Pedals to make an electric guitar sound old timey

If you don't have the amp for this, pedals are available to help you out to get this sound.

What is old timey? In the world of music, any published song that is over 15 years old is considered an oldie. That technically means any song from 2006 at the time I write counts as oldie music.

However, when guitar players want an old timey sound, they're usually referring to decades much older than that. Specifically, the 1950s and 1960s.

It used to be all about the amp

In the 1950s, guitarists really didn't use pedals much, and instead used whatever effect the amp had installed in it. And yes, I said effect, as in single effect, because most amps didn't have multiple effects in them.

It wasn't really until the 1960s where pedals became a normal thing for guitarists.

Amp effects, generally speaking, were limited to four things. Reverb tank, tremolo, vibrato and rotary.

The reverb tank was just a spring in a box. Tremolo is in some respects was supposed to emulate the rotary effect, but ended up being it's own stutter-type sound (I talked about that recently). The rotary sound came from organs that had a rotating speaker for a wob-wob-wob-wob type of sound. Vibrato is a modulation effect that changes the pitch of the sound up, down, then back up again.

Then the '60s came...

The earliest effects as far as I'm aware were the fuzz box and the booster, but I believe those actually appeared before the '60s.

What absolutely did appear starting in the '60s was the envelope filter, as in the wah pedal.

Also during this era was the refinement of the delay effect. Now if you really want to get particular about this, technically the delay effect goes all the way back to the 1940s, as it came about shortly after magnetic tape players came into being.

However, what most guitarists agree is the "real" delay effect that really set the mark was the Echoplex from 1959. That was the unit that gave the guitarist fine control of delay speeds. And as the Echoplex was improved over time, it also introduced volume controls for dry signal and such. This effect was also one of the first that started as tube-type and then was later made as solid state.

The old timey effect checklist + one modern effect

I'll start with the modern effect first because this is kind of important.

Part of the old timey sound is a loud tube-type amp. The tubes when hot in combination with a loudspeaker that breaks up in a desirable way (like a Celestion) really brings together that nice old sound.

Obviously, you can't crank an amp up super loud all the time, so the next best thing for home recording is something I've mentioned many times before, compression. Get a compressor. No, it will not sound the same as an amp with white-hot tubes blaring a Celestion loudspeaker. But you can listen to it with headphones or your computer speakers.

After that, this is the old timey list:

• Booster
• Fuzz
• Rotary
• Vibrato
• Tremolo
• Tape Delay
• Wah

Let's go over each of these.

Booster can be emulated with a compressor and light overdrive/distortion. You probably already have an overdrive/distortion effect. All you need is the compressor.

Fuzz can't really be emulated with overdrive/distortion because it doesn't bring out the "fat" sound fuzz has. You'll have to buy one. Fortunately, fuzz can be had cheap.

Rotary is very difficult to get right, and not cheap at all. Some would say "Oh, just use a flanger, that works." No, it doesn't. A proper rotary effect needs active switching to emulate the speeding up and slowing down of the simulated rotating speaker, and has to do so in a way where it doesn't sound like a mess. Not easy. It is routine to see better rotary floor effects go for over $200 - especially for the ones that have stereo capability. Rotary is also something you can't just on/off. There's a process in learning how to use it right. It takes time. Nothing about rotary, even with modern pedals, is 100% automatic. There is a learning curve and that's just the way it is.

Vibrato is the effect you go for if you want that hippie-era '60s vibe. I'm not a fan of this effect, and most vibrato pedals sound like a warbly mess. And even on amps that had this effect originally, they didn't sound that great either.

I covered tremolo in detail here, and yes, get this. Very good effect to have, both for old timey and modern sounds.

Tape delay is weird because you can go cheap or super-expensive. There are many delays out there. For the old timey sound, all you need is something that has 300ms of delay time, which is all of them. You can go cheap with this.

Wah is an effect I both love and hate. Love the sound, love the control of the sound, hate the hardware. My favorite wah of all time is the VOX V847A, as it has notably more "growl" and "bite" compared to a Dunlop Crybaby. But I hate the maintenance involved. These pedals use lubricant for the pedal mechanism to work. That lubricant will dry up, so it's required to periodically take the pedal apart, clean it, and re-lube. I can't stand that.

There's only one solution to this: Use optical wah. The Morley PWO Power Optical Wah is such a pedal. No lube at all because it, obviously, uses optical tech to do what it does. No pots to wear out. No lubrication required. Great pedal. The only reason I've not bought one is because it's not cheap and never has been. But it is lower in price compared to the VOX V847A.

Can all this stuff be emulated with software?

With the rotary and wah effects, absolutely not.

For the other stuff, yes.

To get that absolute old timey vintage tone that covers all the bases, you really need that rotary and wah. The rotary has to be purpose-built to the task, and the wah has to be manual style with no software control.

Oh sure, there have been many attempts to emulate the rotary and wah in software, but they're all terrible.

