Tremolo Before Overdrive? and the Pops Staples "Shake" - ASK ZAC EP 23

well hello friends and welcome to
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another Ask Zac today we're going to
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talk about tremolo so it's you know one
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of my all-time favorite effects of
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course you know I could be a happy clam
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with just a Telecaster and a deluxe
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reverb with you know tremolo and reverb
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on it maybe you know of course you'd
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probably need a dirt box for some other
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things but tremolo was one of my
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all-time favorite effects and I just
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wanted to talk about some different
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usages of it and I think a lot of times
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we kind of have a set it and forget it
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mentality when it comes to tremolo like
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we kind of we get a tremolo box whether
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it's something in a in a multi affect
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unit or if you have a tremolo pedal or
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you know ant tremolo you kind of end up
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having like one setting that you kind of
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leave that and it just becomes your
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general-purpose tremolo and one thing I
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want to do in this video is to really
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get you to think about not that you have
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to get crazy about you know setting the
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tremolo to the tempo of the song but
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messing with the speed of the tremolo
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and the depth in getting you know some
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different effects for different types of
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songs that you're doing and how how
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wonderful it is for creating different
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moods also I want to show the importance
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of you know well of how you can use it
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with overdrive or Distortion
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and the difference it makes if you put
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the tremolo before the overdrive all
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right so while are you thinking about it
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go down in the corner and subscribe so
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first off tremolo of course is
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fluctuation in volume not pitch okay and
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unfortunately you know fender caused a
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lot of confusion by calling you know the
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strat you know having a
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tremolo bar when it's actually a vibrato
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bar and of course on this amp you see
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here it says vibrato channel well it
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doesn't have vibrato it has tremolo so
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they caused a problem so there you have
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it
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I'm gonna I have a boss tremolo here
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it's modified by analog man I'm not
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exactly sure what he did look looking at
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the website it looks like he gets it
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toward the gain is closer to bypass when
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you turn it on and then I think he did
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some things to kind of clean up the the
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tremolo a little bit to make it a little
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clearer sounding but what I'm gonna do
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is first thing I'm gonna do is I'm going
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to compare the boss tremolo to the
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tremolo that's in my vintage 1965 deluxe
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reverb am just so you can hear and
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there's there's a difference but you
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know both are great but you know there's
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just a difference in sound so here I'm
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going to start off with the with amp
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tremolo until I turn it on by that pop
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[Music]
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and here's the boss analog modded TR -
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pedal
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[Music]
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[Music]
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[Music]
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they're pretty similar the the amp
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tremolo is just a little more responsive
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and it has kind of like a almost like a
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limiter in it where if you kind of hit
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harder it kind of cuts off a little bit
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so you know the tremolo definitely has a
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little bit of a leg up as far as just
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kind of vibyness to it but I end up
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using the you know pedal tremolo a lot
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just because it's it's easier to turn
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off and on and control you know the
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those foot old foot switches can
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sometimes sometimes be problematic but
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they they certainly work fine so
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different speeds and stuff that you can
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set it at so that tempo kind of speed
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that I had that's kind of what I would
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use for a general purpose the tremolo
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again this from here on out we're going
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to be hearing the boss tremolo pedal
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[Music]
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so that's kind of the way I would set it
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for playing most you know kind of
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soulful things you know and that's and
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that's just with all the knobs basically
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at noon now if I wanted to get a little
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bit more vibe to it and wanted to get
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especially to get more into like a pop
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staples you know kind of mode which a
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love pop staples and you know of course
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you don't hear them as much on the later
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recordings because they were using you
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know session musicians more but on the
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early recordings especially when they're
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doing gospel music and the protest songs
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in the 60s you hear a lot more of pops
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you know guitar playing and I'm very
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appreciative to Rick Holmstrom who plays
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with Mavis Staples and of course he is
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probably the preeminent expert on pops
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guitar style and in an article he was
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describing the style and he really kind
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of hit it on the head when he said that
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Pop's guitar style is almost like
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rockabilly picking in a way almost
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related to like you know Scotty Moore
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and such and that he plays these you
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know kind of bass things and he plays
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these higher things he's kind of almost
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finger pick things and he strums you
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know of course but you know like and and
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so here I'm gonna I'm gonna speed the
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tremolo up I'm gonna turn the rate up
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you know a bit and get it to where it
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points at the led and so then you get
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this
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[Music]
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[Music]
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you can hear how that faster tremolo
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really kind of gives it that that drive
