That would be an existential matter

So I’ve got loads more gear recently. Excited? Thought so. Of course, by loads I actually mean two different items but nonetheless, my wallet’s still been relieved of a good £300 plus, leaving me with literally jack all money, Jack. Still, such is the lot of the pedal obsessed, talent-barren guitarist.

First off we have the stylish Electo Harmonix POG. A sexy little silver number that promises to create more octaves through it’s sheer polyphonic generating ability than a predictable punchline at the end of a sentence. (I’m not sure what that means, I wrote some of this post really late at night). That’s right. Look above, there’s a picture. I haven’t really got to grips with this so far to be honest. There’s a fine line between crystal clear chimes and oninous bass heavy octaves to stepping firmly into the I-sound-someone’s-leaning-on-a-cheap-Casio-by-accident area, so I need a bit of time tweaking it.

Second on tonight’s gearograpahy rundown is my new, swanky pedal board. Unlike this beast here, it’s made by Diago (possibly the best manufacturers of guitar accessories ever) and is a called a ‘Showman’. It’s great. Really well made, light, robust, all of that… except it’s well heavy when full. Carrtable but heavy. Majorly heavy. But brilliant. And heavy. Did I mention it was heavy? Although it’s the lightest board I’m going to get for it’s quality and it’s only my lack of car and huge pedals (look at that Russian Big Muff, it’s 99% lead) that’s the issue, not the equipment. And it’s still 4000 times lighter than my Fender twin. Still, definately investing in one of these in the near future.

Well, I’ve taken up lessons. After 12 years on and off playing I’ve gone back to basics. Two lessons in and I’ve already realised how bad my form, let alone how little theory I knew. But this is why I’m doing it. I want to become an excellent guitar player as opposed to someone saying “he’s quite good” once in a blue moon.

So bring on cycles of firths, fourths, double sharps and flats. Funnily enough, it’s already helping my playing. One day I might be able to play a proper solo without using effects pedals to cover up the lack of talent and imagination. Yo.

More guitar geekery… Basically been looking into getting a different looping pedal to the Akai Headrush e2 that I purchased after writing this. It’s not that it hasn’t served me well (in fact, it’s been totally awesome and I love it), it’s just that if I replace it with a Line 6 DL4 Delay Modeler, I get so much more functionality in one box (admittedly, the world heaviest box, but one box nonetheless).

For example, I was looking into getting a Guyatone SV2 volume swell pedal but the DL4 has that exact functionality. Also, it has a longer looping time than the Headrush, that can be shoved into half-time if needed or played just once, and it’s got about 20 other amazing post-rock delay effects.

Away from the ever changing pedal front, I need a new guitar. I’m sick of playing a cheapish electric Epi SG with a terrible clean sound. There are several solutions to this. I could just bite the bullet and pay a grand to get a lefty Japanese or USA Fender Jag. Or, I could buy any old single coil lefty with a good clean sound for around £500. Although models like Telecasters (urgh) and Strats (fuck no) aren’t options. Still, this tempting Hagstrom that Tim pointed out has me on the verge of splashing the cash. Just look at it!

Guitar geek out.

So this week I got my pedal board from NSP. They make brilliant flight case pedal boards. The quality is spot on. If there was a nuclear holocaust, the world would be full of rubble, cockroaches (why?) and NSP flight cases. Thing is, despite musing over the measurements for ages, it turns out they’ve sent me the biggest case MAN HAS EVER WITNESSED. No, I’m not going abroad for 10 years, I’ve just got some pedals in this gigantic case. I tested the weight too. My current pedal bag is the same weight FULL and this is EMPTY. Pffft. So anyone looking to buy a pedal board that’s bigger than your face (much bigger than your face, even if you have a massive face like the guy out of Keane) then in the words of Wham “baby, I’m your man”.

In more positive equipment news, I bought an ebow. Or e-bow. Or maybe even E Bow. But nonetheless I got one of these fuckers:

It’s like an electric violin bow that gives you infinite sustain on your guitar, and trust me, infinite sustain seems to be like the holy grail of guitar effects. Well it is for me. I also looked into Infinite Guitar and all the offshoots of this model. Three in existence? What a swizz. Still, The Edge may be in a shit band, but he’s a totally innovative guitarist who does some crazy shit, so top marks Alan. Or whatever your real name is (I don’t care, so don’t go googling). Aaanyway, it rules. It really does. You can do some smart stuff with it and it even works on acoustics, without a pickup. It’s totally wicked.

That’s it. Now go to WBW demo page to hear unfinished songs. Um, yeah.

Arrgh. Sometimes I find playing guitar so difficult. I’ve been playing for about nearly 10 years now. I started when I was 15, gave up when I was about 19, and then took it up again at 23. Thing is, sometimes I’ll be existentially amazed at myself, as if I’m 16 and watching myself now. Other times, I’ll question why I bother. 10 years and I’m still shit, shit, shit. But I do realise that practice is the key. Using an online metronome helps in that area.

