The Ibanez RG: A Model Origin

The Ibanez RG: A Model Origin

by PT

Note : An earlier version of this post first appeared on the now-defunct Six-String Bliss blog in May 2008.

You see them littered through guitar magazines, scattered across rock stages and liberally sprinkled through the stock of your local Guitar Center. But have you ever wondered where the Ibanez RG series came from? Let’s take a look back at one of the most popular guitars of the last twenty-five years.

By 1987, Ibanez had been through plenty of changes.

Hoshino Gakki bought Salvador Ibanez Acoustics 1929. Salvador Ibanez's workshop had been destroyed during the Spanish Civil War, and Gakki was quick to purchase the name of well-regarded builder. Gakki began manufacturing guitars under the Salvador Ibanez name, eventually shortening the brand name to simply 'Ibanez'.The 1960s brought some wild designs. The 70s found the company producing copies in such quantities that Ibanez aficionados refer to this time as 'the lawsuit period'. The late 70s and early 80s saw Ibanez experimenting with new models and trying to find their place in the guitar world… preferably a place that didn’t involve so many Les Paul copies and court cases.

Ibanez’s creations included the Iceman, the Roadstar and the Universe. And of course, the shockingly popular though also shockingly pricy Jem.

Rich Lasner was the designer of the Jem and head of the Ibanez Design team in 1987. "After the huge success of the Jem guitar, we were faced with lots of pressure from dealers and the head office to make a less expensive version that more people could afford," Lanser said in an interview with IbanezRegister.com. "We’d had the Roadster Guitar and Roadstar Guitar series before, so we contracted those to RG. We wanted something like Gibson had with SG."

The guitar that would grow to become such an iconic instrument was originally intended as a sort of 'Squier' version of the Jem. Lasner continues: "Since we were really just taking the JEM idea down a couple of price levels, we had the JEM design to guide us. Except for some trim differences, the RG proto was much like the finished version."

The first RG, a 550, was more successful than the dealers could have hoped. In the years since there have been countless adaptations and variations. Pickguard or no pickguard? Prestige format? How about some wild body graphics?

So what is it about this guitar? While other giants of the super-Strat-soaked 80s like Jackson, Kramer and B.C. Rich have faded in to the background of mainstream guitar, the RG series has survived and flourished. Metal players, 90s grunge-chunkers and jazz cats have all claimed the RG as their own.

Like all enduring guitar models, the RG has a deadly combination of features, an alchemy that somehow makes the whole greater than the parts. Superfast neck. Light body. The ability to hold its tuning like nobody’s business. Great distinctive tones. All that and an affordable price.

"I think we were very lucky," Lasner reflected to Ibanezregister.com in that same interview. "The basic design of the guitar has aged well, and doesn’t look dated. The main elements of the guitar are still contemporary and have become somewhat of a classic design."

Amen, brother.

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This post has been brought to you by ModKitsDIY.com. They provide kits for building your own pedals or amps and they come with clear and easy-to-follow instructions. If you do happen to get stuck, they're always there to contact and walk you through whatever trouble you may be having. Save yourself some money on your next pedal or amp by building it yourself with a kit from these fine folks.

Taylor Guitars Finding Your Fit

Finding Your Fit

By Pappy

Here’s a press release that recently came across my email – one that I think other guitar companies would do well to read as well.

See, there are two basic kinds of guitars: clones of guitars everyone knows all the details to (Teles, Strats, Les Pauls, etc.) and guitars or guitar companies that either that offer something unique or think they do, anyway. Gretsch is a great example of this. They don’t offer very many guitars with “normal” (popular in other guitar brands’ lines) pickups or control schemes. This difference can lead to a lot of people being scared off for fear of the unknown.

There are also guitar companies that want the differences to be known to everyone, even if the differences are harder to see. Acoustics, for instance, usually feature similar body styles, and very similar looks between brands, headstock design and inlays excepted. Most feature a light-color top and darker sides and backs and the specifics are generally lost because the information that would separate the specific woods is a lot to digest when all you REALLY want to know is which combination of woods, size and style would fit me and my playing the best?

Well Taylor Guitars is here to help. They’re sending experts from the company out on a giant roadtrip criss-crossing states and providing just that sort of guidance. You can talk to this expert, talk about the music you like, the tone you’re after, etc. etc. in a personal guitar consultation and they’ll be able to guide you through all the offerings that Taylor provides until you arrive at the guitar for you.

