If you’re starting a band and looking for gigs you should know that there are plenty of “promoters” out there waiting to take advantage of you. This is not to say that all Battle of the Bands are scams… Well, I’ll share some of my personal experiences, you can form your own opinions.

The first Battle of the Band I ever participated in was in college, with my band, The Swanky Modes. (I think we officially took 6th place). This was organized by students and was basically a popularity contest, meaning that the winning band was chosen based on crowd turnout and response, versus a panel of judges forming their opinions on a set base of criteria, such as whether or not the music was actually any good. This is what I would consider the “purest” form of a Battle of the Bands. Whether or not a band is actually any good, at least the bands that worked hardest on getting their fans out were rewarded for their effort and subsequent popularity.

I played a couple of Battle of the Bands with a band called the Groove Monster about ten years later, in the Bay Area. The first one was hosted by Rooster’s Roadhouse,  in Alameda. We brought a good crowd for the first round, put on a good show and were declared the “front-runners”. We didn’t get as many people out for the final round, thus we lost our “front-runner” status going in and took third. I personally won some guitar accessories, and even better, we traded our prize (recording time) with the second place winner (a month’s free rent at our rehearsal studio), which was worth about $600 to us.  Sweet!

The other battle with the Groove Monster took place at The Pound, in San Francisco. I believe this was a one night “pay to play” deal, meaning that we were given a stack of tickets to pre-sell for the show; i.e., number of tix sold = place in contest. At the end of the night we were clearly the winners based on our crowd response: we won over the majority crowd that had showed up for another band, which sucked and played covers. The promoters called for a final round of applause from the crowd for our band and the other band to determine the winner, since apparently the results at that point were in limbo. We clearly go the loudest response, and lost. Why? Because we didn’t sell as many tickets as the other band.

My current band, Sybil, participated in the Bodog Battle of the Bands a couple years ago, which was a national competition, with (I believe) the ultimate prize being a recording contract and performances at big venues; if we had won our region (Houston) we would have played the Verizon Center in Houston. (Sweet!) We won the first round and  thus advanced to round two, which took place on the big stage at The Meridian, Houston. We thought it was strange that there were no judges present after our first round win, considering that it was these judges’ (three of them) decision that was supposed to have propelled us to the next round.

In the second round we dressed up (it was Halloween) and put on a typical high-energy, quality Sybil set. It was a few hours until final judgment, so our drummer, Ryan, and I went out for awhile. On returning, we eagerly awaited the final decision. They announced third place (out of six bands), not us. Second, not us. Were we going to be first?! Nope. Nothing. We went to check with the judges, but again, they had gone home early. Seems a little suspicious, doesn’t it? A couple of weeks later we went back to Houston to play the Jet Lounge and a woman there, who happened to be a lawyer, filled me in on how the Bodog competitions were completely rigged, with the winners picked before they even performed.

So that is my experience with battles of the band. If you enter one, decide before hand on what you expect to get out of it. Do a little research into how they will be judged so that you can assess your chances of winning something. Earlier in this article I mentioned “pay to play”. This is when a venue gives you a stack of tickets (usually 100) to sell before your show, a certain amount per ticket then being due to the club when you return to play your show. This is called pay to play because bands often choose to “buy” all the tickets they cannot sell and give them away, thus assuring that the club will view them favorably. This might be a good strategy if you are playing the Sunset Strip and know that the crowd is going to be full of record execs dying to sign your band. However, here in reality, this is a bad deal and I would encourage you not to exploit yourself like this. I would recommend reading some of my other blogs about promoting your band, and such books as “Guerilla PR”, etc.

Bottom line: have some self respect.

If you believe in your band and work hard on your shows you will enjoy some success. There is never a reason to allow yourself to be exploited by anyone!

Don’t be a Guitar Center doodle-wanker! A short tasty phrase is worth 10,000 notes.Did you ever think maybe you loved soloing too much? Sure it’s great to be able to whip out some impressive lead chops, but if this comes at the expense of the rest of your playing, you might want to reevaluate your practice regimen.

There are many more elements to great guitar playing than just shear speed; for any doubters: take a listen to some David Gilmour-era Pink Floyd; if you don’t get it now, I give up.

Rhythm is a key element to expressive soloing; so, practice rhythmic playing. This goes beyond just figuring out tricky syncopations and sequences for scales and arpeggios. Any kind of rhythm playing -especially studying songs in genres you are unfamiliar with - will enhance your lead skills.

