Vintage Effects

I figured it's about time I wrote something about vintage effects pedals. For some reason there's this "fog" surrounding vintage effects, creating all these legends and false facts about stompboxes that were really just designed to make noise, just like today's. This guide is to help you avoid buying something that's way too much money for what it's worth. I guess we'll get started then.

Money: This is a big deal when you're buying vintage effects pedals. They will be anywhere from $300-$5000, which is a big investment for anything that isn't a car or a house (or sofa sectional). You'll have to be willing to spend money, but don't throw it away. It can be hard to find vintage effects that are in good condition, or even sound like you think they will sound. Other than that, the amount you should be paying for each pedal is determined primarily by what pedal it is. That's all you need to know generally about paying for stuff.

What exactly is "Vintage"?

I don't know what vintage is actually defined as, but generally any effects pedal older than 1980's is something I would consider vintage. That is, anything before the advent of digital processing in small effects boxes.

What effects should I buy vintage?

There are certain effects that sound great from the 60's and 70's, and others that needed a little more time to evolve before they really sounded any good. Here's an idea of what you should buy vintage and what you should stay away from:

YES:

Fuzz: Fuzz pedals are about the best effects pedal to buy vintage. Anything from the Sola Sound Tonebender to the Dallas Arbiter Fuzz Face to early versions of the Electro-Harmonix Big Muff are all readily available on websites like Ebay, Gbase, and Craigslist. Make sure they are in good condition and work, as with all gear, but be especially careful because certain fuzz pedals would not gain test their transistors and put any random pair in their pedal (Fuzz Faces). This could result in a nasty (in a bad way) sound. If it sounds good though, chances are it will for a while, and if it breaks, it's an easy circuit to fix!

Modulation: Like Phaser or Chorus or Vibrato. These are actually pretty cool if you can find them at a good price. Something like an old Electro Harmonix Chorus, MXR Phaser, or best of all a Univibe rotary chorus/tremolo unit. Beware though, these can be overpriced, and while they are good, they aren't great.

Compressors: While I'm not a fan of compression in general, if you like it, there are some great old Ross compressors as well as Orange Squeezer compressors available. They are very noisy, but they also sound pretty cool.

Boost: There's some great old boost pedals out there, the most famous being the Dallas Rangemaster. The coloursound powerboost is my favorite of the old boost pedals, but there are plenty of others to discover!

NO:

Overdrive: this isn't a strict "NO!", but more of a recommendation. The overdrive from a tube amp is the best, and nowadays we can simulate overdrive much better than we could in the 60's or 70's. My advice, don't buy old overdrive pedals, because frankly they won't sound that great, or a modern model will sound just as good.

Delay: There's a few exceptions, but generally old delay pedals have low delay times and take up a lot of pedalboard space. You can get a great analog delay today without having to pay through the nose for one that's from thirty-five years ago and sounds the same. There's only one exception to this rule, and that's the vintage Way Huge Aquapuss- one of the best delays I've ever used. Also, old tape delays are cool, but beware because the tape may have corroded or the components might be bad.

Other pedals aren't really significant enough to mention in that section, but pretty much the rule of thumb is that if it didn't exist at the time, don't look for a vintage model.

There's a lot of great vintage stompboxes, but there are some that rise above the others. I'll tell you what to look for in each unit to make sure that it functions correctly and won't break after a few weeks, as well as what price you ought to be paying for it or whether you should even be buying it!

Ok then, here we go:

The Dallas Arbiter Fuzz Face

This is undoubtedly the most iconic fuzz pedal in existence, maybe the most iconic stompbox period. Used by David Gilmour, Eric Clapton, Eric Johnson, George Harrison, Pete Townshend, and most famously Jimi Hendrix. There are two types of vintage fuzz faces, Germanium transistor and Silicon transistor. Both sound great; germaniums are more that classic Hendrix vibe while silicons are the edgy David Gilmour fuzz. Also, beware of Crest audio fuzz faces, which were a reissue that came out in the 80's. They still sound good, but they aren't the same as the old Dallas Arbiter ones. And just to reiterate, the sound of the vintage Arbiter units is the best noise one can make with a guitar... if you get lucky. Transistors used in fuzz faces were not gain matched, so they can sound awful if you get a fuzz face who's transistors are in a wild ratio. Also, if it gets too hot or cold, germanium transistor fuzz faces will cease to work correctly, and will sound like crap or not make any sound at all. Nonetheless, if you can find a good one, you will for sure be blown away by the tone this little smiley face produces. My advice, buy off Craigslist and go and test it out before you get it, or if you need to buy from Ebay or Gbase then at least ask for some recordings of the fuzz. Make sure they specify what guitar and amp they are using as well as the settings on the fuzz face so you can test it with a similar rig when it arrives to see if the sounds match up. The going price for these on Ebay, Craigslist, and Gbase is around $1000-$1500, the cheapest being $900. A modern alternative to the vintage fuzz faces is the AnalogMan Sunface Fuzz. I wrote a quick overview of it in my fuzz pedals buying guide, so check that out if you get the chance. Don't buy a Dunlop fuzz face! They sound ok, but nowhere near the original fuzz faces! Ok, that's all for the fuzz face.

The Sola Sound Tonebender MKII/Marshall Supa Fuzz/Vox Tonebender Professional MKII/RotoSound Fuzz Box/JHS Zonk II

Get ready, here comes a lot of pictures. Shown in order listed above-

Wow, that's a lot of models, but guess what? They're all the same pedal! The circuit was manufactured for five different companies and was retailed extensively. This is a great fuzz, and I'm not just saying that because it's Jimmy Page's favorite! It's gritty, fuzzy, and can be very thin but also very thick. With two controls it's very hard to go wrong. They are expensive though. I see most Tonebenders running around $1500 on the internets these days, sometimes even more for ones that are in great condition. They were also Germanium fuzzes, so watch out for faulty transistors or other broken parts. If you don't want to pay that much money for the sound, check out the Analogman Sunbender Fuzz, another great replica with modern tweaks from King Analogman.

