Category: Tone Tips

Best Delay Pedal

The best delay pedal on the market is not an easy question to answer since there is two categories of delay: analog and digital. In my opinion, I’ve always been a fan of analog pedals, but there are those who want the added features of digital circuitry (Check out our Analog Vs. Digital Delay article). So the best approach to answering the question of what is the best delay pedal, would be to have the best of analog delays and the best of digital delays. Here’s our picks:

Best Analog Delays

1) Tape Delays

I’m not going to say which tape delay is best, rather that tape delays/echoes have the best sound/tone that any delay can produce. Its warm, addictive, big, 3-dimensional, and vintage sounding. Some great tape delay/echoes are the Echoplex and the Fulltone Tube Tape Echo.

2) Moog MF-104z Analog Delay

While pretty expensive (though not as expensive as a tape echo), this analog delay sounds incredibly warm. As well, this pedal features a load of customizing features not usually available on analog delays. The delay swells are very natural and the multiple outputs on the pedal coupled with the ability to use an expression pedal makes this pedal number 2 on our list. View the Moog Analog Delay on Amazon.

3) 80s’ Made in Japan Ibanez AD-9 Analog Delay

These vintage Ibanez delays come in at number 2 as they are very organic and warm sounding. I have yet to hear a better sounding analog delay than this. The reissue of this pedal that is available today is not the same as the 80s made version. They use a different chip, and don’t even sound half as good. If you want the vintage pedal new, the Keeley AD-9 is essentially the same pedal except with true bypass. Also check out the Maxon AD-9, another replica of this pedal.

Other great Analog Delays to check out:

Diamond Pedals Memory Lane 2 Analog Delay

Best Digital Delays

1) Empress Effects Vintage Modified Super Delay

This digital delay does the best at emulating vintage, tube, and tape delays. Its funny that digital delays are trying to emulate analog, but not vice-verse. I wonder why that is (cough cough we love analog!). Anyway, this delay has a whole ton of great features such as tap tempo, expression pedal inputs, presets, and reverse delay! Its number one on our top digital delays list. View this pedal on Amazon.

2) Eventide TimeFactor Duel Digital Delay

This pedal is all about options. You can make your delays mono or stereo. The delay modes include Digital Delay, Band Delay, Vintage DDL, Filter Pong, Tape Echo, MultiTap Delay, Modulated Delay, Reverse Delay, Ducked Delay, and Looper. Having the looper makes this more than a delay pedal. My favourite part of this pedal is that you can send delays to different amps. Talk about really creating an ambiance! Most versatile digital delay. View this pedal on Amazon.

3) Strymon Timeline

This pedal is known as the multi-dimensional inspiration machine. With 12 different delay modes, you can control the sonic character and feel of each. This pedal is a tweekers dream! The ultimate customizability with the  focus being on tone. The best part is you can create up to 200 presets of your favorite settings!

Other great Digital Delays to check out: Pigtronix Phi Echolution Delay (both digital and analog), TC Electronics Flashback (inexpensive!)

Well there you have it, the best delay pedals, both analog and digital.

What are the Best Classical Guitar Strings?

Finding the best classical guitar strings takes a bit of experimenting, as its all very subjective to the player and their ears. This article will help you figure out which classical nylon strings are right for you.

Low-Tension vs. High-Tension
If you have purchased classical strings before, than you have probably noticed that there are different tensions available. But what does the tension have to do with the sound. Use this guide to figure out the tension right for you:

Low Tension: Easier on the fingers, Softer Sound, Low Volume

High Tension: More Volume, More of a Rounded Tone, More Sustain

Personally, I’ve used all tensions and High Tension sounded the best with my classical. Again, its good to experiment as different guitars take strings differently. If you can’t decide, Medium Tension is a good middle-ground. If you are really unsure, then go with Low Tension.

Brands
Most brands of classical strings will be good, but if you are looking for some good ones, I can recommend ones that I’ve personally used and like. They are D’addario, Augustine (great for flamenco!), Savarez (expensive), and Sevilla (also expensive).

String Materials
While you can get all steel classical strings, I recommend nylon if you want the real classical sound. There are different kinds of nylon from rectified to clear. Both sound good, its just a matter of taste. As for the bass strings, you can get gold, silver and copper wound. They all are different in their own right. I would recommend to try them all and see what sounds best to your ears.

So there you have it. Use this guide when finding out what the best classical strings are for you.

Amp Settings

How to Adjust your Amp Settings for the Guitar Tone You Want

So you finally have a great guitar and amp, but are still trying to figure out how to dial it all in to achieve the tone you want. There are a lot of factors to consider when configuring your amp settings, so lets start with the basics.

