Pedal Board Flight Cases

If you are reading this article then you are probably researching information on pedal board flight cases. Maybe you are looking for a pedal board flight case and unsure about what case would suit you best? If so then you have come to the right place. As there is such a wide range of effects pedal cases on the market, finding one that meets your needs and requirements can be a difficult process.
I have been playing guitar in a band for the past few years, playing gigs most weekends and I have changed my effects board several times to expand my set up of effects pedals and to increase the protection of them on the road. I am currently using a 24" odyssey hard case. However, upon researching flight cases I found it hard to find relevant information and help towards choosing the right one, therefore I have provided some information that might be useful to you.
Pedal Board Flight Cases
Pedal board Flight cases are probably the most efficient and durable type of case to protect your pedals. They are an ideal case if you play a lot of gigs or transport your pedals around often as they can take a hard beating unlike a soft case. However the disadvantages are that a pedal board flight case can be pretty heavy if you have a lot of pedals in your set up and you are more likely to injure yourself carrying it around (e.g hitting your shin of the corner of it!!)

Size
One of the most important factors in investing in a pedal board flight case is to decide on the correct size you need. This is a mistake i have personally made before like many other guitarists. You should first place your pedals in a rectangular fashion of two rows,then measure the length and width of the setup. Effects boards range in size from 14 by 5 1/2 inches to 32 by 16 inches. In doing this you should also allow about an inch around the edge of the pedals for jack leads and power lead
I would personally recommend investing in a pedal board flight case if you play a lot of gigs or transport your pedals around often, as it offers better protection than any other type of case/bag. Remember, Guitar/ Bass effects pedals do not come cheap so it is worth investing in a case that will protect your pedals and keep them in mint condition, that way you can sell them later on for a good price if you wish to do so.

Guitar Tone Using Pedal Effects

Have you ever thought about building your own pedal effects board? Have you actually built a pedal effects board only to discover that your guitar tone has changed drastically? Believe me, you are not the first to run across this problem. In fact the majority of pedal effects boards will change your tone, and most of the time is it not for the better.
There are many things to consider when designing and building your pedal board. If you're careful to address critical issues during this process you'll end up with a great guitar tone. If you're not careful you may end up with a guitar tone that is less than desirable.
Here's a few things that will affect your guitar tone when designing your pedal board.

• Length of Cables
• Types of Cables
• True Bypass
• Buffering
• Unity Gain Structure

There are more things than this to examine in Part 2, but for now this will get you on the right track to killer guitar tone when designing your effects pedal board.

1. Length of cables - You should try to keep the length of your cables as short as possible. This includes the patch cables in between the pedals as well. The reason is that the longer your cables are, the more tone loss, gain loss, and high end loss occurs.
2. Types of cables - Just as the length of your cables can result in tone loss, so can the type of cables. This is something that is sort of a personal preference, but I will say that Mogami and Belden cables are always going to be a great choice. Keep in mind that the most important cable is the first cable used from your guitar to the first effects pedal.
3. True bypass - This can be good and bad depending on the rest of the pedals in the chain. If all of your pedals are true bypass, and they're all turned off, you face the problem of all of your cable lengths adding up to one long cable going into the front of your amp. This is really bad if you are using vintage pickups with low output and high impedance. You should consider some type of buffer to keep the signal steady.
4. Buffering - Buffering the signal can help when using true bypass pedals along with vintage pickups, but you'll have to play around with the combinations. You may run into issues of signal spikes and treble spikes depending on where the buffers are placed in the chain. Best solution is to plug your guitar directly into a fixed high-impedance load that is identical to the amp input. Then distribute the signal to the various effects and amps by low-impedance buffered feeds. This will give you constant signal level, and tone characteristics, which will not change when more effects are added.
5. Unity Gain Structure - This is another critical issue when it come to balancing out your sound. Example: if you used a chorus pedal and a delay pedal these devices are usually unity gain. When you get into pre-amps, equalizers and units with gain control, you'll need to balance all of them out so that one unit is not louder that the other when turned on or off.