The Colorsound Powerboost

The Powerboost is one of the best old boosts to not be the Dallas Rangemaster. It's got a darker and fuzzier character, and can get some pretty wild tones from your amp, but also some cleaner/crunch sounds. The two separate treble and bass controls rather than the simple tone control allow you to significantly change the character of the boost. It is 18v powered, so you'll want to be sure you use both batteries because it gives it WAY more headroom. David Gilmour is among the professional users of the Powerboost, having used it on Dark Side of the Moon, Wish You Were Here, and other iconic Pink Floyd albums. I haven't seen one online for a long time, but if I can remember it was somewhere around $1500. However, you can buy one of the reissues for around $400, so if you don't want to wait around for a vintage one to show up online (which is perfectly reasonable, by the way) then it's fine to pick up one of the reissues. I own one personally, and operating in 18v power, these do their vintage counterparts absolute justice.

The MXR Phase 90

So let me begin by saying that a lot of fascinating (albeit unnecessarily overcomplicated) lore surrounds this phase stompbox produced from 1973-1982 by the MXR effects company. One of the best phase pedals ever created, the MXR Phase 90 is a testament to the phrase, "less is more". With just one knob and thankfully no complex internal trimpots, this pedal manages to be versatile and tasteful while also being easy to use. I've seen my share of phaser units and for me I'm not always sure I want to pick between two or four or six or eight or ten or even twelve stage phasing. The Phase 90 limits you to a comfortably warbley four, which for my taste is just the tone to satisfy my phasing needs. There are two types of vintage Phase 90's, these being the above shown "script" logo phasers, and the later produced "block" logo phasers. They are essentially the same pedal with a few minor tweaks, but the block ones go for a lot less on eBay because they are somehow "not as vintage" and that makes them less valuable. There are also reissues of the Phase 90 produced by Dunlop who now owns the MXR brand name. The forerunner of these is the relatively inexpensive Phase 90. To the best of my knowledge, it essentially stays true to the original Phase 90 circuit, with a few component values changed. There is one resistor that can be replaced in order to remove some of the unwanted midrange gain associated with these reissues, but it's not a necessary modification. The bonus of the reissues is they are true bypass and also have an added LED and 9v power jack. This all being said, the script logo vintage Phase 90's will go for around $350, the block logos for $150, and the new block logo reissues for around $50, all of this being on eBay. I personally wouldn't pay that much money for the script reissue, but if you can snag a block logo stompbox, that would be a good situation to be in. I own a reissue and I use it regularly on my board, but I'm also not somebody who uses phaser a lot in general, so it suits my needs for the right price.

The Dallas Rangemaster

Probably the most legendary vintage effects unit after the Fuzz Face and the Tonebender, the Dallas Rangemaster is actually not a pedal. Rather, you plug your guitar into it and it has a cable that runs out the back to the rest of your rig. You switch it off or on, so it's generally a set and forget sort of device. All I'm going to say about the tone is that it will blow your ears off of the sides of your head. It's a powerful, powerful boost that adds a lot of dirty coloration to your signal. Just listen to Eric Clapton or Keith Richards, both users of the Rangemaster, and you'll know what I'm talking about. These are very expensive though, typically upwards of $2000. In my opinion, I wouldn't invest in it unless you're using it for recording purposes, because I like to have the option to easily turn off my effects while gigging with them. It's also a noisy unit, so that could cause some issues (not if you're playing loud enough and know how to work your guitar's volume pot). These issues are what makes this a low priority buy for me. I would rather invest a tenth of the cash in Analogman's clone, the Beano Boost. That being said, it does sound badass, so if you spring for it I wouldn't disapprove.

The Shin ei/Univox Univibe

Probably one of the shoddiest looking rusty pieces of metal out there, the UI on the Univibe is not gloriously polished, but it's the sound that's what you're going for with this one. The warbley and swirly tone of the Uni Vibe has left it's mark on tracks like Pink Floyd's "Breathe" and Jimi Hendrix's "Machine Gun", to name just two. These are super cool, and super vintage, if that's even an expression, so if you can get one just to have around and pull out to make some cools sounds then you really should. But, they're sort of expensive, so if you won't use it ever and it'll break the bank, your investments are probably better placed elsewhere. These run about $1500 on eBay and can be hard to come by. Chances are somebody will always be selling one for the right price though.

Well, that's all the effects I can think of worth mentioning right now, but I'm sure there will be more vintage effects posts to come... The world of vintage effects is an endless cesspool of transistors and 500k linear pots so if you really want to get into this stuff, I recommend learning some basic electrical engineering first. That's all, hope this was of some service to you!

Delay- Revolutionizing Space Guitar Since The 1950's

I say space guitar, but really delay is useful in any range of genres. It's simple purpose of repeating your signal can add depth to your sound, and can also be used in creative ways to "simulate" a rhythm guitar player and create some cool layered sounds (ie, U2's The Edge). Here's a few things to consider when you're buying your awesome new delay unit:
1. Delay Time: While it doesn't sound that important and many often forget about it, it's important to make sure your delay pedal has a decent range of delay time. Delay time is the time in between the note you play and its repeated signal from the delay pedal. Most modern analog delays can reach up to 600ms, which is more than enough, and digital delays can get even farther, with delay times reaching up into the realm of seconds. 
2. Amount of "Swirliness": There's probably a better name for this than "swirliness", but it's pretty much how much the echo produced by your delay unit blends with the original signal to create a "swirl" of sound and ambience rather than just a straight echo. For certain genres you want more of an organic ambience where others you would want a crisper sound. It's hard to find one pedal that does all of this, but rarely is it that one needs both rather than just one or the other. 
3. Muddiness: Make sure that when you turn up the feedback and the mix or wet/dry controls the signal doesn't get too distorted. It's ok if it gets a little distorted from the layering, but if it really starts to muddy up at higher mix levels then you've got a problem. This is not to be confused with a feedback loop that occurs at higher feedback levels on analog delays. That's perfectly ok, and actually really cool.

Now for a history of the delay pedal in as short a form as I can squeeze it into-

Once upon a time, people who wanted "echo-ey" sounds had to record in a cave or other large space with a lot of natural echo (like a bathroom with all the tiles). Then came the fifties, and with it a new device called a tape delay, which recorded your signal to tape and played it back in an echo-ey fashion. People loved it, and so innovation played its part and along came "analog" bucket brigade solid state circuits. Then, soon enough, in the 80's, delays went digital, and wildly long delay times were achieved, with all this new stuff that was über digital. Now we're in the new millenium, and all three types of delay- tape, analog, and digital- are available for purchase new. All three are good for different purposes, which is why they're all still retailed new today. There's not one that stands above the other as being all-around "better".

