I came up with the idea to post this some time ago already, but delayed it for some reason or another.
I invite the readers and myself to post guitar-related things that many players may not know, that would be of some use, benefit, interest or value to other readers. It can be about learning, hardware (guitars, amps, widely used gear), lesson-related, or just some basic, often overlooked things.
Capacitor specs, more niche and engineery stuff of the sort would be topics for another time and place - so if you can refrain from these, do. If you can't, well, I won't forbid it.
Let's start with these:
a)
(Fender) locking tuners are supposed to be tuned by turning down in pitch, as opposed to any normal tuners. This is found in some of their official docs.
b)
This may not be the most interesting bit, but probably the most important:
Guitar playing is relatively safe under normal conditions, but do make sure that your amp is always grounded properly. The outlet should be modern enough to have ground connection.
A common sign that the grounding is not working properly is that the amp buzzes/hums when one doesn't touch the strings, and stops buzzing when one does touch them. If this is the case, the ground is not leading to, well, ground, but the player him-/herself becomes the ground by touching the strings.
If the player would now touch a large metallic object (a metal door, a radiator/heater, a metallic pipe or similar) there would be a lot of electricity flowing through his/her body. Many guitarists have lost their lives this way.
I've seen people on popular youtube shows play with ungrounded setups.
So do make sure your amp is always grounded properly. If one happens to have an ungrounded guitar/setup in one's hands by oversight at home or gig-/practice space, it's best to put it down, not touch anything while touching the strings, and make sure the amp gets connected to grounded outlets with proper ground-connecting cords.
These look a little different in different countries/continents. Consult professionals if need be.
Tell your friends, and be safe!
c)
The RC-5 is a great looper among many other great loopers, but it has a - let's call it a configuration oversight, that's important to look into before use. It seems to remain the same out of the box, and with firmware updates.
There is a drum machine (including metronome) in the pedal. The default "level", which is volume for the drum machine, is at "100". If the guitar volume is set at normal playing volume range, and the drum machine is engaged at said level, it will blow away leaves from any tree and remove electrons from their customary paths within a five mile radius. It's super loud.
There is no global setting to turn down the level for all slots at once in the unit itself, so it has to be done individually for each slot that's going to be used.
Even if one doesn't intend to use the drum machine, it's 1-2 button presses away from sonic blast.
Here is how to do it, in case the manual is in another room:
0. make sure the amp is off, or amp volume is at 0 - just in case
1. select a slot by turning the memory/loop level-knob
2. long press the on/off-button under the rhythm-title
3. press the memory/loop-level knob once, and rotate it left to adjust the level from 100 to 15-20 or similar (this will be a closer match to the guitar volume, 15 is probably a reasonable starting point)
4. press the "setup" and "memory"-buttons simultaneously, until there is a text "utility / write" on the screen
5. press the memory/loop level knob twice to save the change in memory, so that it survives reboots
There is a way to do this globally for all the slots, by connecting the pedal to a compute machine, and by doing some copy/paste mastery, or a replace string job on the config file - if that sounds like your cup of tea.
Corrections, elaborations and new tips, facts and stories are welcomed.