Chords for Ambient Guitar Tip #1: A Wash Underneath Your Guitar

Tempo:
137.4 bpm
Chords used:

C

G

Fm

A

E

Tuning:Standard Tuning (EADGBE)Capo:+0fret
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Ambient Guitar Tip #1: A Wash Underneath Your Guitar chords
Start Jamming...
Hey [N] guys, today I want to talk about getting sort of that real washy ambient sound that
sits nicely underneath your clean guitar signal.
So it's not really like a super audible or discernible delay sound.
It's kind of swirly and smeared together.
So I want to talk about that using these three pedals, and hopefully even if you don't have
these three exact pedals you'll be able to take away something from this.
So from right to left we've got the Echo Park from Line 6, the El Capistan from Strymon,
and the Wet Stereo Reverb from the company that starts with an N there.
And I am playing a Country Classic Junior, a Gretsch, into a Matchless Clubman.
And here is my dry [C] signal.
[N] So that's that.
And I want to turn on the El Capistan here.
You know I think a lot of the tendency for guitar players with delay is to make it very audible.
So here we've got a high mix, and this tape agent basically controls the darkness or brightness
of the delay.
It's rolled back so that's actually a brighter sound.
So this is a very audible sounding delay.
[C]
[Am]
So that's a pretty easy sound to get.
That's a standard sound.
But what we really want to do is push that more in the background and make it a little less audible.
So the first thing we're going to do, the key to really all of this is a lower mix,
high repeats, and a dark tone if you can get it.
So those are the three things.
Lower mix, [Eb] high repeats, and a darker tone.
So I'm going to do a couple things here.
I'm going to roll back the mix to a little above noon.
I'm going to roll up the tape age so that it makes it a darker sound.
And I'm actually going to leave the repeats right there.
So let's see how that sounds here.
[C]
So it doesn't really get in the way of what we're playing.
You can even play sort of melodic stuff.
[D]
[C] So that's a good starting point.
The next thing we want to do is to try to smear [Fm] that [N] a little bit.
And one of the best ways to do that is with a little bit of reverb.
And so I'm going to turn on the wet reverb here.
I'm just going to show you a standard sort of high mix sound that it [C] can do.
So that's a standard reverb sound, a nice ambient sound you might want to use.
But in the same way that we did with the delay, I'm going to roll back the mix here.
I'm going to leave the depth up there.
And this is actually a tone knob.
So I know not every reverb pedal has a tone knob.
But I'm going to bring it down.
Have it be a little bit darker.
So this is going to accomplish the same sort of thing.
So there's just a little bit there underneath.
You don't even necessarily hear it while I'm playing.
Cool.
So let's turn this on and see how that sounds.
[G] [Em]
[A]
[C]
So that's cool.
It kind of smears it a little bit.
We might even bring the mix up a little bit.
So the repeats are less discernible now.
And you know, one last thing to maybe think about when doing this is adding a second delay.
So that kind of adds to the smeared quality of it.
So I've got the [F] Echo Park here set to the analog setting.
And it's basically the same thing.
The mix is lower.
It's still a little bit above noon.
And I've got a decent amount of repeats.
But you're going to hear — here, I'll just play the two delays together.
So you're going to hear some collisions in the [C] delays.
You can hear them sort of interacting with each other.
But it [Fm] kind of helps with the soupiness of it.
So you've got [E] two kind of darker delays mingling together.
And then you add the reverb to kind of smear it out even more.
[G] [A]
[C]
[G]
So that's pretty nice.
So just to recap, what you want to try to do [N] here is have a darker delay.
So this won't work too well for a standard digital delay.
You've got to have some sort of analog model.
Analog delays are typically darker.
Or if you have something that does have a tone knob — I know that's not super common
on delay pedals — but if you've got something like a tape age knob on the Strymon, you can
control how dark it is and you can roll it back.
And the last thing is using the reverb in a subtle way, like we did the delay, but also
roll it back so that it's just kind of smearing the delays out a little bit.
And so yeah, one thing to consider, I really like the Echo Park for a cheap delay.
Another cheap analog delay that I really like is the MXR Carbon Copy.
It's a very dark delay and it's very good at doing these types of sounds.
So if you want to do this and maybe all you have is some digital delays that are very
bright, consider that delay.
It's a really, really good one.
So that's the tip for [E] today.
Hope it helps and we'll see you next time.
Key:  
C
3211
G
2131
Fm
123111111
A
1231
E
2311
C
3211
G
2131
Fm
123111111
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_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _
Hey [N] guys, today I want to talk about getting _ sort of that real washy _ ambient sound that
sits _ nicely underneath your clean guitar signal.
So it's not really like a super audible or discernible delay sound.
It's kind of swirly and smeared together.
