Over time their images of the artist’s setups have changed so that now they are both easy to understand and very nice to look at.

Ever wanted to know just what Clapton was using in his days with the Bluesbreakers? The year is 1966 and Clapton is playing his 1950s Les Paul’s Standard through a Marshall Combo. Wanna know what speakers and tubes were in that model? Those details are all but a few clicks away.

While it might be hard to track down this particular model with a modest price tag, the information provided gives you a decent head start on what to look for and what could be possible.

And if nothing else, this information will add to your ever growing understanding of great tone. You can be pretty sure that the information provided on the site are sound, given that most of the information comes from the artist’s or their guitar tech’s mouths.

And with this type of direct contact you’ll find the occasional gem of behind the scenes takes from the artists themselves on their gear or band members and/or techies on the artist.

A great resource for geek-ing out and putting together the dream set up, should all your stars align and you win the lottery. Take a look.

Posted by Dan Orr.

The Triple Rectifier Head is one more example of this ongoing development of great sounding amps. Following on from the success of the patented Dual Rectifier ® series, they introduced a third channel upping the gain to a massive 150 Watts (switchable) and adding more switchable modes to increase the sonic possibilities.

Each channel has a separate 5 way EQ to control the Bass, Mid, Treble, Presence and Master settings as well as a separate gain for each channel. There’s also the option to choose what power setting you want: 150 Watt or 50 Watt, so you can play at a lower level while maintaining the high gain crunch.

In addition to these individual channel settings you have and Output section that allows you to alter, up or down all channels in one go. The Main output allows you, once you’ve locked in each channel to your desired sound, to boost or lower the overall output volume of all channels at once. The Solo switch, gives you another volume setting that is applied (in parallel) over all channels for Solos – which is also foot switchable.

Each channel gives you the choice between two types of rectification to apply; Silicon Diode for tighter low end tracking, more head room and a more articulate sound and Vacuum Tube for less head room, a sweeter and less articulate sound.

And for tuning in silence, they now have a dedicated Tuner output so you can tune without everyone listening in.

Not only is this amp packed with great sound options, you also get a choice of front panel from the iconic diamond plate, black taurus or jute to match the look and feel you best matches you.

There are so many options packed into the Triple Rectifier that you’ll want to spend some serious time experimenting with. Of course, the Mesa guys give you heaps of tips and technical know-how within the user manuals, which are available online and make for easy and informative reading.

I’ll admit, 150 watts is a massive amount of noise potential and not one that I’m accustomed to using. But that wouldn’t stop me from taking a test drive. Check out the video below to hear some of the boundless options the Mesa Boogie Triple Rectifier is capable of.

Posted by Dan Orr

Many people start playing guitar, because they hear a super heavy hardcore riff on the radio and it inspires them to become a musician. That’s cool because heavy metal is a fun genre of music that is also a rewarding genre for guitarists. The sound of a hardcore metal guitar is awesome; however getting ‘that’ sound can be difficult.

First let me note that there are many variations in metal sounds depending on the bands style and how heavy they are. Just like any genre of music there are many variations depending on the band or song. Also lead players need a different tone when they are playing.

However there is a basic ‘metal tone’. This is essentially loud and as distorted as you can be. Often it is common in metal to ‘scoop’ the tone. This means that you should put your bass and treble near full and pull your mids back to around 3 or so. The results this can have may vary wildly depending on the kind of amp you have, so experiment with your equipment.

When it comes to your guitar, generally metal guitarists use humbucker pickups. This is because they reduce feedback and give off a warmer fatter sound. For this reason if you find you are having trouble getting a good sound out of your guitar maybe you need to think about whether you have the right kind of pick ups.

So try these ideas if you are having trouble getting the right metal sound. Remember these are only guidelines for you to experiment with. Remember turn your amps up to eleven and rock out.

Another way to get a good metal sound is the use of distortion or effects pedals. This gets into an area that really can’t be covered in the Tech Tips section of this newsletter, but it’s an important topic to talk about. It can’t be covered because guitar sound is very personal, and the ideal sound for one guitarist won’t sound good to others.

Here is one of the most innovative Metal bands with a great and classic metal guitar sound:

Posted by Moses Robbins.

Guitar amp watts and ohms.

Here are three common and related questions. In guitar amps how do the “watts” and “ohms” relate to the sound? Is louder necessarily better? And, do more watts and more ohms equal louder?

Let’s start with the third question. Watts relate to power. How much power or energy an amp is capable of putting into a speaker is rated in watts. How much energy a speaker is capable of handling is its wattage rating. Ohms relate to how much resistance (impedance) there is to the transfer of this energy. Everything has some resistance to the flow of electricity – some materials (insulators) much more than others (conductors). If a speaker has “more ohms” then it actually has a higher resistance to the transfer of energy. This means that (all other things being equal) it will not be as loud as an otherwise identical speaker with a lower impedance rating.

