Good morning!
Matty Flatt again. It’s my last day covering for Fitzie for a while. I said that just a couple of weeks ago as well, so thanks for making me a liar, Fitzie.
Today, you’re in luck. I’m not going to talk about cricket today.
I’m going to talk about guitar effects pedals.
“Okay,” you say, as your eyes glaze over.
I’ve mentioned before I’m a musician; it’s not my main gig, it’s something I do on the side. Kind of like writing for Cartilage Free Captain! But electric guitar in some ways was my first love.
Have you ever wondered how guitarists get some of the crazy sounds they get? Jimi Hendrix, and his intro to Voodoo Chile? Or The Edge, with his crazy echoes bouncing around arenas? Or Jack White, creating the auditory equivalent of a buzzsaw?
It’s all these glorious little things called effects pedals. They make your guitar go quack. They make your guitar go whoosh. They make your guitar go GRRR. They make your guitar go go go go go go go go go go go go
Talk to any guitarist you know. Pedals are like Legos for us. Modular, creative, and just sparking that little part of your brain that wants to invent.
Here’s a rendering of my pedalboard:
One of the fun parts of pedals is deciding how you want to arrange them. It’s like a delicate game of Tetris. Which pedals do you need to quickly access? How do you want your signal to flow? How are you going to fit cabling? Sometimes I spend hours hunched over my board, trying different combinations, arrangements, running cables, to the point where I cause myself back problems. And that’s before I even try to lift the damn thing.
All of these pedals do something to the signal that comes out of my guitar, which eventually is amplified through some sort of playback system. Some of those somethings are subtle; some are intense. I won’t bore you with the specifics (unless somebody asks in the comments) - this isn’t a musician’s forum - but I wanted to let you behind the curtain and give an insight into one of my passions. There’s a lot that goes into these things! And often people are unaware of just how much goes into producing a “sound” - especially with guitar (or synths, but that’s another conversation entirely).
What are some of your hobbies, and what are some of the deeper details that people never know much about?
Matty Flatt’s Track of the Day: Know Your Enemy, by Rage Against the Machine
And now for your links:
Via the Tottenham Hotspur website: Dom Solanke retains his well-deserved place in the England squad
Ange Postecoglou’s take-aways from the loss to Galatasaray, from Football London
Rob Guest has some take-aways of his own