Category: news

What is the first time you think about guitar sound? well, that will be a question with so many various answers. you may think about combo amps like roland jazz chorus and PEAVEY bandit 112, or  pickups and guitar wood, but this time, I’ll take the most popular one, DISTORTION… haha..from what i learned, there are SO many types of distortion pedals, and i was really confused about this. what i can do more in colorizing my guitar sound? what exactly the distortion type when i do soloing parts? why my rhythm and riffs is too old-fashioned for my own ears?.. and there will be more questions when it comes to guitar sound. then i decided to choose one analog distortion pedal to begin with. so i choose Empress Effects Multidrive Effects Pedal (all these years I’d been using digital effects because of their easy and ready-to-use features. yes, using the presets and modify everything blindly). from this Empress Effects Multidrive simplicity(compared to digital effects, YES) i can see that i have 3 types of distorted sound, the fuzz face, overdrive and distortion. and i think these are the main types of distortion effects. put them on Google search and i found some great articles which define each of it in great ways. (this stuff made me read a lot and refine my knowledge about effects pedal and guitar sounds) :

• fuzz face: The “fuzz” sound is similar to damaged speaker sound. Actually, first time this type of sound is invented by ripping or poking holes in guitar amplifier speaker. It is defined as  classic sound, and well used by famous guitarists. For me, Jimi Hendrix and Eric Johnson are best in fuzz experiences.
• overdrive: it’s a soft clipping of the distorted wave sound. you can check many of blues guitar players use overdrive pedals as their main sound enhancements. it’s just beautiful!
• distortion: this is the hard clipping version of distortion sound. the wave sound is nearly square and this sound is used widely in range of music genres. you will love the way how Steve Vai uses this.

Empress Effects Multidrive Effects Pedal has them in one analog pedal. it’s very interesting, it is Canadian hand-made and i can combine 3 types of distortion on my guitar sound. one thing that i love most from this pedal is that my guitar tone is safely delivered to amps. it won’t disturb your tone pitches, or making chords sounds blurry. it just suits on my need. (I’ve tried satchurator and ice 9 overdrive from vox, but i was really unhappy about the sound, so i sold them. i learned that Mr. Satchafunkilus is a virtuoso of his playing, his gears suit his needs, not mine)

Empress Effects Multidrive

here i share my Empress Effects Multidrive Effects Pedal pics. so far I’m satisfied with this stuff and you can find empress multidrive detailed review here, but for my profession purposes, i still use Boss GT 8 digital effects unit. more interesting this is, i can combine them and i think i will save this topic for later. (still looking the best video recorder for my blog purposes).
i hope everyone is enjoying my review. see you soon

guitar picks/plectrum

but, actually which one is our favorite? all we can do is trying them one by one to decide which one fits to our playing. it can’t be decided just by reading articles and recommendations. but here I share some thoughts about guitar picks/plectrums those affect our guitar playing.

Your picking technique affects all reason in choosing guitar picks/plectrum. here i share video of Steve Morse’s essential idea in picking technique. He has quite unique picking grip which enhances his guitar skills. (at least that’s what he told us on the video, ^_^ )

guitar picks thickness

Size. the picks width is one thing for your consideration. for me, i like the small one like dunlop jazz III because it touches the string perfectly without adding annoying picks’ space like the usual one.

guitar picks Sizes

Grip. some picks have grip texture that helps us to grab(pinch?) it in convenient way. here i share some guitar picks images, you can see here how manufacturers modify this grip stuff.

what suits me? Dunlop Nylon Jazz Pick Pack, Sharp/Red is fine for my playing. it suits best on my grip. but who knows? if you want some more, here i share my pick recommendations on amazon. happy picking!