So after having a discussion with a friend I would like to continue this topic. So if you want to sell your soul down at the crossroads and buy some legwork gear, here is what I suggest.
BOSS DD-3 Delay -
Very versatile device, can really spice up your solos. I like using a little delay while soloing
Carl Martin TremOVibe -
This can further create more distinctive tone, and is a very powerful trem.
Crowther Hotcake BluesBerry
This is probably the finest overdrive for a blues guitar. Very distinctive and nice tone. This pedal is expensive compared to other distortions, but it's really worth it. You are going to love it.
BOSS PW-10 V-Wah
This very versatile wah can be used to spice up your solos. As I said earlier this Wah is one of the most versatile Wah pedals on the market.
Recent Posts
November 09, 2006
November 08, 2006
Getting the Perfect FX Setup: Solo Metal Guitar
You want to play with truckloads of gain? Want to be playing your favorite solo screaming loud? What kind of FXs you need that?
First I’ll cover some basics. The sound that I suggest here is my to design a setup that covers most of the metal music, so if you play a lot of different bands this is probably going to be fine for you. But if you prefer just one guitarist and your set on achieving the exact same sound, you need same gear. Research on the net and try it out. I do encourage people to get some versatile setup so they can then move on to their own sound. It’s very important to play the sound how you see/hear it. That way you’ll produce your own music and playing will be more enjoyable.
So how does one create an FX setup? There are few basics you should know:
-Use good cables to connect the pedals; you won’t believe how much sound you can lose.
-Tone-based FX (examples: Wah-wah) go first
-Followed by volume-based effects (examples: distortion, compression, etc.)
-Followed by time base effects (examples: delay, chorus, etc)
If you want to play with it go ahead, don’t let me stop you. Statements listed above are not rules, but just rules of thumb. If you feel you can get a more enjoyable and fun sound, do it.
For a metal sound we want a lot of gain and powerful EQ. The most obvious thing you want here is distortion. For this I suggest getting and BOSS 2 MT-2 Metal Zone pedal. Metal Zone is reaaallly powerful distortion there is enough gain in this pedal to wake the devil himself up and with the onboard EQ you can get an amazing palette of devil calling sounds. This combine with some Wah-Wah pedal will create a perfect sound. For this I wasn’t 100% sure so I’ll present you with 2 choices: Morley Power and BOSS PW10-V-Wah. Morley Power is perfect for red hot metal solos, but BOSS’s pedal is a little bit less metal, but more versatile. If you play metal exclusively I must suggest Morley Power, but if you enjoy Rock and even Blue you must get the BOSS PW-10-V-Wah.
BOSS pedal has a great deal of Wah choices, so it can easily go with large number of different music styles. And last you need a pedal that’s going to go nicely with rhythm parts. Getting the MXR Phase 90 Phaser will mix in here nicely thickening up your sound in rhythm parts.
By following the outline above you would connect the FXs in a following way:
-MXR Phase (Phaser) $119.99
-MT-2 Metal Zone (Distortion) 99$
-Morley Power or BOOS PW-10 V-Wah (Wah-Wah). $119.99-129.99$
NOTE: prices are for reference only lol
To find out how to tune your amp settings go read my previous article on EQs
November 06, 2006
Metallica: Metal at its best
Metallica put metal on a new level, and world took note. Metallica went on to sold more than 90 millions copies, which put them on 18th place of the RIAA list of top selling artists. They started as a trash metal band but moved, and refined its sound many times. They made trash metal into an art form. 
Metallica was heavier than the most metal bands out there and is most successful of the “big four” trash metal bands (Anthrax, Megadeath and Slayer in addition to the Metallica). Metallica created legions of fans, and creating them fast.
Metallica is often put categorized as a heavy metal, speed metal or hardcore. But they were and still are a trash metal band. Trash metal is a product of hard blues-rock music that started spreading 20 years before. The blues-rock genre started with Yardbirds, Cream, and Led Zeppelin and of course Jimi Hendrix. From here artist under the influence of hard blues-rock, such as AC/DC, Iron Maiden, Black Sabbath and Deep Purple, formalized heavy metal. Reinvented by The New Wave of British Heavy Metal (NWOBHM) around early 1980s metal was ready for a new sound. And in this point in time Metallica got down to business of creating heavy metal heavier and through than going to its new evolution, trash metal.
New sound was heavy, fast and complex. Metal was at its best and Metallica was in the middle of it. As band released first demos in 1982. world was preoccupied by the fancy guitar work such as Eddie Van Halen, Randy Rhoads, Motorhead, Def Lepard. They were influenced by the NWOBHM, and then ventured on to unleash their new sound and style. All the leather and chains Van Halen copycats were out of business. Metallica was reformatting music to their sound and style.
Metallica is a mix of socially aware lyrics, heavy and complex rhythm riffs, and ear catching, technically challenging solos. The band is also well known for its ambitions arrangements, new modulations and multiple tempos. Metallica is purely guitar driven. Always was and always will be.
