Ezine Articles

Add Some "BB" to Your Leads With This Classic Pull-Off

ezineLead guitarists use a number of techniques to play licks and riffs. Hammer-on's, triplets, string bends, vibrato, and today's topic, pull-off's.

A pull-off involves starting on one note, playing that note, and simultaneously "pulling off" of that note to a lower note. In a standard pull off, you make 2 notes, but only pick once. By nature they can only occur on the same string, and will always start on a higher note and resolve to a lower one.

 

Read more: Add Some "BB" to Your Leads With This Classic Pull-Off

Make Your Guitar "Cry" With a Wah-Wah Pedal

ezineThere are a million devices available to add various effects to the sound of your guitar. Choruses, flangers, distortions, delays, octave dividers, harmonizers and the like.

Most effects pedals work by pressing a button or a foot switch which actives the effect. Once activated, the device will "color" the sound of your guitar and be "fixed" according to how you have the parameters set on the effect.

The one effects pedal that operates differently is the wah-wah pedal. This pedal requires the user to activate it, and in addition, control it while playing, all in real time. It's truly an "interactive" type of guitar effect.

Read more: Make Your Guitar "Cry" With a Wah-Wah Pedal

Lead Guitar Players - "Baffle" Your Audience

ezineIf you play electric lead guitar with an amp, it's only a matter of time before you get the "turn it down" signal from someone. Whether it's the "hands over the ears" indicator, the downward hand gesture from a patron, or a note on a napkin from the club manager.

Of course, we guitar players are always innocent. If the drummer wasn't so heavy handed, we could play at a lower volume. Or, "I have to compete with the PA system". Or, "the bass player has his amp up my butt". It's always something.

Unfortunately, if a band is considered "too loud" it's typically the lead guitar player that catches the heat. Sometimes it's justifiable. Other times, an overly loud PA cabinet can be the culprit, but we of course, get the blame.

The reason is, that guitar amps can, and do, get loud! If you want to prove it, next time you are playing a gig, have someone play your guitar, and sit out in the audience at amp level and hear what they hear.

Read more: Lead Guitar Players - "Baffle" Your Audience

The Top 4 Effects Pedals You Really Need

ezineIf you're building a house there are some "must have" tools you should keep in your toolbox. A hammer for driving nails, a saw for cutting wood, a tape measure, pliers and screwdrivers, just to name a few.

When playing guitar there are some great "tools" available to color the tone of your guitar in various ways. Some purists would argue that, with the right amp and guitar, no extra tools should be needed.

But let's face it, we guitar players love our toys. All the new fangled gadgets that produce and endless array of tones and sounds. But if money is tight, and we absolutely had to choose a handful of the most "important" effects pedals, here are my "hands down" top 4 picks.

Read more: The Top 4 Effects Pedals You Really Need

The Ups & Downs of Multi-Effects Guitar Pedals

ezineHave you ever seen those guys on stage with a million or so effects pedals laid out at their feet? Patch cables slithering like a bed of snakes through a maze of distortions, delays, choruses, flanges, wah's, envelope filters, octave dividers, EQ's, tuners, and the list goes on.

How do they make sense of all those stomp boxes? How long does it take just to plug them in before a gig? Can you really use all of them in the course of a night? Heck, they even make large, football field size, pedal boards so you can attach a cornucopia of pedals with Velcro, and power them all from one source. Do you really need all those sounds?

Okay, I have to confess, there was a time, years ago, that I was a "stomp box" junkie and bought every new fangled pedal that came out. Yes, I had a pedal board. And yes, the rest of the band was set up and ready for sound check before I had all those pedals hooked up and tweaked!

Then came the digital age and everything changed. Legions of engineers designed pedals with a plethora of effects built into a compact package. Suddenly the need to acquire a multitude of various stomp boxes was eliminated.

Read more: The Ups & Downs of Multi-Effects Guitar Pedals

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