Ask A Sound Engineer: Tips From Beyond The Stage

When there is a sound engineer on your gig, make sure he or she is your best friend.  I took some time away from working the guitar angle to collect some tips and secrets from sound engineers on the guitar setup.  Sound engineers are a valuable asset on the gig because they are not only responsible for your sound getting to the audience, but how well it's heard too.  In fact, getting to know sound engineers can help your own playing quite a bit and will give an honest perspective about your gear from beyond the stage.  The information I found for this post should provide insight on effects, studio engineering, mastering, and even some perspective from fellow guitarists that have been through many recording experiences.  Plus, Dunlop representatives answer a variety of gear questions.

Live sound engineer

Let's start out in the studio.  Recording guitar is a highly experimental process, from hanging a mic in front of an amp to playing in a bathroom for natural reverb, there are thousands of ways to record.  But to get down to the nitty gritty of simple recording, take a look at this article here at http://www.guitarworld.com/killer-guitar-tracks-art-and-not-so-exact-science-recording-guitar.

Hello, fellow guitar geeks!

In this GuitarWorld.com blog, we’re going to learn how to setup and record killer guitar sounds. I hope to demystify the process a bit for the player who’s new to the world of recording; and, for the more experienced, perhaps you’ll find some of these tips and techniques that I’ve learned useful.

First, here’s the good news/bad news routine. The good news is that recording electric guitar is actually a fairly simple, straightforward process, and you really don’t have to spend a fortune on gear to capture awesome tones.

The bad news is that guitar sounds are so subjective that you can literally spend hours chasing your tail and asking yourself questions like, “Is this too bassy? Too distorted? Too boxy?” etc. I think perhaps the greatest challenge for any engineer is to make the guitar player happy with his recorded tone and to make it sound like what he hears when he’s standing in front of the cab doing windmills and making guitar faces.

You’ll learn that in the world of recording, every instrument occupies a range of frequencies and has to find a place in the sonic spectrum that doesn’t conflict or muddy up the surrounding instruments. Yes, it can be tricky to capture the “wall of doom” guitar sound, make it fit in with the rest of the instruments and please us picky guitar players.

But we can do it. We have the technology!

Let’s start with some basic but important general information about recording; more specifically, recording electric guitars:

Guitars and amps

If you want to capture a great guitar tone, you need to start by having a great guitar tone. It seems fairly obvious, but it’s worth making the point that your job will be much easier if you have decent guitars that are intonated well and hold their tuning.

Amps come in all shapes and sizes, but since guitar tones are so subjective, it’s hard for me to tell you what I think is really great and what I think sucks. What I will say is that whatever gear you have, make sure it’s dialed in and working well, tuned up, re-tubed etc.

This will allow you to focus your efforts on playing well and the recording process itself.

Microphones

Good news! Some of the best guitar tones ever recorded were done with a microphone that costs about a hundred bucks. You’ve heard about the Shure SM57, right? Now go and check one out. We’ll talk about other microphones, and even the technique of blending them together, but I think for the beginner, the SM57 is a great place to start.

Microphone preamps

Man, you think the guitar amp community can be a “cork-sniffing” bunch? Wait until you enter the world of mic-pre snobs! At least when you plunk down 2 or 3 K for a guitar amp, you’ll get more than two knobs to turn. This is another area that is highly subjective, but thankfully there’s a lot of great stuff out there for the money, and the “flavors” that different mic-pres offer are more subtle, so let your budget decide what you should get.

I will say that if your mic pre has a high pass filter, consider that a plus, as that will help keep the low end in check.

Recording medium

I really love how tape sounds, but these days it’s hard to justify the cost and maintenance of a 24-track machine. I use a DAW (digital audio workstation). In my case, this means a Mac computer, Pro Tools software and my modded Digi 002 interface. Of course, there are a lot of options out there that sound great, so use whatever works best for you.

Monitoring and playback

Invest in some decent monitors and while you’re at it, do some research on room treatment. An accurate listening environment is likely to be one of the biggest hurdles you’ll face in your studio.

