Greetings once again. Here we are: the last volume in our effects discussion. Take that last sentence with a huge grain of salt, since we both know by now that this “effects” topic is one that can easily fill up a large library!

However, if you’ve been following along with the series I feel confident that you have now developed a working knowledge of all of the “must know” basics concerning the effects we have tackled. You are at a point now where you can take this knowledge as far and deep as you want to.

Keeping with that spirit we will have one more discussion that will round out your “required” effects knowledge.

Let’s get to it.

What are “Modulation” Effects?

There are many ways to describe modulation effects, and there are even more effects that can be included in this category. So as always, the question that begs for an answer is this:

What is the main characteristic that encompasses modulation effects?

In a nutshell, any effect that keeps the original (‘dry’) signal, and then duplicates or mimics that signal with any particular alteration to it, is a modulation effect. The name itself tells exactly what the effect does – ‘modulate’ means to adjust or adapt, and modulation effects make some particular kind of continual adjustment to the original signal.

There are an endless variety of modulation effects, so we’ll stick to the most popular ones. We’re going to cover rotary speakers, chorus, flanger and phaser effects this week, and tremolo, vibrato, pitch shift and wah-wah effects in our next installment. Click to read the rest…

Last time around we were talking ear training for echo effects, all those wonderful ways to make many repeating sounds from one… Now for a slightly different effect (but definitely staying in the same family as echo):

On to reverb we go!

The story here is not much different. It was pretty much the same quest to produce that “spacious ambient” sound so common in halls, caverns, or caves that led this particular sonic safari.

Sure, the mechanics used are different for producing reverb sounds, but the evolution was parallel to the echo/delay story from last time.

• In place of tapes there are plates.
• In place of delay chips there are springs.
• In place of an echo sound there is the sound of halls, and large auditoriums.

Early Days: Physical Reverbs

You know the song and dance by now. All beginnings are humble, and this was no different.
Instrument amplifiers had springs placed in a “tank” with an electronic transducer feeding a portion of the amp signal to the reverb tank. The vibration and electronic stimulation of the springs caused the reverb we all know as “Spring reverb”. Listen to anything produced from the 1950’s and 60’s and chances are you’ll hear springs doing their thing.

A modern spring reverb unit (Image: Accutronics)

Studios on the other hand used larger versions of the same idea. Plate reverbs were and still are also very common in studios.

With plate reverb, usually a giant metal plate was suspended in an anechoic (meaning devoid of any natural echo) chamber, and driven with an electronic transducer – much like its little brother, the spring reverb. Plate reverbs were used on drums and vocals due to their inherent “bright” and slightly metallic sound. Actually, they were used on everything – for a while especially in the ‘70s and early ‘80s you could hear that “plate” on all the harder rock of the day.

In short, reverb, was produced in a mechanical way.
Click to read the rest…

Guitar tone is one of the most complex things most guitarists will have to deal with. There are plenty of guitarists that want to look at a guitar and make a blanket assumption about the sound (or ‘tone’) it produces.

The truth is that the amp and settings are always more important than the guitar itself for creating sound! Today we’re going to discuss the ways in which the guitar itself does affect the tone, and use ear training MP3s to demonstrate the sounds.

Before we dive in – how big an impact do the amp and settings really have? The following example is the same guitar and the same equipment, just with the settings altered. You’ll hear that there’s a lot of tone variation possible without changing the equipment itself.

Warning: Some of the tracks on this page have loud distorted sections – do not turn your volume up too high, especially if listening on headphones!

The strong effect amplifier settings can have

Electric Guitars

When it comes down to the guitar itself, the most noticeable difference is going to be the type of pickups on the guitar. Most other aspects of the tone of a guitar can be adjusted or compensated for with the right equalizer adjustments (see the Frequency Fundamentals course for more information), and those are subjective tone differences.

Electric Guitar - Listen for the different types of pickup

The 60Hz hum created by single coil pickups, on the other hand, can be a desirable or undesirable component to the tone. Click to read the rest…