Think you got chops? Can you play a Bossa? Swing like Bird?

The more music you explore, the better your playing will be. I encourage all my students to study one book: The Berklee Modern Guitar Method. This book forces you to understand music, and how to “see” it on your fretboard. It isn’t easy. Neither is getting good at guitar.

Phrasing is another oft neglected element. This is what people often call “soul”. There are infinite ways to play a note, explore them. Practice your vibrato: short and fast, deep and slow… A bend is where one note is pushed into another; don’t settle for out of tune bends!

To practice bends:

• Play the note you are going to bend, play the note you are going to bend to, bend the note, and then check it again against the fretted note. They need to match, perfectly!
• Repeat until you can accurately bend to your target note every time.
• Practice bending to different intervals: half-step up, whole-step, one and a half steps…
• Practice sliding into and out of notes; Steve Vai is a master of this.
• Practice bending notes with your tremolo; use the same method as with bends to make sure you are in tune.

Don’t be a Guitar Center doodle-wanker! A short tasty phrase is worth 10,000 notes.

Just a silly idea, but food for thought, right? I’m always making comparisons between musicians and athletes, so why not pair up some possible soul-brethren?

Eddie Van Halen = Magic Johnson

Jeff Beck = Barry Sanders

Ozzy Osbourne = Lance Armstrong

Flea = Mohammad Ali

Zakk Wylde = Ray Lewis

Randy Rhoads = Bo Jackson

Joe Satriani = Larry Bird

Dave Navarro = Dennis Rodman

Eric Clapton = Kurt Warner

Steve Vai = Jerry Rice

Dime Bag Darrell = Ronnie Lott

Jimi Hendrix = Michael Jordan

Jimmy Page = Tiger Woods

Yngwie Malmsteen = Usain Bolt

All the Chili Pepper’s guitarists = the Yankee’s bullpen

David Lee Roth = Bob Uecker

Michael Bolton = Dan Dierdorf

Celine Dion = Mary Lou Retton

Joe Pass = Joe Montana

John Bonham = Kimbo

Steve Stevens = Eddie Arcaro

Got any suggestions of your own? Add ‘em in the comments!

One question I am often asked is: “What kind of amp should I buy?” When it comes to amps there are lots of variables, but the most important thing to consider is whether you will buy a tube-amp or a solid-state amp. Before we get into this, let’s break down how your amp works. There are three basic stages involved in amplifying the sound that comes from your guitar.

Roland JC-120, Andy Summer's Uber-Clean Machine!

First, there is the input stage, which is called the preamp. The preamp takes your signal from your guitar, via your instrument cable, and “colors” it with various controls: eq (equalization), gain, reverb, etc. This signal is then passed on to your power amp, which amplifies the signal and sends it to your speaker, which then turns the electrical signal back into a physical sound, which is what you hear coming out of the amp.

Preamps and power amps can either be solid-state or tube powered. The main thing to consider in your selection of an amp is what kind of tone you are after. Sounds simple, but you really need to spend some time thinking about this before you go out and buy an amp. In a nutshell, tube-amps create a rounded tone, which will appear as a sine wave if you analyze it. Solid-state amps create a square wave, which is an edgier, crisper sound.

Two Marshall Full-Stacks

A good example of a tube-amp sound would be Carlos Santana’s flowing sustain, or Stevie Ray Vaughan’s “fat” tone. For solid-state tone, imagine Andy Summer’s tone from his Police days, or the edge and nastiness of Dimebag Darrell’s riffs (Pantera).

Think about the guitarists you like, then decide if you want to try to emulate their tone. A quick search online will usually pull up detailed descriptions of what gear your favorite guitarists use to create their signature tones. Amplifiers are usually configured in one of four ways:

• Solid-state pre- and power amp
• Tube pre- and power amp
• Hybrid: tube preamp, solid-state power amp; solid-state preamp, tube power amp.

Some examples:

• Line6 Spider III (great practice amp!): all solid-state
• Marshall JCM2000: all tube
• Marshall AVT series: tube pre-, solid-state power amp
• Line6 Pod XT Live/Mesa Simul-Class 2:Ninety: solid-state pre-, tube power

Mesa and TC Electronics; nice rack!

The Line6/Mesa rig is what would be called a modular or rack setup. Each unit is designed to be screwed into rails inside a rack. The other two configurations of amps are called combo amps and stacks.