This does not mean that lower ohm rated speakers are “better.” It is simply a functional difference that can be used to one’s advantage when putting together a system. In some situations it is desirable to have multiple speakers, but when multiple speakers are added in parallel the net load on the amplifier can drop to dangerously low levels. (There are a couple of other Tech Tips about this in the archives if you want more background.)

That’s one example of where higher impedance speakers can be a benefit. All other things being equal, the transfer of more energy (more watts) to a speaker will result in louder sound. People generally buy higher wattage amps because they need more volume. There are other factors such as speaker sensitivity, efficiency, etc., but in general more watts means more volume.

But does it mean better – or even different – sound quality? From an engineering perspective ideally the sound shouldn’t change…but it does. Loudspeakers of all makes and models have different operational characteristics at different energy levels. There are many, many variables involved in this: a very complex set of dynamics with regard to electricity in coils, magnets, and the resulting magnetic fields, combined with the complex mechanical dynamics of getting an object to vibrate in a very tightly controlled fashion against the resistance of air inside a cabinet and the space it is placed within, not to mention the additional magnetic energy put back into the coil of wire (and ultimately the amp) as a result of the speaker moving.

This is a science (art?) that is far from perfect. Tremendous improvements have been made in the past couple of decades. It is now possible to buy loudspeakers that are very linear (though still far from perfect) when operated within their optimal range of tolerance. In the old days speakers would take on radically different sonic characteristics when driven near their operational limits (this is still true of modern speakers today, only the area of significant non-linearity is much, much closer to the upper limit of where failure will occur).

For engineers designing and operating systems where accurate sound reproduction was a significant concern, this was an obstacle that could be worked around to some extent – they simply made sure the energy transfer to the speaker kept it in or near its ideal operating range. Well, guitarists have been notoriously not interested in “accurate” sound reproduction. It didn’t take them long to discover the sonic changes that occur when speakers are driven up to the edge. And, as they say, the rest is history.

To finally answer the question, with certain speakers there can be a desirable sonic benefit to driving them with more power (watts). Your results will vary dramatically depending on many factors, including choice of amp, speaker, age (and operating history) of speaker, cabinet, and any other variable that could change the sound of your guitar. Whether these changes in sound result in “better” sound is of course up to the individual.

What about amps? All of these same concepts apply, just for different technical reasons. Much like speakers, every tube and every transistor has more and less linear ranges of operation, not to mention other components in the amp. Even when a transistor or tube is operated entirely within its “linear range” the combination of components that make up an amplifier can still behave differently at different levels. Again, in the most modern and highest quality designs these changes are extremely minute.

In the older days one could hear a significant difference in a tube amp when driven as compared to how it sounded at lower levels. Are these changes always considered improvements? No, usually not…but to guitarists…well, you get the idea. Now, when combining these amps and speakers together one has created a unique and dynamic beast with an incredibly complex set of interactions.

Turn up the volume of an old Marshall stack to significantly high levels and you will most certainly hear dramatic changes in sound, even before what most of us would normally characterize as conventional distortion sets in. Are these changes the result of amplifier non-linearity or speaker non-linearity? Yes. Any rock guitarist who has been around a while will tell you there is nothing like the sound of an old Marshall (or any of a number of other amps of the era) wound up. Even the most current and sophisticated modeling techniques are just beginning to skim the surface of addressing the variation in sounds that occur when a certain pickup on a certain guitar, with certain strings, going into a certain amp at a certain volume (and tone control setting) reacts with a certain set of speakers.

Posted by Ben Edwards.

These are great looking amps with hand wired circuitry feature the usual Fender Tweed settings with a few extra features requested by the great guitarist himself. All of the models include built in output bias tremolo – creating a more throbbing tremolo that Fender’s later models and a single control for speed (with an additional control for intensity for the larger Twinolux™). This in itself is a rather unique feature for an amp.

The other feature consistent with all three models is the power attenuator switch. This feature allows greater control of the output volume without sacrificing the “crunch” achieved at higher amp levels. Simply dial up the amp to its sweet spot with the volume control and hit the power attenuator switch to maintain the sweet spot but drop the overall volume allowing lower level.

Unfortunately, for humbucker lovers, you may struggle to achieve the full spectrum of harmonic richness with the amps in this series. That’s not to say, there is reason to dismiss any of them outright. Experimenting with the tone pots on your guitar and the amp, altering your picking attack and avoiding use of the neck pick up will help achieve a blues-ier feel. In essence, a guitar armed with single coils or mini humbuckers is going to get the liveliest of sounds from the amps.