_ _ So I want to talk about that using these three pedals, and hopefully even if you don't have
these three exact pedals you'll be able to take away something from this.
So from right to left we've got the Echo Park from Line 6, the El Capistan from Strymon,
and the Wet Stereo Reverb from the company that starts with an N there.
And I am playing a Country Classic Junior, a Gretsch, into a Matchless Clubman.
And here is my dry [C] signal. _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
[N] _ So that's that.
And I want to _ turn on the El Capistan here.
_ _ _ You know I think a lot of the tendency for guitar players with delay is to make it very audible.
_ So here we've got a high mix, _ and this tape agent basically controls the darkness or brightness
of the delay.
It's rolled back so that's actually a brighter sound.
So this is a very audible sounding delay.
[C] _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
[Am] _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ So that's a pretty easy sound to get.
That's a standard sound.
But what we really want to do is push that more in the background and make it a little less audible. _
So the first thing we're going to do, the key to really all of this is a lower mix, _ _
high repeats, and a dark tone if you can get it.
So those are the three things.
Lower mix, [Eb] high repeats, and a darker tone.
So _ I'm going to do a couple things here.
I'm going to roll back the mix to a little above noon.
I'm going to roll up the tape age so that it makes it a darker sound.
And I'm actually going to leave the repeats _ right there.
So let's see how that sounds here.
[C] _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ So it doesn't really get in the way of what we're playing.
You can even play sort of melodic stuff.
_ [D] _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
[C] _ _ _ _ _ _ So that's a good starting point.
The next thing we want to do is to try to smear [Fm] that [N] a little bit.
And _ one of the best ways to do that is with a little bit of reverb.
And so I'm going to turn on the wet reverb here.
I'm just going to show you a standard sort of high mix _ _ sound that it [C] can do. _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ So that's a standard reverb sound, a nice ambient sound you might want to use.
But _ in the same way that we did with the delay, I'm going to roll back the mix here. _
_ I'm going to leave the depth up there.
And this is actually a tone knob.
So I know not every reverb pedal has a tone knob.
But I'm going to bring it down. _
Have it be a little bit darker.
So this is going to accomplish the same sort of thing.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _
So there's just a little bit there underneath.
You don't even necessarily hear it while I'm playing. _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ Cool.
So let's turn this on and see how that sounds. _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ [G] _ _ _ _ [Em] _ _
_ _ [A] _ _ _ _ _ _
[C] _ _ _ _ _ _ _
So that's cool.
It kind of _ smears it a little bit.
_ _ _ _ We might even bring the mix up a little bit. _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ So the repeats are less discernible now.
And you know, one last thing _ to maybe think about when doing this is adding a second delay.
So that kind of adds to the smeared _ _ _ quality of it.
So I've got the [F] Echo Park here set to the analog setting.
_ And it's basically the same thing.
The mix is lower.
It's still a little bit above noon.
And I've got a decent amount of repeats.
But you're going to hear _ — here, I'll just play the two delays together.
So you're going to hear some collisions in the [C] delays. _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ You can hear them sort of _ interacting with each other.
But it [Fm] kind of helps with the soupiness of it.
So you've got [E] two kind of darker delays mingling together.
And then you add the reverb to kind of smear it out even more.
_ _ [G] _ _ _ _ [A] _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
[C] _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ [G] _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ So that's pretty nice.
So just to recap, _ what you want to try to do [N] here is have a darker delay.
So this won't work too well for a standard digital delay.
You've got to have some sort of analog model.
_ Analog delays are typically darker.
Or if you have something that does have a tone knob — I know that's not _ super common
on delay pedals — but if you've got something like a tape age knob on the Strymon, you can
control how dark it is and you can roll it back.
And the last thing is using the reverb in a subtle way, like we did the delay, but _ _ also _
roll it back so that it's just kind of smearing the delays out a little bit.
And so yeah, one thing to consider, _ I really like the Echo Park for a cheap delay.
Another cheap analog delay that I really like is the MXR Carbon Copy.
It's a very dark delay and it's very good at doing these types of sounds.
So if you want to do this and maybe all you have is some digital delays that are very
bright, _ consider that delay.
It's a really, really good one.
So _ that's the tip for [E] today.
Hope it helps and we'll see you next time. _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

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