Troubles around them started early as their lead guitarist was too aggressive, too drunk and too drugged to control. David Mustaine was informed that he was getting to out of hand and that he must leave (later he created very successful Megadeath). His place took Kirk Hammett, former pupil of Joe Satriani. Kirk brought his own style and sound to the band and managed to successfully combine his playing style with James Hatfield’s famous rhythm style.
Next I’ll release a how to guide on style of Metallica.
November 05, 2006
Death of Kurt Cobain
I want to write a little on the Kurt Cobain’s death. His death occurred around 5. April 1994. Kurt was leader of Nirvana, world most famous Grunge band. Officially he died after he shot himself. But this is where a conspiracy starts.
Kurt Cobain was of weird breed. Born on 20 February 1967, he was showing interest in music very early in life. As all of us he had a few important events that shaped himself and indirectly the reminder of his life. One such event happened in 1975, when he was just 8 years old. His parents divorced and this left young Kurt crippled in a sense that he didn’t have the typical American family that he craved for (he said:” I desperately wanted to have the classic, you know, typical family”). Also he was famous his drug use, started using marijuana rather early in life and later on moving to heroin. In school he tried to avoid sport as much as possible while committing himself to music and arts as much as possible.
His band Nirvana is famous for performing “Smells like teen spirit”, a song that probably everyone has heard. A lot of people claim he ripped of Pixies which is in fact true. He himself admitted he wanted to create the ultimate pop song by following their example. But still “Smells like teen spirit” has that grunge flow of loud parts followed by quieter parts. The song ended as number 1 song on many charts.
Back to his death. Many people offered their conclusions on this case. The main point of discussion is that it’s not easy for one to shoot himself with a shotgun while being seriously overdosed on heroin. In fact he had over 3 times of a lethal even to the serious heroin addict. And heroin is a very fast drug. Heroin is so quick that overdosed people are usually found with needles still in them. They didn’t have time to even finish the shot.
In Nick Broomfield’s documentary “Kurt and Courtney” he found a doctor claiming that his patient could stand and balance on one leg for more than 30 seconds after taking methadone. After this episode Nick Broomfield changed his opinion and started to believe that Kurt in fact did killed himself. Of course the main difference here is that patient SWALLOWED METHADONE. Swallowing drug makes a drug slower acting and less effective. And methadone isn’t heroin so there is a big difference here, which Nick Broomfield wasn’t aware of (at least in that point in time).
His wife was Courtney Love, famous for her need to be famous, heard of and rich. Although as everyone, she probably has her good sides; if Kurt Cobain died she is a very likely suspect. And in deed, conspiracy theorists claim that she hired someone to shoot him. In fact El Duce of The Mentors( story in his own) claimed that Courtney approached him and wanted him to shoot Kurt but El Duce(being the kind of the guy he was) passed out after drinking heavily.
Kurt had a child with Courtney Love that he loved very much. This is another argument that conspiracy theorists use to prove that Kurt wouldn’t and couldn’t kill himself. Kurt did leave a suicide notice, but as most of his lyrics the notice isn’t very comprehensible.
If you want to research further you can use the following places to start from
Nick Broomfield – Kurt and Courtney documentary
http://www.justiceforkurt.com/
Tom Grants Cobain Case files
November 04, 2006
5 Vintage electric guitars everyone wants
If you could have any vintage guitar what would it be? I’ll present you my list of 5 most valuable (not only money wise) vintage guitars. The guitars on the list were not only chosen because of the price mark they have on the market but also on what they left in music history.
Fender Stratocaster 1954-1959
Stratocaster featured an instantly recognizable look and it’s probably mostly copied guitar, but in 1954 when it was first released this guitar offered a new look on the market. Contours and lines on guitar were designed with players in mind, and this was one very comfortable guitar.
When you compare this Stratocaster guitar with the Telecaster of that time (telecaster was already on the market by 1951) you can see that Leo Fender learned a lot from constructing Tele. Stratocaster was years ahead its competitors with 3 pickups (wich was unusual at the time) and a new vibrato bridge. As with anything new people were a little bit reluctant to and buy it and play it and in the beginning sales were rather slim . However, it gained wide acceptance as rock and blues artist started using it (Budd Guy and Hank Marvin are fine guitarists how used and still use the Strat). Price also represented a problem since it sold from 249.5 US$ (approximately 1,850US$ in today’s currency). Later Fender started offering custom models with alternative colors (sunburst was the original color) and gold plated metalwork.
Price of the original guitar: 40,000-80,000 US Dollars.
Gibson Les Paul Original Goldtop 1950s
Gibson started its original Les Paul series in 1952, and the guitar was a response to the Fender Telecaster and Esquire. This hand-crafted guitar with a carved top was a masterpiece in it self. 
