Something About You - setup

Hi Mike.

Quick question in relation to setup. I've been going through your tutorials on Boston's Something About You over the past few weeks. It's a lot of fun to play, and now I've worked up to the single guitar section.

In this lesson, you talk about the need to plan for tone changes through the song, but I'm not really sure how to go about this.

Right now, I only have a very basic setup - guitar and amplifier but no other effects, pedals etc. So, to change tone, I have to stop playing, change the settings on my amp, and start over again.

Could you make any recommendations for how to take this up to the next level, and introduce some more flexibility? What kind of gear could I look at, and how would it work?

Thanks in advance.

Chris

Hey Chris!

There are many options to consider here.

The most basic way to add some different tones to your setup would be to start adding effects pedals in front of the amp. For example, you could add an overdrive or distortion pedal, set your amp for a clean sound, then kick the pedal on or off to switch between a clean and dirty sound.

The next thing to consider is a multi fx processor. Usually you would want one with foot controls so that you simply stomp on different presets or turn individual effects on or off. There are some relatively inexpensive options here, and you could program all sorts of different tones and add modulation effects like chorus or flanger -- add a delay effect and even reverb.
Units like these allow you to create presets (combinations of effects) that you can switch between, perfect for more radical changes in tone throughout a song.

In more pro setups, guitarists use multi-channel amplifiers (they can switch between clean, crunch, and lead tones) integrated with pedals and multi-fx units that can be controlled by a MIDI foot controller. Some guitarists even switch between different amps (using amp switching devices) to get a variety of tones in a live setting.

Hope this info helps! Let me know if you have more questions.
Mike

Thanks Mike. I think for me, option one is the best for this point in time.

I've purposefully avoided getting into this too much up to now, because I don't want to get distracted from regular practice by playing around a lot with tone.

But there are so many songs that switch back and forth between clean and dirty tones, so that seems like a great first step.

Really appreciate your advice.

c.

Hey Chris, sounds great!

Another thing to consider in order to keep things simple and keep focussed on the playing aspect is to get good at lowering your guitar's volume knob to clean up your tone. Many pros use this technique instead of switching channels or pedals in and out.
It can be challenging at first (like any new technique), but once you get comfortable with it, it can be very useful for making tone changes throughout a song.

Good luck with it!
Mike