Benchmarking

One of best ways to shape your tone is to set the amp to equal settings. To do so, just set your bass, treble, mids, and presence to 12 o’clock. At this point, you want to start playing your guitar for a bit and get a feel for the tone that you are hearing with the ‘benchmark’ settings. At this point, you’ll start to hear whats missing. If its sounding like the guitar is lacking low end, increase the  bass. If its sounding ice-picky or ear-piercing, turn down the treble and increase the mids. The great thing about this method is that it builds your ear for EQing. This is a great skill to have as dialling in tone will become easier over time.

Clean Tone

To dial in a good clean tone, there are a few things to consider. First, if your amp has multiple channels, make sure you are on the clean channel. A no brainer, but still needed to mention it. When it comes to eq-ing, make sure that your bass, mids, and trebles, don’t proceed 1 o’clock. The reason is that around this point, it will start boosting the signal, and distorting the tone. Another thing to mention is your guitar itself – if it is sounding a bit distorted when your guitar volume is all the way up, roll it back a bit to clean up the tone. Also a light pick attack will make the tone cleaner as well.

Dirty Tone

Just the opposite of the last paragraph. If you have a two channel amp, set it to the dirt channel if it has one. Turn the presence, bass, mids, and treble about 3 quarters up to boost the signal, and increase/decrease as necessary. If you are playing on a tube amp, the hotter the tubes, the dirtier the tones. To get those tubes hot, it means cranking the amp really loud. Also again, a stronger pick attack with your guitar will dirty up the tone.

Setting Reverb on the Amp

I usually say, set the reverb to taste. For a good clean tone, having reverb between 9 and 12 o’clock sounds great. For a dirty tone, I would skip the reverb, or just put a touch. For a jazz tone, put the reverb either 3 quarters up or all the way up. If you are looking for a sound-scapy, mesmerizing, dream tone, then turn the reverb up. If you are looking for a more in-your-face tone, turn the reverb down.

Final Tips

  • Use your ears. They are the best judge of tone.
  • If its a tube amp, let the tubes warm up. And give it a bit of volume for better tone.
  • Two channel amps allow you to go from clean to dirty with a foot switch, so you can do it on the fly.
  • Try using some pedals to dictate the tone you want. (i.e. Clean Boost, Overdrive, etc.)
  • Practice technique.. as they say, most of the tone is in your hands!
I hope these tips on amp settings help you to get your desired tone!

Sweet-Tone Instrument Cable Review

Recently, we got our hands on some boutique instrument cables made by Sweet-Tone. Over on their site, these cables promise ‘high quality sound performance’. But with a $50 price tag for a 10-foot cable, I thought ‘how much better can these be compared to standard cables I get from my local music shop in the $10-$20 price range?’

Sweet-Tone Cable in Box

I unboxed my two 10-foot cables and proceeded to plug my ’68 strat into a Tweed Blues Deluxe. Before doing so, I made sure to play with a regular instrument cable right before so I had a good idea of the overall sound.  Now time for the Sweet-Tone cables. I plugged in, turned off the standby on the amp and proceeded to play some improvised blues. WOAH!! All of a sudden, I felt like a better guitarist! I did not imagine that I would notice this much of a difference. There were 3 things that stuck out with the Sweet-Tone cables:

1) My tone was so much clearer. Each note had its own clarity and definition. All this time, I thought I knew the tone of my 68 strat. But trust me, I did not know at all!

2) Absolutely no noise or hiss! Just the light hum coming from the strat as usual, though even the hum sounded better. These cables are so much more quiet.

3) My guitar became more responsive. Hammer-ons and pull-offs sounded more noticeable. Holding notes seemed to have greater sustain despite the amp settings. And when I did really subtle things on the guitar, they were much more noticeable to the ear.

Overall, my tone had gotten  a lot better. I honestly couldn’t believe it. I continued to play for much longer than I normally do, because of how additive the tone was.

Out of Box

What intrigued me about Sweet-Tone is their cables are made by a guitar player who is also an electrician. The fact that he has knowledge of high-quality components and an ear for tone is what makes these cables so good.

I really wanted to make sure I wasn’t the only one seeing this. Good thing we have testers at GuitarToneTalk! All 3 of our guys here noticed everything I mentioned. I didn’t even tell them what to expect, so there was no bias.

All I can say is that if you have nice guitars/amps/pedals, but are playing with cables from your local music store, than you are NOT getting the full benefit of the tone you should have. Plug in some Sweet-Tone cables, and your gear will sing to their fullest potential. I don’t plan on using any other cables. Now I just gotta get my hands on some of their patch cords!