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and and and push and and then you play
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those kind of pick and fingers kind of
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almost rockabilly type stuff and it
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starts sending more yeah more pop
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staples
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[Music]
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now we're starting to get into John
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Fogerty land
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okay so yeah so feel I feel the freedom
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to mess with the tremolo speed I mean
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that's what obviously the depth also but
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the the rate control really gives you
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kind of different you know moods and
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obviously you know for slower songs you
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know you probably want it slower on
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faster tunes you can get away with that
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and also if you're doing the pops
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staples thing you know that the faster
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tremolo to me really gets more of the
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vibe or what pops called the wiggle
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so now let's mix tremolo with overdrive
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so when I interviewed John Leventhal for
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the true tone lounge you know three or
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four years ago you know he just you know
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showed up you know he didn't have an amp
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or anything he just had his his main
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Road Telecaster and he had a small pedal
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board and you know the pedal board just
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had you know had a tuner it had a
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compressor a tremolo an overdrive and
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then a an analog delay doing slap back
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and then a digital delay doing longer
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delay times and they were in that order
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and you know of course he got a great
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scent he's got great pans and and he's
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worked very hard at it for many many
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years but I noticed one of course the
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simplicity of his board but also the
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order of effects because they were in
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the order that I just you know told you
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so he went tuner compressor which that's
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kind of normal but then tremolo and then
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tremolo into overdrive so at the time I
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didn't ask him about it
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but later on I decided to try that just
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to see you know if it makes a difference
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well it does so when you have tremolo
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and overdrive on at the same time and
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the tremolo is first it's actually
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fluctuating the volume going into the
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the overt overdrive and to me you get a
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more expressive sound and I really like
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it now if you want more of a consistent
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sound where it's just that that
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overdrive going up and down you know the
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then you know of course you'd probably
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want to reverse that but you get a neat
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sound by doing tremolo then drives
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that's kind of goes against the you know
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what you see on 99% of the pedal boards
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out there most guys have you know they
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have their you know gain type effects EQ
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compressors Over Drive's distortions
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volume pedal and then they have all
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these you know Tremelo delays
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you know reverbs courses things like
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that so this is what so I've got the
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boss tremolo on and then I'm going to
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turn the mostorsion overdrive on and
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let you hear what what that sounds like
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[Music]
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okay so of course that was kind of a
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Ry Cooder Keith Richards kind of kind
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of thing but that the tremolo one it
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gives it that really cool kind of you
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know you know beat in between you know
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your your your hit hits and and then
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also but you're getting that that kind
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of fluctuation in an overdrive level so
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I'm gonna hit the overdrive just for a
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second by itself so you can hear what
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that sounds like playing the same thing
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[Music]
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okay so that's just the overdrive and of
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course you're hearing a little bit of
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spring reverb on the amp so now I'm
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going to turn on the the tremolo
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[Music]
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see that fast tremolo in between the
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hits it's like you know beat
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subdivisions and it really adds an extra
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level of expressiveness so both the
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tremolo itself then the fluctuation
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going into the overdrive pedal just
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really produce a really nice sound and
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so I use that you know quite a bit I
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really like to use those two effects
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together because it just it just creates
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more more interesting sound so alright
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so that's you know overdrive and tremolo
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here it is on the back pickup
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[Music]
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you see that's that's kind of fun to do
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you can just keep going on and on so
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yeah tremolo before overdrive great
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thing all right well I think that's
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that's kind of it for today you know
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listen to some old pop staples listen to
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some Ry Cooder you know get into get
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into tremolo get into you know using it
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in fun ways try you know changing you
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know your settings you know for
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different songs and you know use it you
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know for the expression that it is you
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know it's I remember hearing Richard
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Thompson you know call it you know kind
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of makes the guitar sound like a
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vibraphone and yeah to me it's just one
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of the most important effects and again
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you know through this whole thing I was
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just using you know of course the amp
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reverb and the tremolo and the overdrive
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you know I didn't have any delay going
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on or anything you didn't and you didn't
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miss it it's actually kind of better
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because you start putting the delay on
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there it starts you know mudding things
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up and getting to be too much so alright
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guys well thank you I hope you enjoyed I
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hope you have a great week remember to
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subscribe and I'll see you next time bye
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bye