Pedalboard Photo Contest!

1 1,013 More

Rattlesnake Cable Company / Heather Brown Electronicals Combined Give Away

659 More

Guest Post – Revisiting the Boss GT-8 and Line 6 POD X3 Live by Dean Hailstone

1,006 More

Pedal Labels are BACK!

2,107 More

Effects Bay

  • About
  • Contact
  • Guest Posting
  • Pedal Deals
  • Pedal Line Friday
Home 2011 February Rethinking Guitar – Integrating Feedback Loops into Your Guitar Playing – Guest Post

Rethinking Guitar – Integrating Feedback Loops into Your Guitar Playing – Guest Post

The following is a guest post by Kevin Ian. If you are interested in guest posting, please contact me!

Rethinking Guitar - Integrating Feedback Loops into Your Guitar PlayingHello Kind Readers!

It has been a while since I have written a “Rethinking Guitar,” but today I stumbled across an interesting topic with which to post: Feedback Loops.

Many of you have seen companies come up with their own version of a Feedback Loop. Fairfield Circuitry has one, Electro Harmonix has a version of it, Devi Ever, Death By Audio, Audible Disease, and Dwarfcraft Devices all have one, and there are DIY Feedback Loops as well.

A Feedback Loop is when you take an effect or chain of effects and feed them back upon each other. For distortion effects, it can be a tuned note or frequency that changes with the manipulation of the knobs or even your guitar’s volume. A delay can bring about swells and infinite repeats. Modulation and filter pedals are the more temperamental effects, some pedals do nothing while others are completely wild.

You tend to find these devices in the hands of noise artists, but a small percentage of artists in various genres of what we generally know as “pop” music are using them. I am one of those musicians who uses the feedback loop for many things in my band, The Common Men.

I thought it would be cool to demonstrate an interesting take on using feedback loops with your playing. I have a video of me going through various settings of my feedback loop while playing leads and riffs. You will notice how I can punctuate a note or make a phrase trail off into total sonic mayhem with just the flip of a switch.

Most feedback loops give you the option of how much feedback you can create. I keep the controls at minimum so my guitar signal still comes through when it is engaged.

Here’s a small breakdown of the video:

00:20 – 01:29 I’m mainly just using a Feb Distortion and Fab Flanger through the loop. The slow flanger really comes into play when I roll off my volume knob, thus creating a very melodic feedback.

01:45 – 04:00 I’m using the synth and octave down settings on my Digitech Synth Wah. Engaging the feedback loop causes the guitar signal to be choked when I have really strong octave down and octave up settings. When the guitar signal dies, it almost has a bit-crushing-like tone to it.

04:00 – end I’m using all of my effects at once, and using a stronger auto wah feature that sounds like a siren when I engage the feedback loop. The chirping sound you hear is actually the breakup of my Devi Ever LP.

At times I also engage my Boss Giga Delay and Various kinds of delays on my actual guitar rig. When all of the signals get crossed and bleed into each other, you get some pretty, lovely, and disgustingly beautiful sounds.

Have a look at my video and I hope you get inspired to experiment as well! Some Feedback Loops are under 100 dollars and are worth the effort if you want to take you guitar playing some place 99% of other guitarists are not!

[iframe_loader width=”425″ height=”344″ frameborder=”0″ longdesc=”” marginheight=”0″ marginwidth=”0″ name=” click_words=”” click_url=”” scrolling=”auto” src=”http://www.youtube.com/embed/BPjIPu5yyoA”]

Kevin Ian is a multi-instrumentalist, Internet Radio DJ, and part-time philosopher. He is currently the guitarist and vocalist for The Common Men, who can be found at www.thecommonmen.tk

Feb 28, 2011admin

Related posts:

Default ThumbnailRethinking Guitar – Philosophy and Pedals – Guest Post Default ThumbnailRethinking Guitar – Applications and Effects Part 1 – Guest Post Fugazi Gear SummaryFUGAZI: A guitar gear summary (Guest Post) Reggie WattsReggie Watts visits Electro-Harmonix
Brian Cook - Russian Circles - Pedal BoardVFE Pale Horse Winner - Congratulations Mike Kabatt!

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

admin
14 years ago Miscellaneous, Pedal Talkcommen men, feedback, guest post, kevin ian, loops, rethinking guitar2,358
Sponsors
Advertise on EffectsBay.com!
Amazon Associates Disclosure

EffectsBay.com is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com. Please view Affiliations below for additional information about links.

Pages
  • About
  • Contact
  • Guest Posting
  • Pedal Deals
  • Pedal Line Friday
  • Privacy Policy
Recent Posts
  • Pedalboard Photo Contest!
  • Rattlesnake Cable Company / Heather Brown Electronicals Combined Give Away
  • Guest Post – Revisiting the Boss GT-8 and Line 6 POD X3 Live by Dean Hailstone
  • Pedal Labels are BACK!
  • Pedal Line Friday – 2/12 – Joe Perkins
Archives
DIY / MIY
  • Beavis Audio
  • Build Your Own Clone
  • Cubist Effects
  • DIY Stompboxes
  • Effects Connection
  • General Guitar Gadgets
  • Guitar PCB
  • Mad Bean Pedals
  • Mod Kits DIY
  • Officially Licensed Circuits
  • Pedal Enclosures
  • Pedal Parts Plus
  • Small Bear Electronics
  • Stomp That Box
  • Tone Clone Pedals
Guest Posters
  • Andrew Elmore
  • Bobby Morelli – Drew Street Mary
  • Brian Porter – Porter Pickups
  • Christian Moraga
  • Danny Dyson
  • George DesRoches – The Random Band
  • Giovanni Lanese – Glitterball Band
  • I Hate Barre Chords
  • Kevin Ian Common – The Common Men
  • Lee Chavez
  • Mark Grundhoefer
  • Matthew Cheezem
  • Nick Georgiou
  • Norman Harris
  • Worship Rocker (Donny)
Sites
  • 22 frets
  • Dy-sphoric
  • Guitar Jar
  • Guitar4Free
  • I Heart Guitar
  • Louder Than Quiet
  • LP Stop (Les Pauls)
  • Never Too Late Guitar
  • Pedal Nerd
  • Stomp That Box
  • VintageandRare.com
  • What's That Dude Play?
Affiliations

Effectsbay.com is affiliated with the following business:
Musician’s Friend
Guitar Center
Amazon
Google
Rattlesnake Cable Co.
Pedal Labels

This means that some links will go to their website and EffectsBay.com can potentially receive a commission for items purchased there. Or in the case of Rattlesnake Cable Company and Pedal Labels, they are owned by the owner of Effects Bay.

We will also disclose if reviewed products were kept when sent by the manufacturer to us for review.

Search
Contact

Hank c/o EffectsBay
P.O. Box 2364
Missoula, MT
59806

Privacy Policy

Advertisement
Interested in advertising on the site or submitting products for review and/or giveaways? Send me a message!
Newsletter

2017 © Effects Bay