signal chain order -part 1

my current board

I am often asked about the order in which effects should be placed in a guitarist’s signal chain. Do a Google search on this, and you will find that everybody has got a different answer. There are even famous multi-platinum recording artists that have spoken quite definitively on this subject. Here’s the thing; THEY ARE ALL MISERABLY WRONG!!! Seriously, I have a problem with much of the instructional media I have seen on this subject. Why? Because there is no wrong way. People come up with the coolest guitar tones by experimenting, or sometimes even by accident. If you stick to the same old tired rules, you will always have the same old tired guitar tone. Blah.

the rules
I can sum up my philosophy with two rules, and even these can be challenged:

1. Put a guitar at the front of your signal chain. Play it well.
2. Put an amp at the end of your signal chain. Crank it up.

Boom. There you have it. I know what you are thinking; “Yes Kevin, we’ve got that part. What about all the crap between the instrument and the amp?” The short answer is this: Do whatever sounds best to YOUR ears. There are NO RULES. If you put your reverb in front of your wah, it won’t melt your overdrive. I promise. Of course, it may sound like a witch being boiled in oil, but hey, in some genres, that might work. If you put your Fuzz at the end of your signal chain, instead of in front, you won’t lose your birthday. Honest. You will always have your birthday. Experiment! That’s how you will learn what you like.

the guidelines
Okay, okay. You aren’t necessarily interested in spending hour after hour, and day after day experimenting on stompbox placement? If you promise to experiment,  I’ll give you a place to start. I have a few guidelines I use. These guidelines disregard amplifier effects loops, true bypass loopers, noise gates/suppressors, EQ pedals, and piano sustain pedals, all of which I have used or am using (don’t ask about the sustain pedal). I’ll deal with that stuff in a later post. So, being a hopeless gear head and tinkerer, I completely tear down my pedalboard several times a year. I just tore mine down last night. When I go to set up a pedal board, I try to do it in a manner which allows my guitar’s natural tone, and the voicing of my amplifier to shine through. To do that, I use this basic layout as a starting point:

1. Tuner
In my book, tuners are almost as important as delay units. Of course, nobody reads my book. Anyway, I usually have my tuner right up front to prevent any of my effects from causing inaccuracy. I like to play in tune on occasion. That’s why I have a tuner, fool.
2. Compressor
I have tried my compressor in different locations. Heck, I have even had two compressors on my board, but I always like having one in front of everything else.
3. Wah
I have also tried my wah after my drive pedals, but for me, it sounds better in front of them. So put that in your pipe, and smoke it.
4. Overdrive
I like to have 3-4 stages/voicings of overdrive. I will usually order them from lightest to heaviest.
5. Fuzz
I have gone back and forth with my fuzz, but I always end putting it back here, at the end on the OD line. It allows a greater influence from my other OD pedals when stacked. That’s right, I said stacked.
6. Modulation
I don’t have any mod pedals on my board right now, but if I did, they would probably go right here. I have modulation integrated in my reverb and delay pedals. I have used chorus in the past, but I don’t often play for an audience which enjoys a good amount of pot smoking before their musical experience anymore, so I don’t really need the chorus as much, Spicoli.
7. Volume
I like to be able to do volume swells without affecting the gain stage. That means I like the volume pedal after the drive pedals. If you like the gain to roll off as the volume rolls off, put it before your drive pedals. This will have a similar effect as using your guitar’s volume knob. Yay.
8. Pitch based
I’m not using any stand-alone pitch-shifting effects right now, but this is probably where I would try a POG, harmonizer, or a Digitech Whammy if I had one. Of course, I would try them elsewhere as well.
9. Time-based
I never mess with the time-based stuff anymore. They sound like poo whenever I have experimented with them. I always like to have delays first, and then reverb. By the way, there is nothing wrong with having, say, 3 delay pedals, and two reverb units. Nothing at all.

There are a whole lot of other things to consider. Running more than one amp, running your effects in stereo, effects loops, and churros from Del Taco, all add to the complexity, but I still think that there are no absolutes when developing your own tone. Just have fun with it!

well, that would be nice

I am lacking in ideas, so I thought I would share my current wish-list. This changes by the week, but today, I think I would probably like this stuff:

Guitars
 I only want 4. Okay, I’ll only admit to 4.