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Guitar Effects 101 - Understanding Guitar Effects

We always have this constant question on all guitar oriented forums -"what order do I put my guitar effects in? While there are some simple guiding principle, there is no "right" way to do it. It's all a matter of taste and your personal tone. Let your ears be the final Judge.
Guitar Effects are electronic device that connects a guitar and an amplifier or mixing board. Their main purpose is to modify and enhance the tone, pitch of the guitar and create special sounds using a guitar pedal or a combination of several pedals. These effects transform sounds in many ways and bring "life" to sound. It is usually used in in-recording studio accompanied with vocals and live performances. A Guitar Effects device consists of analog or digital circuitry which processes audio signals. Effects processing circuitry are similar to that found in music synthesizers; it may include active and passive filters, envelope followers or envelope modifiers, wave-shaping circuits, voltage-controlled oscillators, or digital delays.
Effects device come in several formats, the most common are the "stomp-box" and the rack-mount unit. A stomp box or "pedal steel" is a small metal or plastic box containing the circuitry which is placed on the floor in front of the musician and connected in line with the patch cord connected to the instrument. The box is typically controlled by one or more foot-pedal on-off switches and usually contains only one or two effects. Rack-mount effects unit contains identical electronic circuit, but is mounted in a standard 19" equipment rack. Usually, rack-mount effects units contain several different types of effects. These are typically controlled by knobs or switches on the front panel, and often by a MIDI digital control interface. "Guitar pedal boards" are used by musicians who use multiple stomp-boxes; these may be a DIY project made with plywood or a commercial pedalboards.

Nowadays, modern desktop and notebook computers have sound processing capabilities that rival commercially available effects boxes. Some can process sound through VST or similar plugins, such as LADSPA, RTAS or Direct X. Musicians in the modern world can play any instrument through a computer's sound card, emulating effects units or amplifiers. These VST-plugins can be downloaded for a little or no cost.
Guitar Effects are divided according to effects description; Amplitude based effects which composed of volume control, tremolo, auto tremolo, panning/ping-pong, gating/repeat percussion, compression, expansion, asymmetric compression, noise gating, attack delay, ADSR (Attack Decay Sustain Release), and limiting, auto swell. There is also Waveform distortion effects which can be done by Symmetrical clipping, asymmetrical clipping, infinite limiting, Half wave rectification, Full wave rectification and Arbitrary waveform generation. FILTER/FREQUENCY RESPONSE EFFECTS can be achieved through EQ/tone controls, treble/mid/bass boost, cabinet simulation, resonator, wah, envelope follower also called as Auto wah, tremolo wah, "vibrato", and phase shifting. For time delay effects; echo, reverb, true vibrato, flanging, chorus/ADT, slapback, and reverse echo/reverb. We can also add other miscellaneous effects such as octave division, harmony generation, phase lock tracking, Noise addition, talk box, and voice tracking. Leslie, aphex and enhancers are examples of common combinations effects.

The Best Of Guitar Effect Accessories

One of the important add ons to guitar are guitar effect accessories. They enhance the sound of guitar and allow the player to come up with different kinds of tones and sounds.
There are a whole lot of guitar effect accessories available today.
- Guitar to U.S.B interface: This particular accessory is very effective for practicing. It is a cable that can be adjoined with the U.S.B port of your personal computer. And after that you can jam as long as you want. You do not need any other accessory. All you need is your guitar, a computer or laptop and this U.S.B interface.
- Footswitch: It is a gazette that helps you to control the selection of loops. It also gives a hands free comfort to change the modes. It has got an option by which you can start and stop it automatically, if you want. It also provides you the system to record automatically.
- Foot pedal: This is a small processor kind of thing that provides you different facilities and effects. It has got a record option. It also contains some other facilities like, multiply, insert, mute, undo etc.
- Remote control pedal: This is a more advanced version of conventional pedals. They have some unique facilities, which will make the playing comfortable and enjoyable. This gazette has one pedal through which, the major functions of two amplifier foot switches can be fulfilled.
- Mini amp and distortion: This is the latest two in one version of guitar effect accessories. This is a mini amplifier. There is a very powerful inbuilt speaker in the pedal. After the amplifier is attached, it becomes a very strong distortion box.