For more info on Sweet-Tone or to purchase their cables, visit:

www.Sweet-Tone.com

 

5 Quick Ways to Improve your Guitar Tone

Looking to improve your Guitar Tone fast and easily? Try these 5 ways to make your tone better instantly:

1) If your amp is sounding harsh or dry, add some reverb to the signal. It should sweeten things up a bit.

2) EQing – There are lots of tonal variations right on your amp. I  like to start with all the knobs at 12 o’clock, and then tweak on what needs more or less of something. More on Amp EQing.

3) Guitar Volume and Tone Knob – There is so much value to the controls right on your guitar. Sounding a bit ice-picky? Slightly turn down the tone knob as you are playing. Also with great tone, your pick attack is important. It may be a quiet part of the song that requires strong pick attack, but you are holding yourself back from it being too loud. So use that guitar volume knob as you’ll get lots of tonal variations just from how you strum.

4) Make sure your guitar is well in tune! Can’t stress this enough. I’ve seen many guitarist who say they have terrible tone when really their strings are a bit out of whack. Being in tune WILL make a crappy rig sound better than being out of tune with an amazing rig.

5) If your tone is sounding dull, its probably time to change those strings. A fresh set will bring life back to your guitar. I personally like to use Pure Nickel strings. Why you ask? Well pure nickel is what they were using back in the 60s’ and 70s’, and it provides a warmer tone. (See Article: Which Guitar Strings to Use?)

Hope these 5 tips help you on your way to better tone! Also don’t forget, practice helps tone as well 😉

Rosewood Vs. Maple Fretboard

I can only speak from personal experience on what I think is better, and in the end, its all subjective and a matter of preference. I typically use a Fender Stratocaster, which I thought should be mentioned.

What I have always found is that I liked the playability better on a Rosewood Fretboard. Something about the Rosewood being glued onto the maple neck gives this great feel in the hands and I feel like I’m capable of doing more. But on the other side, I prefer the affect on tone that a Maple Fretboard gives. In my opinion, its brighter sounding, and more favorable as well. But its seems tougher to play than the Rosewood board.

On my Strat, I have the best of both worlds. I’m playing on a Fender 1968 Reissue Stratocaster. During that time period, Fender was making what was called a Maple Capped Neck. What this means is that they took a maple neck, and a separate piece of maple and slapped that on as the fret board much like they would do for a Rosewood fret board. So now I get the playability of a Rosewood board, but with the tone of a Maple board! Couldn’t be happier.

In the end, its all what you prefer. I have a few strats with both options, and while I have a number 1, I still play them all and like them individually. If you are trying to decide which to go for, I would recommend to go to your local music store and give both a try and judge it on what feels the most comfortable for you. Hope this helps!

Screaming and Fat Notes in your Solos

Today’s post is a short one. I want to show you how you can make you guitar scream with really fat sounding notes in your solos. What I’m going to tell you has more to do with technique. But make sure your electric guitar is dirty sounding with a good amount of gain and sustain. You can achieve this with a overdrive, fuzz, or distortion pedal. I personally use a Roger Mayer Axis Fuzz.

So in order to get your notes sounding fat and scream-y, you really have to hit the notes hard, especially to get it to scream. But if you just pick the string hard, the note will scream some, but won’t have that fatness to it. So what you want to do is strum the single note. That’s right, strum the single note. I know what you’re thinking, “if you strum the note, won’t the other strings ring?” That’s where the technique really comes in. You want to make sure you mute the other string both with your fretting hand and strumming hand.

Now that you have an idea of how to achieve this, some practice and feeling it out will get your there. Hope this helps!

Analog Vs. Digital Delay

Today’s topic will be on Delay pedals, specifically which is better: Analog or Digital. I’ve played on a variety of analog and digital delays, and have really heard the difference.

I want to say right off the bat that an Analog Delay is much much better than any digital delay could ever be. Why? Well when your put your guitar signal through digital circuitry, it loses the warmth and purity of the tone. Think of it as putting your guitar through a computer and altering the sound that way. If you own nice tube amps and electric guitars, I wouldn’t even think of putting anything digital in between.

Lets look at the pros and cons of Analog and Digital Delays:

Analog Delay

Pros: Warm, Hypnotizing, 3-dimensional
Cons: Notes are not as clear

Digital Delay

Pros: Clarity of notes, longer delays
Cons: 1-Dimensional, Thin Sounding, Fake Sounding, Computerized sound

So as you can see, the Analog Delay is the obvious winner in my books. If you are looking to purchase an analog delay, my recommendation would be an 80s’ made-in-japan Ibanez AD-9 Analog Delay. I wouldn’t bother with the newer Ibanez reissues.

Hope this helps persuade you in your delay endeavors! Also check out this related article: Best Delay Pedals