So Many Choices..
Image copyright quotefancy.com
Regular reader Tim, recently reiterated a valuable point. At this time, guitarists and bassists have more options in gear whether instruments, amplifiers, effects pedals, modellers and interfaces at reasonable prices than ever in history. It’s a great opportunity but also a great challenge.
Now before you think of the quote attributed to John F Kennedy that the Chinese words for opportunity and crisis are the same thing, I hate to disappoint you, but a Chinese person will tell you that this is not factually so. As a bit of distraction, the Chinese way of saying crisis or danger is wei xian and the way of saying opportunity is ji huay, written in the Pinyin anglicization. I have no Chinese language skills whatsoever, and presume no talent in this, I found this distinction on multiple occasions on the Internet while checking the accuracy of the phraseology.
Back on track. We do have plenty of options, but that number of options can lead to option paralysis, overspending and self-delusion.
What Do We Want from an Instrument?
Sane people want an instrument that fits their hands and their bodies. An instrument that is comfortable to play and pain free for hours on end. An instrument that delivers the sound and tonality that pleases the individual. An instrument that works within the individual’s rational budget.
The less sane buy because of the sticker, decal or transfer on the instrument. A decal does not make an instrument better. An Artist Signature means nothing to the player who is not the artist. No matter how many Eric Johnson or Jeff Beck Stratocasters you play or buy, you will never be either of them. Or anyone other than yourself. Some people believe that by spending more for a logo, they get a better instrument. Manufacturers depend and love these customers, because quality and playability matter more than the actual usability.
So what to do? Figure out your budget and go to a real guitar store and try a bunch of instruments that interest you, not the sales person. While I do not believe that sales people generally try to ram whatever they are overstocked on down your throat, they must adhere to the demands of the business and those demands probably don’t align with you. When you find something that feels good, stays in tune, is comfortable to play standing, sitting or however you play, that sounds good through whatever you are going to use it with if amplified, get to a short list and then if the store staff will help you, do a blindfold test. Now the instrument label doesn’t matter and you pick what you like best at that time. It’s possible that your tastes may change over time, welcome to reality. And demand that the instrument be setup properly by a qualified guitar technician before it leaves the store. A proper setup solves more buyer’s remorse than most any other thing.
If you are considering an acoustic guitar that you will want to plug into an amplifier, test play it plugged into an amplifier. Most acoustic amplifiers are really just crappy PA systems. A really good acoustic amplifier will be expensive, or you will need an excellent preamp pedal between the guitar and the generic acoustic amplifier. If you choose, you can trust me implicitly on this point.
What Do We Want from an Amplifier?
If can be sufficiently adult to ignore the label or sticker and be honest about how and where we will use the amplifier and what volume we will use it at, and then combine that with what we can afford to spend, we will then reduce the number of options dramatically. For example, you might really want a specific amp, but if to get the tones you love, it has to be much louder than your uses will sustain, it may be a great amp, but it’s not a great amp for you.
Depending on where you go and who you speak to, you will hear that real musicians only use tube amps. This is bullshit. Many professional musicians use completely different gear on stage vs in the studio and many don’t use amps at all, instead using a modeller that can be multiple amps, speaker cabinets and microphones that goes direct to the house PA or to the recording interface
We sense that louder is always better. That is a physiological reality, but temper that in where you will play. If you are playing at home in an apartment, a powerful amp is going to cause you a lot of neighbour problems. You might be better served by a much smaller digital amplifier or amplifier in a pedal that you can play at anytime into a pair of headphones. Your use case drives the amplifier choice, and be honest with yourself, even if you will be playing live, most venues for the rest of us set volume limits and may REQUIRE that your sound go through the house PA and not even allow an amp on stage at all.
Choose according to how you will need to use the amp 90% of the time. It’s tough to ignore the opinions of others or all the marketing bullshit, but in this as in anything, the only opinion that matters is your own. If you discard all the crap, you might find that something the marketing world doesn’t talk about is perfect for you. How do you find out? Go play them yourself in a real guitar store. You cannot do that online. At least not yet.
What Do We Want from a Pedal?
All of them seems to be the most common answer, but let’s step back and think about what we are looking for specifically? Let’s say you are looking for a specific tonal range that delivers a good representation of what you hear on a particular recording. You have to bear in mind that what you hear is likely to have been well recorded, properly mixed and produced by a person who knows his or her business. As with instruments and amps, there is a ton of stuff you will never see or know about how a recording was accomplished.
Some folks are well served by multi-effects systems. They provide multiple effects in single units. Some have great user interfaces and some appear designed by an alien with no understanding of human physiology or eyesight. Many are very good sounding and many sound like a turtle puking up everything eaten in the last year, so the only way to find out is to try many. If the multi effect system does many things and many sounds that serve you great choice, but if you really like only one option, move along. And to be clear, auditioning a multi effect system is going to take hours to do well, not minutes and you will have to learn the user interface. Not all real guitar stores will support this kind of educated buying. If the one that you are in, does not, time to go somewhere else.
