Category Archives: Guitar Tone

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Use of Reverb for Guitarists, Part 2: Reverb used as an Effect

March 11, 2011 romain Leave a comment

As I have shown in the audio examples at the end of Part 1, a reverb unit can be used as an effect instead of a sound reinforcement tool. The main difference is that when you use the reverb as an effect, you usually want it to be heard as opposed to using it in a subtle fashion to add some depth to the sound. It is something that guitarists on the lookout for bigger tones have pioneered, thanks in large part to Fender whose amps often offered a built-in spring reverb. And let’s not forget their stand alone tube reverb unit which is an absolute classic.

Twin_Reverb — The Fender Twin Reverb, a classic example of amplifier with builtin reverb

Surf music wouldn’t have been quite the same without these Fender clean guitar tones laden with spring reverb. But listen to Stevie Ray Vaughan’s albums and you will hear quite some spring reverb as well. It shows that electric blues is another style where amp reverb is a common staple. Past spring reverbs, a classic example of studio reverb used partly as a sound reinforcement tool and partly as an effect is Voodoo Chile Slight Return by Jimi Hendrix. The wah wah intro is completely magnified by an EMT plate reverb.

The downside of reverb used as a live guitar effect is that it can be difficult to control in a venue, even a small one, because the venue itself will already have some natural reverb (see my previous post). It might make your tone really muddy which might be why, come the eighties and the advent of cheap digital delay pedals, most guitarists switched to using delays to widen their tone. It is not quite the same thing though and I can sense reverb pedals becoming popular.

Adding a Reverb to your Board

If reverbs have always been present in multi effect units, Boss was until about 10 years ago the only brand that offered a compact reverb pedal. Nowadays, there is a wide array of models on offer. Here is a short selection of reverb pedals :

Boss RV-5: Boss was the first company to manage to squeeze a digital reverb in a compact pedal. I personally own an RV-3 which can generate Reverb AND delay effects (I will make a demo soon). The RV-3 has been replaced by the RV-5 which has dropped the delays but has gained a spring reverb simulation among other things.
Electro Harmonix: the Holy Grail and its siblings have become immensely popular. They sport a luscious digital reverb as well as a spring reverb simulation.
The T-REX Room-mate is digital I suppose but it features a tube for added warmth.
The TC Electronic Tone Print “Hall of Fame” is the new kid on the block, here is a demo which shows you what you can do with a good reverb pedal (TC also offers the Nova Reverb) :

And finally, here is a demo of the Sole Mate and Reverbamate pedals from Vanamps. They are the only non digital/actual spring reverb pedals that I know of, for those of you who demand the real deal:

Effects, Effects FAQ, Recording, Tone tips

Reverb for Guitarists, Part 1: a Sound Reinforcement Tool

March 8, 2011 romain 2 Comments

I recently got a few comments asking why I use reverberation in post processing in some of my Youtube videos. In this series of posts, I would like to outline the two main uses of reverb for guitarists. In this first part, I will focus on the use of reverb in the studio and will explain why I sometimes add some light reverb to my videos. You will also find several sound examples. Part two will focus on the use of reverb as an effect.

Natural vs Artificial Reverb

In an enclosed space, any sound will bounce off the walls, thus creating a king of muffled echo. An extreme case of reverberation is found in cathedrals or caves where any sound can be reverberating for seconds. But even in a small space, you will get some reverberation. Try clapping in your toilet or bathroom and you will probably hear it. In a nutshell, a reverberation unit (commonly known as reverb) is an effect device which aims at reproducing this phenomenon. Reverberation is also sometimes referred to as “ambiance”.

Reverberation is almost as old as recording studios or radio stations. Sound producers and engineers had found out very quickly that recording any source (guitar, voice, etc.) using a microphone placed close to it lacked any sort of “ambiance” or “natural reverberation”, producing a quite unpleasant dry sound.

To solve that problem, a number of artificial ways to produce reverb were invented. The most primitive was to use a big empty room with a speaker at one end and a microphone at the other end to record the effect. Later on, spring and plate reverberation units were invented. Eventually, digital technologies became affordable and reverb units capable of simulating pretty much any space are now available as software plugins, pedals, rack effects, etc. I invite you to read the wikipedia page dedicated to reverberation for more information.

reverence — Reverence is a Cubase 5 reverb plugin which uses convolution techniques i.e it uses imprints from actual venues to generate reverberation

When I use a bit of reverb in my videos, this is not to “inflate” the tone, it is just because the microphone I use is close to my amp and misses out on the natural reverb of the room. Short of adding some artificial reverb, you can change the microphone placement and put it further away from the amp in order to get more of the ambiance of the room, but you might pick up undesirable sounds. It is a matter of experimenting and finding the right spot.

Guitar and Studio Reverb Sound Examples

Here is a short distorted guitar clip. It was recorded by placing a microphone really close to my Fender Champ and no reverb was added. Note how dry it is:

Here is now the same clip with a short room reverb (I have used the LA Studio preset of Cubase 5’s Reverence plugin):

The difference is very subtle but the reverb adds a “roundness” to the tone and makes it a little fuller without being over the top. This is the kind of reverb I often put on my youtube videos. When using reverb for sound reinforcement purposes, it is important to be subtle, the idea is not to hear the effect itself.