- Mini auto guitar tuner pedal: This is a very short box. It fits easily in the pedal board. It instantly tunes the guitar with total accuracy. A digital needle indicates the state of the tune.
- Slap echo pedal: This pedal delivers the echo tone. Especially the shower room tone that was very popular in the 1950s.
- Flanger pedal: Another effect accessory that gives a flange effect.
- Acoustic guitar amp modeling effects pedal: Do you want an acoustic tone from an electric guitar? Don't have to think a lot or invent a new machine. This gazette will do that for you. You just need to plug in. And it will give clear tone of acoustic guitar.
- Digital stereo reverb guitar effects pedal: This is for reverb effects.
The above accessories are all for electric guitars. But there are other guitar effect accessories also, which are made for bass guitars.
- Bass guitar multi FX: It has got a good amplifier and many brilliant effects.
- Bass multi effects pedal: It is a bit advanced from the previous one. It contains drum machine, recording software, along with many effects.
These are the guitar effect accessories, which are available mainly for electric & bass guitars. There are lots of other accessories being invented everyday, especially for electric guitars. These accessories are making guitar playing a more enjoyable experience.

How to Arrange the Order of Effects Pedals for Your Guitar and Amp

There is however a very general consensus on the best ordering. You can use this as a guide to start you off, and if you feel like rearranging things a bit from there, go ahead!
The Chain

• Actually the first one here is easy. If you have a tuner pedal, this should go first in the chain, i.e. the first one after your guitar, for the simple reason that you want it to receive the cleanest signal possible to obtain the most accurate reading.


• Patch a lead from the output of your tuner to the input of your next pedal. Next in line should be, EQ, volume and wah pedals, and compression. There's a bit of debate on placing compressors here as opposed to at the end of the chain. Here they'll have an effect on both the tone and volume of every following effect (which can be more desirable than you might imagine). Alternatively, placing them at the end will act as a volume boost only.


• Next up place your distortion and overdrive type effects. Again, there is some suggestion of a different placement for these - right at the front of the chain. If you like having your tone permanently distorted (i.e. no 'clean' parts) you might want to try this.


• Delay should probably go next, as you want to avoid the modulation effects that come next 'modulating' the delay echoes...or maybe you don't! Place it here for now anyway.


• Modulation effects - you may remember from one of my previous articles this includes things like chorus, flangers and phasers - should go next.


• Finally, if you have a reverb pedal this should go last, although one thing I would say here is, ask yourself how necessary a reverb pedal is. If you're setting up to record, fair enough. If you're setting up a live rig, stop and think about what a reverb pedal does. It emulates the reverberations within various different sizes of space. But if you're playing in a club or hall, that reverb is already naturally provided for you by the room. Add additional reverb and you're in danger of seriously muddying up your sound. Of course it is sometimes necessary even in a live context to achieve a certain desired effect, but tread carefully.


• The output from the final effect in the chain goes into your amp input, and then you're good to go!

At this point it's worth writing down a diagram of the arrangement you've just made, particularly as if you decide to experiment a bit, but end up getting muddled, you can come back to this layout as your default starting position. If you're doing this with the assembly of a pedal board in mind it's very important you get your desired arrangement right before you commit it to the board, as undoing this later will be trickier once the pedals have been fastened down and patch cords laid.
The above advice can also be applied to the stompbox sections of virtual guitar FX such as AmpliTube and Guitar Rig. The joy here is you can rearrange the pedals to your heart's content with the click and drag of a mouse, avoiding spaghetti junction with your patch cords, and never having to worry about your supply of 9V batteries running out...or maybe that's all part of the fun?

Getting the Perfect Guitar Tone

Guitar playing can generally be condensed into two categories. Your technique and style, and your tone. In this article we're going to be talking about tone, and the importance of refining it.
I see too many guitar players who have a zillion guitar effect pedals, and I try not to open my mouth, but then they start playing, and its absolutely unbearable. Guys, seriously, don't compensate with toys. Take the time to improve your playing, because all the goodies in the world won't make you a better guitar player.
Also, using too many pedals and effects can be bombarding to the listener, and it also kills the strength of your overall sound. If you spend most of your time playing through a clean setting on your guitar, don't think for a moment that you are not affected by this.
I've witnessed a lot of clean guitar players who are bad for this as well.
If you can find the discipline to limit yourself a little bit, then you will see just how awesome a tone you can get. For instance, deciding to build a pedal board is a great way to tackle the problem of guitar pedal self indulgence. Sure, you could buy a pedal board brand new, but they are expensive, and many won't fit your needs.
Building your own pedal board is fun, rewarding, and helps you to get a good idea of how you're going use your tone. Remember, when you're building a pedal board, you're also building your tone, because you'll need to determine what goes where, and what goes before what.

