Sunday, May 11, 2008

Electric Guitar Distortion Effect

The electric guitar has the ability to produce clean harmonic sounds and beautiful, warm melodies. However, there is no guitar effect as powerful as distortion.

Distortion is an effect produced by increasing the amplifier gain setting to a high level. The result is a crunchy, cutting sound.

On the lower, heavier gauge strings, such as the low "E" string, distortion produces a "chugging" sound that resembles a deep growl or bark. This type of sound is commonly used in rhythm guitar.



On the higher strings, such as the "B" string, distortion creates a "whining" or "crying" sound which makes lead guitar sound awesome.

Play around with some different distortion guitar pedals, such as the Boss Metal Zone. There are usually a few settings to tweak to create a sound that you will . If you don't want something so intense, then decrease the gain setting on your amp. The effect works best when the treble and bass are high and the mid-tones are low.

Thursday, May 8, 2008

Guitar Chorus Effect

The chorus guitar effect is great for creating a duplicated sound.  It makes it sound like there is more than one of your guitar playing at the exact same time.  This creates a thicker, wetter sound that really gives life to your electric guitar riffs.



The chorus guitar effect is similar to the flanger effect but it doesn't have a "phasing" element to it.  There are plenty of great electric guitar pedals out there for the chorus effect, including the Digitech RP250.

Tuesday, May 6, 2008

Fear Factory

Fear Factory is a sick band if you are into heavy death metal music. Their aggressive style involves precise guitar timing. On their Obsolete and Archetype albums, they do a lot of "running" or "chugging" on the bottom string. This sound creates a train effect, where the music is constantly moving with abrupt changes at random times.

Their vocals are very powerful too. The lead singer sings and growls to produce a unique sound above all the low-pitch chaos.



Also, the double bass drum sounds really cool. This drummer is really fast and has good chemistry with the guitars.

The bass guitar is strong and creates a warm tone to their music.  This deep low-end tone pulls their tracks together well.

Overall, these guys are great when you are in the mood for an aggressive sound. You should check them out if you are into death metal music.

Monday, May 5, 2008

Digitech RP250 Guitar Pedal

The Digitech RP250 multi-effects guitar pedal has a lot of great effects and features.  This unit has all of the great standard electric guitar pedal effects along with a bunch of unique effects, like "IPS". This effect allows you to choose which key you want to play in and it produces a note in the same key only further up in the scale. The produced note is played at the same time as the note you are playing. The result is a great harmony effect.



There are plenty of settings to tweak for effects like delay, reverb, chorus, flanger, etc.  This electric guitar pedal combines a bunch of great guitar effects and filters into one unit.  It's a lot cheaper to buy one of these things than to buy a bunch of separate guitar pedals.  It is much easier to setup too.

The Digitech RP250 multi-effects guitar pedal also allows you to play a drum loop.  The drum loop plays through the output of the unit, which can be headphones, an amplifier, etc.  You can choose from a variety of different percussion styles and you can easily alter the tempo and volume of the beat.

The Digitech RP250 is a great investment for the guitarist who likes to save money and time.