Personal recording studio

When a recording gets past the mixing stage, it comes down to the mastering process to put on the finishing touches.  But there is a big question that many musicians have asked for years regarding the mastering process, "Can a mastering studio make a bad recording sound great?"  To help answer that question, check out this article at http://ezinearticles.com/?Can-a-Mastering-Studio-Make-a-Bad-Recording-Sound-Great?&id=6152329.

Many modern recording artists may feel that they are able to "fix it in the mix" - meaning any errors or problems can be corrected during production and engineering of a sound recording. But how true is that? The topic of this article is: "can a mastering studio make a bad recording sound good?" This is an important question but it can be a bit of a loaded question. I'll try to give some insight into the kind of things that make it possible for engineers to take your home recording and make it sound absolutely fantastic.

In the process of audio production there is a concept called "source-quality rule." This refers to the quality of the initial source of a recording that you make. The most obvious place where source-quality rule comes into play is when you create your recording. How good is the way you set up and position your microphone relative to your instrument or voice? How good are the audio interface, preamplifier and converters you are using? Are the settings of your audio workstation correct?

All of these different things are very important factors when creating a good sounding recording and will impact later processes (i.e. mixing and mastering). If the source quality is not there, there are stringent limits on what can be done in the studio. Significant improvements and enhancements can be made, and a professional engineer may meet your expectations, but you cannot take a bad source recording and turn it into a world-class recording.

One point I'd like to make is that a recording nowadays can be a midi recording or a sequencing of a midi instrument and those sources must be high quality as well. Another important consideration is the arrangement - the way different sounds are combined throughout a song - has a huge impact on the process. This is all part of the pre-production process and can force limits on your engineer at the time or production, mixing and mastering.

Having said all that - it is definitely possible for professionals to make significant improvements to your song. But whether or not that recording/song sounds like a world-class recording is really a function of the different parts of the "music production workflow" - pre-production, recording, mixing and mastering. It's important to get educated about all of this so that you have the greatest number of options to make your song sound world class. It's not a matter of learning how to mix and master yourself, but by understanding the basics about those processes, you will make better decisions in all parts of the music production workflow. I hope this helps!

Live show with audience

So how about live sound engineering? All guitarists can use this helpful advice about the interaction between musicians and sound engineers at the live gig.  Check it out here at http://www.guitarworld.com/sound-advice-introduction-and-tips-live-monitoring-guitarists.

Hey! I was asked to write a column and give some info about who I am, and in the future, some tips for all you live-playing guitarists!

My name is Matt Brown. I'm a producer, engineer and guitarist for A Pale Horse Named Death (featuring members of Life of Agony, Type O Negative, Biohazard) and Seventh Void (featuring members of Type O Negative). I'm also a touring sound engineer for Lou Reed, among many others. When I'm home, you can find me working on the Local 1 crew at Best Buy Theatre in New York City.

Getting around in the music business is about making good friends. I went on tour opening for bands like Type O Negative and Life of Agony right out of high school, playing in a band called Uranium 235. That's how I became friends with my bandmates in APHND and SV.

The engineering side is no different. I was working on a stagehand crew in New York City and became really good friends with Stewart Hurwood, an amazing guitar tech who works for the stars. Stewart was the one who brought me into the Lou Reed camp eight years ago.

START GUITARIST GEEK SPEAK:

Don't like the sound of your guitar in the stage monitors? There are many reasons, but I have only so much space in this column. Here's a cool thing to try on your next gig: Stand right in the middle of the stage between your guitar speakers, facing the crowd, and with the stage monitors facing the stage.

Ask for your guitar with no EQ in your stage monitor and have the engineer stop when the volume in the monitor is even with the volume of your amp. This works out great because you will be able to hear your amp behind you and have even coverage in front of you. When you change the volume of your amp, it will follow evenly in the monitors.

Still don't like the sound? To match the sound of your guitar in the monitors to the sound of your amp, try moving the mic around. The center of the speaker is the brightest spot. Moving the mic away from the center will darken the sound. With a little attention, I think you will find that magic spot and, because the sound will be even, you might not have to run your amp volume as hot. (I did say "might").

Let me know if you have any live sound questions!

END GUITARIST GEEK SPEAK!

Guitarist in recording studio

In my opinion, one of the best ways to really learn something is to learn it from a mistake or bad experience.  Fortunately, fellow guitarists have published their stories for us to learn from.  One of those recording session stories can be learned here at http://www.guitarworld.com/session-guitar-learning-lessons-total-nightmare-session.

