hi Monica,
Apologies this is so long, but there are a number of things I want to reply to in detail here.
So, hey.... can you maybe not spam us with links to your competing guitar lessons/reviews website? Or at least become more of an EB regular before you do so? We're pretty damn liberal man. Rack up some more gear sitghtings, reviews and board posts? I for one really think its cool that you posted a video example where you give your point of view on camera, but its less cool that you added a link to your own blog on a Equipboard which has its own blog and articles. I confess we are less technique focused here (not that I woudn't like to see us expand) but still.... This is not really a profit operation and we rely on our little bit of advertising to stay afloat... those advertisers like to see our articles getting lots of traffic. As a content contributor I would've been a little elss ruffled if you had at elast made a handful more posts and contributions to Equipboard before you set out to sneak ads for your own blog into your messageboard replies. Is it really going to hurt Equipbaord? Probably not, but its tacky.... you look my age so I gues you feel its like bringing your flyers to another bands show when you're starting out. Totally cool... thing is, the Equipbaord concert never ends. NEVER. Its just bad form, like heckling us during our set.
And damn, this thread keeps getting necroposted. Its not young, the OP never replies. Its a bunch of people who already have a sense of what works for them talking to EACHOTHER now. Kinda silly...
As a beginner, you should be aware that pedals, especially distortion pedals, can hide problems in your technique. Don’t use this as a crutch. It will hurt your development as a player.
It’s tempting to throw a lot of pedals into the signal chain, but whatever you use, take the time to thoroughly understand the effect of each and every knob and switch between your fingers and the speaker.
but this up here? this is excellent and its nice for someoneone else on this gear-centric meessageboard to point out that every component is a potential tone drain and, more than just dirtboxes, all that componentry gets between you and the speaker and therefore you and any potential audiene. Does the 'cool' factor of all these effects outweigh direct emotional connection and is it better to be able to have a scifi guitar sound than to ehar everything you're ding and know its always spot the fuck on? Having just seen Queen with Adam Lambert on Sunday I am tempted to reference Brian May's conservative effects usage and routing ehre but that's not eactly beginner turf. Anyway, thanks for sharing. If you have any interest in cotnributing content to OUR website and blog reach out to [email protected] who is in charge of content. Speaking of which I have been procrastinating writing an article for days now. I should finish it already.
PS: not everyone plays with reverb, Monica. In 27 years I have generally shied away from it for anything but 60s gimmick sounds on recordings and its not like I haven't owned piles of vintage Fender combos, lexicon processors etc. I have certainly known people who NEVER use it. Making a Reverb pedal a first priority for someone who ash an amp without it seems odd to me ebcause it just doesn't seem like an essential effect. Reverb set up without respect for the music can be even more technique masking than a proco rat at 10 LOL. Ingeneral its my opinion that ons tage or in the studio reverb does more harm than good unless its in teh hands of someone who really gets it. I would describe it as a alte addition to any effects rig and usually told my students to keep things dry.... if they were still too iffy for a lot of distortion then they were also not eveolved enough for reverb. Then again I amde a lousy teacher.
