This a guest post from Nick Lewis of post rock record label and music company Nice Weather for Airstrikes. Find out more at http://niceweatherforairstrikes.co.uk.
Post rock guitarists tend to get obsessive over their sound. Anyone who’s ever been to a post rock show will have noticed the pedals upon boards upon pedals that tend to come with the territory. But are they all really necessary for the ‘classic’ post rock sound or are they just the result of years of accumulation typical of pedalheads?
Generally speaking, the core post rock sound is actually fairly easy to achieve, and those multiple pedal boards you see are the result of sonic tinkering individual to each guitarist. Here’s a simple guide to getting a post rock sound with little fuss.
Guitars
Post rock guitarists are very snobby about what guitar you play. Quite simply it has to be a Fender, and it should be a Telecaster, although Strats will only raise one eyebrow. A Les Paul will raise both and possibly end up in a sensitive fight by the end of the night.
Anything more esoteric will be congratulated.
Amps
Tube. There is no argument about this. It’s partly due to the extra dynamic control you get from a tube amp (dynamics being exceptionally important to post rock) but mostly due to gear snobbery.
Fender is a popular choice, either DeVille or the Blues Deluxe tweed reissue that is becoming ubiquitous, but the real pros all sport Orange heads at least.
Marshall stacks are common, but mostly amongst the heavier bands.
Pedals
The piece de resistance and the bit you’ve all been waiting for. Despite the multitude of pedals usually on display at a post rock show, the only two essential pedals are reverb and delay. The standards figure here aplenty, a Boss DD3 and Electro Harmonix Holy Grail will see you right. Many post rock guitarists also add a second delay pedal before the reverb to create the wall of sound common in the genre (particularly when tremolo picking).
Beyond these it really is a matter of taste and playing around to make the more unique sounds you want to make. Once you get started on this road you will inevitably end up with a long chain of effects, so it’s also worth investing in a compression pedal to even out the gain and make the sound man’s job a little easier!
Finally, the guitarist’s primary function in post rock is to fill out the overall sound rather than take the spotlight. That means using the treble pick-up with the tone knob turned just slightly down
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