So a question I'd like to respond to this week: "Was there ever a session that went wrong...a bad experience?"

Here's my story ... I remember no names. The studio was in Long Island, NY, in the 1980s. It was a day I wished I never had ... but it ended up OK ... and a big lesson was learned.

I received a call to do a Latin/American/pop song. Add guitar. Chord chart will be provided. Some soloing.

No sweat. These sessions were usually simple, three chords, basic Latin groove ... no problem. Why worry? Went out the night before, had some fun, a few drinks, some laughs. Woke up the next day a bit worse for wear, but no problem ... an easy session and back to bed.

Packed my car with guitars, amp, extras and off I go. The traffic on the LIE was worse than expected. Pre-cellphone days. Never good to show up late for a session. Of course, this was going to be an easy day, remember, so what's a few minutes late between strangers?

Oh yeah, this was my first session for this producer ... not a good way to start a relationship by showing up about 20 minutes late. But I got there. Apologized. And began to unload gear in the NOW POURING RAIN. I wear glasses. It was hot. Hot rain. Foggy glasses.

I setup as quick as possible and go into the control room to talk over the song and see the chart and what was expected of me. In the control room were three people. The engineer. The producer. And the producer's trophy girlfriend. No one was smiling.

The chart was handed to me to look over. Remember the three-chord easy statement I made earlier? Forget it. This chart was in the key of Bb ... there is a special horror for the key of Bb in the '80s ... will explain in a minute. All the chords were what I call slash chords. Bb with a C in the bass, Eb with an F in the bass, etc. ALL OF THEM. And the exact rhythm to be played for each chord was written out. I was starting to sweat. This wasn't going to be good, and I had not even heard the track yet.

They play the track down and I figure I'll just get in the room and go for it. I get a sound, chorus, clean Strat, out-of-phase position 2. As I am playing to the track I notice out of the corner of my eye that, in the control room, everyone is shaking there heads in a BAD way. No smiles.

They know I am blowing it. I know I am blowing it. Not good. I keep going ... remember, this is the first time I've played on the track. I stop and ask for another run through. They start playing it again. This time I'm listening more than playing. And I am noticing something. (Besides the future moment of the door hitting me in the ass on the way out.)
This song doesn't even need a guitar because every inch of sonic real estate is filled with keyboards! I yell stop ... I know I've blown it so I figure ... WTF! I go storming into the control room and ask, as politely as I can, who the hell laid down all these effing keyboards!!! Of course, it was ... the producer. Of course.

Still on my rant, I ask if I can try something. (I think they were afraid of this wet, sweating man with a weapon in his hands.) I look at the board and start muting faders on all the keyboard tracks and only left two. Now there was actual room for me to play! I go back in, they start the track again and this time I see smiles ... I'm nailing the rhythm!
But the song is in the key of Bb, remember. It was common in the '80s to modulate a minor 3rd up for the solo ... that would put the solo in the dreaded key of C#!!! All sharps. The polar opposite of C. I shut my eyes and pretended I was in the key of C, never once looking at the guitar for the solo. Nailed. One take. All smiles now.

I ask if they want the solo harmonized. They seem stunned I can do it. Took a minute to figure it out, and harmonized it. They were beyond happy. I was relieved. They asked if I could play on three more songs. I said I had to get to another session at that time, but would come back another day. My hands were shaking too hard to even think about playing another song.

All ended up OK. But I never took another session for granted. Ever. Nor was I ever late again. I have no idea what happened to those tracks. And I really don't want to know.

Closeup of guitar effects
pedal rig

Let's wrap up this series with an interview featuring a different type of engineer.  Dunlop engineers have satisfied most of our gear and effects questions on their blog.  This is a great way to get in the minds of the creators behind some of the great Dunlop tools.  Check it out here at http://www.jimdunlop.com/blog/?p=2772.

