Matt Helm

I’m turning into a travel guide here, with a post on where to find Flamenco in Jerez in the South of Spain. I’m visiting at the moment and have struggled to find useful advice on the internet, so I figured I should write my own.

For the past few months I’ve been struggling with a floppy wah. Stop sniggering at the back. I have a Snarling Dogs Whine-o-Wah. Snarling Dogs wahs are the funky ones that look like a foot. Unfortunately that big foot-shaped treadle is very heavy. I found that every time I took my foot off the pedal it would flop back into the ‘toe down’ position…

The Boss SD-1 Super Overdrive is my Overdrive Pedal recommendation for beginners. I love this pedal because it gives you ‘rock’ at the flick of a switch. It really evokes that 80’s classic rock sound – think of any band who play with a wall of Marshall amps behind them. If I wanted a sound in the style of Guns ‘n’ Roses, Bon Jovi, Def Leppard, Van Halen, Whitesnake, Black Sabbath, The Cult, etc. then this is what I’d go for.

Likewise, if I just want some chunky power chords or heavy riffs, this would be my go to option. If a session or a musical calls for ‘drive’ in the score then this is what I switch on. If you’re more into metal then you might prefer next week’s distortion pedal suggestion as your default ‘heavy’ sound, but for me rock is where I’m most comfortable and this pedal does the job.

So far in this series we’ve introduced goals and talked about exactly what goals are. Now I want to talk about why they work. If you understand why goals work it will help you understand how to use them; when to pursue them relentlessly and when to back off a little. Goals can be incredibly powerful but they aren’t for everyone and they can be counter-productive you become too single minded about them.

The Boss BD-2 Blues Driver pedal is my tip for someone starting on guitar who wants a bluesy crunch, light overdrive or an indie sound with a bit of bite. I think this pedal is fantastic. Of all the three I’m going to recommend it’s the one I would never get rid of. No matter how many other pedals and amps I have there could always be a time when I might need this sound in a hurry, and I’d reach straight for the Blues Driver.

This is the second post in my series about goals. If you haven’t read it already, make sure you are familiar with my introduction to goals.

Let’s take a look at what I mean by a goal in this context. I’m talking about a specific thing that you want to achieve. It should be a big thing. Something like ‘Own a House’, ‘Find Love’, ‘Earn more than £100k’, ‘Become a Published Author’, ‘Write a Top 10 Record’, etc.

In the next three posts I’m going to give you my recommendation for the best crunch, overdrive and distortion pedals for Beginners (see my earlier post on the different types of distortion if you haven’t already). If you’re just starting out guitar and you want to start experimenting with the various flavours of distortion and overdrive these pedals are a good place to start.

This might be the most important series of blog posts I ever write. I’m going to go through, in detail: What goals are; why they’re so effective; how to set them; and how to work through them.

I realised a little while ago that almost every post I want to write in the future in some way references or relates back to goals. I felt it was vital to get this series out so that it’s there as a foundation for everything else I want to say.

Overdrive and Distortion are some of the most common effects used on electric guitar, and most associated with the instrument. The history and development of Overdrive has gone hand in hand with the history and development of electric guitar sounds. This post is aimed to give the beginner or novice guitarist a general understanding of what these sounds are.

Following my posts on amp volume and how little volume you actually need, I decided I had better practice what I preached. See how I got on using a 15 watt 1×10″ valve amp at a recent Musical Theatre gig.