I just did this kind of thing on Six String Bliss with hosts Pipes and PT, both interested in Gretsch guitars, but a little foggy on the details and it was a blast for me. I’m very excited to see how it works out on the other end of the conversation.

Here’s the official press release:

Taylor To Help Players Find Their Fit at Interactive, In-Store Events NASHVILLE - July 21, 2011 - This summer, Taylor Guitars is inviting players to a one-on-one guitar consultation to discover the Taylor guitar that fits their playing profile at a series of Find Your Fit sales events. From late July through the month of August, the Find Your Fit event will make stops at 65 authorized Taylor dealers across the nation. At each store, Taylor's team of factory experts will offer players personal insights to help them better understand how guitar body shapes and woods interact with one's playing style to affect tone. The end goal is to help each player identify the pairing of shapes and woods that best complements their playing profile to give them the tones they crave. Both new and existing players will benefit from the advice and knowledge of the factory staff, all while enjoying access to many different guitars from the Taylor line. Factory staff will also help players dial in their amplified acoustic tone using Taylor's on-board Expression System®, an award-winning pickup which faithfully reproduces a Taylor's natural acoustic voice. The Find Your Fit events kick off on Monday, July 25 at Sarasota Guitar Company in Sarasota, Florida and end on Wednesday, August 31 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania at Empire Music. To locate a Find Your Fit event, players are invited to visit the Taylor Guitars website at www.taylorguitars.com/events/2011/find-your-fit/ For additional Taylor Guitars news, please visit www.taylorguitars.com/news

This post is brought to you by Flatline Guitars, a small guitar company that dedicate themselves to making the absolute best guitar possible and delivering amazing tone, amazing feel for an attainable price. I have a Delta 90, myself and it's quickly rising to "#1" status! To learn more, check them out HERE.

Get Rhythm

Get Rhythm

By Synchro

When I was first learning to play my well-meaning father stressed to me the importance of not just being a rhythm guitarist. He was most likely repeating something he had heard from a co-worker or friend but in any event I listened and worked towards becoming a "soloist". And over time I learned to play chord melody arrangements of various songs using complex chord voicings to convey the melody with a built in backdrop of harmony.

I've always felt that good chord melody work was one of the most enjoyable and challenging things a guitarist could do but over the years I've learned a bit about rhythm guitar as well and what I have learned has been transformative, informing my playing on all levels.

Guitar was historically considered a peasant's instrument and strumming out a few chords while singing a song didn't get much respect from classically trained musicians. There were always people working towards expanding the guitar's role in music, Francisco Tarrega coming to mind as a man that advanced classical guitar greatly. But the instrument had a rough ride in ensemble music. By the late 19th century banjos were used with bands to act as a rhythm instrument, the extra volume of the resonator making it audible even in a larger ensemble.

Now the banjo is a fine instrument but it's a bit bright compared to a guitar and definitely affects the overall sound. In the Ragtime era it was great but as music changed the sound of the banjo just didn't fit in with some of what was happening.

In the meantime a mandolin fad had swept the nation and indirectly gave us the archtop guitar which was copied from the archtop mandolin. The archtop guitar could provide a deeper sound than a banjo and a well made archtop acoustic can be quite loud. This is when the term rhythm guitar took on its greatest meaning. A Swing era big band could really be driven by a good rhythm man chunking out the tempo in carefully chosen chord voicings.

Perhaps the greatest of all rhythm guitarists was Freddie Green of the Count Basie Orchestra. Green used three-note chords almost exclusively and he stayed on the lower four strings. His rhythm playing sounded almost like a bass line and indeed, I've heard guitarists using Freddie Green style voicings that could back a solo instrument and keep it sounding like a bass and guitar playing very tightly together. Freddie Green didn't play one chord voicing per measure, he usually changes chords with every beat. He was incredible!

Rhythm guitar was an integral part of the big band era and a great moment in the history of guitar playing but the story didn't stop there. The electric guitar gave guitarists the power to play solos and be audible. It also allowed rhythm playing to take on new directions. Comping like a piano player was possible with an electric guitar and chord voicings that played in the upper register allowed guitarists to play accents and be heard.

The development of the electric guitar allowed the guitar to compete with the horns in a band and to give the piano a run for its money too. It was a major factor in the ascendance of the small ensemble. The electric guitar could do a lot of things for a band and the development of the electric bass made it quite possible to have a full sounding band with only a relative handful of instruments. On the heels of these developments came Rock 'n' Roll and major changes in Country music too.

Bo Didddley used the electric guitar as a rhythm powerhouse while Chuck Berry adapted a Boogie Woogie piano trick to the guitar and gave us the honky tonk pattern which is still in use over 50 years later. And on it went to power chords and drop D tunings.

