Hey all, haven't blogged in a while...  check out my latest recording for my original track called "Blues man".. please support me and my music and let me know what you think!!

Cheers

G

http://yourlisten.com/channel/content/16935948/Blues_Man_Leon

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The final plunge - Zoom G9.2tt

The final plunge - Zoom G9.2tt

For those of you that know me would know that I have been on the lookout for a new multi-effect pedal and although I thought I was totally sold on the HD500 pedal by Line 6, I was wrong. Make sure you check out the review I did on that pedal!! Nothing wrong with the HD500 I still reckon its a fantastic pedal but I took the final plunge and got the G9.2tt pedal by Zoom.

When I started using multi-effect pedals which is about 10 years ago(I think), I got the first Zoom 505 pedal which at that stage I thought was fantastic, and it was!! It did everything I needed it to do for my needs and level of playing.. DISTORTION... and lots of it! I used it for practice, recording and even my church gigs with no problem... As time went by I started out growing it and things like having to scroll up and down between patches started to become a nightmare..impossible for serious live gigs were you would start to use different effects. THEN, the pedal started failing on me..probably because of the extent that I was using it at..hell I was away practicing/gigging about four times a week!!

Anyhooooo, I started saving up money and got my new upgrade.. Boss.. and not any boss pedal, the Boss GT6 multi effects pedal.. It was insane!! The level of my playing and what that pedal was offering were worlds apart.. but I loved it.. It was top of the range and I was one of the first people in the country to have one. FANTASTIC!!

I forgot about Zoom. Zoom who?? Oh you mean those guys that are just not in the same league as Boss?? Not worth it.. stick to Boss. I had this attitude for a very long time; and for good reason!! Boss make brilliant pedals!! No doubt you will never go wrong with their equipment and effects. I am still a fan of their products and will always have to be REALLY impressed with something else and not make the obvious decision. BOSS. When my students ask me about effects I always try and keep from getting technical and insist on going with Boss pedals..even if they feel in the long run maybe they made a mistake, at the current time it was the best mistake they could make spending their money on. Besides, what do they know about effects and at a “low” playing level or with minimal gigging experience they are still struggling with figuring out their own playing style and what they really need in terms of effect pedals. They want one thing, just as I did. DISTORTION.

Until now.

Despite my ignorance and ACTUAL lack of what is out there besides boss pedals, I started checking out some of the brands I knew, this included: Vox, Digitech, Line 6, Boss and even some of the Fender range. Well these are the major brands I knew had multi effects floor based pedals. I remember a few years ago when it was time to upgrade from my Zoom505 I had the option between the Vox tonelab and the Boss GT6. Because of my lack of knowing the difference in tone and accessibility of what can be achieved with floor based pedals, I went for the obvious..

Only after really getting to grips with my GT6 pedal did I run into some snags and realised what I needed to increase my performance on stage and what would make life so much easier. Like for instance two expression pedals??? Yes you could buy an additional pedal to add to your existing floor board but that would just cost you more.. I realised that everytime I wanted to add my wah function with the current patch, I would end up going full volume to access the pedal toe switch to access the wah function. OK.. so you could assign the wah function to one of the “Ctr” switches but then you have just lost an additional effect or mod which could have been assigned to that patch. OK, so buy an additional “stand-alone” wah-wah pedal and use it with your pedal. Now you have volume and Wah seperate...besides multi effect pedal wah's have always been low end.. Sure, maybe you are right, but that is preference.. same reason why we have menu's in a restaurant. Its just some function or option that would make gigging for me a lot more pleasant.

Then there was tone. Digital vs. Analogue. No competition here, analogue is king and this is what multi effects companies were always trying to simulate.. analogue tone as if you were playing through a tube amp and analogue stomp box pedals. So why didn't you just get yourself a tube amp and stomp boxes?? Well because they are expensive!! And I love using a lot of effects..which would cost me an arm and a leg to gather..and I dont have the money for trial and error.. maybe someday I will go that route but for now... I love using multi effects.

Although for now I wont go the stomp box route, I do however enjoy the concept of stomp box modelling in a multi effects pedal. One pedal I really found appealing for exactly that function was a pedal by Line 6 called the M13 stomp box modeller. Great pedal, awesome sounding and if you love stomp boxes you would love this pedal! But unfortunately that is all that it is. It does not have its own preamp and it acts exactly like a stomp box pedal would. If you want something that you could use in studio, plug your phones into, use the Aux function etc etc this pedal would be useless. All it is, is a bunch of stomp boxes cramped into one big box..No volume or expression pedal..nothing.There are some other limitations as well but that would have to be in a seperate review.

So what was the criteria I set for my self to make my final decision for my next pedal?? First it was about tone. There were so many options and new developments out there that I quickly made a short list of pedals I was going to play with. They were: HD500 by Line 6, Boss GT10 and the Zoom G9.2tt. Why?? Well Line 6 came out with the new HD amp modeling which was so crazy good it was insane. GT10 because well, its Boss right?? LOL.. Zoom G9.2tt because they came out with a few things I found attractive. Two tubes for analogue tone modulation first of all, two expression pedals(Nice) and the heavy duty switches, the same they use on stomp boxes(HD 500 has this to btw). I played with all three of them and all of them were great pedals, if you really had to break it down all of these top of the range pedals were on par with each other and at the end of the day it is about personal preference.