That being said, here's a quick description of the three controls on a delay:

Time: This is how much time is between the signal you play and each of the repeats produced by the delay pedal. It's good to have a lot of "headroom" on this control, that being a lot of potential time between each of the repeats. Not that you'll necessarily be using second long delays, but it helps to have the option.
Feedback: How many times the signal is repeated. The signal will fade out eventually, so in other words this knob controls how quickly it fades out to silence. With analog delays, cool loops that sound like the screeching of a train's wheels coming to a stop, but that sound sustained so it never ends!
Mix or Wet/Dry: This is pretty self explanatory, it controls how loud your delay signal is in comparison to your normal or "dry" signal. Basically how loud the repeats produced by the delay pedal are. 

Those are the basic controls, but doubtless you'll observe many others on the various delay pedals you find. For operational purposes, however, those three are the big ones. 

While there are a lot of good delays on the market for purchase today, there are a few I've tried that really stand out from the others in terms of tone, repeat time, ease of use, and what you get for your money. Here's the best of those:

1. The Way Huge Aqua Puss- $150

I do really love Way Huge, even though they are reissue pedals. Dunlop has done a great job recreating the vintage tone and innovation that was associated with the name Way Huge, and it's one of my favorite brands to have on my personal board. That being said, this delay isn't great from a versatility standpoint. It has only 300 milleseconds of delay time, and is rather large to put on your pedal board. There's one thing that makes this one of the best delays on the market, and that's its sound. It makes super organic repeats, and when you play very legato it blends all the delays together into this sort of reverb-esque spacey sound. Plus, it does a great slapback delay, with the ability to fine tune the delay time very exactly with a knob that only has 300ms of range. The Way Hug Aqua-Puss Delay looks cool (while it is a bit big), it's easy to use, it's a tank, and it sounds great. 

2. The Boss DD-3- $110

The Boss DD-3 is one of those pedals that's become a staple for many gigging musicians who want a delay pedal that will suit their needs and won't break down on them. The DD-3 does just that. It's built like a tank, and because of it's a digital delay, it's less prone to breaking just because one component becomes unsoldered. However, you do compromise a lot in tone for what you gain in clarity and convenience. The DD-3 is not necessarily the best sounding delay out there, primarily because it is a digital delay. Rather than providing the warm, darker repeats of an analog delay pedal, it plays your signal back in a very robotic and uncolored way, without really modifying it at all. Some people prefer this more sterile but cleaner sound, while others like the darkness and echoey-ness of analog delays. The Boss DD-3 is also priced right, however, and is a great place to start if you're just beginning to experiment with delay or if you want a pedal that's a workhorse. 

3. The MXR Carbon Copy- $130

This is my personal favorite delay pedal, and resides in a nice spot next to a Proco RAT distortion on my board. With 600ms of delay time, you've got plenty of room for U2 ping pong repeats to slapback to spacey solos. The tone of this pedal is a very warm and dark but not too dark shimmeriness; almost like a very good hand hammered china cymbal. It's a very good boost for solos that fills out your sound under a fuzz pedal or a crunchy overdrive. The modulation switch is also very cool, and sounds almost like the natural tape warble of old tape delays like the Binson Echorec and the Echoplex. The only quarrel I have with this pedal is that there are two trimpots inside to adjust the modulation, but they are hard to access and adjust, so you can't play with the modulation sound too much unless you have a lot of time between sets to open up the pedal and adjust it. Overall though, a great alternative to the sterile feel of digital delays, but not so traditional analog that it can't handle longer repeat times.

4. The Electro-Harmonix Deluxe Memory Man- $320

This is a great delay, with a lot of options for the sound of the delay. There's an optional chorus/vibrato knob paired with a depth knob that can create some of the old tape delay warbley sounds. Of course, the delay is analog, and it sounds very analog-like. Go try this one out because it's definitely worth playing. In terms of real estate, this thing is a very large hunk of metal, so you'll have to really love it and have some room on your board to use it. However, still a great sound, and worth the high price tag if you have the money to spend. If not, the other analog delays I talked about are great substitutes.

Normally I list other gear in the category I'm talking about that I like but am not going to go into detail on. It's different with delay pedals though, because I haven't really intensely tested many. That being said, a few that I've tried briefly or heard are very good are:

-The AnalogMan ARDX20
-The TC Electronic Flashback
-The Boss DD-20
-The Vintage Way Huge Aquapuss (Uh-mazing piece of metal)
-The Vintage MXR Green Box Delay that really doesn't have much of a name and isn't readily available

There's more, but I don't know whether or not they're good. Try out the ones I listed, and if they don't satisfy you, then by all means check out some other pedals, because there seems to be no limit to the amount of delay pedals that are out there.

Fuzz Pedals (not distortion!)

Some people find themselves asking the question, "why fuzz?". They feel like it's an unnecessary effect that's too specialized and doesn't have as wide an application as something like distortion. That may be true, but fuzz, in my opinion, is one of the most dynamically responsive and important effects one owns as a guitar player. It goes together perfectly with tube amps, and it can really define your sound. Once you try one of the options I have listed below, you'll fall in love with the sound of fuzz, and never want to part with it.

First off, let's get this straight. Fuzz is NOT distortion, it's FUZZ. Rather than attempting to emulate an almost super overdrive with unimaginable sustain, it adds a softer clipping and almost a more natural sound, especially when blended with the amp's clean signal by means of the volume control. That is all on the subject of clarification, so now here's a few basic guidelines as to the method of selecting your fuzz pedal:

1. Play around with the guitar's volume control: one of the very interesting characteristics of fuzz pedals is that if you turn down your volume control on your guitar while the fuzz unit is engaged, it removes some of the intense fuzz and replaces it with your guitar's clean signal. This is what Jimi Hendrix did on a lot of his signature tracks like "Castles Made of Sand" and "Come On (Let the Good Times Roll)". 
2. Check out all the controls: more generally, a fuzz will have just a volume and a fuzz control, and sometimes a tone control. This isn't always the case, however, and if it's not, make sure that the controls actually do something good to the sound, and that they have plenty of headroom (range of operation). 
3. Play LOUD: but really, play to the point where you feel your face start to melt. The store owners will understand, because they know too that when you try out a fuzz pedal, it needs a strong base of fundamental amp tone to work with before it can really work it's magic. That's why some people hate fuzz, because they've never used it right, and it sounds thin and awful at a low volume.