Forty five years into being a guitarist I have strong feelings of my own regarding rhythm guitar and sadly they are quite at odds with my father's views. In my opinion well played rhythm guitar is a very high aspiration for any guitarist. Soaring leads are important and certainly take skill to master but I've learned that good rhythm playing can drive a band in a unique manner.

There's a lot more to it than just playing a C chord when the song calls for a C or a D chord when the song calls for a D. There are numerous voicings that can be employed along with techniques like voice-leading which keep your harmonies moving in parallel. A good rhythm player keeps the chords working together to present a smooth, even sound. It's also possible, even desirable, to limit the number of notes played in some situations. I find myself using triads frequently and sometimes simple double stops. There's no one correct way, it has to adapt to the needs of the music. One thing that is fairly rare, however, is the use of six-note, grand barre chords. They come in handy on occasion but in most situations they cause more harm than good.

Lots of notes do not automatically translate to a big sound. It's been my experience that the opposite is usually the case. A grand barre chord has three octaves of the root, two octaves of the fifth and only only instance of the third. It can get pretty muddy to say the least. Actually, the voicing I tend to use when I want a big sound is a I, V, X. The tenth voicing of a Major chord is incredibly powerful, yet very clear. It can be played with the root on the sixth, fifth or fourth string and it's easy to play.

The best resources I've ever found for playing rhythm are still relatively obscure. One of the best I've found is Rhythm Guitar the Ranger Doug Way . There are also occasional books teaching the Freddie Green Approach to Rhythm Guitar. There is also Ranger Doug Rides the Rhythm Range, a DVD which I recommend highly for its entertainment value not to mention first class instruction. Just hearing Ranger Doug playing that Stromberg is worth more than the price of admission.

So, 45 years after my father told me not to settle for being rhythm guitarist I find myself writing a missive of sorts extolling the virtues of that very thing. My father wasn't really wrong in what he said, indeed, many players that called themselves rhythm guitarists in those days were not good examples of the type but the bar has been raised significantly in the years since 1966. Music has evolved, de-volved and re-evolved many times since then and the definition of a rhythm guitarist has changed as well. Today's players are exposed to music that pre-dates the early years of Rock 'n' Roll & the British Invasion not to mention some great music that has developed since then. A solid rhythm player in the 21st century has plenty of examples, both good and bad, to peruse when learning their art. Resources are available today that didn't exist 45 years ago and a dedicated guitarist can become a great rhythm player; someone that bears the title with pride.

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This post was brought to you by Shanghai Music & Sound! It's a great shop where you can get all sorts of gear from your favorite companies at great prices. The website needs updating so call or email to find out if they have specifically what you want or if they can order it for you and if SO, how much it is. A lot of music companies are adopting MAP (Minimum Advertised Price) so you have to call or email to get the REAL price. Check them out HERE.

Three's Company

As a distraction from the high stress world of IT management I play in a Classic Rock band. We play, mostly benefits and other non-paying gigs but we have fun and have built a modest following. Our lineup was the classic two-guitar Rock band, myself on lead with another player handling rhythm. All was fine until Charlie, the rhythm player moved . . . about 1,000 miles away.

Now anyone that has ever been in a band can tell you that bands are not always the most durable things on earth. The band I'm in, Clutch Draggin' and the Lug Nuts, has lasted nearly two years and the reasons are the same reasons that any relationship lasts, because the people involved have striven to be unselfish and are tolerant of one another. Nonetheless, losing 25% of the band can be a huge setback.

So we fast forward to today, the first rehearsal after Charlie's departure. I had asked that we continue as a trio and the other members agreed. Now, trios are a fascinating thing, a mountain that I've always wanted to climb. We had played one gig as a trio a few months back and it went well enough but now we're in it for keeps, we have to rewrite arrangements and find a way to stretch one guitarist into covering two tasks.

Now trio playing is not entirely new to me, I've played in the Jazz guitar trio setting on a number of occasions and it is, by far, my favorite setting. The first time I played Jazz in that setting it was a liberating experience. Thirty years later I still feel that it was the first time I ever really heard myself play. I had room to play notes and room to keep silent because music is . . . the manipulation of both sound and silence.