Invest part of your time into becoming a smart consumer. Don't just settle for any old pedal off the shelf, and don't ever assume that because a pedal is really expensive, that its the best and is the best for you.
Try out all sorts of pedals, and you'll find that the oddest effect pedals compliment each other. In example, using a clean setting with a very light amount of delay (really short delay) can give you a nice and rich "creamy" sound for chords.
If you experiment, you'll find all sorts of tricks like this, which helps you to determine the layout of your pedal board. Don't forget to put this down on paper first, and certainly don't forget to measure the dimensions of the pedals, and account for the space needed between each one for your cables.
Now I'm not saying that building a pedal board is the only way to do this, but it does help to nudge you in the right direction, because if you do something like this and find that perfect sound, you'll probably freak if anyone so much as breaths in the direction of an effect pedal knob.
So make sure that you ask questions of yourself. I'm sure that you have your own opinions about what sounds good to you. Perhaps you like a touch of the flanger, or maybe a little wah, or some chorus action in their. Regardless of what it is that you want, refine and come up with a plan.

Time Based Sound Effects For Electric Guitar

One of the many different ways in which the sound produced by an electric guitar can be influenced is through the use of various time based effects. Typically a player will use a pedal, operated by foot, which will affect the sound of the guitar once pressed or rocked. These time based effect pedals work by producing a copy of the sound made by the guitar, and then plays back this copy either once, a fraction of a second after the original has been played, or by playing back the copy several times, each decreasing slightly in volume. The first of these effects - playing the copy just once, very quickly after the original sound, produces a kind of 'slap' sound. The second time based effect, playing the copy several times decreasing in volume creates the impression of an echo - a very popular effect used quite widely.
Despite being electric guitars, there are two ways in which the sound can be affected through such time based delay effects, analogue and digital. The digital systems will be able to produce a much more accurate and precise quality of sound, and be considerably more flexible when it comes to affecting exactly how you wish the sound to be produced. The exact delay, the number of repetitions, the decay in volume, and several other aspects of the sound can all be minutely affected by the use of digital controls.
However, there are many players who prefer the analogue systems, despite their slightly less versatile nature. The reason, so they argue, is that the sound produced by an analogue time based effect system is much warmer. If you are considering purchasing a time based effect system, and are not sure whether to go for a digital or an analogue system, you may well feel that the best way of helping to choose is by listening to the quality of sound. This, as with so many other aspects of the instrument, is the best way to judge which guitar or accessory is going to be right for you. As far as ease of control is concerned, there is relatively little to pick between the two systems.

Whilst the concept of feedback may give rise to screeching microphones held too close to a speaker, piercing the audience's eardrums, controlled feedback can create a sound that makes the electric guitar seem to warble, and perhaps almost scream, adding emphasis to the note and helping to give the guitar its voice. Feedback in this way needs to be very controlled, and time based effects gadgets and accessories can help to create this particular sound. This is achieved by having a tracking oscillator circuit built in to the unit, and it is this circuit which holds on to a particular note, amplifies it significantly, and then transmits this amplified note back in to the input side of the sound system.
This is a little like holding the microphone close to the speaker, or even like holding a video camera close to the image being produced by the camera on a television screen. By sending the output signal back in to the input part of the system, feedback is generated. In the case of the time based effect created with the electric guitar, this is coupled with the amplification to create a distinctive roar.

Recreating Lindsey Buckingham's Signature Sounds - Big Love

One of the less well known guitarists of the last entry is Lindsey Buckingham of Fleetwood Mac. Newer guitarists may not be familiar with Buckingham, but his style and sound inspired several generations of guitarists. He's probably most well known for hist signing, songwriting and production skills, but his guitar playing was instrumental in Fleetwood Mac's success, so it's worth taking a look at. I'm going to take a look at his sound and give you an idea of the kind of setup that's required to reproduce some of his signature sounds.

