 DB will affect the sound quality and noise level.

Here's another rule on Effects: Rack equipment will either be switchable +4 Db (Input Level) or -10 Db (Pro gear studio level). So if you have a Guitar floor stomp box EQ in line, make sure the rest of your Effects are set to + 4 Db. If not, -10 Db is cleaner and reduces overall noise\hiss in your Signal Chain. I have some older gear in my Effects Loop, so I had hiss and noise problems, so I bought a Hush noise suppressor, that's next in the Equipment List (And the next review\post).

Read my full Blog Here