The first rehearsal went well, surprisingly well. One thing that helps is the fact that the other two band-members have really stepped up to the challenge, the bassist is playing more actively and the drummer is filling space with a lot of cymbal work. Nonetheless, my job is still a bit of a challenge. A rhythm guitarist chunking out chords really fills in the blanks and one of my challenges is to use rhythm chords sparingly so that the contrast is not too great on those occasions when I take a solo. It's a challenge that makes me think before I play but the results are quite rewarding.

So here's the payoff, at least to my way of thinking. When you are the only polyphonic instrument in a trio the degree of freedom availed to you is astonishing. The trick, at least in my humble opinion, is to rely on your rhythm section to keep the song flowing. Really, without the bassist and the drummer keeping things on track the song will crash in burn but if they have their act together the guitarist has a perfect backdrop for improvisation both during solos and comping.

Which leads me to the most interesting part. Just what should I play now that I'm holding down the fort without a second guitarist? Every style of music has different requirements but in common all types of music require consistency to avoid sounding imbalanced. Looking at some examples can help. Chuck Berry made a career, and all but invented Rock guitar, by using a couple of simple, accessible techniques. His solos were usually double-stopped Blues figures that kept up the texture and didn't sound thin. He used a "honky-tonk" pattern in rhythm playing which, again, preserved texture while not sounding too thick. Johnnie B. Goode would not have sounded nearly as memorable had he used barre chords and single note solos.

Another good example is Stevie Ray Vaughan. Listening to his trio work is a great source of ideas for any guitarist seeking to play in a trio. The thing I like about Stevie Ray's playing is how effortlessly he transitions from chords to single note playing. It's no accident, he had to have thought all of this out well ahead of time. Watching DVDs of him in a trio setting is well worth the time. Honorable mention should also go to Henry Garza of Los Lonely Boys. He and his bassist brother work as an inseparable team keeping the sound going, varying their playing to suit the situation.

ZZ Top is another great example of a trio working as with one mind. All three of them seem to instinctively know how to accommodate one another and how to keep the sound full and even.

My last example is a departure from the world of Rock & BLues and into the world of Jazz. Jim Hall is, in my opinion, the grand old man of Jazz Guitar, a true original that has worked in any number of settings. Early on n his career, when he was working with Art Farmer an interviewer asked Farmer about the makeup of his band and Farmer credited much to Jim Hall's ability to cover it all, taking the place of a piano as well as being like a second horn player because of his lyrical style. Hall didn't come by these abilities casually. He had worked in the esoteric world of Chamber Jazz playing both in Chico Hamilton's band and in the Jimmy Giuffre trio, a very unusual combination of guitar, baritone sax (or clarinet) and double bass. The sonic model for that group was a mobile with each instrument taking the foreground but not necessarily during theor respective solos. Such a background gave Mr. Hall an ability to carve out his own space in almost any setting. However, my main reason for mentioning Jim Hall in the context of this discussion is the fact that he epitomizes the ability to use silence as well as sound. If you listen to some of his trio recordings, 1975's "Live!" comes to mind, you will hear a man that is not afraid to use a pause now and then, even when he is soloing. I've never heard a trio player that could outdo Jim Hall in this regard.

I am truly thankful for the opportunity that I've been given by my band mates. Playing in a Classic Rock/Country trio will go down as a great musical experience. I cant help but believe that it will make me a better player and will keep me on my toes. It's a challenge I recommend to anyone that wants to test their abilities.

-Synchro

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This post has been brought to you by ModKitsDIY.com. They provide kits for building your own pedals or amps and they come with clear and easy-to-follow instructions. If you do happen to get stuck, they're always there to contact and walk you through whatever trouble you may be having. Save yourself some money on your next pedal or amp by building it yourself with a kit from these fine folks.

The Fret Job

The Fret Job

by PT

For a long time, I have called my 1983 Fender Strat ‘quirky’.

It has an amazing neck. That is the main reason I have kept it around for the last fifteen or so years. Plus, it has a great sound. Classic Fender tone matched with a neck that feels oh-so comfortable in my hands.

But, for at least the past few years, it has been… quirky. Odd buzzing has cropped up at various spots on the fretboard. But it happened so slowly that I began to think that maybe it had always been that way and I just hadn’t really ever noticed before. I figured it was part of the guitar. The price of admission for playing a cool old Strat.

Fortunately for me, I brought the guitar along with me to Blisstock in Nashville this past May. Also fortunately for me, luthier and all around nice guy Steve Benford of Benford Guitars happened to pick it up.

He took one look at the guitar and said “You like to play the D chord.”

Guilty as charged.

It didn’t take more than a minute or two with the guitar before Mr. Benford turned to me and said, “PT, your guitar needs a fret job.”