It was recorded that some of the Les Paul more interesting key inputs were to paint a body in a gold color (“it looks more expensive”) and a mahogany constructed fingerboard (“it makes your fingers move faster”). In the end Les Paul was very satisfied with this guitar, describing it with: “it looks classy – like a tuxedo”. Since these were the early ‘50s, this guitar target market were jazz players, so the guitar had two weak single-coil pickups which probably wouldn’t suite first rockers. Also it’s been sad that neck angle was bad and produced low tuning stability. This guitar is a legend and icon in itself, but you must add the color of the guitar to its rarity.
Price of the guitar: around 100,000$ US Dollars
Gibson ES-335
This guitar crated a major shift in how the people saw electric guitar. Solid body electric guitars in 1950 were seen as an amateurish instrument by many players and guitar constructors. 
As time passed there were a lot of modifications on this guitar. The ES-335T (which was first available in 1958 and was priced a little bit more than a Strat at 267.5 US$) had manage to pioneer a thinline body (1.75 inch at the rim) and a double cutaway shape. This guitar quickly became an inspiration to the other manufacturers. This guitar was, and probably still is, one of the most versatile guitars due to this design and can probably fit many different guitar styles. It successfully bridged the gap between archtop and solidbody which made Gibson Guitars a real innovator. The access to the upper frets was superior to any guitar at that time. In 1959 the guitar was renamed to ES-335TD meaning ES-335 with thinline body and a double pickup. Also they changed the color from natural blonde to cherry in 1960. Most famous and valuable models are ones with unbound dot inlaid fingerboard. As I already mentioned, guitar was very versatile but mostly it was a trademark of blue musicians at the time such as Otis Rush, T-Bone Walker and Jimmy Rogers.
Price of this guitar ranges from 30,000 US$ for a later cherry colored models to 150,000 US$ for the mint conditioned blonde model with dot inlaid fingerboard.
Gretsch 6120 1954
I had a little trouble choosing the model from Gretsch. Gretsch was influenced by Gibson, but also provided us with innovations of its own. There are 2 really sought after vintage guitars from Gretsch: PX6134 and 6120. I decided to choose 6120 because it left a bigger mark on the music history. Gretsch 6120 is simply referred to as the Nashville, and that speaks volumes about this fine guitar. Originally introduced in 1954 as the 6120 Chet Atkins Hollowbody, and priced at the steep 385US$ (which works out to around 2850 US$ in today currency). 
Gretsch presented us with a new look with a 15.5 inch deep body. There are various customizations and re-releases (such as the Brian Seltzer signature models) . The most sought after finish is a classic Amber Red (1954-1956) also referred to as Western Orange.
Price of the guitar: around 10,000-15,000 dollars depending on condition and customization.
Gibson Explorer 1958
This was a toughest choice for me. I really wanted to put another Fender in (Telecaster) to balance things out. But this Gibson model presented us with more radical guitar body, a designed that was ahead of it’s time greatly. The guitar is a part of the Famous “Korina trio” consisted out of Flying V, Moderne and Explorer. Unfortunately this guitar didn’t do so well, and very low numbers were produced. Few players famous guitarists played it: Albert King (who preferred the Flying V I believe) and Eric Clapton during 1970s. At that time musicians more caught up with the Explorer and Gibson did a reissue in 1976, almost 20 years later. U2’s The Edge used this guitar at times (the 1976 model). There are a few guitars that were so ahead of it’s time.
Price is a staggering 250,000 US$ for a 1950s original.
November 01, 2006
October 29, 2006
Setting Your EQ
EQ are vital element of your tone. Usually you think about a sound as a spectrum ( sound spectrum) with basses on the left and treble on the right. This is how a producer’s deals and plays with sound. He’ll try to make certain sounds (or instruments) fit unused parts on the spectrum. This way each instrument has its on part on the spectrum and is more audible this way.
So how does this affect you as a guitarist? And how to make your settings sound best? There are mainly two contexts in this.
When you play alone with a band you’ll probably want to rise up your middle while cutting down you treble and basses. Middle is usually place that other instruments/musicians need the least, so you’ll fit nice in there, and your soloing will be more recognizable. This way you’ll get a little fuzzier sound and it probably won’t be the sound that you want when you play alone in your bedroom. If you want that funky sound used in pop today, or that crunching evil sound you’ll need to boost your basses and treble while cutting down on mid. Adding healthy amounts of distortion will result in Devil calling sound. This sound is great when you are alone, but when you need to play with your friends it takes a lot of frequencies that bass players need. Generally this sound is best with bands that play hard rock/metal music with lots of riffs (think Metallica here). So I suggest playing with your settings to get the really good sound. Keep in mind that you probably can’t use the same setting when playing alone and with a band. When you’re in a band all of you’ll need to sound good together so you’ll need to tweak you setting a bit. Bass players and drummers generally use treble and bass so cranking mid up results in a nice sounding band.