Others prefer selecting individual pedals that deliver specific responses. This is where I tend to be, but caution, debt and bankruptcy are points on this road. Again do your research and then test play using your guitar and the same amp that you use at the volume that you will play most of the time. Pedals sound very different depending on the output volume. If you are going to use the new pedal in conjunction with other pedals that you already love, consider bring those pedals, cables and power supplies for your evaluation. It’s easy to say, well I will just return it if I don’t like it and you sure can in many cases, but what a colossal waste of time that becomes for everyone.
How many pedals does one really need? The ones that you will use most all of the time. There are hundreds of Klon clones and in the end they all sound about the same. There is no magical property in capacitors, resistors, and chips. They do what they do. When you get the sound you are seeking, you’ve found the answer, and as in everything, the label doesn’t matter.
What Do We Want in a Modeller?
Modellers tend to be the latest evolution of instrument tools. They have amplifier modelling, speaker cabinet modelling, microphone modelling, and some even have effects modelling. The quality of the sound is based entirely on the quality of the model. Models are often referred to as captures, but what makes a good capture is time consuming because the final model needs to take into account all the different capabilities of the device being modelled, which would include all the different values of volume controls, tone controls and anything else in the model. Most really decent models don’t include common in amp features such as reverb or tremolo (commonly misnamed vibrato). It is my experience that the more entry level the modeller is the more effects are part of the model and the worse the model sounds. You pay less. And you get what you pay for.
You can get a very decent modelling box in the IK Multimedia TONEX pedal. The individual models are quite good, and you get a massive selection included with the price. No one actually needs 100 different amp sims but that is the selling point lots of makers use. For around $500 CAD, I like the device a lot. If you want a much more serious modelling device that can also make superlative captures (a very different process and demanding to do well - most are done really poorly) then you are spending over two grand in the depreciated Canadian dollar. Your options are Kemper, Quad Cortex and Fractal. All are superb and massively powerful digital signal processors that sound like real amplifiers and can be run to FRFR cabinets, PA systems or the recording desk without compromise. None of them have a short and simple learning curve regardless of the cost, so be prepared to invest time with your new unit to determine if it works for you, and try to avoid making your final decision based on only a few models that come with the box. Like presets on pedals, some models are so overloaded in their models with crap that no sane person would ever consider using the presets. If it sounds like turtle puke to you, it is turtle puke.
What Do We Want in an Interface
Today we can get instrument to computer interfaces from as low as a hundred bucks to thousands of dollars. What the heck is the difference. Let’s consider what an interface does. It take an analog input signal and converts it to digital and then sends that digital signal to the computer via USB or Thunderbolt. There is an analog to digital converter and yes there are differences in audio quality, but can you hear them? Some interfaces also allow for connection of studio monitors and thus there is a digital to analog converter to take the digital signal from the computer and convert it to analog to play through the monitors. If that sounds very simple, that is because it IS very simple.
So what drives the cost differential of these interfaces? First, the number of active channels at one time. Most do two channels to start, but you will find four, eight and even more channel devices. The number of channels only matters for most of us by how many tracks we are recording simultaneously. If it is one instrument and maybe a simultaneous vocal, you only need two. if you are miking a drum kit with multiple individual microphones so each drum or cymbal has its own track in the mix, then you will need more inputs.
Most all interfaces have preamps in them for microphones. The quality of the preamp matters if you want to influence the vocal sound with the built in preamps. However, all DAWs of note, allow the application of preamp modelling and some even support microphone modelling using specific recording microphones. The days of spending a tone of money on an interface for the quality of the preamp still exist, but it is far less critical than it once was. You will find LOTS of options here, and it is a sad truth that finding objective guidance in a music store can be challenging because seller skills in this area are commonly lax or non-existent. You cannot go wrong with an interface from Universal Audio or SSL. Their USB connected interfaces are superb and they have really good preamps. The same can be said for Focusrite options. You can certainly spend a lot more, such as for the higher end SSL and the Thunderbolt based UA products or the Clarett or RED lines from the same company as Focusrite, but the better question is how much processing you want to do at time of recording versus how much you want to do on the core track during mix and production. Think about what you will do today and over the next couple of years and buy accordingly. As with any other market, the bullshit is more than hip deep so focus on your own hearing and not someone else’s.
Wrapping Up
We have such a massive collection of options available to us, that with a bit of research and some honest, objective thinking, it’s darn hard to go wrong. No matter what gear you choose, it’s only ever going to be a tool in your workshop. The craft or the art or whatever label you want to stick on things is only in you. No gear makes you better, but focusing on gear and not yourself is a guarantee of less success.
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