A fret job? Sure, I’d heard of this mythical and invasive-sounding procedure, but I had never even considered having it done. I may not have actually went through with it, but something about the authoritative tone in Steve’s voice convinced me this was not an optional repair.

The guitar ended up going home to Milwaukee with Benford, and I made the drive back to the mountains of eastern Tennessee one guitar lighter. But a few weeks later, a large box arrived for me, and inside was a familiar case covered in Spider-Man and Ho-Chunk Casino stickers.

I picked up the guitar, strummed my beloved D chord, and my world was rocked.

Here was my comfortable old guitar, with all the tone it ever had, but now it was different. And it wasn’t just the fresh shine on the frets. It played like a new guitar.

For some reason, I had never considered that I might be able to keep the feel and sound of nearly thirty year-old Strat and enjoy the playability of a fresh out of the factory guitar. And all for the price of a relatively painless refret!

So the moral here is that we do not have to live with imperfect instruments. What you think of as the inherent imperfections of your instruments may be solvable. Taking your guitar in for a checkup with a talented luthier could solve the problems you didn’t even know you had.

- PT

PT is the co-host of the guitar talk podcast Six-String Bliss. He also writes fiction and has been known to throw a little disc golf. He lives in the birthplace of country music.

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This post is brought to you by Flatline Guitars, a small guitar company that dedicate themselves to making the absolute best guitar possible and delivering amazing tone, amazing feel for an attainable price. I have a Delta 90, myself and it's quickly rising to "#1" status! To learn more, check them out HERE.

Pigtronix PolySaturator

Pigtronix Polysaturator Review

By Pappy

The Pigtronix PolySaturator is like a good movie sequel. It picks up right where the Aria left off and offers more stuff, but kept in the same vein of the original. There is still touch sensitivity, there is still a lot of variety in the tones you can achieve and it’s still kept in an attractive-looking battery-lacking enclosure, but comes with its own power supply and cheat sheet for starting tone suggestions just like the Aria. But it offers more. More gain, more sustain, and overall a crazier limit on the hairy tones you can produce. If you put the Aria and PolySaturator side by side, I wouldn’t blame you for considering one (the Aria) an overdrive and one (the PolySaturator) a distortion pedal.

Though honestly, “distortion pedal” is misleading when it comes to this box. Yes, it produces heaps of distortion when you want it to, but it’s also warm and pleasing to the ear and, like I said before, it’s touch sensitive. I feel like just calling it a distortion would lump it with too many other pedals that have one or two good tones, a lack of versatility in the knobs and an overall uninspired package all-around.

If you insist on calling it a distortion, then I have to insist that it’s a pretty boutique-sounding one.

Honestly, both pedals really impressed me because of the quality in both construction and tone and when you look at the prices as well ($149.00 for the Aria and $169.00 for the PolySaturator from Amazon) they seem like a steal. And in a smart move, you can get close to producing the same tones from both pedals, but it isn’t going to be spot-on and you know the limit of the Aria is more than easily achieved with the PolySaturator. In short, you can pick your favorite, but they go REALLY well together. It’s easy to imagine setting up the Aria for whatever level of gain you want and then punching in the PolySaturator when it comes time for… well… more. Or you could just as easily add these to your amp and make yourself a three channel amp (assuming your amp is single-channel) that features very different sounds but they all sound good.

But back to the PolySaturator specifically!

Here are the bullet points from Pigtronix:

-Mellow Overdrive To Ultra High Gain Distortion

-3-Band 12DB/Octave Graphic EQ

-Class A, J-Fet Front End

- Original JRC4558D Op-Amps Throughout

-Super Compact Design

-True Bypass

-9-15VDC Power

-Pigtronix 18VDC Adapter Included

-Circuit Design By Howard Davis

How does it measure up to the bullet points? Pretty well, I think. The only issue I had was that the “scooped metal” setting, indeed any high gain setting that featured a high level of bass, was too bottom heavy on an amp with the EQ set to noon. The bottom end cannibalized the rest of the signal and sounded pretty woofy, but if you backed off the bass, it became much more usable. Will it do metal? Yes, but I think it has stronger tones elsewhere.

So, like I said above, the pedal comes with a cheat sheet of suggested settings to get you started, encouraging you to tweak them until find the right mix for you. These are just starting points, but they’re really great ones. For a lot of these, when I was messing around with the pedal, the settings suggested were the ones I went with and I was just fine. In particular, I really liked the Plexi-Licious and the Tweedy 'Lux settings. I also really liked the Treble boosteras it was able to take my Flatline Delta 90 which, although it looks like a Tele, lacks the super-high end thanks to the bridge P90. Most of the time I really like this feature of the Delta 90, but sometimes I really want the tone to be just a bit higher - not ice-pick high, but close. The treble booster setting did just this and I was in Normal Tele Land.