There's a lot of fuzz pedals out there, and not all of them sound great, but a lot of them sound pretty good, so it's hard to go wrong. However, if you play a certain fuzz pedal that you heard Jimi Hendrix played (a fuzz face), and then find out that it sounds terrible, try another fuzz face. Each of these units has two transistors, silicon or germanium, that are important in determining the tone. Some companies don't gain test their transistors to make sure they are the right levels, so their fuzz pedals all sound radically different. Jimi actually would have his roadie go pick up six or seven fuzz pedals, daisy chain them together in a flurry of quarter inch cables, and test each unit individually to see which one sounded the best. Chances were at least three or four would get thrown out because they sounded so bad. 

On the subject of the fuzz face, let me say this. DON'T BUY ONE. If you google "fuzz face", you'll come up with a list of pretty cool looking round pedals that look like they're smiling at you. Beware, because these aren't real fuzz faces, these are Dunlop reissue fuzz faces. Dunlop is a good company, don't get me wrong. Their reissues of the MXR pedals are some of the best stompboxes around, especially for the right price. When it comes to fuzz faces, though, they aren't nearly as good as some of the other options on the market. The circuit used is much different from that of the original Dallas Arbiter fuzz face used by guitarists such as David Gilmour, Eric Clapton, and Jimi Hendrix. As for other fuzz reissues, like to Tone Bender MKII, you should be fine purchasing them, because they are made truer to their original designs.

There's not a lot more to say on the subject of fuzzes as a whole, so let's see some of the best fuzz pedals available to buy today. 

1. The AnalogMan Sun Face- $220 (various models can cost more or less)

If you like Jimi Hendrix, or David Gilmour, or Eric Clapton, or almost any other guitarist out there, this fuzz is the best. Made by AnalogMan, the quality of the components used is unbeatable, and the whole thing is made almost to exact 1960's specifications. Available for upgrade is a "Sun Dial" knob, pictured above, which allows you to dial in the correct bias for the climate you are in, as germanium transistors can be finicky. It's hard to find a place to try these, because they are so custom tailored to the player who orders them, but if you get a chance, try it out even if you aren't planning on buying a new fuzz. They are expensive, but for old fuzz face sounds, they're the best out there.

2. The Proco Rat- $90

I remember walking into Guitar Center a few years ago, going to the guy at the front desk and asking him this- "Do you have a pedal that will make my guitar sound like a harmonica?" He gave me this strange look, and then handed me a RAT, saying, "I think this is the sound you're going for." Sure enough, it was, and it has been since. This is the pedal that I keep on my board. It's cheap, it's built like a tank, and it sounds something like Jimi Hendrix playing Nirvana songs through a 500 foot tall Marshall stack, whilst descending down from the heavens on a flying saucer. That's to say that it sounds like nothing else, and that's a good thing. It's got three easy controls, and can do anything from crunchy boost sounds to a veering on uncontrollable fuzz. It's a very thick fuzz, and when you hear one you know it's a RAT immediately. This was used by players like Jeff Beck, David Gilmour (On "The Division Bell"), and Kurt Cobain. Because it's one of my favorites, you should go check it out and maybe pick one up for the inexpensive price they go for.

3. The AnalogMan Sunbender MK1.5- $265

I wasn't going to put ANOTHER AnalogMan fuzz up here, but AnalogMan is so cool they had to have TWO of the greatest fuzzes of all time in their lineup! This is a replica with some modern modifications of a Sola Sound Tonebender. If you don't know what that is, it's the fuzz pedal that Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin used for his signature tones on Led Zeppelin I and II (and potentially others throughout the band's career). It sounds great, like a fuzz face but much brighter and punchier. It's made with the stuff of the gods, hence its not so flattering price-tag, but if you don't own a good fuzz already then this one is a great candidate for your first fuzz, not to mention a great addition to your collection of fuzz pedals. It's uses aren't quite as wide as some of the others listed here, but to be honest it sounds better for what it does than fifty percent of the pedals I'm going to talk about here. It's an AnalogMan though, so that's to be expected. So yeah, great fuzz, super cool, Jimmy Page used it.

4. Electro-Harmonix Big Muff- $80

In all of it's shapes and forms. First off let me say this pedal is a great fuzz. It's also got a history, and was produced in a few different locations with different components. The one I like most of all of these is the "Sovtek" Russian made Big Muff (the green one). If you can get your hands on one of these, go for it, they're really cool and sharp sounding. The vintage ones are great; David Gilmour used these for many of his recordings after Dark Side of the Moon (he used to use a Silicon Fuzz Face). Jack White, of the White Stripes, The Raconteurs, and his solo work under "Jack White" uses one of these as well, but the modern version. The modern version is good (and dirt cheap for how good it sounds), but it's not as good as the older and Sovtek ones. Nonetheless, a great fuzz, especially if you have a tube amp that you can play LOUD.

Here's some others I won't go into detail about, but I do enjoy playing:
-Way Huge Swollen Pickle
-MXR Blue Box (Vintage or Reissue)
-Vintage Fuzz Face/Tonebender/Supa Fuzz/Maestro Fuzz/Foxx Tone Machine
-Keeley Fuzz Head

Well, that's about it for fuzz pedals. Comment with any questions (I'll be glad to answer) or hate (I'll be glad to tell you why you're wrong)!

Boost and Overdrive Pedals

These are the third most essential part of a rig, right after guitar and amp. Overdrive and boost pedals play such a large part in determining your tone, make sure to choose carefully, or even have multiple options on your pedalboard for different sounds. Keep in mind these fairly obvious but sometimes overlooked things when you're buying your overdrive pedal.