Zoom G9.2tt





Line 6 HD500





Boss GT10



My personal preferences made me take the option of Zoom G9.2tt. I will post a proper review on the pedal soon but basically the reasons why I made the choice was for the following: Twin tubes- My biggest concern was that I would get the best tone possible from a digital pedal as I could. Having the option of the real tubes in a digital multi effects pedal was huge and made all the difference. Twin expression pedals- This was great, a dedicated pedal for volume and a second pedal for what ever I could assign to it..be it wah, gain, effect modulation etc. This was really attractive to me. Not just that, Zoom had the first pedal which they called the Z-pedal. Not only did you have vertical effect parameters but now you had horizontal parameters too. THEN, besides having seperate banks with patches inside of the banks each patch could be seperately controlled as if you had seperate stomp boxes with the effects being able to be turned on and off....say what???? Fantastic!! Yes I sound bias.. but for good reason.

I was given a whole lot of options which fixed a lot of problems. All in one multi effects pedal. What else did I find attractive about this pedal? Well check out the full review of this pedal I will put up shortly..all the “wow” moments and also the “it would have been cool if it could do that” moments..I am still figuring out a lot of stuff and enjoying the more “wow” moments everytime I play with it.

Rock hard!!

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Kony 2012

Watch the Video and share as much as you can!!! I know this isnt related, but its too important not to post.

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Joe Bonamassa - Blues Guitar

Hey everyone, thought I'd share one of my all time favourite blues guitarists Joe Bonamassa. I lil video of hes style and then followed by a video of some of his influences and styles. Let me know what you think and if you like it let me know and I will cover some of his licks in a video lesson with tabs and share it with you!

The below is off of his Joe Bonamassa Rocking The Blues Guitarist DVD. Also he shows a quick tutorial on how to play swell chords...has a bit of a violin synth sound to it. 

Happy Rocking!!

DIY Capo

One of my students Mike sent me this pic over the holidays very excited about his idea he had for a DIY capo.. it looked funky and even better it WoRkS!! Yes Please!

I was really chuffed and thought I'd post it here for all you guys to use if you dont have your own capo at home..

Basically you use a normal pencil and a couple of elastic bands to hold it down nice and snug on which ever fret your playing on. Sure it will be a pain if you want to take it off or move to a different fret but for the most part its awesome.

Mike bud thanks for the pic and the initiative

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Happy 2012!!!

Hey everyone! So I've been sooooooo quiet the last two months but its a new year and its going to be a rocking one! Last year was an awesome year, I accomplished a lot musically and my students all did abselutely awesome..big ups to you guys, you're great!! So I was on holiday for a few days and ofcourse I dragged my guitar with me....how could I not???

But just enjoying my music I started thinking of what I wanted to accomplish in 2012 ?? What do I lack in terms of theory maybe? Scales? What techniques do I always avoid because they can get way too insane and besides I dont even use them! WrOnG! So now I have set some personal goals and not just for me, but with my students..new developments, concerts comming up and a lot more social events..

SO! My question to you lot is...what do you want to achieve this year with your music?? What do you want to spend more time on?? Maybe some new songs?? Post them here and I will cover how to play them! Some lead guitar techniques??

Leave me your thoughts and comments and especially what you guys did in the holidays.

Happy Rocking guys

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Line 6 HD500

Hi everyone! So im in the market for some new effects pedals, and yesterday I decided too go and have a look and feel of a few and one of them I had a look at was the new Line 6 HD500 multi effects processor.

What was my impression of this pedal?? Bloody fantastic!!!!!!!

Now for some of you who know me will know that I am a Boss fan. Always have been, and probably always will. Boss really does make some excellent equipment and I have never been let down. BUT, after playing with this machine I am totally blown away! When people talk about the HD500 there is always one thing they all have in common...crazy amp modulation. And I can tell you the same thing, it’s crazy good, you won’t even know the difference between solid state amp or tube amp, in fact you will probably try to find the hidden valve amp in the room. Before we continue, this is what I am talking about.

Now the only thing I must admit is that you pretty much need a degree to work this thing... But once you get the hang of it, there’s nothing to it!

If you look at the top image you will see a set of 12 heavy duty stomp box type switches, very nice touch and easy to access. The display is a bit small but you can still see what’s cooking down below. Now basically in a nutshell without going in too much detail (which btw I can't) the whole pedal works on a stomp box type system. The display actually shows you images of stomp boxes which are being used at that specific time.

Just to explain this better; the two left side switches (one bottom, one top) are the bank switches. Within these banks you have 4 either pre-sets or effects which you can save to (these are the bottom 4 after the bank switch). There are a lot of banks so more than enough space. The top four switches after the top bank switch are effects, amp modes or whatever which are assigned to that specific patch you are using within a bank. SO, let’s say you are within a patch that has a Marshall stack, Distortion and delay effects assigned to it but you also have a reverb and tremolo effect which is assigned but not activated at the moment. You can play using the patch and whenever you need your reverb, tremolo or even both you can just step on the switch and Bobs' your aunty! Just like activating or de-activating stomp boxes!

It's a mouth full yes, so I hope that made sense.

It has an expression pedal with a toe switch for easy switching between volume, wah or whatever you would like to assign to it. It has a jack for an additional foot switch so you don’t have to use the toe switch but that’s up to you.

Above that all you have a loop machine, built in tuner and you can even have more than one amp model assigned at the same time! OR you can switch between amp models within the same patch....the possibilities are endless. This pedal really does stand out compared to the big boys out there, and for the price it’s a steal. In SA you are looking at a retail of about R7-8k.

There is so much in this pedal that it would make it impossible to cover all the insane features it has but the above are just a few that I found appealing.

If you are looking for some more info on the pedal check out their website. For more reviews and sound, check out the below video from Line 6 at a NAMM demonstration.

Happy Rocking!

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