Here is a sound sample of all the suggested settings. I used my Flatline Delta 90 with volume and tone maxed out into the PolySaturator, then into AmpliTube 3.5 – specifically the Orange Tiny Terror setting in clean. The order of the settings are: No effect, Clean Boost, Treble Booster, Tweedy 'Lux, Plexi-Licious, Scooped Metal, Screaming Notch, Hairy Fuzz, and Koltai Special.

Pigtronix PolySaturator Samples by Fifth Fret

I think you can tell that some of these settings seemed right up my guitar’s alley while some could have used some tweaking to squeeze the most potential out of it. With such an effective EQ on the pedal, you can do just that. Perhaps if you use just one guitar, you can go through the cheat sheet and make one of your own showing the settings to achieve what you think is the best approximation of what Pigtronix was shooting for, but for YOUR guitar.

I really like this pedal. I like the size of it, the potential for tones, the touch sensitivity, the effectiveness of the EQ knobs, the fact it comes with a power supply, yet can also be run on more traditional ones in case you lose the one that comes with it and I really like how it allows your guitar’s voice to come through.

It’s well worth checking out. The price is great and if you think the Aria is a little light on distortion for you, then the PolySaturator might be right up your alley. Or check them both out and see how they react together.

They make a great team.

Many thanks to Pigtronix for sending me these pedals to review. Sending them back has definitely left a sad, empty hole on my pedal shelf.

To learn more about Pigtronix and the PolySaturator specifically you should go HERE.

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This post was brought to you by Shanghai Music & Sound! It's a great shop where you can get all sorts of gear from your favorite companies at great prices. The website needs updating so call or email to find out if they have specifically what you want or if they can order it for you and if SO, how much it is. A lot of music companies are adopting MAP (Minimum Advertised Price) so you have to call or email to get the REAL price. Check them out HERE.

Pigtronix Aria Review

Pigtronix Aria Review

By Pappy

Pigtronix makes some very interesting effects. Their pedals are very cool-looking, usually featuring a lot of knobs and a lot of great guitarists backing them, but I've never seen them in a shop and have never been able to get a hold of one to try out for myself.

Until now.

Pigtronix sent me an Aria distortion for review and I am very impressed. First of all, I know that pedal wirings don't have to be big, but it's still shocking just how big of a sound can come out of a box so small! There's no room for a battery inside the pedal, but that's OK because it comes with its own power supply that's specifically made for this pedal, though it can also accept the standard 9V adapter like you would find on a 1Spot or (my favorite) the Sanyo Pedal Juice so you won't be tied to a wall.

Here are the bullet points from Pigtronix:

- Sweet and Creamy Distortion for the Discerning Musician
- Dynamic diode clipping architecture
- 3-band 12 DB / Octave Graphic EQ
- Lots of Output Volume!
- Super Compact Design
- True Bypass
- 9-18VDC power (Works with Voodoo Labs PP2)
- Pigtronix 18VDC adapter included
- Circuit Design by Howard Davis
- Sound Design by David Koltai

Before I get any further I just wanted to say that I think it's awesome that a company is giving credit to the circuit and sound designer in the selling bullets of the product. This is the first time I've seen that.

So let's talk about the sound: The pedal comes not only with an included power supply but with a big, easy to read sheet with pictures of the pedal in various settings and the usual clever names that hint to you what tone they were going for, without having to shell out money to bigger companies just to use the names of their products.

Initially I didn't look at the sheet and set up the pedal as I would an amp since it has all the knobs of a versatile amp (volume, gain, low, mid, and high) and the sound was OK, but not all that impressive. So I referenced the sheet, found an interesting-sounding setting that hinted toward the Vox side of things and tweaked the knobs accordingly and it sounded awesome! It had plenty of gain in it for all my rock and roll desires and it showcased something else:

This pedal is INCREDIBLY touch sensitive. You can change the tone drastically just by altering your picking emphasis. Not touching the pedal, not even touching your guitar's volume knob, you lighten your touch and it cleans up well.

Want to have a sample of just how touch sensitive it is?

