[Dummies 01] • Guitar Amps and Effects for Dummies by Hunter, Dave -- Read -- Imperial Library of Trantor

Index

Guitar Amps & Effects For Dummies

Visit www.dummies.com/cheatsheet/guitaramps to view this book's cheat sheet. Guide Pages

Introduction

About This Book Foolish Assumptions Icons Used in This Book Beyond the Book Where to Go from Here

Getting Started with Guitar Amps & Effects The Concept of Tone for Creative Guitarists

The Sound Chain: Your Sonic Team From Classic Tones to Total Originality It All Begins with Your Guitar

Variations in guitar designs Pickups and electronics Hardware

Amps: Your Tone Machines!

Inside guitar amps The right amp for the job Tu-be or not tu-be Speakers and cabinets Amp use and maintenance

Effects Pedals: Shift It, Spin It, and Fuzz It Up

Different effects types Rack and stand-alone effects Using effects

Making Your Signal Chain Work for You

Chain of Tools: What the Signal Chain Is How It All Works Together Understanding the Building Blocks of the Signal Chain

Electric guitar Effects pedals Guitar amp

Gathering Accessories: Every Ingredient Matters

Strings Cables Guitar picks

Aural Delights: Variety in Tone

Classic Tones: Sonic Variety in Legendary Recordings Spicing Up Your Music with Tonal Variety

Achieving variety in your sound Sounding like yourself

Gathering the Right Tools for the Job

The Swiss Army knife rig The beauty of simplicity There’s no one best anything

Grab a Guitar: It’s Your Signal Generator Understanding the Major Electric Guitar Designs

Finding Your Way around a Guitar Tracking the Evolution of Electric Guitar Designs

How the electric guitar changed the world

A concise timeline of the electric guitar

Why the classic designs still work for you today … or not Examining Solidbody Electric Guitars

From rock to twang with solidbodies Bolt-neck solidbodies

The impact of scale length on tone

Set-neck solidbodies Through-neck solidbodies Working with Semi-Acoustic Electric Guitars

Get bluesy — with surprising versatility The ES-335 template and solid-core semis The hidden charms of chambered guitars Thinline hollowbody electrics

Looking at Hollowbody Electric Guitars

Start choppin’ and boppin’: The jazz box The carved-top archtop Laminated archtops

Shaping Your Sound with Different Woods

Classic tones from classic body woods

Mahogany Maple Ash Alder

Some newer and alternative tonewoods

Korina Basswood Poplar Spanish cedar Spruce

Neck and fingerboard woods

Rosewood Ebony Pau Ferro Maple

Guitar Pickups and Electronics

Getting to Know Pickups

An invisible power Truly electric tone

The Parts of the Pickup

Bobbin Coil Magnets Pole pieces Cover and base plate

The Major Pickup Types and Their Sounds

Single-coil pickups

Fender Gibson Gretsch Rickenbacker

Humbucking pickups

Gibson Gretsch Single-coil-sized humbucking pickups

Active pickups Alternative modern pickup designs

Selecting Your Pickups to Suit Your Sound

Buying a guitar with the right pickups Modifying and upgrading your existing pickups

Working with Controls and Switches

Standard control layouts

Traditional Gibson-style controls Fender Telecaster-style controls Fender Stratocaster-style controls and variations Early Gretsch electric-style control

Modified control layouts Coil split, phase, and series-parallel switching Advice on modifying your guitar’s existing controls

Guitar Hardware

A Quick Overview Working with Standard Bridges and Tailpieces

The floating bridge with trapeze tailpiece Strings-through-body Telecaster bridge The wraparound bridge The tune-o-matic bridge and stopbar tailpiece Other popular bridges

Vibing with Vibrato Units

Bigsby vibrato Fender Stratocaster vibrato Other assorted vibratos

Turning the Tuners Touching Strings to Wood: Nuts and Frets

Nuts Frets

Upgrading and Modifying Your Hardware Digging into Guitar Finishes: Pure Tone and Pretty Looks

Caring for Your Guitar

Keeping It Clean and Sounding Mean

Fighting grime on a regular basis Deep-cleaning fingerboards for smooth playing Cleaning and protecting pickups and electronics

Exploring the Setup

Where’s the action?

Gathering the tools for DIY guitar setups Checking neck relief Adjusting your truss rod Perfecting your action Measuring and setting intonation Adjusting pickup height Knowing when to take it to a pro

The Amplifier: More Than Just Loud Looking Inside the Major Amp Designs

Understanding How Circuit Stages Shape Tube Tone

Plugging into preamp stages Tapping into tone-shaping stages Investigating output stages Probing power supply stages

Groundbreaking Vintage Tube Amps

Classic Fender models Vox and the “Class-A” sound Mighty Marshall rock machines Getting the most from vintage-style amps

Rocking with Modern Tube-Amp Designs

Thank goodness for gain! The master-volume control High-gain rock amps Channel switching Effects loops Getting the most from multifeatured amps

Investigating Solid-State Amplifiers

Traditional analog transistor amps Digital modeling amps

Choosing the Right Amp for You and Your Music

Understanding How Size Matters

Hitting the sweet spot Matching power to venue

Moving from Clean, to Crunch, to All-Out Mayhem

Maximizing clean tones and headroom Achieving great cleans — thanks to tube distortion

Everything works together

Investigating high-gain amps Digging distortion characteristics Going fast and punchy or slow and smooth Deciding on Amp Features

The beauty and benefits of simplicity Do-it-all amps and their many uses

Shopping Trip: Confidently Hunting the Perfect Amp Bringing Down the Noise: Cranking It … Quietly!

