zZounds is offering a number of rebates and price cuts on guitar effects right now.For example there is a $100 rebate on the Digitech RP1000 and price cuts on the Digitech JamMan Looper Pedal and the Tascam MPGT1 Portable MP3 guitar trainer.

There is an outstanding interview at Velvet Rope with Matt Beck regarding the best and worst guitar pedals out there. No he has never been in a punk band, but we musicians can always learn something from other genres. Check out this interview because it shares some great insights.

http://velvetrope.com/starpolishlife/tallboy7/2009/02/26/gear-porn-the-best-and-worst-guitar-pedals-ever/

Quick! Boss has a $25 rebate on the ME-20. The offer lasts only until September 30, 2009. After that, you’re out of luck! You can order the ME-20 and find the rebate form on the zZounds Boss ME-20 page. The Boss ME-20 has the following features:

1. Overdrive, distortion, delay, chorus, phaser, flanger, tremolo, rotary, and EQ effects
2. 3 footswitches and expression pedal
3. 30 user memory locations
4. Metal chassis
5. And more…

Part 4 in a series.

Recently I helped a guitarist friend of mine buy his first tube amp. Not a “hybrid” amp, with just a preamp tube, mind you, but an actual tube amp. I thought a nice series of blogs on the topic was in order. We’ll tackle a few different aspects of tube amps, and my goal by the end of this series is that you would have all the info you need on tube amps to make an informed choice if you are shopping for a new amp.

Budget tube amps

For punk, emo, or hardcore there are a few amps  for small budgets that quietly hold their own. These are split into two categories: used and new. Used amps typically sell for only 40-70% of their original purchase price. This is often a great deal, with the tradeoff being that you have no warranty and may have to give your gear a bit more TLC. New amps are coming out all the time though that offer a combination of classic features with new amenities such as extra channels, effects, or input-routing options.
Read the rest of this entry »

Part 3 in a series.

Recently I helped a guitarist friend of mine buy his first tube amp. Not a “hybrid” amp, with just a preamp tube, mind you, but an actual tube amp. I thought a nice series of blogs on the topic was in order. We’ll tackle a few different aspects of tube amps, and my goal by the end of this series is that you would have all the info you need on tube amps to make an informed choice if you are shopping for a new amp.

Historically popular tube amps
A foundational tube amp in rock was the Fender Bassman. Although the Bassman was designed for bass, it was often used by guitarists, and even to this day is prized for its tone. Because of the continuing popularity of the Bassman, Fender has reissued the amp and Boss even released a pedal, the FBM-1, meant to model the Bassman’s tone.

(”Hot-rodding” the Fender Bassman circuit is what launched the Mesa Boogie company. Now an incredibly popular maker of tube amps, Mesa is the company behind the Dual Rectifier among various other amps. The Dual Rectifier or “Dual Rec” is a common sight in all forms of harder rock, on stages around the world.)

Of course the first loud rock amps came from UK-based company Marshall. Marshall amps are known as perhaps the standard bearer in rock, though they have recently lost some popularity. Pete Townsend of The Who, along with Marshall, is responsible for the concept of the “stack” - a 100W head and eight 12″ speakers for rock. There is an excellent article on this at thewho.net. In addition to this pioneering act of rock, The Who also were the first to use dynamite during a show and to smash their guitars on stage. Again, the first Marshall amps were modeled after the Fender Bassman.

Today, the most prized vintage Marshall amp is the JCM 800 which first came out in the early ’80s and is used by the likes of Thrice, Bad Religion, Green Day, and others. Of course, purists claim that the early models are the best. It is known as a great amp for vintage and modern high gain guitar tone with attitude.

Finally, another popular amp historically has been the Vox AC30. The AC30 is the amp popularized by Brian May of Queen, but it is used by many artists today including Brand New, Thursday, and others. The AC30 is known for its shimmering clean tone and its fluid solo tone. For bands that are more emotive or don’t need a compressed modern high gain tone, it is a good pick.

Any one of these classic tube amps will command attention on stage or in the studio and will give you a bevy of great tones. However, expect them to sometimes cost quite a bit, money-wise and time-wise as you may have to search to find one.

Next blog, we will look at some popular budget choices for a tube amp. If you don’t have a massive bank account, you’ll want to watch for that one!