A combo amp contains the preamp, power amp and speaker(s) all in one enclosure; generally these amps are smaller than stacks. Stacks separate the amp and the speakers, so your preamp and power amp are in one unit (called a head) while your speakers are in heir own enclosure (called a cabinet).

Rack units are the most versatile setups, allowing you to use any number (and brand) of preamps, power amps and speakers in all sorts of combinations; of course, more options usually also equals more money. Using an amp head gives you the option of using different cabinet setups: a two speaker cabinet for a small club, four speaker cab for a bigger gig, etc.

A small combo amp is great for practice, but many performers also use them live because they can’t find a particular tone anywhere else; for example, a Fender Twin. There are way too many combinations to cover in detail in this little blog, but hopefully this will help you start narrowing your search.

Related Posts:

Picking The Right Pick
Your Guitar Rig – The Quest for Perfect Tone

There is one thing I always tell my students: you can’t think about playing guitar and play well at the same time. Thinking about playing is the same as analyzing it, a function of the left side of your brain.

Doing creative things is controlled by the right side of your brain. When you start using too much of the left side of your brain it prevents your right-brain from generating the “images” necessary for a good performance. In order to play music properly you must “hear” the music as you play it.

In one of his instructional videos, Jimmy Bruno mentions seeing pictures on the fretboard. Whether you are hearing or seeing, what you are not doing is thinking in terms of descriptive sequences: “first finger, third fret, fifth string…” These analytical (left-brain) processes are useful when learning something musical (a scale, a chord shape, etc.) but you must move beyond this in order to think of a scale or chord as a picture or a sound. (Right brain) How do you get to this point? As usual: practice, practice, practice…

The two sides of your brain

If you watch sports, I’m sure you have heard the announcer refer to an athlete as playing “unconscious”. Whether it’s hitting four three-pointers in a row or running off a series of birdies, what is being exhibited is a zen-like state where the athlete is not thinking about their actions, where they are instead focusing on the task at hand, as opposed to the thousands of people watching them, the money they could win or lose, the championship trophy…

Something I hear all the time while teaching lessons is: “I was able to play it perfectly at home, I don’t why I can’t do it now”. The problem is that the student is distracted by the fact that I am watching: they are thinking about not making mistakes (the kiss of death!) vs. focusing on what the scale should sound like/look like. This ability to focus on the task at hand is very difficult, and the reason why Tiger Woods is a very wealthy man.

The good news is that focus can be attained by anyone willing to work hard enough at it; if you do something enough times you will be able to learn to execute if perfectly. What it really comes down to is if you love what you are doing enough to be willing to do it over and over and over again until it becomes a physical reaction, instead of a mental procedure.

Imagine your best gigs. Didn’t your playing seem to flow effortlessly, even though you hardly thought about your playing? This was because you could “hear” yourself, you were focused on the sound of your instrument, the flow of your songs.  Now think about a bad gig. You couldn’t remember the changes, you forgot the arrangements, your solos felt stale… Pretty soon this is all you can think about, which inevitably leads to more mistakes, which bums you out, which is a distraction… You get the point.

Dimebag Darrell had no recollection of recording his solo for “Cowboys from Hell”, because he was blackout drunk. Eric Clapton doesn’t remember five years of his life (heroin), even though they coincide with his tenure in Cream, which many feel was his greatest playing! I’m not advocating drug/alcohol abuse here.

My point is that they were able to do this because even while “unconscious” their brains knew how to execute ideas they had rehearsed countless times. Use your practice time to learn something to the point where you no longer have to think about it: learn it, and then forget it!

Related Posts:

Sing! – Using Vocalization to Master the Guitar
Lifting Weights – Structuring Your Guitar Practice Regimine
The Mental Game: Preparing Yourself to be a First-Rate Guitarist

Most people begin taking guitar lessons with two expectations: that they want to learn to play guitar, and that they’ll never really be that great at it. I suspect people approach most things in their life like this; after all, how can we be experts at everything? I guess that’s the definition of a hobby: something that we’re interested in but that we except we will never excel at.

People also take lessons, or put their children in lessons, because they expect it to be fun. The enjoyment of playing the guitar, or of learning anything, is the satisfaction that arises from mastery.

The path to mastery is difficult and usually would not be defined as fun. Mastery doesn’t necessarily mean being able to jam like Stevie Ray Vaughan; it’s too daunting a task to hold yourself accountable to that level of excellence, at least in the beginning. But mastery can come in smaller pieces: like learning to play a song from beginning to end, flawlessly, or learning to play a scale without mistakes. Again, the work necessary to get to this point isn’t always fun, but the satisfaction upon completion is very rewarding.