1. Elliott Custom Guitars- Peter Stroud Signature Custom Tone Master (In sonic blue, please.)

I’ve never played one of these, but I want one all the same.

2. Gretsch- White Falcon
Please. Why would anybody not lust after one of these bad-boys?

3. Gibson- My good old ‘56 LP Jr.
What can I say? I already own one of my dream guitars.

4. Gibson- J-200 New Vintage in Vintage Burst
Shut up! There is nothing wrong with wanting an $8,000 guitar!

Amplifiers
There are many, but I’ll only mention three. Two for performances, and one for kickin’ around at home.

1. 65 Amps- London Head with 65 Amp 2×12 cab
I love how 65 Amps uses the word “vocabulary” in place of “tone”.

2. Vox- AC30HW2X
That’s right. A plain old hand-wired AC30, with Blues, of course.

3. XITS- Piper X30
This would be my “kickin’ around at home” amp, but believe me, at close to $5,000, there wouldn’t be any kickin’! I’ve never heard one of these, but who cares? It’s fabulously pretty!

Pedalboard
I don’t think I can put down a dream-team of pedals, because my opinion will change the moment I post this. There isn’t a whole lot out there that is exiting me right now. What I will do, is post a few pedals that I would like to try out on my board.

1. JHS- Panther delay
I really want to try out the effect loop on this little bad boy!

2. Blackout Effectors- Musket Fuzz 
I’m always into trying new fuzz!

3. EarthQuaker Devices- Hoof Fuzz
What did I just say about fuzz?

4. Empress- Empress Compressor
This thing is supposed to be waaaay versatile.

5. Hilton Electronics- Low Profile Volume Pedal
This is an optical volume, meaning that it doesn’t have a pot. Though originally designed for Steel guitar, it is said to have a buffer that makes a regular electric guitar sound like rejoicing angels. I would like to find out.

6. Mad Professor- Sky Blue Overdrive
Just curious. Just because. What if I liked it more than my Tim?

7. Cusack- Screamer Fuzz
Jared Pettinato just apprised me of this little fella, and now I’m interested.

If I had all that stuff, I would be so happy! …at least through the weekend.

the Nels Cline guitarscape

Anybody that knows me (and even some that don’t), knows that I’m a big U2 fan. The Edge has been a major influence on my music preference, and my own guitar playing. But what some may not realize is that I don’t sit around all day, every day, listening to old U2 records. I love a huge variety of music. I listen to almost everything, and there is a guitarist I would like to high-lite, in support of my point. Several years ago, my friend Russ Macintyre looked at me with a puzzled look on his face, and said, “you don’t listen to Wilco???”. I had heard of Wilco, and had even heard some of their music, but had never sat down and gave them a good listen. Once I did, I was hooked.

Despite the incredible talent, that is the front man Jeff Tweedy, this post isn’t about Wilco. It’s about the masterful creativity that exhumes from Wilco’s guitarist, Nels Cline. Whether you like the counter-pop sound of Wilco or not, you really have to try and understand the guitarscape that is continuously painted by Nels. When conceptualizing a guitar part for a new song, it would seem that Nels might spend about 2 seconds pondering the ideal guitar riff, then immediately dismiss it. From there, he often crafts the unexpected. A guitarscape. Is that even a word?

As an example, listen to the track “Art of Almost”, particularly the second half. It’s from Wilco’s latest offering ”The Whole Love”. That’s a guitarscape! This is a guy who makes creative use of effects. He creates dramatic leads with the multiple fuzz boxes he keeps on his board. Same thing with ”Bull Black Nova” from the self titled “Wilco”. Nels seems to go ballistic creating a wall of sound, and throughout the song making subtle sound effects and noises, contributing to the mood of the song. But despite his sizable pedalboard, Nels would say that a guitarist’s effects are way less important than his creativity, and a his touch on the instrument, usually a Jazzmaster in Nels case.  Oh, he’s a gearhead, just check out his technical page, But Nels will always be willing to ditch the big pedalboard, and still manage to create a masterpiece. I leave you with a video containing just that scenerio.

my current pedalboard setup

My guitar-slinging buddy, Lee Geller, asked for a diagram of my current setup.  It will be something different next week, but here you go Lee:

