Fingers to strings, strings to pedals, pedals to amp, amp to ears: How I get from what's in my head to your ears

WARNING: This is a total geek blog about guitars and gear, not for your average reader. so ENJOY!

Lets start off with the basic elements.

An electric guitar and an amp -- this is what started rock n' roll.

Fingers, combined with your guitar and amp is where "your" sound lies. 2 people can play the same riff the exact same way and each one will sound different because of a million tiny details. This is what makes The Edge sound like The Edge, John Mayer sound like John Mayer, and Buddy Guy like Buddy Guy. I don't compare myself to them but I have my own unique sound. I use various ways to pick my strings, from fingers, to my finger nails, to my thumb, and picks. Picks I generally like pretty heavy. at least .80mm so I can have more control over the attack. I find with that thickness of pick I can dig in and the strings respond and I can lay back and play as light as I want. Different then picks, fingers have the ability to generate tones a pick could never, from warm and thumpy, to elusive and ghostly.

Guitars

For guitars I travel with a Gibson Les Paul Classic Gold Top, with PAFs made by CustomWound, and a Fender Nashville Telecaster. I can achieve almost anything I need from these guitars. The volume and tone knobs on the tele are usually all the way up but on the les Paul I use them to generate punchy rock tones on the bridge pick up, to warm lead lines on the neck and a chimey but mellow tone combining the two. Usually when I use both pickups I roll the volume back on the neck pickup and it greats a nice wide tone. Les Pauls are notorious for being rather focused and midrange heavy and this widens the sound a bit. When you have two guitar players it helps when one person has a single coil guitar and the other has humbuckers. This is because humbuckers have a focused midrange but single coils really get nice highs and richer lows .

Amps

On the road I am play through either a Fender Twin Reverb or a Vox AC30. Here is a little trick I use with the twin: I usually pull 2 of the power tubes to bring the 80 Watt amp down to 40 watts. Don't do this unless you know which ones to remove because you could fry your amp. I love the sound of the twin but it so freaking loud I usually can't get it to where I like it on smaller gigs. Bass and Treble are all the way up and the mid is at 7 or 8. I put the treble and bass so high to hit the preamp tubes in the EQ a bit harder driving them into breakup. It's not much but it makes a difference. On the AC30 I set the tone for clean with the tele, which gives me slight break up with the les Paul, since it has a hotter output.

PEDALS -- Overdrives and Delay

This is the other part of tone, that most people spend too much time on, thinking its gonna make them sound amazing. For the purpose of this I am only really going to talk about overdrives and delay. I don't really include modulation effects in this because generally they are not the basis for your sound, unless you live in the 80s and want a sine wave chorus on EVERYTHING. Modulation effects are like icing on the cake. Not the cake itself. They are used for a bit of flavor as opposed to the main course.

Overdrives- these are the dynamic tools.

In this category I put compressors, boosters, overdrives, distortions, and fuzz pedals. I use these all in a very similar way. A boost can put your amp into some nice natural overdrive, which has a unique tone. But an overdrive or distortion has its own sound, although they all achieve the same goal. Compressors can add a nice fullness to single coil guitars and help single notes to stand out. But once the band really gets going an overly compressed guitar is gonna get lost in the mix. Mixing a compressor with a boost pedal can give you a nice country twang tone. Fuzz pedals are great for adding a bit of a unique sound to solos but can often be muddy when using them for chord work. You have to be much more picky with fuzz pedals then overdrive pedals because they are much more variable and can have a unique set of characteristics that might take some getting used to. When you first start playing with a fuzz pedal you will probably sound like a much worse guitar player because you are not used to the way your playing reacts with a fuzz. It's really a strange thing. When using overdrive pedals I try to keep my drive set pretty low and the output above unity. This hits the front of the amp a bit harder and makes each string stand out. The more drive you use the less your guitar stands out and the thinner it sounds. So for the sake of everyone, turn down your gain! I like to have 4 sounds. A fairly clean sound, a slightly gritty tone, a solid overdrive that has a bit of a midrange hump, and then another overdrive with a much more flat EQ. Thats why I like pairing a tubescreamer like pedal with the Zvex Box of Rock. The BOR is flat and transparent but can add some real rock. A tube screamer, having a midrange hump, is going to cut through the mix and is great for lead lines.

Delay

This is the space section. Delay and reverb are the second part of the pedal section. I use them to add depth to single notes and make my sound a bit bigger. Too much reverb and your tone gets lost, just enough and it can add a lot, without people really even knowing its there. Delay can be really effective in single note lines and I usually like to have a little bit on most of the time. I put a volume pedal after overdrives and before delays so I can swell into a note and let the delays take it and sustain it. Adding a really long analog delay with some reverb can create some nice layering sounds. I just practiced till I found sounds I really liked. When the delay is central to the guitar tone I usually like to find a note value that works well, (quarter note, eighth, dotted eighth, ect) and tap in the tempo so it matches the song. Like millions of other guitar players out there sometimes I pair a quarter note delay with a dotted eighth delay to get some nice rhythmic sounds. Looping sounds can add a lot too. For pad sounds and large ambient soundscapes I will swell into a note, add some delay and modulated reverb and loop that over and over. Then when I back off on the volume pedal the sound is still there and I can layer on top of that.

Then the extra stuff, tremolo, octave pedals, and modulation pedals. These are really specific pedals used for specific parts in a song, as opposed to the basis of my guitar sound. I add them in and take them out as necessary for the song. A little thing I like to do is use a slight octave mixed in with my dry signal and then adding lots of delay and a bit of reverb for some single note lines. It is such a cool effect and can catch the listeners ear, especially when they have heard the same tones for so long.

Playing Music

These are all tools for creating music. That is what it comes down to. I found what works for me and I try to master it. When making music I need to let all the technical stuff go and begin to create. Making music is all about listening. Listen to the space. Listen to the band. Lastly, add your part.

To summarize my specific gear

D'addario Strings .11s

Planetwave Capos and Picks .80mm

Gibson Les Paul Classic

Fender Nashville Telecaster

lots of random brass and glass slides

Fender Twin Reverb or AC30

Pedalboard-

All cables are Planetwaves cables, I made custom cables for my pedalboard and I love them because they don't short out like george L's sometimes do after a lot of pulling and tugging on them.

Analog Man mini BiComp

Overdirve (anything of the following, AnalogMan King Of Tone (the true king of tone, thanks Analog Mike for this pedal), tube screamer, HBE Powerscreamer, Fulltone Fulldrive 2)

RC Booster (can add a bit of grit on top of a boost, goes well with the compressor on)

Volume Pedal - Planetwaves true-strobe tuner (VERY accurate)

ZVex Box of Rocks, (it also has a boost side to the pedal, really useful)

Boss PS5, just for octave up effect

Boss DD20

Line 6 DL4 with some cool mods I did :)

Boss RV5, (level set low, tone set low, dwell set long, modulate setting, sounds beautiful)

Its all on a Pedaltrain PT2 pedalboard, I power it all with a Voodoo Labs Pedal Power 2.

This covers almost any sound I have ever needed, it just takes a bit of tap dancing to find it. If you got questions feel free to ask away, here or on twitter, @kennywouldgo.

Good luck on finding tone you like, guitar players, because next week you are gonna hate it and start searching again. Just don't obsess about it. Obsess about something more important in life. I have to remind myself of that all too often.

rock on readers.