But there has been one thing that has always scared me a little, guitar pedals.
Oh man, I take one look at them and I start hyperventilating, you would think this gadget lovin, tablet wielding, technology blogging Sudanese rocker would feel right at home. Nope. The complete opposite.
They terrified me, they still do, but just a little bit less.
A few months ago I took a little ride with my good friend Athena, the front woman of Playground Etiquette. She was on her way to Atomic Music to pick up something and asked me if I wanted to tag a long so we can chit-chat on the way. I hopped in, and went over to this musician Toy Land.
We walked around and looked at all the cool stuff they have, she is an electric guitarist and vocalist, and is very comfortable with pedals and effects, and knows how to use them.
I on the other hand, had no idea what to even LOOK at.
But I took it as a sign to step into my fear and face it.
I grabbed one of the friendly workers and told him that I have been curious about experimenting with an effect pedal, something that is easy to use and possible has a looping feature.
He then presented me with The Line 6 DL4 Delay Pedal.
Awesome.
My first experiment with this was this past February. I had entered a friendly online songwriting competition, in which we had the 28 days of February to write 14 new songs, that was an experience all in its own, but I had decided to take this opportunity to use the Delay Pedal when I can.
I have to say, it did affect my songwriting on the songs that I used it in.
Heavy delays allowed me to create very moody atmospheres for songs, short quick ones allowed me to create something that moves quite faster than my normal writing.
I've used the Looping feature only once, one of the set backs is that when I'm in the Looping sections, I can't use the different delays, so if I want to loop different delays or sounds, they have to be external of the DL.
This made me bring out the custom pedal with has a delay and distortion created by my friend Jon P. and run it THROUGH the DL into my amp.
I have to say, this gets addictive!
Because I'm now thinking of other things to in corporate into this set up, including an Ebow.
Also, I've now started using my beautiful Epiphone Dot Studio guitar with this set up instead of my Acoustic.
Have I taken this out into the public? Nope. Or more correctly, Not Yet!
If you have been considering messing around with guitar pedals, I would say go for it. Choose something simple like the Line 6 DL4 Delay Pedal and see what will spark from there.
Don't be afraid to experiment.
Till next time, much love.
Mosno