You asked and we answered! We answered over 50 of the questions that you posted on our Facebook wall yesterday about our MXR, Cry Baby, Way Huge, and Dunlop Electronics pedals. Most of the questions you asked were left untouched—spelling errors and all—but some of the questions we couldn’t answer due to various reasons. For those of you who didn’t ask a question, it might be worth it to comb through the list and see if your question was listed. Don’t forget that we do have a customer service (customerservice@jimdunlop.com) and technical support (technicalsupport@jimdunlop.com) department that will always help you with your questions and concerns. Many thanks to JT (not to be confused with Jeorge Tripps) for answering all of your questions for today’s “Ask an engineer”. What do you think about this piece? Would you like to see more of these type of posts? We’d love to get some feedback—leave your comments below. Without much further ado, let’s get to the questions.

Thomas Spence asks: What distortion pedal is best for djent?
JT: Check Alex’s response below. Also consider getting a noise gate for tightening up the sound.
* Alex Plant suggests: Get the 10-band EQ, bump the 1.6Khz a lot and the 800 a bit, then cut the low end to taste and dispose of a bit of the low mids. Put this after a distortion pedal and you have TEH DJENT. Alternatively get a 5150/6505, Engl Invader, or a Recto and boost that with a TS808 with tone and level cranked with drive at 0.

Nate Andrews says: love your picks. That Jazz III is a shredder.
JT: Thanks! Don’t forget to try the other Jazz III’s as well: Ultex, Max Grip, Carbon Fiber, XL, New Jazz III 2.0, Tortex and Eric Johnson Jazz III.

Rex Alan Gordon asks: Will you ever re-issue the MXR Flanger Doubler Rackmount? at an affordable price or via pedal?
JT: Currently no plans to reissue this product. But that doesn’t mean it will never happen.

Eetu Tuominen asks: What’s the best metal distortion pedal?? :O
JT: Fullbore Metal! Also the new ’78 Badass Distortion is coming out soon; the Way Huge Swollen Pickle will get some killer metal tones when dialed in right.

Steve McCarthy asks: My old Crybaby ac power input was broken and resoldered, I get a signal through it when it’s off, but when i click it to “wah” I get nothing?
JT: Call customer service, they will take care of you. Our tech support is top notch. We don’t route you to another country or leave you with guys who don’t really use our products. Our tech room is located in Benicia, CA and staffed with real musicians. Just be kind and patient (it’s really only 3 dudes in a small room), and they’ll return the favor.

Jordan Smith asks: So I have a general question. I have a 100W PA with 10” speakers enclosures and lately ive noticed a noise coming out of them that resembles a blown speaker when i play any of my instruments through them. When I sing it doesnt happen and when i play my music from my PC through it it doesnt happen. I believe my XLR inputs are messing up…. any ideas?
JT: Depends on what instruments you’re putting in. You might just be overdriving the inputs to your mixer preamp, especially if you’re using keyboards or other line level gear. If the mixer has line inputs, use them. If you have a gain adjust, turn it down then use the level faders to bring them up to volume in the mix.

Lawrence Garza asks: Is there any way to get a broader sweep range on a Cry Baby without modifying it?
JT: Not really… you’ll need to be handy with a soldering iron for any kind of modification.




Carlos A. Trasviña asks: I have an MXR El Grande Bass Fuzz and I love it!! buuuut… its suuuper loud, its so loud that I can’t even dream of putting the volume at 3 o’clock… is there any way I can change that high gain or volume?? is there a trimpot or something I can move to lower the volume knob??? Thanks!!
JT: Sorry, there’s no internal adjust for the volume. The one internal trimmer inside the El Grande is to change the level of the DEEP function.

John J Roderick asks: What about a true, period correct, reissue of the 70′s MXR Distortion plus? Same circuit, no switch mounted to PCB, no LED? I have three and they sound FAR and AWAY different (better) than anything made from early 80′s on. Really, a completely different sound
JT: Hang on a little longer… late 2011.

Inzo Der Barrakuda asks: How come on your MXR pedals like the Dyna Comp and Phase 90- most of your pedals I’m sure, have the power plug connector down on the right side below the input jack? I think it’s awkward and clashes with the input jack. I once got rid of a Phase 90 and got a BOSS Phaser instead because the power plug wouldn’t stay in place. All other pedals for the most part have the power input on the top.
JT: It was a standard established before my time here. I figure it’s because we use jack normalling to disconnect the power when there’s no plug in the input jack. It makes sense to keep the power close to the input jack in this case.

