Synthwave has been making a strong comeback over the past few years. And for guitarists, that means classic drive pedals and over-the-top modulation are cool again...
Disclaimer: This content was sponsored by BOSS. They provided me with the two BOSS pedals I use in the video/post, and I was monetarily compensated for my work. However, the company had no say in the things I mention in the video, and they don’t get to see the content before it is released.
Choosing Guitar
When choosing the guitar to use for this song, I had two criteria: I wanted to have jangly mid-scooped cleans and a humbucker for heavily distorted and modulated leads. That’s where the Vola OZ stepped in with its HSS pickup configuration. The in-between pickup positions gave me exactly the kind of clean(ish) tone I was looking for.
For a vintage-inspired instrument, Vola OZ’s bridge humbucker actually packs a lot of punch and has a nice bump in the midrange, which made dialing in those leads a lot of fun.
I should also mention that as long as your guitar doesn’t hum or feedback too much, the choice of your guitar doesn’t matter too much. The amount of modulation and distortion we’re going to apply to our tone makes nuances of our guitars less relevant.
Signal chain
From the guitar, I went through my studio pedalboard and used various drive pedals (BOSS SD-1, Caline Pure Sky, NUX Steel Singer, KMA Logan, REVV G3) for the different parts of the song. All of these tones ran through the BOSS DC-2w, from which I split the signal:
- Output A went to REVV D20
- Output B went to Two Notes CAB M where I was using both amp and cabinet simulation.
With this setup, I had a proper stereo rig to take full advantage of the modulation BOSS DC-2w provides.
Clean tones
For the clean(ish) tones, I used the in-between pickup positions on the Vola OZ and used the BOSS SD-1 to give a bit of ‘hair’ to my clean tones. The sound might feel a bit too distorted when soloed out, but in a dense mix, that distorted sound makes the arpeggios cut through while still sounding clean.
Running the DC-2w on the second mode made the clean passages wide and gave an illusion of double-tracked arpeggio lines that sit perfectly in the mix.
Rhythm Guitar
For rhythm guitar, I used the humbucker on the Vola and cranked the gain on the SD-1. I haven’t used SD-1 before, but I can immediately tell why it’s such a classic. Adding the DC-2w on the third mode gives me a wide double-tracked sounding rhythm tone that I absolutely love.
Lead Guitar
For the lead sound, I wanted to have more gain, and besides using SD-1, I also added the Caline Pure Sky OD with the gain pretty much cranked. The icing on the cake was throwing in the DC-2w for extra width and modulation.
Things started to get a bit noisy but also so, so good. The lead tone is pure 80’s magic and so much fun to play.
So, What Did I learn?
Overall, I was slightly shocked how easy it was to dial in these tones. SD-1 gives you exactly the kind of drive tone you want to have for this type of music. And adding the BOSS DC-2w transports you to the past with its awesome modulated tones. Using DC-2w might have also ruined mono guitar for me, but that’s a different story for some other time…
If you’re interested in acquiring any of the gear mentioned here and support what I do, you can use the affiliate links here:
►►Get The Gear at Thomann: https://www.thomann.de/fi/thlpg_to75kzs7bv.html
►►Download My Jam Tracks, Lessons and more here: https://www.catpickstudios.com
►►Get The Boss SD-1 at Sweetwater: https://www.sweetwater.sjv.io/m5RAQO
►►Get The Boss DC-2w at Sweetwater: https://www.sweetwater.sjv.io/DK0P4b
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