Pigtronix Aria - Touch Sensitive by Fifth Fret

It's a welcome change from the pedals that make your guitar sound like it has just one setting and inhibits you from branching out. I thought this made me feel more in tune with my guitar where one more thing was being taken into account and I had more control of the sound I was getting and this time there were no knobs involved! You just set the pedal and amp up and then play and it will be HOW you play that determines your sound.

Want to hear a base sample of all the suggested settings? I used a bridge position TV Jones Classic in my Gretsch 6118T and came out with this. Fair warning though: mind the volume, it does jump up and down in places though. On with the samples!

Pigtronix Aria Sound Samples by Fifth Fret

I'm a big fan.

But this pedal has many voices and the knobs really make a difference. I found that while I like the smooth distortion of the Vox setting, the Champ setting really won my heart. It's low gain, but the gain IS there, especially if you hit the strings hard enough and here's where I spent most of my time. This was just adding a bit of hair to your signal making for blues with just a bit of bite to it (so you're not bogged down with sterile cleans nor drowning in gain). It also works really well for rockabilly for the same reason. Roots rock never sounded so good from a single pedal and I was impressed by these two tones.

Here's a sample of the Champ setting. I originally recorded the settings MP3, but was having such a good time with this setting, I decided to record this as well.

The Box by Fifth Fret

But it doesn't stop with just these two tones. The sheet has a lot of different settings and, just like any other suggested setting on any other product, are meant to be the starting point to make your own favorite settings. Consider it a hands-on guided tour of the pedal since that's really what it is. It gives you a great crash-course on what the pedal can do, ranging from a clean boost to a brown stack, and even a pretty decent fuzzy tone which is an accomplishment since I don't generally associate good fuzz tones with distortion pedals.

This pedal is amazingly versatile once you learn the ins and outs of the knobs and start focusing on your own playing and I think everyone should check it out. It retails on Amazon for $149.00 which seems like a steal considering its strong points.

And what ARE the strong points, conveniently put into a bullet format for easy digestion in case you didn't want to read all the words associated with this review?

The Pigtronix Aria is:

- Really small and convenient for any pedal board
- Equipped with its own power supply
- Should you LOSE the power supply (things happen), it takes common replacements
- It looks cool
- It's touch sensitive to your playing, letting you express yourself more than usual
- It comes with an easy-to-read sheet with tone suggestions that you can build on
- IT SOUNDS GREAT
- It's versatile and packed with many different tones because
- The knobs actually matter and do something

Weaknesses? Well, it won't do metal or anything with really high gain. To do that you'd have to use the PolySaturator and to learn more about that pedal, you'll have to tune in next time here on the Fifth Fret.

To learn more about Pigtronix and the Aria specifically, check out their website HERE.

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Charles M. Schulz & Beginner Guitar Lessons

The name Charles M. Schulz may sound familiar but you also may have a problem placing it. Don’t worry. He’s the person responsible for Peanuts or, if you’re not hip to the actual titles of things, Charlie Brown or Snoopy. He was an incredibly interesting person with a history that is both tragic and inspiring. Reading his biography was different than everyone else’s mainly because he was very much like a normal person, just a little more extreme. He had his problems in life like women in general and trying to tackle his debilitating agoraphobia, he had his children though he was just as oft to call the Peanuts characters his children as he was his ACTUAL children, and he had his dreams.

I think what separates him from most people is just a little thing called stubbornness where he refused to give up on his dream of being a cartoonist even though he went through years of getting rejection after rejection in the mail. Peanuts just wasn’t understood by the powers that be, though there was an audience waiting for it in the wings. They just needed access to it by the people that decided what was “funny” and what wasn’t.

His is a great biography that I highly recommend. It really sheds a new light on the comic and the guy is interesting to read about.

What does this have to do with guitar?

I will tell you: I see a HUGE amount to training material, both in blogs and in magazines, books, videos, etc. for beginners. There is less training material as you grow in your fretboard prowess.

And it’s a racket.

Well, racket is a bit harsh, but if you think about it, playing guitar is like a pyramid where there are a ton of people at the bottom, in the beginner bracket, learning to play or getting comfortable and not progressing very much, but they’re happy playing Oasis songs and as you go up in ability there are fewer and fewer peers and the people that dedicate their lives and all extra time to being an amazing guitar player and succeed, there are few of them.

So companies, blogs, magazines and everyone else is focusing on the bottom of the pyramid because that’s where the most people are and that’s where the money hopefully is.

I don’t blame them, honestly and this isn’t a blog calling them out, merely an revelation I had when I was thinking about Schulz.