If you’re in love with the sound of ‘50s Tweed amps with that vintage Fender sound spectrum, then the EC Series is going to be something you wanna check out if you haven’t already.

For a full list of specs and a full picture gallery Fender.com

Posted by Dan Orr

Founded in 1996 and operating in four countries (Italy, UK, US and Japan), IK Multimedia has been busy developing software for anyone with a musical bent. Leveraging the exponential growth of the personal computer and advancing technologies they’re enabling musicians of all walks of live play, product and listen to music like never before.

Throughout this time, they’ve partnered with the likes of DigiDesign, Intel, Mackie, EMU, Roland, Apple and many others and it’s their partnership with Apple where the iRig comes in.

A simple download from the iTunes App store effectively turns your iPhone into a complete multi-effects processor, recording studio and learning tool that’s always in your pocket. All effects are tweak-able at the slightest touch and swipe. Not only that but you can easily upgrade your ‘rig’ from the Amplitube iRig app Custom Shop with up to 11 stomps, 5 amps, 5 cabinets and 2 microphones.

With plug n play technology It’s as easy as plugging in the iRig interface to your iPhone, plugging your guitar into the right input and then plugging in your amp, powered speakers or headphones to start playing or recording..

They really have thought of everything. You can even import a track so you can jam along with it, providing your own lead lick or sharpening up your strum. For Jamorama users out there, this is a very usual feature that can easily be used with our Jamtracks. Simply import a jamtrack, print out or bring up the tab on your computer screen and jam away.

It also comes loaded with a metronome to keep yourself in time, and a chromatic tuner so you’re always in tune.

I took a few minutes out of my work day to give Dave’s iRig a go with his iPhone and have to say it is a really simple app to navigate. I dug out a pair of headphones and a lead to plug in my acoustic mini Maton, clicked on the Amplitube App and I was away.

The free app had enough for me to have a bit of fun with. It comes with a Noise filter, Delay and Distortion effects. Tweaking the effects is as easy as selecting it and dragging the slider up or down depending the desired effect. I even had time to record a quick track, which again was as easy as pressing record. The paid version does give you more recording capabilities but to quickly get an idea down, it’s a good option.

All in all the IK Multimedia Amplitube iRig for iPhone app is a neat little app with a multitude of uses. Being able to record your playing to hear how your it’s progressing or quickly get a copy of a musical idea before you forget it, is a really useful thing to always have in your pocket.

If you’re like me and iPhone-less, IK Multimedia have not forgotten us. They also have a USB audio interface in the form of Steath Plug so you too can download the Amplitube software, plug your guitar into your computer and experience all the great features your iPhone friends can access.

Check out the video below to hear and see how easy the iRig is to use.

Posted by Dan Orr

Remember a bad amp can make a good guitar sound bad and a good amp can make a bad guitar sound good. For this reason it is important not to neglect your amp when you are guitar shopping.

There are basically four different types of guitar amplifiers: tube, analog (solid state), digital and hybrids. This article will give brief description of the different types of amps out there.

Tube Amplifiers
The first amps ever made were tube amps and many players still prefer them over analogue or digital amps. The reason for this is that tube amps have a fat warm tone that many guitarists find natural. Also tube amps are generally louder than analog or digital amps with the same wattage. (There aren’t many among us who don’t like having more power on stage.)

Most tube amps have separate channels for distortion and clean sounds. The distortion in tube amps is generally made by overdriving the preamp. There are two major draw backs with tube amps: one is that tubes are made of glass and can be broken easily if you don’t treat your amp properly, also tubes wear out and need to be replaced periodically.

Solid State (analog) amplifiers
The reason that these types of amps are called ‘solid state’ is that they use transistors in their pre and power amps instead of tubes. The main problem with solid state is that they can often sound brittle and harsh. This is particularly the case with their distortion channels. The quality of the distortion on solid state amps can vary wildly and it is something you should defiantly check when you are looking at a solid state amp. Solid state amps are very reliable, inexpensive and they don’t have any pesky tubes to replace and for these reasons they remain popular with some guitarists.

Digital (modeling) amplifiers
Modeling amps use digital processors so that the amp can mimic many other amp sounds. They can copy sounds from old or new style tube amps using onboard software. These types of amps are quite popular at this time and will only become more popular as they improve in quality and become cheaper. Some of these amps are better in quality than others, for those at the top of the range most guitarists will not be able to hear the difference between them and the real thing.

Hybrid amplifiers
Some guitar manufactures have come out with amps that combine a tube preamp and a solid state power amp. The most well known of these is the Marshall Valvestate Series of amps. These amps are a cheap way of getting a tube sound when you are on a budget.

