Here is a quick review of the Joyo JF-09 Tremolo pedal. It is really cheap, but don't let that stop you considering it. It is really well made, it works and sounds great....believe it or not it is True bypass (I forgot to mention this in the video!), it is yellow and it is less than £30!! I mean perhaps there is something ethically bad about the labour employed to make this (I hope not, but you never know) to get it that cheap. But all in all a great little pedal.Here is the review!EnjoyPeaceNeil
Jim Dunlop Jazz III Picks
Thanks to Sanj of www.friendlysanj.com, I have been using Jazz III's for about 13 years now and it is nice to know that you have made the right choice, even after all these years as stated in the recent article in Premier Guitar Magazine"If you make the conversion to a Jazz III pick, you’re not coming back. If you suddenly were to go back to a standard-size pick after that, it would be like putting on a pair of clown shoes and trying to run the 40-yard dash. You simply develop a more articulate style with a pick like that."*It is so true! I can't live without my (red) Jazz III's!EnjoyPeaceNeil* Full Article can be found here http://www.premierguitar.com/Magazine/Issue/2012/Jun/How_to_Pick_your_Pick.aspx?Page=2
Current guitar pedal board - 2012
Okay, so thought I would do another post on my the pedal board that I am using this year. It is very similar to the one I was using last year funnily enough! You can read in more detail about that one here and the reasons for the choice of pedals. The Blackstar HT-Dual has long gone to be replaced by the Suhr Riot (which I love and you can watch my review here and read all about it here), primarily because I love the Suhr, but had a few niggles with the Dual, I still stand by the fact it is a great pedal though.So here is
As you can see most elements are the same, my beloved TC Nova System is still there and I now have the G-switch attached to enable me to switch presets instantaneously and have access to all the effects in those patches. This is a really important factor, as many people thing that there is a delay in switching presets with the TC Nova System, which there kind of is if you use the preset mode. The delay is the fact that the preset changes when you remove your foot, which is a strange thing to get used to, but it does work.So the major changes are the addition of a volume pedal, a Boss RC-3 Loop Station and a Brightonion switching pedal for the Blues Junior's fat switch. I added the volume pedal to give me a bit more control over my overall levels and gives me the ability to be a bit more dynamic, as on a couple of my guitars, the volume pots aren't that well calibrated! The RC-3 is in mainly to help with practicing and potential looping gigs. I have changed the bag from the Electro-harmonix pedal bag to the Gator 30x16 Wood Pedalboard to accomodate the extra pedals and give it a bit more stability. And that is it!BUTAfter gigging this board a couple of times, there were a few issues and here they are...the first was that surprisingly the Boss RC-3 had an excessive amount of noise on the output, basically a high frequency hissing sound, like a large gain increase being put in the chain, but without the actual gain increase. I have turned both the levels down, but to no avail! Given that it was only being used to enable me to practice it came straight out! The biggest problem (and get your violins out!) was that the case and pedals ended up weighting a ton and I have recently injured my back, so carrying great weights around isn't my highest priority! It was close approaching 20Kgs and that is heavier than my amp! And the bag itself is very heavy (about 8Kgs empty!), I think the Pedaltrain is a future investment! Also after having one gig where I had many footswitching problems, I decided to make my life easier and just take out the actual effects I am using with Groovething - the North West Premiere function and party band set no more no less! So I am now using this
Sorry for the dodgy image (it was taken with the rubbish camera on my Samsung Galaxy S2!)So, this is just a nice simple board.
- Jim Dunlop Crybaby Wah, because we all need a wah! Although I am going to swap this with my Vox Wah as there is a slight crackle currently and I will need to do some investigating.
- EHX Soul Preacher - using this a compressor for funk rhythms and a boost as well (gives a bit of extra gain to distorted sounds for leads)
- EHX Micro Q-tron - my most used pedal with this band, sound great, instant funk disco, works well on Stevie Wonder tunes like Superstitious too!
- Boss SD-1 - I really really don't know what it is about this pedal, it is cheap, I have had it since the beginning of time, I have better pedals, but I just love the sound. It is clear and open, something about it which really works for me
- Suhr Riot - Say no more, this is THE distortion pedal
- Boss GE-7 - A pedal that I keep coming back to, it has so so many uses, so many infact I will do a separate post on this amazing pedal. I am using it as a solo bost (similar to the boost on the TC Nova System), simply boosting the mids to cut through.
- MXR Phase 90 - used for most of my modulation needs, I have been using Tremelo and chorus (for stuff like Valerie - Amy Whitehouse) to Flange and Phaser (for stuff like Are you gonna go my way - Lenny Kravitz), but this one pedal seems to work well covering all bases. I might throw in the amazing (and horrendously cheap but fantastic) Joyo Tremelo.
- Boss DD-7 - very short delay left on most of the time to give a bit of body to the sound. Really miss the Awesome TC Delay's and the variety of options, but 99% of time I am not using them during a gig. So this is perfect
- Finally, Boss TU-3 Tuner, well I never go anywhere without it!
