Guitar lessons for beginners and more

Do You Even Know How to Use that Effects Pedal?

As an electric guitar player, for the longest time now, I’ve had a hard time getting a good tone. As you probably know, good tone comes from a good amp and good effects chain. You can have the greatest guitar, but if you run it through a crappy amp and effects, your really great guitar will sound really crappy.

What I’ve done is started from the ground up on my effects pedals. For awhile now, I’ve been using a Line 6 PodXT Live, but I’ve found it doesn’t really suit me well since I use my amp and don’t use the amp modeling on the PodXT Live. So I’m buying a couple different pedals to suit the type of music I play.

All to say, I’ve been making some changes to my current setup. In the process, there is one thing that I’ve been reminded of as I’m making some upgrades that is important for all guitarists to keep in mind.

Taking it Slow

The mistake I’ve seen others make is to buy pedal after pedal without taking the time to learn how each pedal fits into their tone. It’s a myth that the more pedals you buy the better you will sound!

When getting a new pedal [...]

If You Could Only Have One Effect Pedal…

This question is more for the electric guitar players, although acoustic guitar players might be able to chime in, but, if you could only have one effect pedal, what would you pick? Also, let’s say you have a good amp. If you want, you can pick an amp and one effect pedal.

My Pick

Saying that I had a good amp, with a decent clean and overdrive channel, I know that I would definitely pick a good delay pedal. If I had to pick an all around good delay, I’d probably go with the Boss DD-20 Giga Delay (pictured). Give me a delay and I’m a happy camper.

Your Turn

You can only pick one effect pedal. What is it? Post your comments.

Taylor Solid Body: A Look at Taylor’s New Electric Guitar

Taylor Guitars has continued to push the envelope with their new electric guitar called the ‘Solid Body.’ It’s a fine looker. I’d be interested to see if it plays as nice as it looks!

Pickups

The Taylor Solid Body hails two different styles of pickups. The first style is a classic 3/4 humbucker. The second style is a full-size humbucker.

Bridge

The all-aluminum bridge was designed completely from scratch. You’re able to adjust the bridge height from front-to-back and side-to-side. Once you set the intonation, you can lock the saddles into place as well.

Five-Way Pickup Switch

The pick up switch is configured as follows:

Position 1: Full neck pickup

Position 2: Inside coils of the neck and bridge pickups in parallel

Position 3: Full neck pickup with