Steve Andrews: How many man hours are dedicated to R&D at Dunlop, and on average how many projects never make it to market? Thanks!
JT: It’s hard to quantify how many hours we spend in R&D. A lot of time and effort goes into making a product. Many of us employees are also musicians, so we tend to obsess over the details. We can spend months tweaking a pedal until we’re satisfied.

Frank Berdini asks: Can the MXR GT-OD run on 18 volts?
JT: Replace power filter capacitor C9 with 100MF, 25V rated part or higher. C9 comes from the factory spec’d at 16V only, this is the only part that will be stressed by using 18V.

Justin Maples asks: Explain the harmonic saturator and if its a true distortion or if it will draw out my harmonics even more than my duncan blackouts do
JT: The fat sandwich? Yes, it’s a true distortion. Not sure how it will react with your pickups.

Marvin Byrne asks: Have you considered making a rack FX unit, featuring all the best Dunlop effects? Chorus, Delay, Flanger, Phaser, Rotovibe, maybe reverb? And an analog pitch shifter, rival the buggy Digitech Whammy. You guys cover pedals well, but I’d like to see you branch further into rackmount units, I’m more people agree. Whilst I’m on it, bring out that octave-fuzz wah you prototyped for Dimebag whilst he was with Damageplan.
JT: No plans for a rack unit at the moment. Might be some kind of octave fuzz in the works.

Chris Overend asks: Can you recommend settings for the Swollen Pickle when used with a bass guitar? I’m trying to get a warm smooth fuzz, keeping the low end, but not sounding crackly
JT: We asked our bass products manager, he recommended: Loudness: 9; Filter: 1; Sustain: 3:30; Scoop: 3; Crunch: 7; internal clip: 3; internal voice: 9. If you have a mixer, trying blend both the dry and fuzz signals together and you might get what you’re looking for.

Paul Connolly asks: When is the Ringworm Ring Modulator released in the UK?
JT: It will be released in the US possibly in August 2011. We ship to our picinternational customers after.

Don Bowen Jr. asks: tell us some of the most popular Mods for these pedals
JT: I’m just gonna point you to a nice article on a Distortion+ mod:
http://www.premierguitar.com/magazine/issue/2008/Dec/MXR_Distortion_Plus_Mods.aspx


Boone McBride asks: Why can’t the crybaby classic function without sounding broken and useless, even immediately upon purchase? I.e. scratchy sounds of pot/mechanical movements, tone sucking, and weak wah effect with which to begin? Thank god for my parents, christmas, and in turn my fulltone clyde standard! Creamy.
JT: Sorry to hear you got a bad unit. We make sure every unit is fully tested before we ship them out, but occasionally we get field failures. Please contact customer service, they’ll help you out, even if you’re out of warranty.

David Figueroa asks: I have the dyna comp where is the best place to put on my board and what setting should I use to get a gilmour type sound
JT: Generally compressors would come first in line, unless there’s a wah, then it will be second. Check out this comprehensive site dedicated to Gilmour’s setup: http://www.gilmourish.com/?page_id=205

Christopher Wright asks: Does the new Micro Flanger still use the SAD512 chip, or has the circuit been redesigned to use a substitute? I didn’t think that part was available anymore.
JT: The SAD512 chip as made by Reticon is no longer available. We do use a 512-stage delay line similar to the MN3204.

Dustin Shifflett asks: Why did you start putting Hot Potz in all of your Crybabies? They don’t sound nearly as authentic as a real, CTS 100K pot.
JT: I disagree. Our hot potz is a custom designed potentiometer with an optimized taper and has been tested for over 1 million cycles. It is a superior potentiometer and we are proud to be using it in our products.


Adrian Reyes asks:  Will you guys ever release any other special edition pedals? Like with different colors and looks?
JT: We once did a silver M80 bass DI for Japan exclusively. Just keep on the lookout, I’m sure more will be coming.

Don Bowen asks:  Jr. c’mon Dunlop,, we kinow your capable.Blow are fkn minds w/an awesome new product(pedal). not jst some average bs pedal…something new, innovative, step away from the norm for a change, pull something out of R&D…why let all those hours of research go to waste,,, c’mon, we have faith in you!
JT: Check out the new bass compressor coming out later in 2011. It works great with guitar too. As for research hours… most of our time is spent just keeping things running smoothly. We’ve continually expanded the product line over the years while keeping the same size R&D staff. It’s a small operation we have here, so we are often called upon to do non-engineering tasks.

