Getting Eric Clapton tone out of a DigiTech RP360

It's tutorial time.

Generally speaking, guitar players that are seeking to get "Clapton tone" are usually referring to something he calls "woman tone." This is a sound best described as having little to no treble with an overdrive that makes it sound like you're driving a speaker to its limit.

Fortunately, you don't need to drive a speaker to the point of it almost blowing up to get the woman tone sound. All you need is a DigiTech RP360, tweak two settings, and you pretty much have it.

Step 1. Having the "correct" guitar

The only thing you have to know here is that a Stratocaster is actually not the guitar you want. Why? Because most Strats do not have the rear (as in "bridge") pickup wired to a tone control.

The Stratocaster guitar by design does not have any tone control wired to the rear-only pickup setting. That's the way Leo Fender designed it. There is no Squier Stratocaster I know of with an SSS pickup layout that has a "bridge-only" tone control wired to it. There is no Fender Standard Stratocaster model I know of that has the bridge-only tone control. I do not know if the Fender American Standard Stratocaster has a bridge-only tone control or not.

A Telecaster, even for the cheapest Squier model, does have a tone control wired for bridge-only use. And unless it's a special model of some sort, all "standard" Fender Telecaster models have a bridge-only tone wired in.

Jazzmasters and Jaguars all have tone control for bridge-only use, unless it's some sort of special model like the Jim Root Jazzmaster that only has one master volume and nothing else.

For any non-Fender design, they all should have tone control on all pickups present. So if you want to give this a go with a Les Paul, SG or whatever you have, you can as long as the tone control works for both the front and rear pickups.

Step 2. Voice the guitar for woman tone

This is very easy. Volume up, tone down. Either select the front pickup or the rear pickup, put the volume all the way up, tone control all the way off.

Step 3. An understanding of voicing by modeling

The voicing here is all done by the RP360 and nothing else. No amplifier is involved whatsoever. This is nothing but a direct sound. All digital, no tubes, no analog.

Step 4. Modifying preset #1 Plexi-Drive

The modifications to this preset are as follows:

1. Change compressor to RED COMPRESSOR, and enable.

2. Change reverb to LEXICON STUDIO and set to a level of 65.

That's it. Yes, really. There's nothing more to it. After that, brush up on your Clapton riffs.

The RED COMPRESSOR is an emulation of the MXR Dyna Comp. The LEXICON STUDIO is an emulation of one of their many reverb effect units. Changing these two particular effects when modifying the Plexi-Drive preset make for a fairly convincing Clapton-style tone.

Vintage Guitar of the Week #1 - 1976 Fender Stratocaster Mocha

I've decided to try out a new thing here, Vintage Guitar of the Week. This is the first one...

...and it's a 1976 Fender Stratocaster Mocha.

When you see the price of it, the first question you'll probably have is (unless things change), "Why isn't it selling for more?" There are a few reasons for that.

First, it's a hardtail (technically a string-through-body). You'll see the ferrules on the back of the guitar. Some Strat players just don't care for hardtails. Ordinarily, I don't like hardtail Strats either, but it works on this particular guitar.

Second, it's a 3-bolt and not a 4-bolt plate where the neck connects to the body. Some Strat players believe that negatively affects the tone (it doesn't).

Third, most aren't 100% original. You'll find things like reproduction volume and tone knobs. If you just said, "So?", I had the same reaction. Doesn't bother me in the slightest.

Fourth, many have a few chips here and there.

If I had the money for one, I'd buy it in a second because it's a bargain as far as a vintage Fender electric is concerned. That, and there are three other things I really dig about it.

Many come with the original hardshell case, and I actually prefer those over the tweed cases because it has a very '70s vibe to it.

Mocha is one of the best "woody" colors for Strats, and you don't see it often. Strats of the '70s that show wood grain are usually "Natural", and I just don't care for those because it makes the guitar look like a coffee table. Note that I'm not talking about Telecaster Butterscotch here. I'm talking about Natural finish such as the '75 "natural" Strat. That I don't like. (But by all means, if you like it, go ahead and get it. I'm not the boss of you.) Mocha, on the other hand, looks like a proper woody style finish for a Strat.

I also really like the fact some '76 models can be as light as 7 pounds. More often than not, '70s era Strats are boat-anchor heavy. Not this one. And that's a very good thing.

I'll add something else I dig about it too. The "bullet" truss rod cover. Yeah, I know, it's just a visual thing, but I always loved the look of it.

If you have the cash for it, grab it. Nice price, real-deal vintage, good guitar.

Does Squier offer anything in Mocha?

Yes, sometimes. It's not a regular run color for them, but periodically you'll come across Squier in that oh-so nice mocha brown.

