Guest Post: 6 Crazy Guitar Myths Busted!

Welcome to another guest post from Danny Dyson, the writer and creator behind the excellentRockYourGuitar.com, “6 Crazy Guitar Myths Busted!”

There are some common misconceptions that guitarists seem to believe for one reason or another. Here are some of the most common myths..

1. Myth: True-Bypass is all-around better than buffered.

Not necessarily true. I discovered this when I build my new pedal board. I made sure all the pedals were true-bypass. I had over 15 pedals on the board, and it presented a problem. When I plugged my guitar directly into the amp, it sounded great. But when I compared that to running guitar > pedal board > amp, I noticed a massive change in tone.

Firstly, the volume dropped by about 10%. Secondly, I lost most of the upper range frequencies in the eq (i.e. the ‘sparkle’), leaving my tone ‘muddy’ sounding. To solve this, I place a buffered pedal at the start (TU3 Tuner) and the end (DE7 Delay) of my pedal board and wham! My tone was back.

I think this quote from John Mayer sums it up pretty well…

“Think of your guitar cable as a hose, and you guitar only pushes a certain amount of water pressure out of it. After a certain length, you’re going to need some more pressure to squeeze the water out.

True-bypass takes the ‘in’ and ‘out’ cables of a pedal and connects them as if they were one long hose. After a certain length, you’ll get some pretty hefty tone loss. I learned this when I uplugged my guitar from my pedal switcher and went straight into the amp. Guitar pedals without the TB serve as a buffer for the signal, and naturally keep that water flow going.

Yes, sometimes the trade-off can be harsh; some pedals, while buffering your signal, can also adversely color it, even when in bypass mode. That’s a good time to think TB. True bypass is a concept that only really took off as a selling point over the last 5 years or so. It won’t kill you to have it, but it certainly isn’t the only reason to get a pedal over another one without it.”

2. Myth: You have to have a massive amp to get a huge sound.

Wrong! Some of the most gigantic sounds that have been recorded have been done with smaller 10 – 20 watt amps with the tubes cranked up loud. Some bands have been known to display large numbers of ‘fake’ amps on stage that are empty speaker shells and a small amp tucked away behind the stack that is mic’ed up to the PA system.

3. Myth: The Standby Switch.

A common misconception about tube amps is the function of the standby switch. Some guitarists think that you have to switch the standby switch on for a few minutes before turning the amp on, as well as when turning the amp off.

You’re doing the right thing at startup, letting the tubes warm up before slamming them with several hundred volts on the plates. However, when turning the amp off, no standby activities are required. Just turn both the standyby and power switches off when you’re done playing. It’s also a good idea not to move or bump the amp to much while it’s cooling down.

4. Myth: Cheap cables are just as good as expensive ones and I save money.

It is much better to buy a good quality cable that has, quite often, comes with a good guarantee. It will normally last a long time and the difference in the quality has a huge bearing on the actual sound produced by your guitar and amp. It is no use having a great guitar/amp set up, and using a low quality cable. It’s like buying a Ferrari and putting re-tread tires on it to save some money.

5. Myth: There is nothing you can do about strings rusting and losing their tone, so may as well buy cheap ones or no name brands.

There are several ways to make your strings last longer. The simplest is to always clean your strings after playing with a lint free cloth such as a handkerchief and use a string product such as ‘finger ease’ or ‘fast fret’ which coats the string with a protective chemical.

6. Some people have natural talent and are born being able to play guitar. In order to be good, you have to have natural talent.

A pretty common phrase thrown around in the guitar community is, ‘natural talent’. Some people hold back on learning guitar, because they think you have to have natural talent to excel. While some people pick up the guitar very easily at first, this doesn’t mean they will master the guitar.

There is a point everyone gets to when they must work hard in order to keep growing. I believe anyone who picks up a guitar and has the drive, determination, passion and dedication, can learn how to master the guitar.