1. TC Electronic Polytune
2. JHS Pulp n Peel compressor
3. custom true-bypass looper
3.a Dunlop Cybaby Wah 535Q with a true-bypass and “Q” circuit mod
3.b JHS Astro Mess Fuzz
3.c Fulltone OCD overdrive v.3
4. Paul Cochran “Tim” overdive
5. JHS Iced Tea overdrive
6. Ernie Ball 6181 VP Junior volume pedal
7. Fulltone Fat-Boost v.2
8. Boss NS-2 Noise Suppressor -using as a noise gate
9. Boss DD-20 Giga Delay
10. Strymon Timeline
11. JHS Dual Tap Tempo -controls tempo for DD-20 and Timeline
12. Boss RV-5 reverb

Signal path:

the Timeline, and the Panther

Confession time. I love delay. Many of you just said “Yeah, me too. So what.” Oh, but you don ‘t understand. I really really love delay. REALLY REAlly REally really rea… See? That was dotted 8th @ 142bpm.

Why do I love delay so much? I don’t know. It might be due to the fact that I’ve had a man-crush on the Edge for 25 years. (Edge is the guitarist for U2, if you live under a rock. Wait, you know who the Edge is even if you live under a rock. If you have been completely detached from any kind of pop-culture for the last few decades, you might not know that, but if you live under a 3 ton piece of granite, I would expect you to know who the Edge is. Who’s U2 you ask? Please close this page and never come back.) Anyway, the Edge had pioneered a whole new way of using time based effects, and as a result, he changed my life for the better. He changed all of our lives for the better.

I’ve had a half dozen delay units over the years. Here’s the rundown:

Boss DM-3
I had this back in the day. The day when I aspired to learn all the EVH techiniques. I played in a band that covered (tried) Dokken, G&R, and Motley Crue. I might of had a mullet. As far as delay goes, I didn’t really know what I was doing. I just used it as a background ambient filler.

Boss DD-2
I think I bought this within a couple of months of U2 releasing the Joshua Tree. It still took me 10 years to figure out how to emulate some of the delay sounds on that album! I had this pedal for over 20 years, and it was still crankin’ when I sold it.

Boss DD-20
This one was a game-changer for me. It does digital, analog (digitally simulated), and modulated sounds very well. You can save up to 4 presets in memory, plus it’s active setting, for a total of 5 presets. It will run in stereo. It has a 24 second looper. It’s dirt cheap these days. I have one on my board, but that may change real soon. More on that later.

Visual Sound H2O
I bought this after watching a pretty convincing demo online. This is a double pedal which had a “bucket brigade” style echo, along side a chorus. It had no tap tempo. Strike 1. It boosted the signal when engaged. Strike 2. It was made by Visual Sound. Strike 3. I mean, what kind of name is Visual Sound, anyway? That doesn’t even make sense! These people need to get their sensory inputs straight.

Eventide TimeFactor
This is a ridiculously awesome digital delay. It sounds fantastic. It does EVERYTHING, and it does everything VERY well. I’m not sure why I sold my Eventide. Now I’m depressed. :/

Strymon Timeline
I just remembered why I sold my Eventide.
I can’t imagine a delay pedal being any better than the new Timeline. Its “bucket brigade” style of analog signal sounds rapturous. Yes I said rapturous. There are 12 (12!?!?) types of delay to choose from. It’s totally easy to use. It doesn’t take up much space on the board. It has a pretty good looper built in. It does incredible “shimmer”, modulation, filter, and octave sounds. Okay, in all fairness, the Timeline is more of a user friendly multi-effect, than a delay pedal.

So that is my delay pedal history. What’s next? I want an analog delay pedal along side my Timeline, and recently, our friends over at JHS have provided a new contender. The JHS Panther Delay may be the reason my DD-20 finally gets booted off my board.

I could go on and on about delay all day, so I better leave you with a video.

guitars, compressors, and unicorns

On Twitter, I recently had someone question why I had two compressors in my chain (good eye Christopher Wirija!). He also wanted to know what compressors were used for. This is a short post that deals with both questions, plus a couple of bonus questions.