The only question you have to ask yourself is if you need rotary and wah or not. If not, software may cover everything you need. But if it doesn't and you really want "the full set" of all the old timey sounds, spend some cash on that rotary and wah. Both are very nice to have.

Blue's Clues Learning Watch (it's kinda ridiculous)

Would I dare wear this thing in public?

The story behind this watch is that the special person this was given to didn't like it. I was then asked if I wanted it since I like watches. I said sure, why not. And of course I had to make a video above it, seen above.

Yes, this is a real watch. Expensive? Not at all. And surprisingly functional.

I'm going to mention a few things not covered in the video I made about it.

Let's talk about the manual. It is informative, but done somewhat backwards. What I mean by that is that I'm 100% certain none of the parents who buy this thing will know you can turn off "Try-Me" mode. The reason for this is because you have to dig into the manual just to find where that information is stated.

Why does this matter? No parent would think for one second that this thing can function as an actual watch. They'd just assume the Try-Me mode is the regular mode when in fact it isn't. Getting the watch out of Try-Me mode should be on the very first page. Instead, it's on page six.

When the watch is put to regular operating mode, then it can actually do watch things. It tells the time. It has a countdown timer. It has an hourly signal feature. It has an alarm. And it has other stuff.

Will the intended user (kids age 3 to 6) ever use these features? No. And this means none of the features will ever be used by anybody who ever gets this...

...which is kind of a shame, because I can tell whoever designed this thing really tried, succeeded, but also failed at the same time.

Where the wins happened: Correct volume (not too loud), button action is just right, display very legible, strap very comfortable and doesn't irritate the skin, very nice menu animations that are done right.

Where the fails happened: Everywhere else.

This watch is way too big for a 3-year-old. I have a 6.5" wrist and it fits me, a grown man. It shouldn't. This thing is gigantic. 42mm diameter and 30mm thickness with cover closed? This thing is a brick!

The menu system is cute and friendly, but way too complicated not only for kids but most adults. I'm positive that moms are never going to spend the time figuring out how to use this thing. It should be no more difficult to figure out than a Casio F-91W. That, or the menus need to be redesigned so that reading the manual is absolutely not required to figure it out.

I'll put it to you this way: This watch stumped me, and I know watches. When I first received it, I knew it had a watch function because of the right side clock button but could not figure out how to get it out of Try-Me mode. Only after getting the manual did I figure that out, which is why I put it in the video. Nobody would know how to do it otherwise.

No water resistance? For a kids watch? It says right in the manual that the watch can't handle being submerged in water at all. If you're going to make a product for child, it had better be able to handle water. This watch can't.

This needs to be repurposed as an adult watch

Even with all its flaws, I like this watch even though I'd never wear it in public.

If this were redesigned and repurposed, it would be a winner.

For example, if the case was black, buttons in gray, cover removed, external speaker removed, slimmed to a maximum 15mm height, had a straight strap (same material) that was slightly longer, front sticker removed, front OK button removed, games removed and had 30m water resistance...

...this would make for an excellent adult fashion watch. Quartz watches with matrix displays are cool, and I wish there were more of them around.

As a kid's watch, yeah I suppose it works only because kids don't care about watch functions at all. But all that function going to waste is such a shame.

Again, if it were redesigned and repurposed as a fashion watch, then it would be great.

My Christmas fixings

No, this is not about food.

Some of my Christmas "gifts" to me this year were in the form of fixing a few things I own.

Mean Green calculator rides again

Above is a really cheap Radio Shack calculator. For those interested, it's catalog number 65-1009, and that's not just for the single calculator. It's the part number for a three-calculator set that came in a blister pack. Each calculator was a different color. Green (seen above), purple, and blue. I probably have the purple and blue ones somewhere.

This calculator is either close to or over 20 years old. Every time I think this calculator is gone, it somehow magically shows up in a box somewhere. Incredibly, this thing still worked on its original battery after all these years. I finally decided to clean it up and change the battery. It was obvious this calculator was never meant to be taken apart, but I had nothing to lose so I did it anyway and was able to fix it up and make it work again like new.

Is this a collectible item? Not in the slightest. But this calculator is great. Extremely slim, easy to read, actually has an off button (probably the reason the battery lasted so long), super-easy-press soft buttons... it's great. I was happy to fix it.

I had to order a specific battery cell just for this calculator called an LR1130, formerly known as a GP189. It also goes by AG10 for some reason. No idea why. And, of course, I couldn't order just 1 or 2. I had to order 10. While the cost of this was just $3.42 shipped, now I have 9 batteries I'll probably never use... for a calculator probably not worth more than a dollar. Oh, well.

Garmin nuvis still working

Speaking of battery replacements, I just did the same thing with two Garmin nuvi GPSes I own.

Before anyone asks, yes I know the phone can navigate. I don't like it, which is why I use a nuvi.

I have my daily driver GPS and a second identical model as a backup because I like it that much. Both had their original batteries from the early 2010s. Changed those both out with replacement 1200mAh batteries and they're good to go.