The first thing that makes Buckingham so unique is the fact that he uses a fingerpicking style. Originally a Banjo player, Lindsey Buckingham made the transition to guitar, and his virtuoso performances are a signature sound of Fleetwood Mac. Buckingham plays bass lines with his thumb while he uses the other fingers to voice melodies and sweeping arpeggios. The resultant music is truly original and inspiring.

Looking at his setup, one thing that you'll notice is that he has a truly unique axe. His Turner electric is not a guitar that has much fame, outside of Lindsey Buckingham. It's shape, distinctly violin like, is one of the most unique features of the guitar. You will also find Buckingham playing an acoustic on various tracks. There's nothing especially important to be said about his acoustic, other than the way he plays the instrument.

There's one performance in specific that I'd like to analyze. During one particular Fleetwood Mac reunion, back in 1997, Buckingham performed the song "Big Love", playing a Gibson Chet Atkins sold-body nylon string guitar. The reason that I've chosen this one is because of the unique sound that he got using that particular guitar. You can actually recreate this sound, even if you don't have this particular axe. Using your acoustic electric guitar, I will show you how to simulate this sound using your guitar and a few simple effects.

In order to simulate this sound, you're going to need delay and reverb. If you have an amp with these effects built in, that will do just fine. For the delay time, you're going to want to set it around 125 milliseconds. You'll need to be able to adjust the blend on the delay, adjusting it to be mostly the direct signal. This is important because when you're soloing and playing intricate melodies, you don't want the delayed notes muddying down the sound you're trying to create. If you're using a delay unit, such as those built in to some amplifiers, that only allows you to adjust the delay time by tapping a button, you may find it difficult to get the exact sound that I'm trying to teach. You can play around with the settings to see if you can get a sound that's similar or just use this guide as a way to get ideas for new sounds.

Another adjustment that you may want to consider, if you have a nice delay, is to roll off some of the high end from the delayed signal. Again, this is to make sure that your original notes really sing through. As for your reverb, you're going to want to reduce the size of the room to around 35 percent. If you're not allowed to change the room size, don't worry, just know this is going to be more of a creative exercise for you, rather than an all out recreation of the original sounds of Buckingham. Finally, you're going to want to roll out a good bit of the midrange from your amplifier (or board if you're going directly into one). This is going to keep things crisp and clear when you're really laying on the notes.
While using built in effects are limiting, you can get a unique sound using this guide. For those with a nice effects board or pedals that allow them to adjust all of these settings, you'll find a deep airy sound is the result of these settings. This is great to add some depth to a track where the main guitar part is played on an acoustic. If you haven't heard the version of "Big Love" that I'm talking about, get on the net and look for videos or recordings from the '97 Fleetwood Mac reunion show. It's truly worth your time & is a great performance! Good luck & happy guitarring!

