Tone. At Home.
Go and see this amazing content from elsewhere on the Internet! We’ll still be here when you get back.
Henning has taken a look at the Rainbow Machine from the mad scientists at EarthQuaker Devices.
I don’t know how to describe this pedal. It’s nothing like your traditional chorus, modulation or delay pedal. It’s its own thing.
Watch the video to hear it for yourself, then please head over to YouTube to leave a like and a supportive comment.
Chappers and The Captain have done a shootout between ten Klon-like pedals.
If you’re not sure what all the hype around the Klon is all about, let me explain …
The Klon is low-gain pedal that (in its day) did something unique. Set as a clean boost, it lifts the guitar in the mix (or in a live setting) thanks to the way it increases the upper mids. And yet – it also does something to the bass response that makes clean tones sound fuller, without making drive tones muddy or boomy.
The hype is partly because, for many years, the only way to get this tone was to get a Klon Centaur. They were hand-built by Bill Finnigain, and due to limited availability they started changing hands in the second hand market for eye-watering amounts of money.
Eventually, klones (with a ‘k’) started appearing. Bill himself created the Klon KTR as a mass-production version of the Centaur, did a deal with JRAD to make them, before JRAD went on to create their own klones.
The most important klone is the Soul Food. It wasn’t the first klone, and I’d argue it is amongst the worst, but it did bring awareness and availability to the mass market. Since then, there’s been an explosion of interest in klones and the Klon thing. Today, there’s plenty of choice to suit all tastes and budgets.
I’ve got three of these on my boards, including the (for me) unmatched Klon KTR. It’s the only one that I’ve tried that doesn’t add a huge bass bump to overdrive tones. That’s something that doesn’t come across in this demo, to be honest.
Watch the video to choose your favourite, and then please head over to YouTube to leave a like and a supportive comment..
Shane’s had a lot of interest in his Danelectro ‘84 since introducing it on his YouTube channel. So he’s done a shootout against his Mexican Strat.
The two guitars sound quite different. The Danelectro has a lot more twang, without sounding like a Tele. It’s also a little thinner sounding, but not in a bad way. The overall result is a guitar which looks like a Strat but has its own thing going on. Very cool.
Watch the video to hear for yourself, and then please head over to YouTube to leave a like and a supportive comment.
Darrell Braun has posted an interesting look at two single-cut guitars: the Gibson Les Paul and the Gretch Duo Jet.
I can’t find the Gretsch Duo Jet on Gretsch’s website – or in any UK stores at the time of writing. Darrell’s Playing the G6128TVP model (I think), which seems to be out of production right now.
A shame, because that Gretsch compared very favourably to the Les Paul.
Watch the video to make your own mind up, and then please head over to YouTube to leave a like and a supportive comment.
Johan Segeborn – the master of tone comparison videos – believes that the speaker is the single most important component in creating vintage guitar tones. He’s put together a whirlwind demonstration of a number of vintage Celestion speakers to show us why.
Speakers are such simple things on the surface, yet – as Johan demonstrates – there’s a lot of variables that make an audible difference. And if you can hear the difference on YouTube, imagine how big the difference is in the room, or in any kind of recording.
Watch the difference to hear how these speakers vary, and then please head over to YouTube to leave a like and a supportive comment.
Mike Geronsin of The Art of Guitar has posted a new, free lesson. Here, he’s looking at how to use the same scale shape to solo over any key – major or minor.
This is very helpful if, like me, you’re just starting out with learning how to solo or improvise over a chord progression. It’s a neat tip, that Mike clearly explains and demonstrates.
Watch the video to see how this works, then please head over to YouTube to leave a like and a supportive comment.
Shane has taken a look at one of the high-end, Japanese-made Gretch guitars: the Duo Jet.
This premium guitar looks like Gretch’s answer to Gibson Les Paul reissues. It has that fat Les Paul tone when the amp’s nice and dirty, but it also offers very usable clean tones – something I’m hard-pressed to say about any modern Les Paul!
Watch the video to hear how good this sounds, and then please head over to YouTube to leave a like and a supportive comment.
Dan and Mick of That Pedal Show have put together an introduction to using MIDI with guitar pedals.
MIDI is a protocol that – for guitar pedals – allows us to switch presets, control individual settings via a MIDI-enabled expression pedal, and to sync the tempo of multiple pedals together. For pedal boards or signal chains built from several different components, MIDI is an important tool for controlling everything in a live performance without tonnes of tap dancing.
What does that all mean? Watch the video to learn more, and then please head over to YouTube to leave a like and a supportive comment.
Riff City Guitar and Keeley Electronics have teamed up to launch a new Plexi-voiced pedal. Rabea has one of the handwired versions, and has posted a demo to show us what it sounds like.
If, like me, you’re not in the States, this is going to be a pedal to watch for when it hits the 2nd hand market. It’s exclusive to Riff City Guitar, and the run of hand-wired pedals has already sold out. There’s going to be a run of non-hand-wired pedals too, and these also seem to be exclusive to Riff City Guitar.
Watch the video to hear how good this sounds – and how well it responds to pick dynamics. And then please head over to YouTube to leave a like and a supportive comment.
Chappers and The Captain have done another of their blindfold challenges: can Rob tell if a guitar is a Fender Telecaster, or a T-style from another brand?
Every time someone on the forums insists that guitars don’t sound that different, or that the differences aren’t that great, I want to make them sit down and watch videos like this. It’s not always easy to tell them apart after YouTube has processed the audio, but in person – and importantly, through a great amp – the differences are real, both in tone and in feel.
Please head over to YouTube to leave a like and a supportive comment if you enjoyed this video.