1. Harmonic Sparkle: just about the worst way to describe something so great. There's no words for it, but it has to do with a certain soft clipping sound that won't destroy the beautiful overtones created by the resonating of your guitar. Many overdrive pedals will kill the personal sound of your guitar and amp. You don't want it to destroy your unique tone, but enhance it. 
2. Headroom: A fancy word for range of gain. You want the gain knob to have as large a range as possible, from just barely adding any overdrive to your sound to filling up the room with a wild explosion of overdrive bridging on distortion. Of course, boost pedals may not have as much gain potential as true overdrive pedals, but overdrive pedals won't be able to play as clean as boost pedals will.
3. Sustain: Make sure that your overdrive pedal doesn't provide too much sustain at a low gain level. This indicates a lot of compression going on, which some people like, but I personally find artificial sounding and a primary destroyer of tone if used too much. At higher gain levels, this is alright, as the signal is supposed to be slightly sustained due to an increase in volume and overall modulation of the signal. 

Other than those three important points, the world of overdrive pedals is wide open and highly subjective! To start off, let's describe the difference between a "boost" and an "overdrive" effect.

Boost: A true boost does one thing, and it's exactly what it sounds like. It takes your signal, and raises or "boosts" it's volume. When used with solid state amplifiers, this is pointless, but when used in combination with a tube amp, can drive the preamp tubes and create an overdrive sound that is very sharp but thick tone characteristic of Keith Richards and Eric Clapton. Not as much gain as an overdrive, and a simpler idea, but it's essential in combination with a good tube amp. There are two types of boosts, "clean" boosts, and normal boosts. In truth, the circuitry is very different between the two, but the only thing you need to know is that clean boosts will only modify only the volume of your signal (transparency is the term used for the clean-ness of a boost or other effect), whereas normal boosts will also modify the sound and character of your signal.

Overdrive: Overdrive is described with a lot of different words; fat, chunky, thick, smooth, creamy, and many others make up a long list of nonsense that can't come close to accurately describing what overdrive actually is. Overdrive, in the truest definition, is the effect meant to simulate the sound of the power tubes of a tube amp being "driven" to the point of distortion by means of high volume. Overdrive pedals, despite their wild differences in tone and gain stages and controls, are all essentially trying to emulate the sound of a tube amp. This isn't to say that an overdrive isn't necessary if you have a tube amp. With amplifiers like Fender Twin Reverbs and Vox AC30's it's sometimes good to have an overdrive for that extra punch and sustain needed to create some sounds that otherwise couldn't be achieved. It's a challenge to describe, so if you don't already know what this is, go try it out or listen to any Santana solo.

$BANK$: Money is actually pretty important when it comes to buying an overdrive or boost pedal. Most of the great ones are more expensive, sometimes even upwards of $200. However, because these are an integral part of your sound as a guitarist, it's a worthy investment.

Now, I know people are going to hate on me for not mentioning in detail their sexy British Mos-FET gain stage Fulltone or their vintage Coloursound Powerboost, but I am only mentioning options that are my absolute essential favorites (both of those pedals, however, are great, and I encourage you to search them up!). Two pedals that I am NOT including, however, are both very popular and used on several pedal boards around the world. These are the Boss Blues Driver and the Ibanez Tube Screamer. Both of these are good options that aren't too expensive, but let's get this straight, they don't sound that good. Before you buy one, try out a real overdrive or boost pedal and then say that you're still in love with your BD-2 or TS9. With that out of the way then, let's look at my favorite overdrives and boosts!

1. AnalogMan Beano Boost- $175

Based off of the Dallas Rangemaster Treble Booster, this boost is the best replication of a legend, with built in improvements that make it the best boost pedal on the market. It's harmonically rich and has one of the sharpest and grittiest sounds of all boost pedals. Just listen to songs like Stray Cat Blues and Midnight Rambler off of the Rolling Stones album "Get Yer Yayas Out". In combination with a Fender Twin, Fender Princeton Reverb, Vox AC30, Marshall JCM800, virtually any amp, this thing sounds amazing! If I could have one boost pedal, it would be this one. The mid/low switch allows for versatility, but when I get the chance to play it I normally keep it in the middle for the vintage Rangemaster treble boost, where it sounds best. For more info visit Analogman's website, and email him and his team with questions, he's not afraid to answer!

2. Way Huge Pork Loin- $170

The Way Huge Pork Loin is one pedal that I really enjoy using on a daily basis. This thing is about the most versatile overdrive out there, with five knobs and three internal trim pots that allow you to tweak your overdrive from a great boost (volume up overdrive down) to a growling overdrive (overdrive up, tone at noon). There's also an included "clean" knob, to balance out the overdrive by blending it with a clean british mic preamp built into the pedal. This allows for the high end clarity of your signal not to be muddied up as normally happens with other overdrive pedals. This one's on my personal board and it's there to stay. The bright blue LED is easy to see and the knobs can be set anywhere and sound good. I use it as a boost most of the time and leave my gnarly tones up to a ProCo Rat (which I review in my fuzz pedals guide). It's great for Rolling Stones tunes, fiery Jimmy Page solos, anything by The Who, and even some Cheap Trick "At Budokan" tones. For those of you who are punk rock distortion heads (one of which I am) this pedal does a great Ramones sound, especially when you dial in the clean preamp to add some sparkle to those powerchords. 

3. Keeley Luna Drive- $230

I think this is the best overdrive I've ever used. Other than a Vox AC30 or Fender Twin Reverb or Marshall JCM 800 amp cranked all the way, this is the best overdrive sound out there. While it's expensive, it's got some great potential. For Led Zeppelin tones it kills, and for almost borderline fuzz Jimi Hendrix stuff this overdrive pedal can hang with the Fuzz Face. I played it and I fell in love. I found one used for $139 but unfortunately it was not eligible for the rebate I was planning to purchase it with, so I bought the almost as good Pork Loin instead. If there's one thing about this pedal I don't enjoy, it's that there's five total controls, but the versatility is relatively low. However, this barely matters, because it sounds so good it may just be the only overdrive sound you'll ever need.

A few others that I won't actually talk about but I definitely love are:
-The AnalogMan King of Tone
-The MXR Custom Badass Modified OD
-Fulltone Fulldrive2 and OCD
-Suhr Riot
-Coloursound Powerboost
-Keeley JavaBoost
-others that I'm forgetting now but liked

Like I said, please stay away from Boss overdrive pedals like the Blues Driver, and really the Tube Screamer isn't that wonderful either, so my advice is don't waste your time and buy a good overdrive or better yet an AnalogMan Beano Boost or Vintage Coloursound Powerboost.