Jonathon Lanier asks:  Is there a mod out there to extend the time on the Aqua Puss? Great pedal, just really short.
JT: I don’t recommend extending the delay time, you’d really be running into the limits of the bucket brigade chip. You’ll probably hear weird artifacts. If you want to have at it, tweak TR1 inside the pedal. That changes the clock frequency. Don’t mess with the other trim pots, you’ll regret it—nothing to be gained, and you can’t reset them without an oscilloscope.

Neil Oler asks:  On wah pedals, have you guys ever thought about doing custom-built inductors that have a dummy coil of sorts that you could run DC through and adjust the current going through it? You could have a variable saturation on the coil to simulate coils that have been partially magnetized.
JT: Might be a good experiment, but I doubt it will ever get beyond the workbench. We already use a custom, high-quality inductor that sounds great and is non-microphonic.



Dennis Odocharty asks: I bought an unusual pedal in a pawn shop last week …I believe it’s a GCB-950 Octave Wah……I’ve been trying to get the Octave -fuzz sound heard on Band of Gypsy’s (Who Knows) and it comes pretty close to some of the more high dollar devices out there like the Fulltone Ultimate Octave. Can you tell me when these were made and how to get the most out of the seemingly multiple features ?
JT: The GCB-95O came out around 1992. Very limited production. According to our Director it was an attempt at getting the Octavio sound. We make a real Octavio now. You can try using the pedal as a variable tone distortion pedal instead of a wah—you don’t need to always rock the pedal back and forth.


Tj Hyler asks:  My Dimebag Crybaby from Hell is great, but i’ve loosened the pedal set screw as much as possible and the movement is still really herky jerky. Any tips? PS- love the treble boost.
JT: Check to make sure the pot is moving smoothly, and that the rack and pinion gear are aligned and meshing correctly. If they check out, call customer support and send the pedal in. The torsion block assembly isn’t the easiest thing to service yourself.

Cody H asks: Why should I choose a CryBaby instead of another [other company’s] Wah?
JT: Choose a Cry Baby because it is a superior product. Some wahs use a light dependent resistor to sweep the frequency of the wah filter. Our wahs use a potentiometer (a variable resistor) to move the filter. Light dependent resistors have memory to them, and can’t respond in real time. Any optical wah isn’t going to track as you sweep the pedal quickly. Pot controlled wahs react in real time. Cry Babies have a smaller footprint, and a rotational range that is optimal for wah work.

Acoustic guitar recording
session

John A. asks:  Everling What’s you opinion of the mini pig mod to the blue mxr 10 band eq? I love love love it.
JT: Sorry, we’re not familiar with that mod. Link?

Inzo Der Barrakuda asks:  You can see right on your homepage- 4 MXR pedals in a row, and with the patch cables shaped like a U, you can’t plug a power cable in it, so I have to reverse my patch cables so they’re shaped like an arch.
JT: Sorry, can’t do anything about the power jack locations for now.

Chris Cannon asks:  What is the difference between the Mxr kfk 10 band eq vs the Mxr 10 band eq? Also what’s the difference between the Mxr analog chours and the BLS chours? Am I paying more for just a name on a pedal when they are the same pedals?
JT: KFK10 has stereo outputs and KFK graphics. Analog chorus is the same as BLS chorus. In this case, it was the BLS chorus that came out first, then we decided to release the analog chorus as an option for those who weren’t interested in owning a Zakk pedal. Hope that doesn’t sound too unreasonable.

Hayden Smith asks:  What do you think of a delay pedal in an expression pedal format? That way you could change your delay time in real time, or get those crazy delay sounds without having to turn knobs on the floor.
JT: We’ve built a couple of those before. Don’t think it will turn into a product though…

Jon Erickson asks:  When a guitarist turns the gain knob up on his mxr pedal or turns up the volume knob on his guitar, what is the difference, is all “gain” actually gain or is something else happening?
JT: The volume knob on your guitar is passive and only attenuates, or reduces, the level. It has no gain. Pedals that have gain are actually amplifying the signal. Usually gain knobs on pedals are for distortions, so that means we’re just amplifying until the signal starts clipping. We then tame the volume to an acceptable level with an output knob.



