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Powering Your Guitar Pedals With USB Power Banks
All pedals require power. This traditionally comes in the way of a battery or power from the walls. Wall power is the cheapest, but it also comes with inherent issues. Primarily noise, and also power surges. Noise is extremely common, especially at venues using a lot of electrical components on the same breakers. Batteries are …
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Everything You Wanted To Know About Power Attenuators
Most guitar players will tell you that the best your tube amp will ever sound is when it’s absolutely cranked. And they’re right. Anyone who says any different does not enjoy good tone. #realtalk Naturally, this means if your amp isn’t being pushed (i.e. is at a lower volume) it doesn’t sound quite as good. …
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The Ultimate Guide To Guitar Compressor Pedals
Compressors aren’t sexy. They’re not on the “yeah I guess I’ll get one” level of tuners, but they’re certainly not dreamscape emulating reverbs or super rare overdrives that cost a lot of money. But if you walk into a studio, one of the first things the engineer is going to try and geek out over …
A Few Of Our Favorite Pedal Builders
Guitar pedal makers are fittingly just like guitarists: a dime a dozen. You can honestly grab a pedal from most pedal makers and get something really cool. From the extremely expensive to the $50 overdrives, good sounding pedals run the gamut in price. There are a few specifically who are “changing the game” more than …
The Best Straps And Strap Locks For Guitars
Quick Links Top 5 Strap Locks For Guitars and Basses Top 5 Straps For Guitars and Basses The Best Strap Lock Systems My first attempt at spinning my guitar around my body ended with my guitar landing about 15 feet behind me. I wasn’t too bright as a teenager. Thankfully I had just enough forethought …
Are Batteries Or Power Supplies Better For Guitar Pedals?
With most stomp boxes you have the ability to power them in two ways: a power supply, or a 9v battery. Broadly, they perform the same function: powering your pedal. But they do this in different ways. We can pretty easily look at the differences, both in application and function. But when it comes to …
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The Best Patch Cables For Guitar Pedal Boards
Instrument cables are like motor oil in your car; most people don’t think much about them and use a cheap option. But just like a quality motor oil will give you better engine performance, quality cables will give you better audio performance. This is what those $300 pickups and $2k worth of pedals run through …
Building A Budget Pedalboard
How To Build A Complete Pedalboard for $150 Guitar pedals are expensive. Some of the top tier effect pedals go for upwards of $500. Even pedals in the general sweet spot of $150-200 quickly add up. Let’s be clear though: these pedals are absolutely worth their sticker price. When you find a pedal that sounds …
Rock Stock’s Guitarist Holiday Gift Guide
Yes it’s that time of year already. Can you believe it? It feels like 2020 has flown by. But it also feels like it’s been going on for a decade. I mean let’s face it: most people are ready for 2020 to be over. It kind of sucked in a lot of ways. When’s the …
The Difference Between Guitar And Bass Effects
Guitarists and bassists have been sharing gear for decades. Back in the 1960s, Ampeg bass amps became so popular that even guitarists started to use them. Bands like The Rolling Stones started to plug their guitars in to these bass amps and use them over guitar amps. The opposite is true too. Guys like Lemmy …
The Ultimate Guide To Guitar Pedal Signal Chain
If you ask 10 guitarists about preferred pedal order on a pedalboard, you’ll get 30 answers. Hey, guitarists are an opinionated bunch. You might have heard people talk about hard and fast rules, and others that say it doesn’t matter at all just play the solo right for once. #projecting I would love to go …
The Ultimate Guide To Fuzz Pedals: Silicon vs Germanium
If there’s a bigger debate in the fuzz world, I’m not aware of it. Germanium enthusiasts swear that only germanium should be used in fuzz pedals. Some people prefer silicon, and others enjoy both for what they do. But the bigger question is this: What’s the big deal? When people talk about silicon or germanium, …
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What Are Boost Pedals And Why Do You Need One?
I love boost pedals. I recently downsized my pedalboard for at home playing, and even though it only has room for 5 pedals, one of those is a boost. The others are an overdrive and then three delays, because who doesn’t need more delays on their pedalboard? Pro tip: Set an analog delay to a …
What’s The Best Guitar Pick?
How many different picks did you go through before settling on your current pick preference? I personally used everything from Clayton 1.0 mm picks to Dunlop Stubby Jazz picks (before I got tired of my sweaty fingers losing grip). Rubber picks (cool novelty), nylon, super grippy picks (with embossed/raised textures), extremely slick picks. Super thin, …
Guitar Tone Buzzwords (and what they mean) – Part 1
Musicians are funny. Have you ever had a conversation where you’ve used terms that usually describe food to describe a guitar tone? Like, “the lead tone is really smooth and creamy”, or “the highs were very crisp”. You could really throw in any food descriptor and at least two other guitarists will agree. Try this, …
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The Ultimate Guide To Pedal Power
Understanding what pedal power actually is If you have any Boss style stomp box, you have the option of using a 9v battery (or two in some cases), or using external power. This external power is aptly known as a power supply. Some people (ahem, Eric Johnson), swear by batteries. While we won’t be debating …
What Makes An Overdrive Transparent?
What is transparent overdrive? Buzzword alert! Of all the terms thrown around the guitar pedal circles, “transparent overdrive” is one of the most commonly used and abused. Unfortunately, many people use it in a way to proclaim superiority over other pedals or players. Forgetting that taste is subjective. I think that every pedal is another …
What Is True Bypass?
What Does It Mean When A Guitar Pedal Is “True Bypass”? True bypass might be the biggest pedal buzzword around. Most people “in the know” won’t touch a pedal if it’s not true bypass. Much like “boutique” and “transparent overdrive”, it’s a term that gets thrown around like spaghetti in a kid’s cooking class. But …
Why It’s Time To Switch To Paperless Chord Charts
It’s time for gigging musicians to ditch paper charts and go paperless Whether you’re a gigging musician in a cover band, playing on your church’s worship team, or a Nashville session player, it’s time for gigging musicians to face the music…. Analog isn’t always a better option. Sure, analog delays are boss. Reel to reel …
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The Ultimate Guide To Instrument Cables
The Complete Buyers Guide to Guitar and Bass Cables Instrument cables are the most underrated part of any rig. While guitars and basses, amps, pedals, and speaker cabinets get all of the glory, they’d be expensive paperweights without instrument cables. At their very core, any cable is an extension of your instrument’s circuitry. They’re intended …