Q: Why do you have two compressors on your board?
A: Because I had formed a very unhealthy codependency which forced me to have a Keeley compressor in my signal chain at all times. My fear was that if I removed it, my tone would become that of a Canadian goose, and robot unicorns from the far reaches of the galaxy would seek me out to vaporize me. This thinking is perhaps a bit irrational, but we are talking about tone here. Tone is pretty important. You’ll be glad to know that with plenty of support from friends and family, and 342 hours of therapy, the Keeley is no longer on my board. One compressor is enough. Oh, and no signs of robot unicorns…yet.

Q: What are compressors used for?
A: I believe compressors were originally developed for studio use. They are also referred to as limiters. What they do in this context is limit the maximum and/or minimum signal sent through the device. If the input signal becomes greater than the maximum setting, the device compresses-or quiets-the signal. This could be used to prevent distortion or an overloaded output. On the flip side, if the signal becomes less than the minimum setting, the device would compress-or boost-the signal so that it can be heard.

Q: How do compressors help guitarists?
A: The main reason many guitarists like compression: SUSTAIN! Compression on your guitar signal can be magical. As described above, when the signal from the guitar starts to fade off, the compressor makes up for the lack of volume by boosting it. This will occur until the minimum threshold is reached. The bottom line is that your tone is sustained, which can sound quite delicious. Try this: strum a chord on your guitar, and as the tone starts to fade, slowly increase the volume of your amplifier. This is similar to what a compressor does. I have also noticed that compressors can smooth out your tone by flattening your EQ a bit. Most compressors will knock off any shrill high end, which is just a bonus.

Q: What compressor should you get?
A: Tone is purely subjective. Unfortunately, the only way you are going to know what you like is by trying a variety. I would caution against buying just one compressor and basing your opinion solely on that device. There are drastic differences between the different manufacturers. At Arizona Guitar Club, we are fans of the Keeley compressors, the JHS Pulp n Peel, and the Strymon OB.1. I used a Keeley 2-knob for a year or two, and I loved it! Its compression is very obvious, but it sounds amazing with any drive pedal. I am currently using a JHS because it is very transparent, and it’s very quiet (more on that later). I also really like the OB.1. It has a lot of flexibility in its adjustment, and has a fantastic clean boost as a bonus.

Q: Free sustain? What’s the catch?
A: Compressors can be noisy, and overdrive pedals often make them noisier. They can cause your amp to hiss, which can be obnoxious when you aren’t playing. They can also limit your ability to play expressively. If a song requires very quiet phrasing in the beginning, and explosive playing near the end, by design, the compressor will always work against that. You can always bypass your compressor as needed, but I thought it was worth mentioning. One last thing- sometimes compressors can be tricky to dial in. They can be very interactive with drive pedals, but if you have more than one drive pedal, you may have to make a compromise on how you set your compressor. If you are a ridiculous gear head, you can always put your ODs in their own bypass loop with their own respective compressor. But that would be absolutely ridiculous.
*glances around suspiciously*
Almost as ridiculous as having three delay units on your board.
*noticeable increase in glancing around suspiciously*

Q: Final question: Is it possible that robot unicorns are just misunderstood?
A: There is only a very slight chance that robot unicorns are interested in the well-being of mankind. From my experience, when you take a beautiful mythical creature (such as the unicorn), and you introduce artificial intelligence, bio-mechanical hardware, heavy munitions, and jet fuel, you end up looking straight down the barrel of a world-dominance shotgun. Trust me. It’s not worth the risk. They may look all sweet on the outside, bouncing around and farting rainbows, but they will eventually cause more problems than the oil they leaked on your driveway.

new kid in town

Well, it happened. I bought another guitar. This will be the guitar that will get me through the time that it will take for me to get another guitar. Doesn’t that make sense? I’ll explain myself, but first let’s talk about what I bought. It’s a Gibson Limited Run Les Paul Studio ’60s Tribute, or GLRLPS60T, as I like to call it. A couple of years ago, I bought a Les Paul Studio and swore that I would never do it again. I hated the neck carve. It weight 1,254.7lbs. The tuners were high-jacked off of a thirty dollar ukulele. The build quality was that of a rec center ping pong paddle. The pickups produced a tone that offended my dog, and caused children cry. The only thing it had going for it was that one of the tone pots didn’t make crackle noises when an adjustment was made. It was more of a hiss. Sadly, it was on par with the other recent LP Studios I’ve played. After reading several raving reviews on the GLRLPS60T, and despite my past experience, I decided I would give one a try. Boy, Gibson has stepped up their game. I love the neck carve. It feels almost identical to my ’56 LP Jr. Being chambered, it only weighs about 7 1/2lbs. The tuners are Kluson-style 14:1s, and they are fantastic. The guitar is very slightly relic’d, and its finish is beautiful. So far, I have played a couple of rehearsals and one live performance with it. I am thrilled.

