Tag: overdrive

How to Get Singing Sustain

Getting singing sustain on an electric guitar is no easy task, but if you follow these tips, it’ll help you get closer there.

The first thing I want to talk about before getting into the gear, is technique. This is vital in achieving those singing tones. So knowledge of soloing is necessary. Now if you can solo, the important thing is being able to do vibrato well. For those of you who don’t know what vibrato is, think of it as slightly bending a note up and down very quickly. Once you have your vibrato down, then achieving that singing sustain becomes much easier.

Now lets talk about the gear. The purest form of singing sustain comes from the right amp. This amp would ideally be a lead amp, such as a Marshall Plexi. Don’t worry if you don’t have a lead amp, as I’ll talk about pedals that can help as well. The great thing about a good tube lead amp, is the singing sustain will be more pure. On a Marshall Plexi, the louder you go, the more sustain you will get. So volume is also a key in the puzzle. Attenuators can be used if you don’t want to bother the neighbours. Also with a Marshall Plexi, you can get almost unlimited sustain without the use of any pedals.

Speaking of pedals, putting a good overdrive or fuzz pedal in front of the Marshall Plexi will make the sustain have more of a singing tone. Now this is where vibrato comes in. Once you have the sustain going well with the amp/pedals, using a lot of vibrato will make those extended notes have a singing quality, and the longer you hold it, more overtones and harmonics will start to overlay, which is another key to the puzzle. And if you keep holding the note, you can even get some nice controlled feedback.

Now if you don’t have a lead amp, you can still achieve it with pedals, though the tone won’t be as pure. But you can get it stacking a pre-amp or overdrive pedal with your favourite fuzz box or distortion pedal.

Another good technique to facilitate the singing aspect is to do a lot of bends. Bending is more reminiscent of a voice than just single notes.

So basically to sum it up, combining vibrato and bending in your solos with a good lead amp cranked running a fuzz or overdrive pedal will definitely get you closer to singing sustain.

Lovepedal COT 50 Burst Review

A couple years ago, I was watching some videos from ProGuitarShop on youtube. They demo many different pedals that they sell in their online shop, and I came across the Lovepedal Cot 50 Burst. I became very intrigued as Andy (from ProGuitarShop) started playing ‘Them Changes’, a Band of Gypsies track. I was sold. Right away, you could see why this pedal was packing mojo. So lets take a closer look at what this pedal is all about.

As you can see from the picture, there is just one dial, making this a very simple pedal. This IMO, is a good thing, as if there is too much tweakability, there would be a ton of time spent tweaking, and less time spent playing. The dial on the COT 50 Burst controls the drive.

Just so we’re all on the same page, the COT 50 Burst isn’t just a simple overdrive pedal, rather its more of a preamp so to speak. Its goal is to cop tones from a late ’60s Marshall Plexi loaded with 6550s. While this is a pretty big claim to make, I think it does a pretty good job, especially for a pedal.

I hooked up my strat (Fender MIJ ’68 Reissue), and played the COT 50 Burst through a pretty clean amp. Once I engaged the pedal, I was greeted with some favorable tone coloration. It gave my guitar more texture. As I turned up the dial, I got some great overdrive tones, very subtle, sounding more like a cranked marshall amplifier. When I turned the dial all the way up, I was almost in fuzz territory. When I turned the dial all the way down, it really kept the actual sound of my guitar, with a slight coloring as if I was playing through a different amp. At this point, I can say, the pedal is doing what it says it does. Awesome!

I then tried stacking it with other pedals, and started to see just how great this pedal was. I was playing a fuzz pedal straight to my amp, but since my amp has EL-84s, the fuzz wasn’t really sounding the way I was hoping it would. I wanted a good 60s’ style Hendrixy fuzz tone, and I just wasn’t getting it. Then I added in the COT 50 Burst right after the fuzz pedal, and immediately I was in Hendrix territory. Also at this point, I was getting some great controlled feedback at low volumes. Very awesome!

So basically, if you really want a Marshall Plexi sound, but can’t afford the amp itself, just get the Lovepedal COT 50 Burst, and you will be close enough to the sound that you are trying to catch!