So what am I missing? Well the number of delay options, the quality of the delays, and the octaver. But that is about it at the moment, and my back is happy!
Gigging Musicians on LinkedIn
Hello everyone,Just to let those know whom might be interested that I have created a group on LinkedIn for Gigging Musicians to discuss all things about gigging! Why not pop over and say hello!You can find the group here.You can also take a look at a blog post I wrote on top gigging tips here.EnjoyPeaceNeil
Gigging life saver - Neil's top tip 2
Don't over look a cheaper guitar as a backup. As we know you should always take a backup guitar to a gig, in case of any number of posible problem scenarios (most usually string breakage and tunage issues), so rather than taking your prized strat or Les Paul etc out, look at cheaper but reasonable guitars to gig with. You never know when some drunken reveller will get up and do untold damage!Top Tip 2 - Take a cheap guitar as a back upPeaceNeil
Guitar lesson - what are you saying?
After watching Guthrie Govan's professor shred lesson, which I wrote about here and this fantastic lesson by Paul Gilbert. It really has struck me that one of the failings in my playing is the ability to say something new and different sometimes. I think we can all fall into a rut of saying the same thing when we are speaking as well, so this isn't just about guitar playing, but in life too. It is also possible to draw on that analogy and look at the similarities between guitar playing and speaking/writing/singing. One thing you could try is to record yourself speaking with a dictaphone or computer etc and then analyse the way you speak and then do the same with your guitar playing. Do you say things the same way? Do you play the same licks, with the same emphasis in similar places, same words, same sentence structure?So what does this have to do with gutar playing you ask?Well, I am starting to think, and this may just be a personal thing, that because when I speak, I tend to say and phrase things similar with in my comfort zone, that this is coming across when I am playing guitar too, so I am trying to slow down, think more about what I am saying and the key...what I want to say and how I want to say it. Then I am applying this to the guitar, trying to say things in a different way, trying to phrase things different, different 'sentence' constructions, different emphasis on different words. And of course, longer words in longer sentences for those shreding moments!!Looking at guitar playing, we could perhaps draw these example analogies
- A shredding lick could be seen as being similar to saying a very long, complex sentence perfect, precise and fast.
- A rock lick could be seen as being similar to saying an exclamation or sentence in a chatty or colloquial way.
- A blues lick could be seen as being similar to saying a chatty, colloquial sentence with emotion.
And so on....If we consider the situation where someone gets some chewing gum in their hair, the following might be examples of the structures described above....
- "There seems to be some chewing gum stuck in my hair, could you please help get it out?" - might be the shred version
- "Aaarrggh arrrrghhhhhh....gum in my head....arrrgh get it f***ing out!!!!!!!" - might be the rock version
- "Damn..... got some gum stuck....stuck in my hair.....get it out will ya" - might be the blues version
Thinking of these sentences and then thinking of how they might sound if you played them on the guitar gives you an idea of where I am coming from. I would recommend trying it perhaps with each of the sentence above and see what they sound like. Then taking that to your playing and seeing if you can say the the same thing, but in a different way, or should I say take the same thing and see if you can play it in a different way.Be interested to hear you comments! Please add them to below!Enjoy!PeaceNeil
Gigging life saver - Neil's top tip I
Here is another top tip for those gigging musicians out there. This tip is something which has proved extremely useful on many occasions and has the potential to save a gig.With the advent of smartphones, iPads, iPods etc it is possible to store and read documents such as pdf or word documents on the phone.The top tip is to download the user manuals for all the pieces of equipment you are using and have the stored on your mobile device, so if something goes wrong you can easily open the manual up and find out what it going on. You can also keep documents of various settings etc and have them easily to hand. An easy solution is to download something like Dropbox and store them from your computer and sync with your phone. Of course you can store all manner of useful things that way!I know you can always download manuals via a smartphone, but my experience has shown that when you end up gigging in the middle of nowhere, you may not have a wifi or 3G signal and thus can't get online. Having them locally on a device could save your life :)Having the manual for my TC Nova System on my phone was extremely useful recently in finding out how to fix a problem I was having with level anomalies!PeaceNeil
Fantastic guitar lesson by Guthrie Govan
Guthrie Govan is fast getting a reputation on the internet (and deservedly so) and being the best guitarist out there, not just because of his ability to play in an style (well!) and shred (as is evidenced by this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bUZK9dasP8s). But because he is also a fantastic teacher as well! There are so many clips out there on youtube thankfully, but I find this one a brilliant lesson to all us guitarists that I just had to share it!! I have certainly taken a lot from it!!Enjoy!!PeaceNeil
Daily Creation Challenge | Day 95 - Tribute to Jim
I had already done today's piece when I heard the news, so instead I decided to whack on my Marshall and play a few chords as a tribute to Jim Marshall who sadly passed away today.He may not have played a note, but his amps were responsible for all those notes, all those sounds, all those memories!Rip JimEnjoyPeaceNeil