Mitchell Stringer  asks: what is the difference between a true bypass pedal and a non true bypass pedal?
JT: Gonna point you to an article I wrote a while ago:
http://www.jimdunlop.com/blog/?p=384

Liam Ghramm  asks: Who invented the first distortion pedal?
JT: Some sources cite Roger Mayer as having invented the first distortion pedal.

Dave Brown  asks: What is the difference between gain/over drive and distortion.
JT: Generally it has to do with how much gain is applied. Gain is just boosting the signal with no coloration or distortion. Overdrive is mild distortion, sometimes referred to as soft clipping. Distortion squares off your signal causing more harmonics and a richer, dirtier sound.

Don Bowen Jr.  asks: are they actually gonna answer any of these questions?….lol… C’mon Dunlop…”YOU” started this!!….:) \,,/ BUDGIE Rocks!!!!
JT: Yes, I am answering all of them!!!

Ryan Fleming  asks: I’m totally in love with my M134 Stereo Chorus pedal – what makes it sound so different from the Analog Chorus and Black Label pedals? Can you talk about the chips used in your different choruses? Are they bucket brigade, and what does bucket brigade mean? Can you talk about delay time, its impact on chorus sound and what delay times your different chorus pedals are set to?
JT: The differences have to do with the type of noise reduction used, and the shape of the filters in the pedal. We use a 1024-stage bucket brigade chip in our chorus pedals. Bucket brigade is just a [cutesy] term for a long line of capacitors that store your signal. Each time we clock the chip, it passes the signal from one capacitor to the next, and the time it takes for the signal to get through all 1024 stages is the total delay time. The micro chorus goes from 3.9ms to 5.4ms, the stereo chorus maxes out at 16ms. The signal delay time has a direct effect on which frequencies are cancelled out.

Robert Morrison  asks: What’s the deal with that octave/fuzz/wah pedal prototype that you guys were working on with Dime before he died? I’d love to get my hands on one! \m/
JT: We always get artist approval for each of our signature products, so that means no more Dime pedals.



Rodrigo Florentino  asks: Sáez Mata Justo got my Zack Wylde signature Cry Baby¡¡¡ Whats the difference y sweep and wah range compared to Kirk Hammetts’ or the original one?¡¡ Thanls¡¡ Awesome gear¡
JT: The Kirk Hammett pedal is voiced a little darker, the frequency sweep is lower than the standard CryBaby.

Skunk Knuks  asks: my bypass or on off switch on my crybaby doesnt work wat shud i do
JT: Send it in for repair! Contact techincalsupport@jimdunlop.com and they’ll take it from there.

Phil Rogers  asks: I got one, i have a sw95 wah but the wires on the battery conectors snapped, where can i get a uk replacement? can you put thicker cables on the ac adaptors too,? they’re so flimsy and easy to break, putting a thicker  sheath round the outs…
JT: Call customer service, we can send you a new one. We’ll keep the concerns about the power cables in mind when we need to do a redesign.

Christian Molenaar  asks: can you send me free stuff?
JT: That’s what Facebook Fridays are for! Good luck!

Bill Bruns  asks: Why does the Crybaby have the power jack under the signal path making it hard to run your daisy chain to it. Why is the pin so far back that several daisy chains do not work with crybaby’s?
JT: Just a standard that was established a long, long time ago. Sorry!



Ian Darrah  asks: Why are Way Huge pedals so expensive when I can get another pedal that sounds better for less?
JT: Way Huge pedals are built to Jeorge Tripps’ specs. Sometimes I agree with them, sometimes I don’t because he often wants to use the most expensive parts possible. You are paying for a premium in over-specified components, the fancy anodized finish, and doing things the hard way. The relay bypass scheme isn’t cheap! As for sounds better, it’s all subjective and depends on each person’s rig, guitar, playing style, etc. We should feel fortunate to have so many choices today.

