Are You Experienced? - Jimi Hendrix

"I don't believe in God, but if I did, he would be a black, left-handed guitarist" The Dreamers

Jimi Hendrix. Even if you never followed popular music, you heard about this guy. Eccentric behaviour, Woodstock, Club 27, he had everything to become a rock legend. He was not necessarily the most sophisticated guitar player (still, I think most of us would be happy with what he got), but he was creative, he was an innovator. He is credited for bringing a number of effects into mainstream use, he was famous for using a lot of feedback and cranking up the amp to 12 (yeah, he could do it).

JH's signature, upside down right-handed Fender Stratocaster was a huge part of his sound. This inversion changed the usual sound characteristics of the Strat, since his lower strings had a bright sound and his higher ones had a mellow sound this way. His longtime friend and technician, Roger Mayer, mentioned in a recent Guitar World interview (http://www.guitarworld.com/interview-roger-mayer-secrets-jimi-hendrixs-guitar-setup#slide-0) that they also strung the instrument in a rather unconventional way; the gauges ran .010, .013, .015, .026, .032 and .038, in order to balance out the sound, to avoid the general G-heavy (the G-string generally has a higher diameter than what would come in a logical series) guitar sound. He didn't mess with the stock pickups. Another interesting thing to note is that he was able to fret bass notes with his thumb (he had freakishly large hands), while he would play melodic lines with his "regular" fingers easily.

Hendrix's two main effects, which he used almost all the time, were the Arbiter Fuzz Face and a Vox wah-wah pedal. In the first post we have already discussed the way a Fuzz overdrive works, now is the time to look into a wah a little. It is usually combined with an expression pedal (to easily alter the level of the effect with your feet while playing), but there are autowahs out there, which act just like regular stompboxes. Wahs are filter pedals, which emulate human sound by sweeping peak responses, then altering their frequencies up and down to reach that recognizable sound. Probably the most famous example of the Wah-Wah is the Jim Dunlop CryBaby, which is available in many versions (including a Hendrix one) in almost every guitar shop.

Roger Mayer later made him an Octavia pedal, which reproduced the played notes one octave higher and/or lower. The use of this effect can be clearly heard on his legendary track, Purple Haze. He also used a Japanese Uni-Vibe pedal, which was used to emulate a rotating Leslie speaker. It is now manufactured by Dunlop, though its pricetag is quite high.

Initially, Jimi used Fender and Vox amplifiers, but soon he switched to Marshall amplifications, after he was introduced to these British monsters. Jim Marshall's high gain creations helped Hendrix create his original, trendsetting sound, which still inspires and is emulated by thousands of guitar players in the world.

Jimi Hendrix is the quintessential guitar hero, musical genius, and rock legend.

Stompboxes for Dummies

Stompboxes are probably the most widely used and easily costumizable guitar effect units. The two main branches are analog and digital effects (analog/digital circuitry). Analog effects are generally believed to be of higher quality, because of their natural sounds; they simply alter the signal due to its components' characteristics, for example, germanium transistors create a fuzzy distortion. Digital effects on the other hand use microprocessors to convert the signal into a digital one, which then gets altered by the effects unit. The way you can look at it is that a digital effect is a mini-computer, which can only do one thing, but it is (hopefully) really good at it and does its job real fast, without noticeable latency.

Also, apart from the single, one-trick pony effects, there are multi-effect pedals (typically digital), which offer multiple types of effects, but they are generally less costumizable than their single-effect counterparts, however, you can get them a lot cheaper overall. BOSS is manufacturing quite a wide variety of multi-effects, you can take a look at them at http://www.bossus.com/gear/productlist.php?ParentId=248.

Overdrive/Distortion/Fuzz effects are the most widely used ones, they create that dirty, crunchy sound that almost all rock/metal bands have. The way they work is that they clip the soundwaves' peaks, creating overtones. Fuzz effects differ in a way that they are transforming the waves almost into squarewaves, giving them a tighter, heavily distorted sound. Famous pedals include the Ibanez TubeScreamer 808 or 9, the ProCo Rat Distortion, and the EHX Big Muff.

Modulation effects alter the sound in different way, including timbre and pitch change, adding a second signal, slowing down a track, while leaving the other untouched, rapid volume changes, etc. Flangers, Chorus pedals, Tremolo pedals, and Phasers are part of this group. We will discuss them individually later on.

Filter effects alter the frequency, usually boosting one region, while reducing the other. Filters include the Wah-wah and the Talk Box, which we'll try to build from cheap materials soon.

Dynamics effects modify the volume of your signal. Boosters (as you might have guesses) increase the volume to make up for the loss in your rig or to give that extra kick during solos (up to 11). Compressors even out the volume of your notes, while Noise gates reduce the unwanted hums and hisses.

Lastly, the Time-based effects include Delay pedals, which repeat sounds, creating an echo-like sound; Reverb effects (amplifiers often have built-in reverb effects), which emulate sounds in an echo-chamber; and Loop effects, which can record a certain part that can replayed later.

Of course, there are many other effects, these are just the most common ones. When we'll be looking at individual guitar sounds, we'll go into smaller details regarding a given pedal.

Welcome to Sky Valley

Ever wondered what those little boxes do that are connected to the guitar and/or the amp? You always wanted to know how Nirvana created their distinct, yet simple sound on Nevermind? Or you are just trying to find your own sound? I'll try to offer a solution for all of that, in this blog we'll take a look at guitar effects, general musical characteristics, and the rigs of famous (or not that famous) bands and guitarists.

This week we'll be looking at the most common stompbox types. So, as Mr. Morrison of The Doors sang, "let it roll, baby, roll".