Guitar Tuning - The Mystery Explained

Learning how to tune a guitar effectively is one of the most basic skills all guitar players need to learn and one of the most elusive skills to master. There are two main methods of guitar tuning. (with several variations) The first of these is by ear, the second is using a tuner. No matter which you choose, being in tune is essential to your success.
Tuning a Guitar by Ear
Tuning the guitar by ear is a way for the musician to ensure that the instrument is in tune with itself. It does not necessarily mean the guitar will be in tune tonally with the agreed upon standard that is known as concert pitch. Therefore, unless the musician is gifted with perfect pitch, it is only really valuable for practice and solo play. You may of course play with other musicians if everyone tunes to the same instrument, even if it is not in concert pitch.
However, if the musician has access to a reference note, possibly from a pitch pipe or tuning fork, then it is possible to use this method to tune to concert pitch. The most common method is to begin with the bottom E string, and tune it to pitch. Then move a finger to the 5th fret and play the E and A string together, and tune the A string to the same pitch as the bottom E, repeat this for the D and G strings, the B string is tuned using the 4th fret of the G string, instead of the 5th fret, and then back to the 5th fret on the B string to tune top E. This is the simplest method of tuning a guitar by ear; it is quick and effective, although it does suffer from inaccuracy if the intonation of the guitar strings is not adjusted correctly. There are several more advanced methods, some of which play strings in multiple positions to overcome intonation imperfections using harmonics.
Tuning a Guitar using a Tuner
The electronic guitar tuner may be the single most unifying feature for the everyday guitarists. It enabled even the most apprentice guitar player to tune with confidence and sound like everybody else. Unless you happen to be lucky enough to have perfect pitch, then using a guitar tuner is probably the most reliable way of ensuring your instrument is tuned to concert pitch. A guitar tuner is a small electrical device, which measures the electrical current of the guitar output, to judge the current tuning. The most simple electric guitar tuner will allow the musician to plug their guitar in to the device, and then choose which string they wish to tune. There is also a feature for acoustic guitars that allows you to avoid plugging into the device and only use a built in microphone. The musician then plucks the string, and the tuner displays whether the string is sharp (too highly pitched), flat (too low pitched), or in tune by a number of methods; either a needle display or LED lights or a combination of both. Once the musician is satisfied that the current string is in tune, they move on to the next. Note, most competent musicians prefer to check the tuning by ear afterwards. The reason for this, is if a string is tuned first, and other strings have their tensions changed as part of the tuning process, then the first string (or possibly several strings), will lose their perfect tuning. Most commonly, a musician will use the tuner to get a rough tuning, then tune again by ear, then recheck using the tuner, making fine adjustments.

For those new to playing the guitar, tuning can be a scary subject. However, it is entirely straightforward, a quick lesson from any competent guitar instructor is usually sufficient to teach the new player how to tune a guitar accurately, and quickly. Rest assured the skill of tuning a guitar can be learned with the use of the right tools and some good listening. It is a skill that will reward you and the musicians around you for a lifetime.

An Explanation of the Total Harmonic Distortion of Wireless Speakers

In this article, I will explain the term "total harmonic distortion", often also called "THD" which is frequently used to describe the performance of wireless speakers.
Looking for the perfect model from the huge amount of products, you may have a hard time understanding some of the technical language and terms that you will find in the specifications of today's wireless speakers. THD is usually not as easily understood as some other commonly used terms such as "signal-to-noise ratio" or "frequency response".
THD is expressed either in percent or in decibel and shows how much the signal which the speaker outputs differes from the audio signal which is fed into the speaker. A -20 dB or 10% distortion means that one tenth of the radiated sound is a result of distortion while -40 dB or 1% would mean that one percent of the energy are harmonic products of the original signal.

Harmonic distortion inside a wireless speaker is actually the result of several components, including the power amplifier which is built into the speaker to drive the speaker element. Amplifier distortion usually depends on the amplifier output power and is sometimes specified for several power levels.

Distortion specs for different power levels are usually given for several power levels or as a diagram showing distortion versus output power. Both of these methods allow to better evaluate the quality of the amp.Normally distortion is measured with a 1 kHz test tone. However, amplifier distortion will usually increase with increasing frequency, especially in digital class-D models.

Another element causing distortion is the speaker element which typically works with a diaphragm that carries a coil which is suspended in a magnetic field. The coil is moving in accordance to the change in the magnetic field which is excited by the audio signal but does not correspond 100% with the signal due to core losses and other factors. As such the result is distortion caused by the speaker element. Many manufacturers will specify harmonic distortion depending on the power level because usually the higher the speaker is driven the higher the amount of distortion.

The overall speaker distortion is thus caused by the amplifier as well as the speaker element and in addition by a number of additional contributing factors. The speaker enclose will vibrate to some extend and thus contribute to the distortion.

To find out the overall distortion of a loudspeaker, a signal generator is used which provides an ultra-linear signal to the speaker as well as a measurement microphone which is connected to an audio analyzer to determine the amount of harmonics emitted by the speaker. Another distortion measurement technique which gives a better analysis of the speaker performance with real-world signals is called interharmonic distortion. This method outputs two signals at different frequencies and measures the amount of harmonics at different frequencies.
Another factor contributing to distortion is the signal transmision of wireless speakers, especially with models that transmit an analog signal at 900 MHz. More advanced models use digital audio transmission. Typically these transmitters work at 2.4 GHz or 5.8 GHz.