guitars 101.1. stomp boxes,amps and guitars

"Guitar 101" amps stomp boxes and electric guitars
Ok last blog we covered the basics of guitars, the need for a teacher, and what it took to get started. This blog we cover different types of amps,electric guitars,stomp boxes and learning to jam. say guitar 101.1
Lets get started with the world of amplifiers. Since the 50's the amp world has been divided into to two worlds. FENDER and MARSHALL. Which I find funny because the basic design of James Marshall's first amp was based on a Fender Bassman.
But today despite all the hundreds of guitar amp companies in existence today, they are either a play off of either a Fender
or a Marshall. Then there are tubes or solid state and amp modelers. The computer has done marvels for equipment these days from live sound to recording. What would taken a fortune to record 25 years ago can be done today in a bedroom on a computer and a few other pieces that would cost less than1,000.00.
But for many when it comes to amps there are those who still perfer tubes. A thing that may go the way of the 8 track stereo,VHS and vynel records but for now tubes continue to play a big part of the amp world. Part of the reason is this, as the night goes on and the tubes get hotter and hotter the amps harmonic quailities start to sound even better. On many a night by the third set my Marshall sounded unbelieveably rich and full. Where as a solidstate amp the moment you turn it on what you hear is what you get all night long.
Power tubes,preamp tubes Both Fender and Marshall use 12ax7 peramp tubes what gives them their distinctive sounds are two things. Marshall uses EL34 power amp tubes and Celestian speakers and Fender uses 6L6 power tube and either Jensen speakers or stock Fender speakers. On Marshall the midrange knob turned all the way up really gives it that true Marshall sound. Fenders are known for their cleaness and lots of "headroom".It is why certain country/blues artists perfer Fenders either a Twin reverb or a Deluxe reverb. Classic rock,Metal heads perfer the Marshall. (my self included) There are new amps hitting the market place every year but most remain a play off these two. Then there is the whole amp modeling phenom. With a computer program they have been able to sample the best of all these including what could be called boutique amps. Amps that are all hand made in a small shop by just a few techs and the price usually run 2 to 3 times what a production model cost. Still even these are a play off the Big Two. A working guitar player will own one of each. me
Now that we have more or less covered the amp world. lets talk about the other stuff you may need.
Stomp Boxes, Effect peddles,Peddle boards,multieffect units etc. Ok you got an amp what do you need beside a chord and an electric guitar?(we will get to guitars presently) effect peddles. These are like herbs and spices to the proper gumbo. Without them your sound will come out a bit flat. Over do it and everything loses definition. Some of my favorite guitar players have very simple rigs with just 2 to 4 peddles. Then there are guys like the Edge of U2 whose rig looks like something out of Star Trek..a guy like him is 80% sound engineer and 20% guitaroom. player. But let me give you a basic working"cover most of it" peddle rig. First off multieffect units are great if you have both the time and smarts to figure out. I have neither. I perfer to bend over and tweek a knob if something doesn't sound right.I run a three channel Marshall channel one is clean most o crunchf my night is spent there and it is there that I use my boxes the most. So I want a good sounding clean channel with lots of headroom. I perfer to combine reverb and a bit of delay. the reverb and delay also covers the other channels as well. Channel two is my crunch rythum channel. I call it my "Angus Young" channel. For songs like Shook me All Night long,High Way to Hell, La Grange Start me up. Then there is Channel three. Solo. I use alot of my stomp boxes here.delay,wah, chorus.
So lets look at your average peddle board. (mine at least) .The first in my chain is my channel changer(where I can easily switch channels)next is my Cry Baby Wah then we go into a very old boss peddle board. First in line is a DS1 orange colored distortion peddle I use this occationally like when I'm doing "Star Spangled Banner" or I want long controlled feed back. Next
is a yellow overdrive. I use this one a lot for the blues type solos Stevie Ray stuff. Then comes a dark blue compressor. I use this one constantly. I have very light strings and I have this set so when I'm in my clean channel it will "Fatten" up my clean
sound and it works quite well with my chorus peddle(the next in line) this is how I get my "Eric Johnson" lastly all this goes to a red box that powers all of them and my tuner here is where One side goes to the amp the other the guitar(or my chordless should I decide to use it). So there you have it a working guitar players amp and peddle that will get 99% of what you may need done, done well.

Next blog....the wonderful world of Guitars!!