And here is now the same clip with a lot of Plate Reverb (using the Plate Reverb 3s preset of Cubase 5’s Reverence plugin):

Note how wide the tone becomes but also how different it is from the original. You can really hear the reverb, one could argue that in this case, the reverb is too pronounced and is rather used as an effect.

And now listen to the same solo alongside other instruments. For this first clip, there is no reverb at all:

By adding a dose of plate reverb to every instrument, you get a better sense of depth and a bigger overall sound:

Some of you might prefer a drier sound but more often than not, the point is that reverberation is a timeless and indispensable studio tool.

We will explore in Part 2 of this series of posts the use of Reverb as an effect. This next post will feature a list of reverb units to add to your pedalboards, stay tuned!

Effect News

Tone Box 3d Guitar Effects

March 3, 2011 romain Leave a comment

I stumbled upon Tone Box last night and it took me a little while to realize that their pedals are actually skull shaped with the leds in the eyes of the skull. They have one model called Skull Crusher but it is available in Stainless Steel, Aged, Gun Metal or Ancient. I thought that would be a gimmick until I watched this demo by George Lynch. The little things you see on top of the amp are the pedals. The Skull Crusher is more versatile than it looks and offers four different voicings. It can go from slightly distorted to blistering metal, check this out:

And here is another demo by Phil X and other L.A. musicians (inclusing bass players):

Boutique mods, Timeless Classics, Video Demos

Boss DS1 Match: Stock vs Keeley vs Analogman

February 13, 2011 romain 6 Comments

The Boss DS-1 is one of the oldest distortion boxes on the market. Released in 1978, it is revered by some and loathed by others. Being a distortion, it offers more gain and more “hair” than a traditional overdrive pedal. Is it often used with a clean amp but it can be used to boost an already overdriven amp.

Amongst its supporters, Joe Satriani and Steve Vai are probably the most faithful and the most famous. Although both of them have released signature distortion pedals with manufacturers other than Boss in 2008 (Vai with Ibanez and Satch with Vox), the DS-1 could be heard at their gigs or on countless of their records before that.

PJB_DS1 — The DS-1 and two of its most popular "mods" by Robert Keeley and Analogman

I see a lot of comments on forums and on Youtube destroying the little orange box, labelling it as “synthetic sounding” or “shrill”.

Match of the mods

I do not know if it is because of that bad rep but the DS-1 is one of the most modified pedals on the planet. On my quest for tone, I acquired a DS-1 modified by Analog Man and a DS-1 modified by Robert Keeley. I also own a stock DS-1 and before I go into the merits of modified pedals, here is a video I have recorded. It shows the differences in tone between the three pedals. For this video, I have used my Gibson SG 61 Reissue and my Fender Champ amplifier. Delay and Reverb are courtesy of a Boss DD-3 and a Boss RV-3 (See after the video as to why I have used some delay and reverb on the video).

Why I used some delay and reverb

First, I owe you an explanation as to why I have used a Boss DD-3 delay and a Boss RV-3 reverb placed after the DS-1(s) while shooting the video. I think a large part of the bad rep of the DS-1 is due to the fact that probably too many people think that getting a DS-1 and using it on a dry amp will get them the tone of Satriani. News flash: it won’t.

To me, the DS-1 on full gain combined with Humbuckers is good at a certain type of lead tone but you have to consider the rest of the chain carefully. I think the DS-1 does benefit from some ambiance whether it is delay and/or reverb. Both Satriani and Vai often use some amount of delay in their lead tones.

This is where I disagree with a lot of distortion/overdrive pedal demos on youtube where people insist on close miking an amp and use no ambiance at all. It is quite unrealistic as there is 99% chance that on your favorite guitar record, at least some reverb was used to alleviate the super dry tone of a close miked amp. And when you go see a band live, you get the ambiance of the room, even in a small club.

Is it worth getting a modded DS-1?

Before blowing 150 bucks on a modified pedal, it is quite normal to question the advantages of a modded pedal. From the video above, you will have noticed that the modified pedals retain the essence of the DS-1. It is more about enhancing than radically modifying the tone. I must also say that modded pedals are a bit less noisy than the stock version. But if you really cannot stand the tone of a DS-1, chances are modded versions will not suit you either.

As to my opinion, I think the Keeley mod is about getting an edgier, more precise tone while the Analog Man brings the tone closer to a Marshall type amp. I personally prefer the Analog Man for its warmth and it comes close to the Pro Co Rat 2 as my favorite distortion box. But the Keeley might suit you better if you are looking for a more “Vai-esque” DS1 tone.

Note that both Keeley and Analog Man have more advanced mods than the ones I am showing in this post. My Keeley version is called SEM (seeing eye mod) and its current version has a toggle switch to go from this mod to another circuit called “Ultra”.

The Analog Man DS-1 I show in this post has the Pro Mod which is still available but you can now get a 4th knob to modify the midrange response.

Finally, please know that there are other modifications out there like Monte Allums’ which seem pretty popular.

The DS-1 on “Fiction”, my first album

I have used the Keeley SEM DS-1 on the lead tone of “The Color Purple” and the Analogman DS-1 Pro on “Electric Rain”. You can find “Fiction”, my first album on cdbaby. On both songs, the pedals were plugged into a Marshall JMP-1 Preamp set clean and an MXR Phase 90 was placed before the distortion.