My next guitar will be a custom. I will either purchase custom replacement parts for my own build, or I will lay down the cash for something really special. Until then, the GLRLPS60T will certainly keep me happy.

decisions, decisions

In the next week or two, I plan on buying a new guitar. What that means is that I’m completely obsessed with shopping and research right now. While I’m not totally bent on meeting all of the criteria, this is basically what I’m looking for:

The pups have to be P90/soapbar style.
Cost is around $1,000.
It can’t be black. I’ve had four black guitars in the past decade.
I’m trying to avoid guitars made in Asia or Mexico; although after playing one recently, I may compromise on a Mexican Fender.  After all, I am a fan of the churro.

That’s it. Pretty easy, right? Then why am I not able to sleep? Here’s what I have it nailed down to:

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Fender Classic Player Jazzmaster Special

Cost: $800-$850
Made in Mexico

I’ve always liked the look of the JM, but I’ve never thought about buying one until I recently discovered my desperate need for P90s. I first considered the US Reissue model and the Crafted in Japan RI Models. They can be had on eBay for less that $1,400 on a regular basis. The problem is that I’m actually liking the improvements that Fender brought to the design in the Classic Player. They have improved the tremolo, and more importantly, they have fixed the pesky bridge break angle. But the bottom line is this – I played the US and Mexican versions back to back, and I honestly preferred the feel of the churro, I mean Mexican version. Call me loco.

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Les Paul Studio ’60s Tribute

Cost: $850
Made in US of A

I had a chance to play one of these this week, and I instantly loved it. It was surprisingly light, and the neck felt like the neck on my vintage ’56 Jr. I didn’t get to play it through an amp that I would ever use, but I got the feeling that its voice would sound amazing through my rig. Yeah, I might just wind up with one of these. I like the white, or Worn Cherry Burst.

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Fender Classic Player Telecaster Deluxe Black Dove

Cost: $800
Made in Mexico

I haven’t played one of these, but I don’t even care. I mean, just look at it. Take about 2 minutes of your life, and just gaze into its image. See what I mean? It’s  freakin’ sweet! In fact, I like the look of it so much, I might have to buy one before I even play one. I would probably be thrilled with it. The critics are saying that the Black Dove pickups sound amazing. If they didn’t sound amazing, it would be okay because I could just sit around and look at it. By the way, did you see how many knobs are on it? ‘Nuff said.

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Gibson Limited Run SG Special ’60s Tribute

Cost: $800

Made in USA

I played one of these this past week, and I have to say, this guitar feels really good in the hands. It’s light, balanced, and the neck is super fast. The one I played made me sound better than I am. Isn’t that what we want in our instruments? It’s styled in Gibson’s vintage (booger colored) tuning machines, and comes in Faded Brown and Faded Cherry finishes.

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Help me out here. Which one should I buy? Am I overlooking a potential contender?

bring balance to the force

If you are anything like me, you insist on having more than one option when it
comes to playing guitars. If you are anything like me, you have been frustrated over trying to find a compromise when EQ’ing each guitar for your signal chain. And if you’re anything like me, you believe that Chick-fil-A sauce is a magical portal of flavor that provides a foretaste of culinary-heaven, in all its glory. That has very little to do with guitars, so I’ll save that for another blog. Back to the guitar thing; here is an example of what I’m talking about:

Say you have two guitars. A Les Paul, with big fat humbuglies (reference: Gearmanndude), and a Fenderific Stratocaster with single coils. Chances are, if you plug in the Strat after setting up your pedalboard and/or amp with the LP, the volume will be cut back, and the tone will be thinned out and wimpy. That sucks. So, you set out adjusting everything to work with the Strat. Perfect. Now plug in the LP again, and your amp gets pushed right out of the overdrive stratosphere, and it sounds muddy and ill-defined. Now you sound worse than you are. Lame! Here are a couple of versions of the same solution I am using.

