It seems like a strange idea, to spend so much money on a full valve high gain guitar amplifier like a Peavey 6505, Soldano SLO-100 or (my personal favourite) a Mesa Boogie Dual Rectifier, and put a solid-state overdrive pedal in front of it. You’d be forgiven for thinking this makes no sense; don’t valve…
DetailsEvenin’ all – welcome to our Line 6 HX Stomp External Footswitch Guide. I’ve just put together a very quick video demo on how to configure your Line 6 HX Stomp to accept an external dual footswitch. Check it out: Here’s the text guide, for copy/pasting purposes: Press both Page buttons at the same time,…
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It seems that delay pedals have never been more popular than they are right now, and for good reason: they’re a fantastic way to improve your tone, whether you’re adding a touch of subtle echo, or making your guitar sound like it’s playing down a well several miles away. It’s not the easiest or most…
DetailsRight, so: you already understand why you’d use a clean boost, or even an overdrive pedal, before a hi-gain amp. But why would you ever put a distortion pedal before one, and why do so many famous guitarists do it? Clever question. At first glance, it makes no sense: you’ve got two, three, even four…
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Pedal order is always a tricky one to tackle, not least because the rules of the game are more guidelines than anything else. For every tone guru who declares that gain pedals go before the amp, and modulation effects go in the FX loop, there’ll be a guitarist breaking the rule and sounding awesome doing…
DetailsSo; you’ve got yourself a fantastically high gain amp (6505, TSL100, Powerball etc). Why, when you’ve got that whole world of gain available, would using an overdrive pedal with a distorted amp be a good idea? The answer is simple: to get a better quality of distortion tone. Sounds very strange, putting a little solid…
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A clean boost pedal is one of the simplest guitar effects, but many guitarists overlook them. The thinking goes that there’s nothing a clean boost pedal can do that a good overdrive pedal can’t do as well. While it’s true that overdrive pedals can serve as clean boosts in their lower gain stages, a clean boost…
DetailsOverdrive Pedal vs Amp Distortion: The Grudge Match Second only to the buffered input / true bypass argument, the clash of overdrive pedal vs amp distortion arguments has been raging for years on various forums since the invention of shouting at people via the Internet, and in person at gigs since time immemorial (or, more…
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An ABY Pedal can make you sound huge. There’s no doubt about it; splitting your signal and sending it to two separate amps can turn your tone from a nice, solid, good sound into a room-filling, bone-shaking, absolute monster of a sound. There’s several things you can do to experiment, and you don’t have to drop…
DetailsOne of the questions we’re most frequently asked here at Vein-Tap.com is; how long does the Noose True Bypass Looper record for? What is a True Bypass Looper? It’s a very different pedal that the Digitech Jamman or Boss Loop Station series of riff-recording pedals. A true bypass looper like the Noose doesn’t actually record…
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Boss RC3 review by Vein-Tap.com | Boss made the first digital sampler in compact pedal form in 1985, almost thirty years ago. That pedal – the DSD-2 – could record for less than a second, making it practically useless for anything except recording drone sounds. Fortunately, the Boss RC-3 Looper is much better, with up…
DetailsMany folks with big valve amplifiers will often find that their tone never sounds so awesome as when they’re cranked really loud. Unfortunately, this can lead to ASBOs, turf wars and anonymous flaming-bag situations (you know what we mean). One solution is to invest in a Power Soak volume attenuator, which goes in between the…
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The Skinny Little Twins Dual Momentary Footswitch is an incredible bit of gear. Not only do they work with a great range of loopers, amps, multi-effects units and effects pedals, but they do it with a tiny footprint and for less that you might expect. We’ve composed a brief and incomplete list of gear we’ve…
DetailsWhat is a Tap Tempo Pedal with Polarity Switch? Easy. A polarity switch is a little flick switch which allows you to choose whether your tap tempo pedal (or any footswitch, for that matter) is “normally open” or “normally closed”. What’s the difference? Another easy one. If a switch is “normally open”, then clicking the…
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It is possible to use a Vein Tap with your Line 6 DL-4, it’s just going to take a simple mod. Let my friend, YouTube user conleycd, explain how: Easy, see? And once you’ve made this mod, you’re able to tap away with a Vein Tap. This saves you worrying about wear and tear to…
DetailsWhy You Need a Tempo Tap There’s nothing worse, as a band or as a solo artist, than being out of time. If one section is playing quicker or slower than the other sections, you can forget it. Stevie Ray Vaughn, John Mayer, Steve Vai, Brian May – they’re all geniuses and gods, no doubt…
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Tap Tempo Pedal. Simple but Brilliant. Relying on a drummer to keep perfect time isn’t something you can really get away with. They’re brilliant, don’t get me wrong, without them we’d be screwed; but sometimes they’re quick (angry) and sometimes they’re slow (hungover). Back in the day, this meant having to re-calibrate all your time-sensitive…
DetailsThis list is a non-exhaustive list of pedals which we can confirm will accept a Vein Tap as an external tap tempo pedal. There’s hundreds more, but this list consists of pedals we’ve had here at Vein-Tap.com to personally audition. The following pedals require a “normally open” Vein Tap: Behringer DD600 Digital Delay DW400 Dynamic…
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Probably the most common use for a tap tempo pedal is alongside a delay pedal with a tap tempo input (such as our very own Holy Era Tap Tempo Delay Pedal). Delay is one of the most commonly used guitar effects, as it fattens up tone and gives a beautiful sense of space and magnitude.…
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