What kind of guitar for reggae

There are famous Reggae players who started out playing on Prs, Ibanez, and off brand hole in the wall guitars. Having the right equipment will always help improve your tone, and having a quality instrument is probably the most important step to good tone. Note: This article includes guitars from all eras. Here are the Top 5 most popular Guitars played by Reggae musicians. He also played on a Les Paul as well.

I thought about it and came up with a few reasons. The studio delay effect used in seminal dub mixes was a tape echo, which would degrade and warp the signal as the repeats drifted on. However, the arrival of digital delay units in the '80s helped transfer control of the effect to the guitarists themselves within a live environment.

Another effect heavily associated with reggae rhythm guitarists has been the phase-shifter. With reggae rhythm guitar, the phaser is set to cycle slowly with very deep intensity. Each guitar chop gains a different tonal character.

In reggae, reverb can, for example, be used to emphasise certain guitar chops on an isolated basis. The standard chop might have a very dry aura, but every so often, between one and a few chops might be treated with heavy reverb. However, expert rhythm players like optimum control over their dynamics, and compression interferes with that. In my view it also subtracts some organic richness.

But you have to pay close attention to the kind of pickups the guitar has. Single coil Gibson models like the Les Paul Special will be fine, and mini-humbucker instruments like the Les Paul Deluxe have been successfully employed by top reggae artists too.

However, once you get into the realm of full-sized humbuckers, you really need to know what sort of output and tone the pickups have. Fender, Burns, Vox and other guitar designs with slim single coils will probably be the safest bet. My own favourite for reggae is the vintage design Fender Telecaster pictured above. The best amp types in my experience are vintage spec valve jobs, because they impart plenty of depth and authority without losing treble, and without the need for contrived distortion.

Old Marshall or Vox AC30 designs will probably work better with humbucking guitars. However, a lot of reggae guitarists have gone off the beaten track in their choice of amps. The Roland Jazz Chorus notably not valve-driven has met with considerable approval, and Peavey amps some of which had built-in phasers have hit big in reggae too. III heads with UB Around the same time, I recall a number of local reggae-influenced groups using Peavey Deuce combos, often with the onboard phasers cycling slow and deep.

Old solid state HH amps have proved another effective choice for reggae guitarists. But other well known reggae guitarists have employed seemingly unworkable approaches, and somehow managed not only to make them work, but to make the result highly engaging.

Some players, for example, have fretted major chords when the rest of the band is playing minor. Not the relative major — literally the root major. Don't matter none what guitar you be usin. I personally think a strat on the bridge pickup is where it's at. Just because I've got strats. I had a friend who swore up and down that P90's were the best for it. He played a lot of Reggae and Ska. Otherwise, I have only ever played that stuff on acoustic.

Semi-hollows and hollowbodys have a great tone for it too Age: 64 Messages: 2, P90's are great for reggae. Would be my first choice.

Strats are a bit too "nervous" for me. A Tele or Lester is fine. He was the lead guitarist while with the Wailers, using in his later years with the band a Gibson Les Paul Standard and a lot of wah. But his most memorable guitar was one given to him by a fan in , in the form of an M16 rifle, the perfect weapon for this tireless freedom warrior who get up and stood for their rights without quitting the fight.

Bob Marley The most important figure in the history of reggae and Jamaican music, Robert Nesta Marley was a good rhythm guitarist in his own right, and had excellent lead guitarists.

His first big guitar was a Fender Stratocaster, but all through his career his favourite guitar was his Gibson Les Paul Special which you can see in most of his recorded concerts. Al Anderson Possibly the author of the most memorable solo in the history of reggae, which he did on the live version of No Woman No Cry by Marley. Anderson was an American guitarist steeped in blues tradition when Marley signed him up in to replace the original Wailers, Peter Tosh and Bunny Wailer.

Anderson put his stamp on the remarkable Natty Dread , released that year, and subsequently Live! He stayed in the band until , a year which, in a twist of fate, he started working for Peter Tosh, and together they would cut Legalize It and Equal Rights.