The problem with teaching is that most people don’t feel this way about education. Most parents want to find something for their children to do, and then are unwilling to push them to give their lessons adequate effort; they expect the teacher to wave his/her magic wand, and presto! Their child will know how to play guitar.

I suppose it is the teacher’s job to motivate, but I’ve always felt that what could be more motivating than listening to Van Halen? (or whatever it is that excites you about the guitar) All the teacher can (and should do) is present their own excellence on their instrument and share with the student the music they love. Look at all the Asian child prodigies.

Are Asians more inherently talented than the rest of us? No, but their parents understand the need to push their children to work hard and try to excel.

Practice, practice, practice!

So where am I going with all this? Well, if you are going to take guitar lessons, or have your child take lessons, be prepared to work! This shouldn’t be a big deal because you love the guitar, that’s why you want to study it, right? If you just answered “no”, then why are you taking guitar lessons? If your kid likes Hip-Hop, why did you sign him up for guitar? My teacher, Lorn Leber, used to tell me, “You only have so much time, why study something if you don’t love it?”

If you approach everything in your life with this philosophy, I can guarantee you a satisfying life! Again, this doesn’t mean everything has to be fun, but if you work hard to pursue the things you love, the satisfaction it provides will offer contentment and happiness.

When I was studying with Satriani, I never (or hardly ever) left a lesson without feeling terrible.

Teach

This was no fault of his; it was my own fault, because I felt lousy about not having prepared well enough and was disappointed about looking like a mediocre jerk. This didn’t stop me from taking lessons. What kept me going was an unending desire to get good at the guitar; if you feel bad about your lessons, or your kid does, don’t worry about it, use it as motivation!

Make it a point to set clear goals, so you know what you are trying to achieve. Above all else: don’t blame anyone else for your failure, you are responsible for yourself. If you are working hard and are not happy with your teacher, try someone else. If you are not happy with your teacher because you are not having fun, it’s time for a gut check.

Good luck!

Related Posts:

The Mental Game – Preparing Yourself to be a First-Rate Guitarist
Learning the Modes, Non-Scientifically
To Read or Not to Read, That is the Question – Why Guitarists Should Learn to Read Music

Recently my wife turned me on to an author: Malcolm Gladwell. All his books are fascinating, but I think “Outliers” is his best work, at least as far as offering up a new and original philosophy. He presents three main ideas:

• No one is so innately talented that they excel beyond everyone else just because of their God-given talent
• Mastery of anything requires 10,000 hours of work, which, on average, takes about ten years time.
• If you look at any remarkably successful person, they were given a unique opportunity which allowed them to accrue these 10,000 hours faster than their competition.

Great book!

His musical example of this is The Beatles. He points out that they were given a unique opportunity in which they were able to play long stints (five to eight weeks) at a German strip club, where they often played for as long as eight hours at a time. Sure they were talented and unique, but this opportunity to play for so many hours together is what fused them into the force that they became, and to master their art at such a young age.

Another interesting fact: the average time that a successful band has been together is seven years before they finally “make it”.

The point is this: the more time you put into your playing, the faster you’ll get good. This should be obvious, but you’d be surprised how many people think that this is less important than: who your teacher is, what kind of gear you use, etc.  If you want to get good at the guitar, you will need to practice. The more you practice, the faster you will get good. There is no way around this.

Gladwell’s point is this: the people that knock out these hours fastest enjoy the most success, and that it takes some luck to be given the opportunity to have the time to spend so much time on becoming excellent. (Most of us are busy mowing the lawn… )

I’m not sure I’m doing this subject justice, but I have a student who appreciated the 10,000 hour rule. He just started going to college, with the goal of getting a degree in music. When I told him about the rule he upped his practice to six hours a day, which means that in about four years (I’ll give him credit for practice time already accrued) he’ll be kicking some real guitar butt!

I’m sure I’ve put in my 10,000 hours, but which is more exciting: a 40-year-old guitar ace or a 17-year-old? As always, the answer is the same: get to work!

Related Posts:

What to Expect from Guitar Lessons
So You Want To Be A Rockstar?
Lifting Weights – Structuring Your Guitar Practice Regimine

For some reason many guitarists look upon reading music as a bad thing. I’m sure most of you have met/known a guitarist who has said, “I don’t want to learn how to read, it will @#% up my playing”. Maybe you yourself have said this? This is like saying, “Yes, I am an ignoramus, and I embrace it!”