Sandy Aphid  asks: I have all MXR (microAmp, microChorus, CarbonCopy) in the fx loop of an LR Baggs ParaDI. It’s all good. But put a GT-OD in the loop and it the ParaDI hates it. Any thoughts why?
JT: What do you mean by hates it? Tone loss? No signal? The GT-OD isn’t much different in the way its constructed than say, a microamp. Check for the obvious stuff, like bad cables and power connection, and try to isolate the problem. If all else fails, call tech support.

Mirko Zara  asks: I bought the distrotion lll and is my favourite pedal… the question I have is why when I put gain and distortion at 3 o´clock in my distortion chanel makes a huuuuuuuge anstopable noise??? even in bypass, WASN´T TRU BYPASS… THAT SAYS THE MANUAL THANKS…
Mirko.
JT: The Distortion III is true bypass. True bypass is not always good.  True bypass often means you are increasing the amount of capacitive loading on your guitar signal. This can translate into tone suck, or noise pickup, or oscillations depending on what else you’ve got in your signal chain. Buffers and buffered bypass help preserve your signal. So by having true bypass in the distortion III, it sounds like something else in your rig is now no longer playing nicely. Put a buffer at the start of the signal chain and see if it helps.


Corey Jp Philpott  asks: I have a brand new Dunlop Cry Baby and it just doesn’t seem to have much WAH to it at all, not sure what I’m doing wrong, it’s a pretty simple set up, i’m using the ac adapter made for it not the 9V battery
JT: Hm, I guess you should exchange it for another one. If it sounds the same, then perhaps try one of our many different wah models.

Amin Saffar  asks: I’ve got a M-115, ZW-44, 535Q, you know i used all of them in our new song,but in studio I had some problem with M-115 and ZW-44 actually both of them is great but when i combine M-115 or ZW-44, with Overdrive 2, channel of my AVT Marshall, will i expect when i use them just in clean channel i could get this kind of sound, why these need combine to dirt amp in order to have Fat, Crunchy,Huge Distortion?, another problem is higher string when i play sound become some thing like mute sound or i cant here a right sound, i had this problem when i combine with OD2 channel in my amp,not to say OD gain of my amp when using with MXRS is in 9 O’Clock
JT: For some people, using the distortion pedals into a clean channel is enough. It sounds like you’re going after a very extreme sound, and in that case you will need the extra gain from your amp. Also, overdriving your tube amp will add a distinct character to the sound that has always been difficult to capture in pedals. As for the weird high string sounds, I’m not sure what that could be. Try isolating the pedals or using EQ to try to tame it.

Einar Daði  asks: I bought a MXR DD-11 distortion pedal and it’s too noisie, i can’t really use it…. and the rest of my band hates it and the sound guys too. I don’t have the gain knob turned up to 100%, but from 30 – 60% and i tried to loop it but it still hums a lot. What’s the deal with that? I’m always buying new pedals and i have a good collection, but this is the first distortion pedal i bought from Dunlop… and probably the last one. Hope you can help.
JT: The DD-11 shouldn’t be that noisy. Noise can come from a lot of sources other than the pedal. If you feed the pedal a noisy signal from your guitar, it’s going to amplify it. If you have more gain on your amp, then it will make it even worse. Noise can build up quickly. First ensure that your rig without the pedal isn’t generating a lot of noise, and if you are positive it is the pedal consider picking up a noise gate.

Scott Longman  asks: I just wanted to say how much I LOVE my Dunlop JC95 (Jerry Cantrell model) Wah pedal. I can’t say enough good things about this wah. It is simply the most beautiful sounding wah I have ever played – and it looks killer too!! Corey Jp Philpott commented above that he is not getting enough wah out of his cry-baby. I would recommend that Corey try out the JC95.
JT: Thanks for the recommendation!

Brandon Magliano  asks: No question here. You guys should come out with a bass synth pedal to recreate those wobbly bass synth lines in dubstep.
JT: Using the bass octave deluxe with the dry signal turned down can produce some synth-like sounds. Also try out the blue box.

I'm a firm believer that sound engineers and product engineers are valuable resources for every guitarist in the industry.  Make it a point at your next gig to introduce yourself to the sound man or woman and strike up some of these conversations.  Not only will they help you produce your best sound on that gig, they typically have a number of connections that could keep you busy playing for a very long time.

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Mike