What should i Buy?
Synth Sounds For Guitar
We play a few 1970s, 80s and 90s songs in my band that include some fairly big synth/keyboard sounds – anything from Jump by Van Halen to Word Up! by Cameo. I’ve been playing these with a distorted guitar sound, but I was wondering about adding a synth pedal to get the right tones. Can you suggest some things to try, please? I was hoping to simply add a pedal, but it seems that extra pickups and different amps might also be required, for example with the Roland guitar synth. Steve Foster, via email
Ah, please come and stand with us by the edge of this giant rabbit hole, Steve. You’re in for a great deal of fun, experimentation and some belly laughs to boot. The sounds are easy enough to come by from various units; harder is getting your head around keyboard interval chords and laying off the vibrato when playing. It’s all good discipline! Also on a practical note, you’ll need to spend some time understanding the volume and transient levels of synth sounds compared with guitar: quite different beasts, but epic fun nonetheless. To wit…
Cooder. They’re single coils, and even though they have a fairly flat profile they might require a larger body rout to fit in a Strat. We say ‘might’ because they come in many different types; for example, some are surface mount so will just sit in a recut pickguard with no need for extra body routing.
Sound wise, again they can vary greatly, but the modern reproductions tend to have good glassy highs and plenty of spank, to use a guitarism. They tend not to be ‘powerful’ or thick in the mids like humbuckers or P-90s and we seem to keep using the word ‘compression’ to describe elements of their dynamic attack. So tonally they’re definitely in the traditional single coil camp, but dynamically they have something in common with humbuckers, in our opinion. Slide players tend to love them, as should be evident by now. And they’re currently cooler than a caribou’s cojones, if that matters to you.
HiT THE Dull, JacK
I recently upgraded the jack socket in my guitar to a Switchcraft replacement, as the original was sloppy and occasionally lost signal. However, I seem to have totally lost the top-end response and the guitar has a dull, muffled tone, which seems illogical and puzzling given such a minor change. Your thoughts on this would be most welcome. Baz Harber, via email No standard mono output jack should change the tone by that degree, Baz, so let’s look at the obvious things first. Check your tone pots aren’t turned down. It might sound stupid, but if you never use them, it’s worth checking. Then check the wiring on the output jack. The ground wire goes to what looks like the centre of the plug (ie, attached to the sleeve), and the tip connects to what looks like the outer connection. Check and double-check again that those joints are good. If they are, now you can swap it out for the old jack again. If it sounds ‘right’ again, you’ve either wired the new jack socket wrong or it’s faulty. However, it’s such a simple design it’s hard to imagine what would cause a fault of this nature.
If the problem persists with both jacks, you need to check the pots and switch wiring in the guitar. Start by checking that all the joints and connections are good and that the switch and pots function as they should – something else may have come loose during the jack change. If you’re still scratching your head after all this, take it to a local repairer. They’ll sort it for you in no time.
cloaKousTic
I have recently started performing with a bunch of enthusiastic friends, playing mostly electric guitar, but also a few numbers on my electro-acoustic (a Faith Naked Venus). Everything is fine with the electric (Epiphone Les Paul Custom), but my electroacoustic sounds dull through my Blackstar HT Studio 20. Am I doing something wrong, or do I need something else – are acoustic amps not just browncovered electric amps?! Jim Sweeney, via email Forgive us a chuckle, Jim, but no they’re not the same. A dedicated acoustic guitar amp has more in common with a full range PA system than it does a traditional electric guitar amp. The input section, gain make up and EQ are all quite different, as is the power section and speakers, all of which enable an acoustic amp to put out those big, clean lows and very presence-y highs that you’d expect from an acoustic guitar. Your Blackstar can’t do the job in the same way.
You don’t have to buy an acoustic amp; you could plug the electro-acoustic directly in to the vocal PA for better results. If you feel like getting something specific, Fender and Laney both have excellent acoustic amp options at very attainable prices. Good luck!