Option Numero Uno:
Commander2 by Whirlwind
$260ish

I’m not going to lie; this little device makes my naughty parts tingle. It’s basically an instrument specific A/B pedal that has a separate gain AND boost control for each channel. What?! And as a bonus, it has a built in tuner. That’s just sick! (the cool kind of sick, not the kneeling before the porcelain throne kind of sick) It has a well thought out housing which prevents kicking the knobs when you are stomping in a complete panic. That’s something I do regularly. It also has an effects loop, which I can see being a good spot for an EQ-type pedal. I haven’t tried a Commander2, but you can bet your sweet 12AX7s that I’m going to.

Option Numero Dos:
Plain old A/B pedal
$much cheaper than the Commander2

This, I have tried, and I would use this method again. Basically, you use two inputs like with the Commander2, only you use a plain old A/B box. The thing that is nice about this method is that it’s fairly cheap. If you already have a boost or any other pedals you can use to EQ and/or control signal level, then you are that much further ahead. I’ve seen A/B boxes from a number of pedal manufactures. There’s the classic Morley ABY, if you don’t mind taking it apart to replace the battery every 2 days. It’s no secret that I’ve become a JHS fan-boy, so it should be no surprise that I would buy from them if I needed one. They have several different cool variations.

Here’s the basic concept:

Give it a try!

the investor

Several years ago, one of my closest and dearest friends saw something in me that I had never seen. Because of his enthusiasm for music, and whatever it was that he saw in me, he chose to make a huge investment, and handed me what quickly became my favorite guitar. It was a tour-worn vintage ’56 Gibson Les Paul Jr. (in vintage sunburst). Over the years, I have seen him invest in countless musicians (including my own daughter, and my brother-in-law) in a similar way. Today, being the 2 year anniversary of the death of the guitar legend Les Paul, I find it appropriate to acknowledge and thank my stepfather, Hal Fahrenbruch.

I have played with many musicians over the years, but I can honestly say that I have never played with somebody that has the level of passion for music that he does. You see, most of us musicians have passion. This is a fundamental trait when learning an instrument. It’s what drives us to practice late into the night. Passion is what fuels our creativity. Passion is what transforms a simple melody into art. But here’s how Hal’s passion pushes him into a realm that I can only hope to achieve someday: He will do whatever it takes to make music happen. Yes, he will gladly play his bass, and he will gladly jump on the keys, but because he is willing to do whatever it takes to make music happen, he will

Set up a stage.

He will be a promoter.

He’ll run the soundboard.

He will spend countless long nights in front of Pro Tools mixing hip-hop for an upcoming teenage star.

He respects genres he may not even be fond of, and will do whatever it takes to make that music happen as well.

He’ll drive halfway across Phoenix twice a week to run sound for a youth group.

He will even share his passion with the neighborhood by letting a hardcore band rehearse in his living-room.

And yes, the rumors are true. He will haul a PA in his Corvette. (don’t ask me how he does this, but I’m pretty sure it involves removing the top, and lots of jumping up and down on loudspeakers)

But the thing about Hal that inspires me the most is this: He is ridiculously generous.

I have seen Hal invest thousands of hours, and literally thousands of dollars in gear, instruments, recordings, tours, t shirts, marketing, and only God knows what else, all in the name of making other people’s music happen. I would bet that in one way or another, Hal has had his hand in half the guitars and amps I have used in the past decade. I know of other people that can say the same thing. It is this kind of generosity that demonstrates his level of passion.

Here’s the bottom line. I am incredibly blessed to be able to play live music at the level that I am playing at now. In the past, my friend John Forbis has reminded me that there are thousands of very talented musicians living in our area, and most of them would kill to be able to do what I do. With John’s insight in mind, I never take what I do for granted. But every time I pick up that ’56 Jr., I think of the man who was willing to do whatever it takes to make MY music happen. I wouldn’t be who I am today, if it weren’t for Hal Fahrenbrach.

The words seem incredibly small when I think about Hal’s investment in music, but here they are: Thanks Hal. Thanks.