That may sound harsh, but it’s the truth. It is one thing to not learn to read, but to bash others for doing so is extremely narrow-minded. The other school of thought on this is: “Jimi Hendrix didn’t know how to read”. Ok, are you a genius? If not, learning to read will help you.

Trust me: Hendrix had his music theory mastered, even if he couldn’t put scientific labels on what he was doing. For us mortals, we should use all the tools we can get our hands on!

I worked in a music store for a year. One of the teachers took me under his wing, so to speak. First, he advised me that I would never make any money with music. Well, I certainly haven’t gotten rich, but I understand his point: if you are interested in making money, music is a lousy way to go about doing it. When I told him that I had studied with Joe Satriani he asked:

“Did he teach you how to read?”

“No”, I replied.

“He did you a disservice”.

A disservice?  This was the first time I had ever heard anyone say anything even remotely disparaging about my having studied with the great Satriani. Frankly, I was indignant. But you know what? He was right: since I have learned to read, my musicianship has excelled, and the better I read the better I play.

Victor Wooten, bass virtuoso

Just to hammer this idea home, I’ll share another story. I was a teacher at the Reikes Center (Redwood City, CA) for a couple of years. Victor Wooten was a friend of the Center and would do clinics about every six months or so. (In case you don’t know who Victor Wooten is, he is one of the best bassists in the world) So, while checking out his clinic I tossed Victor a softball question (since many of my guitar students were in attendance):

“Would you recommend that musicians learn to read music?”

I don’t remember his verbatem response, but to paraphrase it: “Duh”.

Learning to read on guitar is very difficult: the same notes appear on different strings and in different positions. How are you supposed to know which position to play while reading? Well, it takes a lot of work.

I began to seriously study reading (on the guitar) when I was 24. Fifteen years later I’m still working on it. In the meantime I have learned to play Classical and Jazz, which has made me a much better Rock player. Reading forces you to learn where your notes are on your neck, and imparts an understanding of rhythm, the musical element most neglected by guitarists.

There are two methods I would recommend. If you want to learn to read from a Classical standpoint, I would try Aaron Shearer’s “Classical Guitar Technique” series. If you want to learn from a Jazz standpoint, I would use William Leavitt’s “A Modern Method for Guitar” series (Berklee). If you want to pick your own method, go for it! No matter what, if you learn to read you will become a better player, I guarantee it!

Related Posts:

Sing! – Using Vocalization to Master the Guitar
Lifting Weights – Structuring Your Guitar Practice Regimine
The Mental Game: Preparing Yourself to be a First-Rate Guitarist

As I’ve mentioned before: every item in your signal path, from your guitar, to your strings, to your pickups, to your amp… All this affects your overall tone. Your pick is part of this equation. Many beginning students ask me what kind of pick they should use when they first start studying guitar. My advice is always the same: buy an assortment and see what feels best for you.

There are three things to consider when choosing the right pick.

Most important is the thickness of the pick; this will affect your tone more than anything else. Next in importance is the material that the pick is made of. Least important is what the pick looks like.

Pick Thickness

The thickness of your pick affects your overall volume, and the sharpness of your attack. A soft pick creates a softer volume, and allows the pick to push through the strings more easily. Soft picks are good for someone like a singer/songwriter who wants to feature their voice more than their guitar. The soft pick will allow easy strumming with a low volume output; note: this applies to acoustic guitars; obviously, you can set your volume anywhere you want with an electric instrument.

The tightness of your grip on the pick also affects your volume: if you squeeze hard you will play with a louder volume than if you hold the pick softly. The softer the pick, the less volume control you will have. Medium picks give you a little more volume control while still being flexible enough to maintain some control over flexing the pick. Heavy and extra-heavy picks basically have no give.

There are endless gradations in pick thickness. Less expensive picks (Fender, Gibson…) usually come in just four gradients: soft, medium, heavy and extra-heavy. Fancier picks (Dunlop, D’Andrea…) come in many sizes, measured in the hundredth of millimeters. This means there are many different pick widths which fall between medium and heavy.

The fanciest picks will have special surfaces to enhance your grip, be made of materials other than plastic (such as metal, stone, etc.), be manufactured with ergonomic twists and angles, have custom tips… The bottom line is this: until you achieve some proficiency on your instrument, you probably won’t be able to tell a whole lot of difference between the myriad pick options.

