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.