Well, that's it for this guide. As always, test out your overdrive or boost with your amp and your guitar, and make sure it's the best for whatever you're doing!

Buying A Guitar

The hardest of all purchases to make as a guitarist is also the one that will influence your personal sound the most- the guitar. While many guitars sound incredible, you should find the one that is both unique but more importantly helps you to better achieve that sound you've had in your head for years. As always, here's a few guidelines to begin with before I start to heavily discuss the topic, just in case you want to skip all of the other information that's in here:

1. Buy YOUR guitar: not somebody else's. While I am one of the largest Led Zeppelin fans there is out there, I have never bought a Gibson Les Paul, Jimmy Page's signature guitar, simply because I don't like the playability of it or the sound as much as other guitars. Undisputedly, this guitar is great, and don't let me discourage you from buying it, as there will be a whole segment regarding it later in this guide. However, I find that a Gibson Explorer is suited slightly better to my hand size and picking style, and I can still achieve that wild tube overdrive for anything from driving lead lines to subdued and subtler crunch, as well as very sparkly but modern cleans when I want them. Plus, it looks cool on stage, and people ask me about it, so I have a chance to "stand out" a little more as an individual, which can be a challenge among so many other guitar players.
2. Test it with your amp: or if you're buying both a guitar and an amp, test all the guitars you try with the amp that you like most, and potentially one other. Guitars will retain their basic tonal characteristics from amp to amp, but there will be fundamental changes in the nuances and balance of the guitar's sound that you can't account for if you're playing one guitar with one amp and another guitar with another amp. 
3. Don't be afraid to buy used: at least for guitars. I recommend buying off of Craigslist that way you can go and try out the guitar to test for any sort of strange things that make the guitar unplayable. You can buy vintage gear, even, and it's not always more expensive than new gear. But we'll discuss that later.
4. Make sure it feels right: The tone of your guitar is certainly important, but you also want to be able to play it! If the neck feels wrong, or the body is really uncomfortable, you might just want to spring for another guitar, because if you don't feel comfortable with it then you'll have a hard time making a real bond with it. The best guitars will sound great and feel natural.

To make this clear, if it is not already, this guide is for buying electric guitars, not acoustic guitars. This being true, I think a brief explanation of the electric guitar is in order.

The electric guitar, in it's first form, was put into production in the 1930's. These were not the electric guitars we think of today, like Stratocasters and Les Pauls, but rather "hollowbody" electric guitars, which sounded very clean and jazzy. As time progressed, hollowbody guitars got better, but a brilliant man by the name of Les Paul came around in the 50's and stuck some pickups on a solid plank of wood. He called it his "log guitar", and it was the birth of the modern electric guitar. Les Paul continued to design guitars and sell his ideas to larger companies. Two large brands, Fender and Gibson, steamheaded the effort to make electric guitars with solid bodies. The late 50's and early 60's was the golden age of the electric guitar, in which high quality components combined with simple yet beautiful engineering to produce some of the best instruments that have seen the light of day. After this, materials used started to become cheaper, in particular the finishes, and the build quality was not as good. Due to this, in the nineties, there was a sort of regression back to the idea of vintage guitars and vintage build techniques, and all of a sudden people wanted '59 Les Pauls again. Companies started to reissue them, and design their current new models in a more vintage style, but with modern technology implements, making the new millenium a good time to buy a great new guitar. 

An electric guitar is a unique instrument in that it produces minimal sound on it's own, and relies on electromagnetic "pickups" to identify the sound and process it to send it to the amplifier. A simplified description is, the guitar's strings vibrate, the pickups "pick up" the sound, send it through the volume and tone potentiometer circuit, and then out the quarter inch output jack to a patch cable to the input on your amp. That's all you need to know about how it works, unless you plan on modifying or building your own electric guitar. 

As I mentioned earlier, there are two types of electric guitars, a hollowbody or semi-hollowbody guitar and a solid body guitar. Here's a brief description of each:

Hollowbody: These guitars are based more on acoustic guitars than electric guitars. They are composed of a body that is hollow on the inside, and have two wavy shaped holes called "f-holes" that allow for sound to resonate out from the body. These are generally more expensive, but they also sound amazing. Wes Montgomery used a Gibson hollowbody L-5 on most of his recordings to obtain a sweet, warm sound that is easily heard on his recordings of "Road Song" and "Surrey with the Fringe on Top". The Who's Pete Townshend also used a Gretsch hollowbody guitar on almost all of his recordings with The Who to get that signature crunch sound we all love so much on tracks like "5:15" and "Baba O' Riley". 

Solid body: This is what it sounds like- a solid piece of wood, with pickups attached to it. Most rock and roll players use a solid body electric guitar, because it is more playable, and it has very little feedback even when used with a large amp on full volume. It has a lot of character and can produce some killer sounds. Keith Richards, Jimmy Page, Jimi Hendrix, Alex Lifeson, David Gilmour, and Eric Clapton all primarily used solid body electrics. This doesn't really mean much, because most electrics are solid body, but we will get to the significance of different solid body guitars in the next few paragraphs.

Regarding Bank: A guitar is different than an amp. In reality, it's sometimes better if your guitar costs less than your amp than if your amp costs less than your guitar. The main difference in the pricing of NEW guitars is where they were manufactured. For instance, if I buy a Japanese made Stratocaster, it will run me anywhere from $500-$700, but if I buy an American made Stratocaster, it can cost upwards of $900. While there is not much difference in the overall tone of the guitars, the American made ones are nicer, and generally have upgrades such as better pickups, a locking tremolo, nicer electronics, and better tuners. Higher grade wood is also a feature, which can make all the difference when it comes to the accentuating of the guitar's tonality. For example, a guitar made of low grad alder won't sound all that different from the same guitar made with low grade mahogany, but a guitar made of high grade alder will have a stunning difference from the same guitar made with high grade mahogany. Also, used guitars are great, such as an old Harmony guitar from the 60's or an early 2000's Gibson or Fender. Like with amps, however, you will have to spend some money, whether you like it or not. If you buy a bad guitar, you will sound bad, unless you're very good already (if so then you should check out some of the old walmart guitars, which I will do a segment on in this guide). Buying a bad guitar can fool you into thinking that you can't play, and can discourage you from playing at all. Getting the sound you want is important, and a good purchase is well rewarded with years of enjoyment in music. Plus a guitar like a Fender Telecaster will be worth twice it's value within thirty years, so it's actually a logical investment. 