Car stuff

The latest with my car (it's over 10 years old) is that I installed a fuse tap, a.k.a. add-a-fuse, add-a-circuit or whatever it's called.

I did this for my dashcam so it doesn't have to use the 12V port. The tap was installed to the accessory fuse so power is only delivered when the ignition is on. The reason for installing it this way is so the dashcam is never draining the car battery when the engine is off. Cheap tech, but works great.

Guitar fixings?

Not too much to report here just yet. I'm not going to get into my Strat project until sometime in 2021. That's the plan, anyway.

Clean guitar player's second best friend, tremolo

The main reason many guitar players don't know about the tremolo effect is because of overdrive and distortion. Tremolo usually doesn't work there. I'll get back to that in a moment. But when playing clean, it's your second best friend.

Two things to note before continuing.

First, the tremolo effect is not vibrato. Vibrato pitches the sound back and forth. Tremolo is a volume effect, almost like a controlled stutter.

Second, the best friend to a clean guitar player is, of course, compression. If you play clean, you need that. And as far as which chain order you should have, you can go either way with compression first, tremolo second, or tremolo first, compression second. It depends if you want the "strike" to be heard first from the guitar sound or the tremolo effect. You'll have to experiment to see which chain order works best for you. But it's absolutely true that the less noisy way is compression first, tremolo second so you're not compressing the tremolo effect itself.

Tremolo is a really easy effect to miss, because as said above, most guitar players drown their guitars in way too much overdrive or distortion.

However, if you dial the overdrive back to a civilized level, you can ring out some really cool sounding stuff with an overdriven tremolo sound.

Typically, tremolo works best on the bridge side (as in the rear) pickup whether clean or overdriven because it allows the effect to be heard more clearly. This doesn't mean you can't use the neck side (as in the front) pickup with the effect, but to make that sound right, a generous amount of compression helps quite a bit.

Tremolo works better with chords than solos, but if you must solo, the nice part is that you can do long droning notes and the tremolo effect carries things along quite nicely. There's no need to go all over the fretboard when the effect is in use.

Is tremolo a one trick pony?

No. And the reason for that is simple. You can adjust the depth, wave and rate.

Slower, wider tremolo effect sounds completely different compared to a faster, shorter stutter. You can go anywhere from full-on country tone to '60s acid rock to '80s new wave and several other genres all from this one effect.

Clean is where tremolo sounds best, but as noted above it does work with overdrive, provided you keep it civilized.

Pick yourself up a BOSS TR-2 and you'll love it. Or if you have the effect in your virtual rig or multi-effect amp or pedal (they all have tremolo buried in there somewhere), use it. Tremolo is a great effect to have in your tone arsenal.

How to easily avoid an expensive mistake with guitar pedals

Remember a simple rule, and you'll avoid wasting money.

Take a BOSS Loop Station RC-5. Is it good? Of course it is. BOSS makes great stuff. But there is one huge problem with it...

...the screen.

It's not that the screen is bad or doesn't work or anything like that. The pedal works as intended.

But when trying to read that screen from a standing position (or even a seated position for that matter), that's where this design fails and fails hard. And that's when you go right back to a BOSS RC-3 with its much more readable display.

I have made the mistake before of buying a floor pedal with a screen on it similar to what's on the RC-5. Yeah, it looks cool. And yeah, the manufacturer can stuff a ton more features into a pedal with a screen on it.

But ultimately it all comes down to legibility. Pedals with screens simply cannot be read as easily as those with segmented displays.

Even if you have perfect 20/20 vision, you're going to squint when trying to read the RC-5's screen from a standing position. These screens also have a tendency to wash out very easily under bright lights or when used outside in sunlight.

Comparatively speaking, the older RC-3 and RC-1 models can easily be read from a standing position. The RC-1 in particular, while the most basic of the bunch, is the easiest to get along with because it uses lights and colors in a circle instead of having to read anything.

Are you better off using pedals with no screens at all?

In all honesty, yes.

The only thing you need for most pedals is one light that tells you if the pedal is on, off or doing something as indicated by pulsing, flashing or changing color.

However, for pedals that have presets, memory slots or need to count up/down things, the best display that's been around since the '80s is a segmented red backlit display, such as on the RC-3. This is something you can read from a distance without a problem.

The rule is...

Don't get pedals with screens on them.

With amps, that's a different story because those displays are much closer to eye level, and they're not being literally kicked around.

If the pedal effect for whatever it is lives on the floor, you're always better off with simple segmented displays or just lights.

Yeah, you totally want the newer stuff with the screen because it looks cool and has every feature imaginable. Don't do it. Remember where the pedal lives.

If you want a simple example of how bad an idea it is to have a screen on the floor, take your phone, load up a web page and increase the font size. Then put it on the floor, stand up and look down at the screen. Try to read it. You probably can - but then imagine that screen as less than half the size of your phone's screen. You'll then understand why a screen on a pedal is a bad idea.