In other guitar “news”, I’ve got my Akai Headrush e2 pedal and now all I need is a nice case to put it in. So I’m buying one from New Sound Production these guys as above. It’s gonna be made of astroboard plastic so it’s lighter than plywood (but as strong) and it’s the only type on the net to have wheels (£40 for the Privilege mind…), both which helps in the carting around of many a heavy pedal.

Um, bit of a boring update really, but it’s more one for the ‘Guitar Category’ you see.

Time to update my pedals methinks. The other week, I was getting some pretty good noise out of my guitar with only a phase shifter, a delay pedal and two distortion pedals. Real swooshy, shoe gaze stuff and solos that make you sound like you’re playing quicker than Steve Vai on um, speed. However, I want to move from the “100 pedals all turned on” method to owning a powerful rack of pedals all with their own batch of excellent effects. So I’ve decided to invest in a loop / sampler pedal.

At first I was gonna get the Boss RC-2 as it’s cheap and compact.

However, after some chin wagging with Denmark Street types, I was swayed towards the Digitech Jam-Man. More memory, better loop and sampler options etc. However, after even more wagging of chins, I was told to invest in one of these bad boys:

The Akai Headrush e2 is apparently the best loop/sampler around for it’s price. I wasn’t that sure, but I was directed to this footage of (wait for it…) KT Tunstall. Now I’m not a fan of her or anything, but this is a great example of how useful and easy it is to use this pedal. And like her music or not, it’s an impressive performance. So, payday is round the corner and I’m snapping one of these up quicker than Steve via playing guitar on um, speed (what, heard it before?).

Incidentally, if you want to see some even more fuck-off impressive use of looping, check out this video of Howie Day performing his song Ghost. It’s 13 minutes long but well worth watching. He also throws the Today riff by Smashing Pumpkins in there at the end too… Truly excellent.

After four to five days of debate, dispute and negotiation, it has been agreed that Tim will sell me his Boss PH-3 Phase Shifter pedal for £50. In fact, he asked me if I wanted it and I said okay. So a public thanks to Tim for being generous and considerate.

I’ll let you know what I think of this pedal after I’ve had a play around with it for a bit. For all you die-hard ‘end of the new’ fans, it was the pedal that was used in the closing solo of The Church Song. So expect any band I’m playing guitar for to be filled with unnecessary swirls and swooshes from here on in, as I use this pedal way to much. Either that, or it’ll be on ebay quicker than you can say MXR Bluebox.

I went to Denmark yesterday to try some more effects. I’m determined to have a end up with an effects rack that would put J Mascis or Badly Drawn Boy to shame.

First it tried the classic Electo Harmonix Small Stone, a 70’s sounding phaser. To be fair, it was great. It’s easy to use, sounds fantastic and the pedal looks pretty sexy too. The thing is, although The Small Stone’s sound can be manipulated to a degree, more than say the MXR Phase 90, the Boss PH-3 Phase Shifter is much more variable, compact and can probably offer very similar quality sound to the Small Stone.

Next, I managed to blag a 15 minute session with the costly Electro Harmonix Micro Synthesizer. It promised so much, but failed to deliver. Even with no other effects on, it made my guitar sound distorted all the time and many of the octave-layered noises it made sounded similar to what a much cheaper MXR Blue Box could produce. Even with extensive fiddling, I couldn’t really come up with anything that I was remotely impressive or usable. The only good I could find is that it produced a nice amount of sustain, but even then, I’d like infinite sustain, not 35 seconds worth for a whopping £200.

So, the search continues. Will probably invest in a Boss Phase Shifter (Tim?) and might look into some kind of looping pedal that means I can play two tracks at the same time. But apparently they cost mucho cashola amigo.

New bands - new sounds. I’ve gotta break out of the realms of the my tiresome clean-then-distorted cycle of playing. I’m about as adventurous with my sound as the pitiful Noel Gallagher and if I want to improve as a guitarist, it has to change. I want weird sounds, clicks, screeches, octave drops, bizarre tones, swirls and feedback on demand… not some chorus driven arpeggio followed by some chunky power chords. Therefore, it’s all about pedals, pedals and pedals. So here begins one of my many ‘look, new effects!’ posts. About two days ago I bought this:

It’s a Nobels Xtreme Distortion DT-XN. I wanted a lighter distortion to differ from the all or nothing boom of the Russian Big Muff and this fitted the bill. I’ve never heard of Nobels, so was more than a little dubious, but it’s incredibly versatile, going from completely clean (no matter how high you twist the level dial) to incredibly dirty and screechy depending on how much you crank the drive up. It also gives you the ability to adjust the bass, mid and treble individually and it’s also a noise gate which I desperately need. After playing it at practice last night, it seemed to work well and I’m pretty happy with it. Still, Nobels pedals don’t exactly carry much kudos and like the amateur pedal buyer I am, I have to admit to purchasing it from evil off-rip merchant extraordinaire Andy in Denmark Street. In 10 years I still haven’t learnt… In a month I’ll either love this pedal or I’ll be flogging it on eBay for £10.