There's not a lot more to say about guitars in categories, so rather than continue to categorize them, I'm just going to do a segment on each of the guitars that I think are good starting points, as well as guitars that I personally love.


1. The Fender Stratocaster

... in all it's shapes and forms. 

There's a few options here, so I'll go over them all.

The Standard Stratocaster ($500): This is a Mexican made Stratocaster, that will run around $500 new. It's a very good guitar, and a very solid one. You can get anything from those warbley Hendrix tones on "Little Wing" and "Bold As Love" all the way to the darker and more modern David Gilmour sound on tracks like "Shine on You Crazy Diamond" and "Time". It's, like I said, a solid guitar. Nothing special, but will serve you well for many years ahead of you, and will definitely have a good resale value.
The American Standard Stratocaster ($1000): This guitar is one of my personal favorites, as I own one. It's one of the best guitars I've played, for a few main reasons. First off, it's incredibly comfortable, whether it's played on your leg or hooked to a strap standing up. It's also lightweight, so on stage I don't get fatigued when I want to walk around or move the guitar into different positions. Aside from the benefits of the shape, this guitar's sound is incomparable by any other Stratocaster available new on the market today. If you want to sound like Jimi Hendrix, this is the guitar. Just try running it through a fuzz pedal and you will realize the sheer power of this guitar to wreck havoc on stage. I've also been able to carve my own tone out of this guitar, and it's very easy for me to express myself as a musician through this instrument and really make it audible in the sound that comes out my amp. This guitar has great available finishes, my favorite being the Tobacco Burst, and also has nice tuners, tremolo, and pickups that are not too high gain but not so cool they can't push a tube amp. Overall this guitar is a rip roaring machine, and will keep you excited to play it and keep sounding better for decades to come.
The American Standard Stratocaster HSS/any other HSS Stratocaster ($1000): Everything I said above about the American Standard Strat is true for the American Standard HSS Strat. The only difference is that while the Standards has three single coil pickups (SSS), the HSS has two single coil pickups and one humbucking pickup in the bridge. You may not know what this means. Single coil pickups have a cleaner, twangier sound, generally associated with the sound of a Stratocaster. Humbuckers have a dirtier, higher gain sound, generally associated with the sound of a Gibson Les Paul. I own guitars with both types of pickups and don't prefer either, but you might be limited in the amount of guitars you can purchase. If this is the case, the HSS is for you. It gives you the gain of a humbucking guitar in the bridge position with the soaring cleans of a single coil in the middle and neck positions. A great guitar, but if you're going for that distinctive Strat tone, then you might want to go for the Standard, rather than the HSS. 

Let's move to another Fender Guitar, an iconic shape treasured by icons like Bruce Springsteen, Keith Richards (The Rolling Stones), and Jimmy Page while he was playing in The Yardbirds and on some select Led Zeppelin tracks including "Stairway to Heaven".

2. The Fender Telecaster

The American Standard Telecaster ($1050): This is like the shotgun of electric guitars. It's got power, twang, and real rock and roll grit and bite. It's got a bright tone, and a very distinctive one. From sparkling cleans to very crunchy overdrive tones, it's a powerhouse of punk rock, blues, and classic riffs that won't give up on you, ever. I would recommend this guitar to you if you have a lot of styles to play, or if you play through a Fender tube amplifier like a Deluxe Reverb or Fender Champ. It will sound great through any amp, but I personally love the combination of Fender Telecaster guitar and Fender Bassman or Fender Deluxe Reverb amplifier- it's just one of those sounds that you can't find with anything else. The Butterscotch Blonde finish is the only way to go, in which case you'll have to buy a model other than the American Standard, like the American Vintage '52 Reissue Telecaster. However, if you really want something else, check out the more modern Wine Red.
The Standard Telecaster ($500): Like the Standard Stratocaster, this guitar is not absolutely incredible. However,  I would recommend the Standard Telecaster over the Standard Stratocaster. The Telecaster is easier to play, and will sound very good no matter what wood the body is made of. I've recommended this very guitar to two close friends when they just started guitar, and they've both purchased it and are still using it because they love it's sound, even though their ear for good tone is slightly more selective than it was when they just had started playing.  If you don't spring for the American Standard, then the Standard is a perfectly good option. Plus, it comes in Butterscotch Blonde!

We'll move on to Gibson guitars now, starting with a guitar that changed the face of seventies rock and roll.

3. The Gibson SG

There are two models that I really recommend, one is from Gibson's other brand name, "Epiphone". 

The Epiphone G-400 ($400): This guitar was my first guitar, and I still have it. It makes a great starter guitar, and it's very attractively priced. However, if you want to continue using it, you will have to replace the pickups that it comes with, as well as the tuners which do not hold their tune too well. By way of pickups, I recommend DiMarzio's, or Gibson Burstbuckers. I personally used Swineshead pickups, but sadly they are now out of business. You can still find them on Ebay every now and then, but they may be very expensive and while they are great pickups, you might be able to buy different pickups without hunting around. As for the tuners, standard Grover tuners are good, though I haven't replaced mine yet, only thought about it. However, you can get a quality guitar for only $300 more in modification investments, so really this guitar is a steal. You get the classic SG tone and shape for a fraction of the price, and can greatly improve upon the guitar with only a bit of investment, meaning it can last you a while if you like. 
The Gibson SG ($1300): The guitar responsible for Pete Townshend's live performances, Angus Young's signature tone, and even some of Jimi Hendrix's heavier tunes. This guitar is a unique and versatile guitar that can really create some great tones if you use it correctly. It's also very playable and is a good guitar if you're looking for a very high quality instrument as your first guitar. However, it's also a great buy if you're experienced, as you can get some very interesting tones out of it in combination with a tube amp and a good boost pedal. Overall, a great guitar that is a good contrast to other Gibson guitars, and that will definitely let you stand out in the crowd if you decide to make it your signature guitar.

Here's another option from Gibson, one that's a little edgier... literally.