Buying an amp
The best way to buy an amp is to shop around. Take your electric guitar (if you have one) into a few stores and try out a few different amps. Try amps from different price ranges to see if you can hear any difference. Perhaps take a more experienced guitarist with you. Listen to their advice and try out as many amps as you can. Try playing the amp at different volumes to see if it responds well. Check all the different channels to make sure it sounds cool both clean and distorted. Take your time buying an amp. If you choose wisely, you can get a piece of equipment that will make you sound better and should last you a long time.

That is all for now!

Ben Edwards

The voicings are based on four of the most recognizable classic amp sounds: Classic American Clean, British Crunch, British Chime and Modern high-gain distortion. The usual EQ settings give you further control to create great sounds with all tube warmth and clarity.

Check out this video from for an up close look at the DT50 and hear just what this amp is capable of. It’s sure to be aural heaven for tube amp buffs. Enjoy!

Posted by Dan Orr

smoking kills

Gangstaz…..they`re getting older by the minute!

After last weeks biscuit tin expose today’s magnificent “homewares” based guitar art comes courtesy of the fine, fine craftsmen at Daddy Mojo!

If you have a penchant for the ostentatious and chocolaty flavours of the Republic of Cuba’s most famous export, hand rolled upon the thighs of young Cuban virgins then light up another top ranking stogie because when you’ve finished that box the fellas at Daddy Mojo can turn it into a world of acoustic delight worthy of any bluegrass, cotton-pickin’, square dancin’, chicken pickin` jamboree!

Just in case you’re wondering, the cigar box guitar is a primitive chordophone whose resonator is an empty cigar box. Because the instrument is (more traditionally) homemade, there is no standard for dimensions, string types or construction techniques.

Many early cigar box guitars consisted of only one or two strings that were attached to the ends of a broomstick that was inserted into the cigar box. Other cigar box guitars were more complex, with the builder attempting to simulate a traditional string instrument such as a guitar, banjo, or fiddle.

Cigar boxes in their current form did not exist exist prior to the 1840s when cigar manufacturers started using smaller, more portable boxes with 20-50 cigars per box.

The cigar box guitars and fiddles were also important in the rise of jug bands and blues. As most of these performers were black Americans living in poverty, many could not afford a “real” instrument. Using these, along with the washtub bass, jugs, washboards, and harmonica, black musicians performed the blues.

Each Daddy Mojo Cigar Box Guitar has it’s own unique sound and personality; they are made by hand one at a time in our small workshop in Montreal, Canada. They’re small, portable and almost indestructible…and let’s face it, they look cool as hell and attract major attention!

Daddy Mojo is proud to offer Paypal as an easy way of purchasing your custom cigar box guitar online — you do not need a Paypal account to take advantage of this new feature.

The Daddy Mojo Blog is here and the website is here.

Just to whet your appetite here are a couple of you tube videos from the Daddy Mojo website and they’re as strange as a fish!

Now,
if you’re a road rebel, a rouseabout and a rollingstone or just a good old fashioned hobo riding the rails then get your laughing gear around these sweet babies…

That`s right, when you wanna throw down The Chew Tobacco Rag around the old campfire, these smoking weed tins are ‘jes’ what you need!

SMOJO,

who are based in the U.K., make a a great range of smoke tin amplifiers just for the blackteeth connoisseur.

And they also make a few cigar box guitars too for that fashionable black lung look! These things sound absolutely SMOKIN’…like an egg fryin on a hot rail !

Well Folks, that’s just about all for now, I hope you’ve enjoyed this post and it has inspired you to consider
looking into some more unusual guitars or instruments as well as given a little insight into the early history of the jugband blues phenomenon. There are some amazing modern day jugbands on you tube so check them out.

Even better though, I recommend looking out for an old gramophone player and getting yourself a collection of 78`s – they offer some of the hottest jazz and blues on the planet. As well as Doo-wop, Rockabilly and the humour of big band leaders such as Phil Harris, Spike Jones,

Here are Benny Goodman and Lightnin Hopkins cookin’ up on the shellac!!

Cheers,

Jake Edwards.

My liver suffered to bring you this awesome amp, don’t worry… the beer went to a good cause!

The sleek design and sound quality will blow you away! Works great for Guitar, Bass, and MP3 players. Plugs into a standard wall outlet. The amp has a power switch and volume control.

Makes a great gift for any occasion! Amazing for the beer guzzling, guitar thrashing person in your life. You can bet they have never seen an amp like this before!

Unfortunately this particular piece of genius has, unsurprisingly sold out!

Next up is an Altoids tin guitar amp, highly portable and great if you love the sound of fresh breath. YOU can actually build one yourself using instructions here and I suppose that if you want something with a bit more grunt you could up-scale to a biscuit tin if you haven’t finished your beer yet.

Cheers,

Jake Edwards