Output attenuators Voltage-reduction circuits Isolation cabs and other sound-reduction options

Understanding Tube Types and Tone

Identifying Basic Tube Categories Tweaking Your Tone with Preamp Tubes

The 12AX7 and other twin triodes

New old stock (NOS) tubes

Pentode preamp tubes Interesting alternative preamp tubes Cranking It Up with Output Tubes

Classic American output tubes Classic British output tubes Interesting alternative output tubes

You’ve Got the Power: Rectifier Tubes Finding and Buying Tubes

Testing and matching tubes Deciding between modern or NOS (vintage) tubes

Changing Your Tubes

Going from Amp to Ears: Speakers and Cabs

Investigating Speaker Types

Vintage and low-powered speakers Speaker distortion Modern and high-powered speakers Ceramic versus alnico speakers

Using Speaker Size and Efficiency to Suit Your Style

Significance of speaker size Significance of speaker efficiency

Solidifying Your Tone with Speaker Cabs

The sound of open, closed, and ported cabs Impact of construction and materials on tone Single and multiple speakers in a cab Speaker cabinet wiring and impedance

Tips, Tricks, and Basic Amp Maintenance High voltage! Keep out!

Amp Setup and Use

Turn it on! Setting controls on vintage-style amps Setting controls on amps with master volumes Configuring multichannel lead/rhythm amp settings Using effects with your amp

Basic Amplifier Maintenance

Replacing tubes

Fixed bias versus cathode bias

Keeping tubes happy Performing basic care and cleaning Replacing speakers Troubleshooting

Doing some basic user checks Identifying a bad tube

Deciding When to Take It to a Tech

Signs of major problems Some common little and big jobs

Effects Pedals: Fuzz, Filth, Wobble, and Echo Discovering the Major Types of Effects

Getting to Know the Effects Pedal Using Gain-Based Effects Pedals

Compression Boost Overdrive Fuzz Distortion

Creating Mood with Modulation-Based Effects Pedals

Tremolo and vibrato Rotary speaker and vibe Phasing Flanging Chorus

Working with EQ, Filters, and Wah-Wahs

Wah-wah pedals Envelope filters and auto-wahs Octave effects Ring modulators Graphic EQ

Adding Atmosphere with Delay Effects

Reverb Analog echo Digital delay

Exploring and Using Vintage Effects

Early electromechanical effects Onboard amp effects The solid-state pedal revolution and evolution

Rack Units, Stand-Alones, and Multi-Effects

Using Analog Stand-Alone Effects Units

Spring reverb Tape delay Rotary speakers

Exploring Rack-Mounted Effects

Line level versus instrument level

The digital revolution Single- versus multi-effects units Enjoying Many Features with Multi-Effects Floor Units

Setting Up and Using Your Effects

Putting Your Pedals in Place

Conventional pedal sequence for simple setups Pedal sequence for more-complex setups Some creative alternatives Out in front or in the loop?

Setting Up Your Pedalboard

Prebuilt pedalboard products Planning and setting up your pedalboard Pedal power: Adaptors versus batteries

Preserving Your Tone

True bypass versus buffered effects Cables and your tone

Using Multi-Amp Effects Setups

The stereo rig The wet/dry rig

The Part of Tens Ten Classic Rigs

Jazz Incarnate: Wes Montgomery Classic Rock’n’Roll: Eddie Cochran Early Blues: Hubert Sumlin Surf Guitar: Dick Dale ’60s Blues-Rock: Eric Clapton Late ’60s Heavy Rock: Jimi Hendrix Contemporary Blues: Stevie Ray Vaughan New Country: Brad Paisley Contemporary Alternative: Jack White Heavy Metal: Dimebag Darrell

Ten Iconic Tone Recordings

Chuck Berry, “Johnny B. Goode” Kenny Burrell, “Midnight Blue” Albert King, “Born Under a Bad Sign” The Beatles, “I Saw Her Standing There” Buck Owens and the Buckaroos, “Act Naturally” Van Halen, “Ain’t Talkin’ ’Bout Love” AC/DC, “Highway to Hell” Neil Young, “Hey Hey, My My (Into the Black) (Live)” Metallica, “Master of Puppets” Dinosaur Jr., “Start Choppin’” About the Author Author's Acknowledgments

To access the cheat sheet specifically for this book, go to www.dummies.com/cheatsheet/guitaramps. Find out ”HOW” at Dummies.com

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