Pick Material

Thickness aside, most plastic picks basically sound the same; other materials, such as metal or stone will change your instrument’s tone. For now, let’s dwell on plastic picks, since this is what the majority of us are going to use. There are a number of different kinds of plastics used in picks.

The most common material is celluloid, which is soft and flexible. This material feels great, but if you are an aggressive player (you employ chugging metal rhythms, do pick-slides…) these won’t last very long. Delrin can be made to feel similar to celluloid, but is more durable. It can also be made in a flat finish that is extremely tough; Jim Dunlop Tortex picks use this material.  One draw-back that I have noticed with the Tortex picks is that over time they mold to your finger.

Some people might like having their pick curve with their finger; I don’t like it.  The toughest picks I have found (and my personal favorites) are Dunlop Ultex picks. The plastic used in these is extremely tough, allowing more rigidity in a thinner pick, and providing the best resilience to pick abuse that I have found. One drawback of Ultex picks is that they cannot be dyed, so they are only available in a rubber-like bronze color.

Pick Appearance

Which brings us to the final consideration: appearance. Picks are an accessory, and like any accessory they have an effect on our overall appearance. Some people like to have their guitar, strap, pick, outfit… Everything coordinated to look nice. Also, you may want to print your band name on your pick, or your personal slogan. If this is the case, you will need a pick that can be dyed.

As mentioned at the top of this article: go to your music store and see what they have in the way of picks. For five bucks you can get a large assortment of picks and see what fits you best. You can also call the pick companies and ask them for an assortment (tell them you want to order a large number of picks to print, but you’re not sure what type yet). Often, they will send you their entire line of picks for free.

Here is a list of some guitar players, and the picks they are famous for using:

• Stevie Ray Vaughan: Mexican One-Peso coin
• Eddie Van Halen: Fender Medium
• Jerry Garcia: extra-heavy pick
• Gordon Kahan: Jim Dunlop Ultex .73mm

Good luck picking your pick; remember: be picky!

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Your Guitar Rig – The Quest for Perfect Tone

No doubt, delay is my favorite effect, unless you consider distortion an effect. Delay adds a depth and richness to my tone that I can’t live without. There are many ways to apply delay (which is also called echo). Before getting into the applications, though, let’s go over the basic parameters of a delay effect:

• Feedback: controls the number of repeats of the delay.
  

  The Original Echoplex, tape-based echo machine

• Delay-time: controls the length of the repeat, usually in milliseconds (ms).
• Effect level: controls the volume of the repeat relative to the volume of the original signal. (This is often called Effects Mix, depending on the unit; a higher mix = a higher delay level)

Any delay pedal should have at least these parameters for controlling it. Many amps also have delays built into them these days; in this case, there is usually only control over the delay time and level. There are three types of delay: tape-based, analog and digital.

The first delays were tape-based, such as the Echoplex or Roland Space Echo. These units create delays by actually recording the guitar signal on a tape. The speed of the tape moving through the machine controls the length of the delay. Analog delays use circuit-boards to do this. Digital delays use chips to process delays, and thus offer substantially longer delay times than either tape-based or analog delays; however, the old school delays are often more sought after , because of their warmer tones.

Boss DD-20

Higher end pedals, dedicated rack-mount delay units, and guitar multi-effects units often offer more parameters for controlling delay beyond the basic three mentioned above. More advanced settings for delay include:

• Tempo delay: this allows you to set the delay to the tempo of a song and then pick a synchopation for the delays; e.g., a quarter-note, dotted eighth-note, etc. Tempo delay is often controlled by tapping the tempo, either with a finger- or foot-switch. You can also use math to figure out tempo delays, but it sure is easier having a chip do it for you!
• Ping-pong delay: delay that pans from speaker to speaker; this is a stereo effect.
• Multi-tap delay: stereo delays with two different delay times. This often causes some crazy sounding effects!
• Reverse delay: the delay of your guitar is reversed, creating a backwards guitar effect.
• lbp/hbp: low-band pass/high-band pass. This allows you to eq your echoes, making them brighter or darker.
• Modulated delay: the delays are modulated creating a chorus type sound (think: The Edge)

I’m sure there are more parameters, but this should give you an idea of some of the things you can do with a delay. I would suggest spending some time with your manual, or even better, just push buttons and twist knobs until you figure out what they do. This often leads to the best discoveries!

Related Posts:

Your Guitar Rig: Using Delay, Part II
Your Guitar Rig – The Quest for Perfect Tone