See, Schulz worked for a long time in one of those artist correspondence course companies where you would sign up, receive your drawing assignment, do it, send it back where someone like Schulz would grade it. They would send back the critique (needs darker shadows, closer cross-hitching, longer lines, etc) and you could try again and eventually move on to a harder level. The biography said that these courses were very popular, but also resembled a pyramid in that MANY people thought it would be fun and signed up, realized it was hard work, progressed a few levels and gave up for whatever reason.

It’s the stubbornness and determination that eventually let Schulz have his cartoon accepted and eventually make him a very rich man that made it his way with his principles still intact at the end. The same goes with guitarists. Learning to play is hard, playing is hard, and the odds of making something of it are slim, but if you’re stubborn and determined, you’ll have a better shot.

-Pappy

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7 Essential Tips to improving Your Guitar Skills

Guest Post:

7 Essential Tips To Improving Your Guitar Skills!

Every guitarist reaches a plateau at some stage in their growth, and while it can be frustrating, there are some practical things you can do to improve your guitar skills to break through to the next level.

The follow are some essential tips that can help you to get better at guitar and go to the next level as a player.

1. Play With Lots Of Different Musicians

Play with as many different people as possible. If possible, play with people better than you. That’s how you keep learning. You can practice all of your techniques, theory, rhythms, etc on your own and then forget all that when you get a room with other musicians. You are PLAYING music, not thinking music. Play from your heart and your hands, not your head. Don’t forget to watch and listen to how others are playing and responding to each other.

2. Never Stop Learning New Songs

Learning new songs will guarantee to keep you out of any rut you may be in. A song can take you away from your normal style and expose you to something new. Don’t forget the music on TV and movies. People that write music for movies and commercials are professionals – they know their stuff. Lots of stuff to learn; movies especially… Trying to create a mood? Soundtracks are designed for just that. Lots to learn compositionally.

3. Find Your Part In The Song

Find where you sit in the song and then play your part. What is your role in the song? The bass can play in the octaves you can’t (or at least, shouldn’t). Don’t try to take over. You shouldn’t ever fight your drummer. Let them lay the foundation, and you just decorate. Don’t try to be the “star”. Find the pocket and do things to make the band sound better.

4. Practice Not Playing

Have you ever tried to not play anything for an entire verse or pre-chorus? It can be harder than you think. Remember, silence is your friend. It makes music sound organic instead of like a sprint or unstoppable robot! Don’t always be in a rush, and don’t be afraid to let a rhythm or a solo “breathe” between notes and strums. Keyword: Breathe.

5. Practice Every Day

How many guitar teachers have said that practice is the number 1 tip for improving. But remember, don’t just practice, you need to practice the right things. Otherwise, you’ll just be wasting time.

‘Noodling’ is not as productive as ‘drilling’. Also, practicing unplugged is usually more productive.

Don’t forget to practice to a metronome. Try to play in time, both rhythmically and with single note lines.

Be productive. If time is a problem for you and you only have 30 minutes a day, just plan it: 10 minutes on arpeggios, 10 minutes on chord voicing’s, 10 minutes on melody work, or something like that.

6. Find Melodies In The Scales

To get away from going mindlessly up and down a scale pattern, try to start concentrating more on playing inspired melodies. This is where the magic of music exists. Find your own melodies within the scales and let that shine in the song. This is another reason why some people don’t like super-fast shredders that simply go up and down the scales really fast. It can start to sound boring and ‘same-old-same-old’.

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Million-mile-an-hour chops leave me cold. Vocalists
don’t go dididididididi. Why should guitars? – Jeff Beck

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7. Effects Don’t Cover Mistakes

Don’t rely on effects. A classic mistake is using too much delay. If you listen to a professional recording carefully, you’ll notice that a lot of the guitar parts don’t actually have much delay at all. Yet, when we play live, it can be an easy but bad habit to use too much delay.

Also, don’t use too much distortion; too many pedal; too much “cover up”. I have found that learning to play clean with no pedals really helped me both with my technique and my overall tone. A lot of guys hide behind pedals and when you take them away they are very sloppy or can’t find their ‘touch’.

Try to play without effects more often and master you playing so that when you add a pedal into the mix it only adds to your overall tone.

Your Say

Have you discovered any tips that would help the rest of us?

About The Author

Hi, I’m Danny Dyson and I’m the writer and creator behind http://www.RockYourGuitar.com. I have been playing guitar for over 20 years now and love it more every day.

I hope through my blog I can inspire and be inspired by other musicians. Music is a journey, and this is my way of sharing that.

You can check out my blog here: http://www.rockyourguitar.com

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