Recently I helped a friend of mine buy his first tube amp. Not a “hybrid” amp, with just a preamp tube, mind you, but an actual tube amp. I thought a nice series of blogs on the topic was in order. We’ll tackle a few different aspects of tube amps, and my goal by the end of this series is that you would have all the info you need on tube amps to make an informed choice if you are shopping for a new amp.

What is a tube amp?
“Tube amp” is just a way to describe an amplifier that uses vacuum tubes to amplify the source signal. Sometimes they are also called “valve amplifiers.” A vacuum tube is a glass “tube” that amplifies the signal, versus a circuit which is what amplifies the sound in a “solid state” amplifier.

The typical guitarist’s amp setup in all kinds of heavier rock music (like punk, emo, and hardcore) is the “half stack,” which refers to a “head,” which is the actual amp, and a “cab,” which is the speaker cabinet, in the case of a half stack, it is generally a speaker cabinet with four 12″ speakers.

An EL34 power tube

The “head” or the actual amplifier, if a tube amp, is usually 100W, though there are many other wattages available. 100W is fairly standard among touring punk, emo, and hardcore bands. All tube amps have two stages of amplification, the “preamp” section and the “power amp” section. The preamp section uses small glass tubes called (of course) “preamp tubes” which are about 2.5″ long. The power amp section uses “power tubes” which are about 4″ long and fatter.

Generally a 100W tube amp has 4-5 power tubes and 4-6 preamp tubes, while a 50W tube amp, by comparison, will have 2 power tubes and maybe 3-4 preamp tubes. As you can see, the more power, the more tubes required.

In the next installment of “tube amps in a nutshell” we will look at historically popular tube amps and why.

Recently I helped a friend of mine buy his first tube amp. Not a “hybrid” amp, with just a preamp tube, mind you, but an actual tube amp. I thought a nice series of blogs on the topic was in order. We’ll tackle a few different aspects of tube amps, and my goal by the end of this series is that you would have all the info you need on tube amps to make an informed choice if you are shopping for a new amp.

Why tube amps?
It sounds silly, but the best explanation I ever heard about why you should buy a tube amp is also the simplest explanation: they sound the best. If you really need proof of this, just go down to your local guitar shop with your guitar and plug into a nice solid state amp and then a nice tube amp. Obviously your skill is the first thing that determines how good you sound, but aside from that, you will notice that tube amps sound fuller, and especially when it comes to distortion, they roar more and sound smoother. If you need further proof, look at what amps your favorite guitarists play and they will probably all be tube amps. There are relatively few areas where solid state amps are preferred (often jazz or metal interestingly enough).

Marshall was the first to popularize high gain tube amplification

Now on this blog we’re talking about punk, emo, and hardcore, and so we’re generally talking about very dynamic styles of music. Usually we are seeing cranked high gain amps. High gain solid state amps are known for their disappointingly fizzy can of bumblebees tone. A high gain tube amp in contrast sounds fat and rich. Furthermore, if you play a very dynamic style of music (emo, screamo, punk, hardcore), going between loud and soft and switching between heavy distortion and clean, you will notice the difference even more.

Not only is the sound richer, but the amp is also much responsive to your playing. With a tube amp, when you dig in you will feel the amp surge with you. And when you back off a little bit, you will hear your sound clean up a bit. In other words, you as the musician will feel the difference just as much as you will hear it.

Like I said, though, the best way to hear and feel the difference for yourself is to head down to your local guitar shop and try it out. (Or find a friend willing to let you try out his tube amp.)

Part 2 of this series will be a look at what makes a tube amp a tube amp, and why it is different than solid state or hybrid.

I ran into this video so I thought I’d throw it up. If you’ve ever wondered what one of these pedals sound like, this gives you a great idea.

In case you missed these posts, let me mention them again. I am working on making an indexed page where they can reside. Oddly enough the post on the Maxon tube screamer is the most visited of all our posts.

• Maxon OD808 = Ibanez Tube Screamer 808
  A post on how these pedals are the same, but you will save a chunk of change going with the Maxon.
• How to add a header image to your myspace
  It’s easier than it seems, though you could spend days looking for the myspace code for it.
• Downloadable tab files
• Sell your CD at your local record shop
  How to distribute an album yourself!
• The right way to grow your friends list on Myspace
  A downloadable PDF we put together that details some methods for (legally) adding tons of friends and keeping them up to date on all your shows.