If you're not using a capo on your guitar, you're missing out

It's not a sin to use a capo.

There are a lot of guitar players who firmly believe you should not use a capo. Ever. Why? Because they think it's "cheating", which is one of the dumbest things I've ever heard.

According to certain guitar snobs, any use of a capo is failure because they feel if you want to achieve certain chords that you literally cannot fret with your hand, you should alternate your tuning. Yes, they say you should spend about, oh, five to ten minutes completely retuning your guitar, then go ahead and play that chord you wanted to. Total waste of time. Use the capo. Mounts in seconds and you get the chord you want a whole lot faster.

Some snobs will even recommend buying separate guitars just for alternate tunings. Waste of money. You already have a guitar, and it already plays and sounds just fine, yet the snob just outright tells you to go out and spend hundreds of dollars on another guitar just to do something a cheap capo can do in seconds.

When you get bored with guitar, slap on a capo and watch the magic happen

You can't really play Can You Tell Me How to Get to Sesame Street? without a capo.

I'm sure there are players who have figured out a way to play that theme song without a capo. I didn't. I used the capo because it's a lot easier to just play the song using one. If I didn't, the song would be in the key of A and not C like it's supposed to be.

You don't have to play complicated stuff with a capo. Play whatever you want. You'll notice your guitar will sound totally different when you put a capo on.

Get one. Use it. You'll like it.

Cheap guitar of the week #17 - Hofner CT Shorty Travel Guitar

Behold, the only travel guitar I've ever liked. Yes, really.

I make it no secret that I don't like travel guitars. But I dig this one, and only this one. The above is the Hofner CT Shorty Travel Guitar in limited edition Metallic Orange. The regular colors are blue and red. The other two limited edition colors are Rootbeer and Surf Green. The Rootbeer finish is my second favorite.

So why do I like this particular travel guitar and can't stand others? Four reasons.

First, I really, really like the fact you get so many color choices. On most travel guitars, you only get two to choose from. Hofner offers you five.

Second, the guitar is actually styled correctly. It actually looks like a proper guitar and not something just mashed together from a LEGO kit. True, it has a quirky look, but not in a tacky way. Hofner hits all the right marks with the Shorty.

There are nice little touches on this guitar. Even the rear plate has a logo on it. Little things like that are nice. It's classy.

Third, it's a Hofner, which is a very storied brand. Guitar players who know their stuff know Hofner. You actually get bragging rights by owning one of these just because of the company it's made by.

Fourth, CHEAP! This travel guitar is priced below other travel guitars, and you get a better looking axe from a storied brand that you can actually brag about. It even comes with the gig bag included.

Even if you don't travel with your guitar, the Shorty is a truly a really nice alternative to a Strat or a Les Paul. Really simple, a truly nice looker, great brand, and barely costs anything.

From a historic point of view, the Shorty is not a new model but rather a reintroduced one. It first made its appearance in the 1980s. I'm glad Hofner decided to make it again. It's what a travel guitar should be.

Get one in your favorite color. Again, I like the orange finish because it has a cool retro vibe to it. And yes, Hofner does know how to do orange correct.

One final note: Did I mention the shipping on it is free? Yep.

Easy audio mastering for SoundCloud or YouTube using free software

Mastering audio for YouTube or SoundCloud use is easy when you know how it's done.

I use a ZOOM R8 to record my music with. A feature the R8 lacks is any way to normalize the audio in a master recording. This is fine because I can do that using the Audacity software. Audacity is free for Windows, Mac and Linux. Search it on Google and you'll find it easily.

Assuming you are happy with the recording you have in your standalone recorder and just want to get the levels and volume right, there are only three things you have to do in Audacity to get a properly mastered file. Hard Limiter, Amplify and then generate 2 seconds of silence at the front and tail of the audio file.

Hard Limiter

For the music I do, which is guitar-driven, setting a Hard Limit of -6dB works for me. You will have to experiment with this to see what setting works best for you, but -6dB is the "sweet spot" that works for my recordings.

Amplify

The Amplify effect is used to bring the audio level back up. Since I use -6dB, Audacity auto-calculates that +6dB is needed to get back to 0dB, which is correct. However, I can get away with adding in an extra 1dB. This makes the audio very-slightly overdriven, but it's acceptable.

Silence Generator

I add 2 seconds of silent audio at the front and tail to avoid sound being "chopped off." It is typical that on upload to sites like YouTube and SoundCloud that a small part of the audio will get chopped off due to the site's recompression process. Adding 2 seconds of silent audio at the front and tail adds in a buffer, meaning in the event audio does get chopped off, it's no big deal since it is only the silent parts that are affected.