A master volume allows you to turn up the preamp section and get lots of cool overdrive and turn the master volume, or overall output volume, down to a comfortable listening level. When people talk about a “master volume” amplifier, they are talking about an amp that has a volume for both the preamp section and the power amp section. (*I’m oversimplifying an amp, but if you want to know specific details about how amps work, there are a good deal of other sites out there.) The preamp section is where the grindy distortion and overdrive is created and the power amp section is there just to create a louder version of whatever character the preamp is creating. Amplifiers are comprised of two internal sections: the preamp section and the power amp section. I would argue that the better amps in the world are tube/valve based amplifiers. Here’s the general idea of an effects loop. What is an effects loop? What does it do? Can it hurt me? Am I still a Christian if I use one? These are all great questions. I also own and use a Fender Mexican Telecaster, a Fender Mustang, and a Gibson Les Paul Special Faded occasionally for recording.If there’s one question that I get more than any others, it’s “Are you Tom Green?” But the second most popular question is about effects (fx) loops in amplifiers.
Our Macbook Pro running our click also controls my AxeFx via Midi making all my preset changes for me. I use the Fractal MFC-101 midi controller with a Mission expression pedal to control it. PRS Custom 24 w/ Ernie Ball 10’s into an AxeFx II which runs into a VHT 2/50/2 power amp, powering an Avatar Contemporary 2×12 w/ Vintage 30s. This one is one of my favorites to play, because when we lock in some of the bigger parts hit really hard, but it has plenty of moments where we just get to relax while maintaining an upbeat feel. When it came time to work on this song at the cabin, Bruce added a handful of the melodies over the top of the song that really help it shine, and we ended up shortening a few parts, but the song mostly remains intact from that second demo I made. However I didn’t want to just settle for something slow and quiet that built tension in a typical post rock manner, I wanted it to still be a song that felt like it had a hopeful chorus, and have an arrangement that was something the listener could follow without being forced to trace every step the song took. I knew what hadn’t worked in the previous version, and decided to try and put together a song that had a very easygoing vibe during most of the song, but finally builds to moments of intensity towards the end.
This song was the result of a failed demo that Bruce and I tried to put together the night he showed me the demos for the rest of the record.
I only had the chance to demo out one song as a full arrangement, which became “Congratulations, You’re Alive.” I had a good handful of riffs and arrangements in my head that I’d been toying with for the past year or so, so I started working on them on my own.
In the weeks leading up to the cabin, we had been working on some of Bruce’s demos and re working some parts, plus familiarizing ourselves with what we were going to be working on while we were there. Chris had mentioned to me at one point how cool it would be to someday go to a cabin to work on some music, so I pulled that idea back around and suggested it to Bruce and the guys, which led us to finding the spot in Glover, VT. I didn’t want to repeat how grueling putting together Dreamer was though, so that birthed the idea of going away somewhere to solely “get in the head” of the record, and try and make it one complete idea that we focus on without the distractions of day to day living. However when he showed me the material he already had and the idea for the record, it got me really excited at the prospect of working on new material. I felt like the process with Dreamer really dragged, and I wasn’t 100% on how a lot of those songs came out. When Bruce approached us about writing material for what became Everything is Beautiful, I was pretty apprehensive.