The added repeats make it convenient for guitarists to slow down both of their hands.

1.) No

2.) Playing a lot of notes and not having to slow down isn't more talented/more musical and shouldn't be considered better or worse than anything else.

Good music comes from the heart/the mind/the soul. Bad music comes from one's thoughts of fitting in/copying what is cool/trying to make something that appeals to the masses. Guitarists spend way too much time perfecting tone and writing parts that sound like _ or nailing that tone. If this is something you do and don't write for yourself/your heart you are going to just make shit music and it doesn't matter if there is delay or a lot of notes.

That is rambling and doesn't really make sense. Long story made short, don't make shit music. Don't worry about having fast hands, slow hands, effects, tone. Worry about making music that comes from yourself. Who are you? What do you stand for? What stirs your soul?

stratomatic wrote:

Agreed great music comes from within. The way I see it playing with delay sometimes can make things too repetitive or monotonous.

So can bending a note, playing 12-bar blues, playing with distortion, even having any guitar at all. It's pretty ridiculous to single out delay. It's not the effect making the song repetitive or monotonous, it is the songwriter.

Good call Jake . . .

I find it necessary to sometimes just play with a real clean sound, even not plugged in sometimes, to really get the feel and hear what you playing.

Clear your mind, focus

'Surf Music Lasts Forever'

Last edited: Oct 26, 2012 06:01:43

I think what the original post means "do you have the delay pedal play half your notes?" as in: if you would normally pick E 2x then A 2x, back to E, lather, rinse, repeat.. are you having the delay effect play the second note you normally would have picked.

whelp.. i have to be honest in saying i never got the hang of using a delay pedal. I remember when U2/EDGE hit big and i messed around with delays.. it kinda annoyed and frustrated me. I just let it go and never used one.

For a tight rockabilly "bop-bop", i dunno. I kinda blocked out the repeated note and play what i'd play just like the signal was completely dry.

I don't know about it making you lazy, but nothing is worse than hearing a mistake repeat over and over

I've been thinking about this more, and that's not always safe. But here goes.

Delay is just another effect, like fuzz, reverb, echo, tremolo and so on. No effect can make up for playing badly or even playing very well something that is horrible music. This is obvious by how terrific good surf music sounds when good musicians play it with acoustic guitars. It's also obvious when a poor guitarist throws all sorts of effects on top of poor playing. This is, I believe, Jake's point.

But surf music is played using tremolo, fuzz, echo, delay and reverb. Mostly reverb. The chica-chica-chica of a dripping deglissando, the crash of a tank in full reverb-driven intensity. These are the sounds we expect to hear. They're not just gimmicks, they're the sound of surf music.

Is delay a crutch? Only if it's used as one. Same even for reverb. But honestly, for me, totally dry surf electric guitar music really lacks something. It's just a touch less surfy.

This is Noel. Reverb's at maximum an' I'm givin' 'er all she's got.

Last edited: Oct 26, 2012 16:25:02

morphball wrote:

Nope, a delay won't cover up half-assed playing.

Oh hell, I'm gonna have to try something else!

I don't think many use delay to double up their notes. Maybe The Edge, but not many lead players mix the delay effect volume up so loud that it equals the same volume as the non-delayed notes.

Using just a subtle amount, delay makes everything just sort of sparkle a little bit. It doesn't make your performance better or mask anything, it just adds a little polish.

Using a little more to taste can be very effective in the right setting. I play lap steel in my group (organ otherwise) & just last week, I decided to bring the delay pedal & see what difference it made on the two songs featuring my slide playing.

I do a lot of stuff in our version of Ghost Riders in the Sky that sort of answers the lead guitar & adding delay to it made it all come to life in a big way. It sounded good before. I'm playing the same parts. But now it sounds incredible!

On the flipside, I won't use it for the other slide feature in our set, Sleep Walk. For my take on the classic, I need a cleaner, transparent sound - I even cut back on the reverb for it. I use my volume pedal sparingly, a very light drive & just tremelo with the bar.

So, yeah, there are times that it is inappropriate - and any effect can be used inappropriately - but using it in the right way isn't at all a matter of 'cheating'.

Wake the Kraken!

https://www.facebook.com/wakethekraken

whistledixie wrote:

I don't think many use delay to double up their notes. Maybe The Edge, but not many lead players mix the delay effect volume up so loud that it equals the same volume as the non-delayed notes.

Stuart Adamson would use a delay equal in volume on the intro of a couple of tracks (the live version of Wonderland, for example), and Brian May uses a long, loud delay matched to the tempo so that he can harmonise with himself.

Using delay to play the upstrokes for you just doesn't sound right. I've used loud single delays before, and also square wave tremolo to get a rapid succession of notes, but it's to make it not sound like just fast picking.