STOMP SCHOOL
toM HUGHS
Doing Your Homework, Part 1
Hey there, fellow gear gluttons! Welcome
back to “Stomp School.” This month’s
topic may seem at first a little too literally like school, since it’s called “Doing Your
Homework.” Fortunately, this is the kind of
homework that’s mostly fun, and it won’t seem
a whole lot like work once you get into it.
Just as mastering your instrument takes a
certain amount of study and practice, the
ability to skillfully operate your equipment
also requires a good bit of work. It’s not just
the technical knowledge of how each piece
of gear works, but the actual experience of
using it that will yield the desired results. I’m
continually surprised at how many players try
to sidestep this part of the process. I’m sure
you never expected that just buying a nice
guitar would give you the ability to play it. So
it stands to reason that mere ownership of
other gear doesn’t necessarily give you great
tone. You need to do your homework.
I was reminded of how important this is last
week when the owner of a local music store
called me in a quandary. He had just ordered
a batch of Black Cat pedals and was having
a problem with one of them. I asked him
what was wrong with the pedal, and he said
he wasn’t sure—it just “didn’t sound right.”
Obviously, this had me greatly concerned, so
I headed down to his shop as soon as I could.
When I got to the store, the owner told me,
“a kid wanted to try this pedal, and when he
plugged it in, it sounded terrible.” He then
suggested I try the pedal myself, adding
“maybe we were doing something wrong.”
Sure enough, once I got set up with an axe
and amp, I fired up the pedal in question,
took a minute to dial it in, and started jamming away. It sounded great!
“Wow!” the storeowner said, “it didn’t sound
like that when we tried it.” Granted, I’m
probably a much more skilled player than
the prospective customer, but I was sure that
the problem had nothing to do with chops.
I asked him where they had the knobs set
on the pedal, and he said, “Oh, we didn’t
play around with the knobs too much.” Now,
this may sound like the punchline of a bad
joke, but it’s a true story. What’s more, this
particular pedal only had three knobs, so it
wasn’t overly complicated. It got me wondering how many people really expect to plug
into a piece of gear and have it sound just
the way they want it to without having to do
anything. I mean, the knobs are there for a
reason, right?
I tend to forget that
tweaking knobs on
guitar pedals is part of
my job, and has been
for a long time, so I
take it for granted that
everyone knows what to
do when plugging into
the average stompbox.
I tend to forget that tweaking knobs on gui-
tar pedals is part of my job, and has been
for a long time, so I take it for granted that
everyone knows what to do when plug-
ging into the average stompbox. Although
the above example is a little extreme, it
illustrates a tendency I’ve noticed in a lot of
players to get locked into a certain way of
using their gear without ever testing the full
range and capability of each piece. Maybe
it’s time to start thinking outside the (stomp)
box. Whenever I get a new pedal that I’m
not familiar with, I give it the “Quick Test.”
Basically, I take a minute to quickly familiarize
myself with the entire range of every control
on the pedal. When I worked at Analog Man,
it was a routine matter to test an entire case
of 24 modified Tube Screamers in a few min-
utes using this method.
To “Quick Test” an average guitar pedal, first
plug the pedal in by itself, using only your
guitar, amp, and two cables, making sure the
pedal is properly powered with a fresh battery or the correct adapter. Be sure to take a
minute to set your bypassed signal to taste
and let your ear adjust. If the pedal has a
Volume control, you may want to turn that
knob down before you start until you get an
idea of how loud it will be. Next, set all the
other controls at 12 o’clock, or whatever the
equivalent midway point is likely to be. Turn
the pedal on, hit some strings, and then listen.
Now, test each control one by one, turning
each knob through its entire range, from fully
counterclockwise to fully clockwise, before
returning to midway. You should be able to
identify the function of each control as you’re
turning the knob, regardless of what the label
says. Having a better idea of the full range of
each control, you can go on to see how they
interact with each other. Most importantly,
remember to listen, listen, listen…
Try this with some of your old stomps; I guarantee you’ll hear something new. Then get ready
for the more advanced knob twisting, pedal
tweaking tricks we have in store in our next session. Until then, KEEP ON STOMPIN’!
Tom Hughes
(a.k.a. Analog Tom) is the owner and proprietor of For
Musicians Only ( formusiciansonly.com) and author of
Analog Man’s Guide To Vintage Effects. Questions or
comments about this article can be sent to:
stompschool@formusiciansonly.com.
Analog Man
( analogman.com) is one of the largest boutique
effects manufacturers and retailers in the business,
established by “Analog” Mike Piera in 1993.
Mike can be reached at AnalogMike@aol.com.