4. The Gibson Explorer

The Gibson Explorer ($1150): Most people believe this guitar is just for 80's hair metal, and can only achieve the sounds of a heavy chugging rhythm and a piercingly screaming solid state distortion lead. While it excels at that if you want it to, it's not even the best use of this guitar. The pickups are incredibly hot, meaning they drive a tube amp very easily and intensely, but that means that if you want a clean tone, you just need to bring down your gain and turn up your master volume. When you do this with the Explorer, it creates a very deep and harmonically rich tone, coming from that large resonating mahogany body. It can also do Led Zeppelin and The Rolling Stones if you bring your gain up, in which case it sounds awesome in a more overdriven state. One thing to keep in mind though, is that you will have to cut some of the bass frequencies on the EQ control on your amp to brighten up the tone a little, otherwise it can get muddy. Other than that, the guitar is very well balanced in terms of natural equalization. Players like Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top, Kirk Hammet of Metallica, and The Edge of U2 used this guitar extensively, yet people still question how they achieved their signature tones. I personally own this guitar and find it comparable to a Gibson Les Paul, but with better playability, a more tasteful range of gain, and a look that will get you attention.

5. The Gibson Les Paul

Undeniably the most beautiful guitar in the world, let's have a look at three of the most popular Les Paul models.
The Gibson Les Paul Standard ($2300): This guitar says it all. From a carved flame maple top to a solid mahogany body and a beautiful mother of pearl inlay, this is one of the best looking guitars out there. It's classic but comfortable shape and modern compound neck radius makes it easy to play on stage or on your couch, and it's burst bucker pickups and top of the line electronics provide the tone that has defined so many guitar players throughout the years of rock and roll. It sounds best through an amp that doesn't have too much potential for compressed high gain, because it starts to get muddy with a lot of metal-like distortion. This is definitely not to say that it doesn't like tube gain or fuzz. A crunchy amp like a Fender Twin Reverb or a cleaner Egnater amp will pair well with this amp. Of course, if you really want to go classic, play it through a Marshall all tube JCM 800 reissue, and rock out with some classic tube overdrive, but use it in moderation, because it can be a little muddy. This guitar has a lot of cool features, so go and try it out, because even though it's a great guitar, it wasn't quite the guitar for me at first glance, and it may be the same case for you. 
The Gibson Les Paul Studio ($1400): Essentially all the great features of the beautiful Les Paul Standard but minus a few things- the sexy flame maple top, certain finishes, the highest grade wood, and the overall quality of the pickups and electronics. It's the guitar to buy if you want that Les Paul tone and feel but don't want to spend more than $2000 on the guitar you buy. If you get this guitar though, get a tube amp! Just like the standard, it sounds best with some overdriven tubes.
The Epiphone Les Paul Standard ($400-$500): First off, I don't recommend buying this guitar unless it is your FIRST guitar. It's got good playability, with a decent imitation of that Les Paul feel, but it's certainly no Gibson Standard or Studio. It lacks the same wide range of dynamics and Les Paul tone. It's hard to describe the difference here, but this guitar has a lot less "life" than the Gibson models. This is due to a lower grade of wood, pickups that are substandard, and tuners that don't hold their tune all that well. However, it's still a good guitar and looks very good in any of the numerous finishes it's available in.

That's all the big ones that are virtually impossible to go wrong with, now let's look at some of my personal favorites. WARNING: many of these guitars are hard to play and will only sound good for specific uses and if you really know how to play guitar very well. I wouldn't recommend MOST of these as first guitars for anybody. Nonetheless, they sound super cool, and can really draw attention from other guitar players as well as add character to your band or other group with their unique sounds and looks. 

The Harmony H78/Meteor/Heathkit:

^Harmony Heathkit

<<<Harmony Meteor






















These two guitars are both great sounding hollow bodies with a lot of character and some very interesting sounding pickups. The H-78 is a little higher quality, and has the beautiful red burst finish, three pickups, and bigsby tremolo system. The Meteor is no slouch either though, with some harmonically rich "mustache" pickups and a very nice feel that makes it fit like a glove when you play it. Obviously these are both very jazzy or bluesy looking guitars, but I personally like to use them for bluesy rock or classic rock music, or with a load of fuzz through a slightly driven tube amp. Both of these guitars are available on Ebay, and they will run anywhere from $800-$1400. Though this is a bit pricey for these guitars, it is worth it if you have a Gibson and a Fender and are looking for something different. These are also great recording guitars, and they will certainly get the Rolling Stone critics wondering about how you got your signature tone on your most recent album. If you can't try it out at the place you're buying it from, at least see a demo of it on YouTube, or make sure there's a good refund policy.

The Gretsch Jet

There's one word to describe these guitars and that word is cool. They look like a Les Paul mixed with an old "Airline" Supro guitar, and they sound very good with an old Fender amp. You get that really clean and deep sound that's just on the border of breaking up. Plus, Gretsch instruments won't give up on you, so you don't have to worry about warranty issues or quality control. It comes in a lot of different models with various finishes and pickups, so try them out or watch a demo and see narrow it down to the one for you! It runs around $2200, so choose carefully.

The Ibanez GB10

This guitar is killing. I haven't ever played an Ibanez I liked as much as this one. It's soft rhythm humbucker tone matched with it's resonant yet streamlined maple body makes it sound as good as a Gibson ES-175 (a great guitar, I own one, the best for jazz). Flatwound strings are a must, as it warms up the tone and makes it sound very fluid. Go play this guitar if you can! It's very expensive, running about $3400 new, but you can find a good deal on Ebay for a used one.

The Supro Dual Tone
And similar Supro models

Pictured above is actually not a vintage Supro, but rather the Eastwood reissue of the 50's and 60's guitar that was sold, believe it or not, at Sears. These guitars are weird, and hard to play, and sound like nothing else. If you want interesting, buy this guitar. It will sound very cool and edgy through a heavy fuzz like a Sovtek Big Muff, or cool through a heavily driven tube amp like a Marshall JCM 800 head. These guitars handle distortion best, because it masks their otherwise odd tonal characteristics. I've only included this in this post because it is fun to play, it's fun to perform with, and it sounds pretty cool. Otherwise, there are plenty of other good options for the $1300 that these normally go for on Ebay. 

Well, that's it for this guide. Play the guitar, don't be afraid to spend some cash, and buy what sounds good!