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guitar.solutions

A book, a reference, and the coach built from both.

guitar.solutions started as one guitarist's engineering-grade reference and a self-taught player's field notes. Both now live inside Strumly, alongside the interactive coach that grew out of them.

This page is the map. The book and its sample lessons, the eight signal chain guides, Strumly's tools and free course, and the sister sites below each link straight to the page that holds them.

Start here · Book

The Signal Chain

An illustrated history of electric guitar tone: amps, effects, and a self-taught player's field notes, told across 111 song lessons. The complete and final edition runs 66 chapters and 111 Workshops with full tablature, from the Rickenbacker Frying Pan and Leo Fender's tweed to fuzz, the wah, the Big Muff, high gain, and digital modeling.

Jason Colapietro, writing as Johnny Suede, wrote, illustrated, and hand-typeset every page. It is published under the Johnny Suede Press imprint.

Get The Signal Chain

Inside the book

Eight parts, from the first pickup to your own pedalboard.

Each Workshop is a rig, a tone recipe, the theory underneath, and the tab. Each part below links to its entry in the contents on the book page: open it there to see every chapter and song, or search the contents for your song before you buy.

  1. Part I

    Foundations

    The electric signal, the anatomy of an amplifier, the language of tone, and pickups, wood and the honest truth about tone.

    4 chapters

  2. Part II

    Birth of Amplification

    From the Frying Pan to the Charlie Christian sound, Leo Fender's tweed era, the tweed Bassman, Gibson and Valco combos, and Danelectro and Supro.

    5 chapters · 5 workshops

  3. Part III

    The British Invasion

    The Marshall stack, the Vox AC30, Fender blackface and brownface, and the Hiwatt command sound.

    4 chapters · 6 workshops

  4. Part IV

    The First Effects

    Tremolo and vibrato, spring reverb, the fuzz explosion, the wah, and the treble booster.

    5 chapters · 5 workshops

  5. Part V

    The Pedal Revolution

    The Uni-Vibe, the Big Muff, the Phase 90, the Tube Screamer, echo and delay, chorus and flange, and the compressor.

    7 chapters · 9 workshops

  6. Part VI

    High Gain & the Modern Era

    Mesa/Boogie, the hot-rodded Marshall, 80s rack rigs, boutique high gain, grunge fuzz, and digital modeling.

    6 chapters · 7 workshops

  7. Part VII

    Tone in Practice — The Players

    Hendrix, Clapton, Page, Gilmour, Van Halen, Stevie Ray Vaughan, The Edge, Cobain, Brian May, Tom Morello and the modern blues players.

    11 chapters · 18 workshops

  8. Part VIII

    Building Your Rig

    Signal chain order, gain staging, building the pedalboard, and matching your tone to the music.

    4 chapters

Around the eight parts: a memoir opening, Six Strings, No Serial Number; the Self-Taught Curriculum; The Player's Gear; three Songbook chapters; the epilogue; and the appendices. The Expanded Workbook adds 61 more workshops, from the 90s to now, plus Johnny's favorites.

Read before you decide

Four sample lessons, in the book's own format.

Each one is a Workshop from the complete edition: the real rig, a budget tone recipe, the theory, and original tab drills. Open them one at a time below, or read all four together on the sample lessons page.

  1. Lesson 14 of 111

    Purple Haze The Jimi Hendrix Experience

    Fuzz Face, Octavia, a Strat and a loud Marshall.

  2. Lesson 22 of 111

    Comfortably Numb Pink Floyd · David Gilmour

    Big Muff bloom, long delay, and a clean Fender-style platform.

  3. Lesson 28 of 111

    Pride and Joy Stevie Ray Vaughan & Double Trouble

    A Tube Screamer into a pushed Fender amp, heavy strings, and right-hand technique.

  4. Lesson 38 of 111

    Smells Like Teen Spirit Nirvana

    The quiet-loud detonation: a cheap offset, a Boss DS-1, and a clean amp doing the contrast.

  • Print the QuietNine essays on tone and dynamics: Buckley's Hallelujah, the loudness war in numbers, the religion of the compressor, and more.
  • The catalogEverything Jason Colapietro makes: The Signal Chain, the Print the Quiet essays, books on AI, ownership and search, the apps, and Suede AI.

Reference · Formerly guides.guitar.solutions

Signal Chain Guides

Engineering-grade guides on impedance, gain staging, pedalboard order, and effects topology. They run in the order your signal does: from the pickup and the first three feet of cable, through the pedals, to the amp's effects loop and the power under the board.

  1. 01 · Signal Chain

    Signal Chain Topology: What Actually Goes Where, and Why

    What goes where in a guitar signal chain, pickup to speaker, and the engineering reasons behind the standard order.

  2. 02 · Electronics

    Impedance and the First Three Feet

    Where to put a buffer pedal, and why the first three feet of cable do more to your tone than the rest of your board.

  3. 03 · Electronics

    Cable Capacitance and Frequency Response: The Spec That Actually Matters

    Cable capacitance rolls off your highs: which spec to check before you buy, and why a buffer fixes it for good.

  4. 04 · Electronics

    True Bypass vs. Buffered: What Your Pedal Actually Does

    Which one preserves your tone, and which pedals need to be buffered on your board.

  5. 05 · Signal Chain

    Pedalboard Order: A Practical Methodology

    Where each pedal belongs on your board, and when to break the rule.

  6. 06 · Signal Chain

    Gain Staging Across the Chain

    How to set unity gain across a multi-pedal board so clean pedals don't clip your amp's front end.

  7. 07 · Gain & Dynamics

    The Effects Loop: Serial, Parallel, and the Four-Cable Method

    Serial or parallel, when to use the four-cable method, and how to wire your amp's loop correctly.

  8. 08 · Power

    Power Supply and Noise Floor: The Hidden Variable in Your Tone

    Which power supply spec sets your noise floor: isolated outputs vs. daisy chains, and how to fix ground loop hum.

The full guide index adds practice methodology and rights & IP for working musicians.

Also on Strumly

The interactive guitar coach

Tuner, metronome, chord and scale libraries, and a coach that answers signal chain questions in context, built on everything above. Strumly gives you real-time chord feedback, practice drills, and ear training, and remembers your last session. Every standalone tool is unlocked free during early access, and the free plan includes 3 coaching sessions a month.

Build and test the rig

  • RigBuild your pedalboard signal chain and watch power draw, noise risk, and gain-stack stats update live.
  • Amp LabLive amp modeling in the browser: plug in and hear your guitar through neural amp models in real time.
  • BenchDescribe fret buzz, intonation or action trouble and get the likely causes and what to try first.

Tune and keep time

  • TunerAn in-browser guitar tuner. No sign-up, and audio never leaves your device.
  • MetronomeTap tempo and time signatures, so you can set the pulse and keep the take honest.
  • Speed trainerSet a start and target tempo and ramp up in small steps, with muted bars that test your internal timing.

Chords, scales and ear

  • Chord libraryOpen, barre, 7th, maj7, min7, sus and power chord shapes for standard tuning, with fingerings you can read at a glance.
  • Scale trainerAn interactive fretboard for every key and seven essential scales: major, natural minor, both pentatonics, blues, dorian and mixolydian.
  • Ear trainerHear two notes and name the interval, all twelve from minor 2nd to octave.

Play along and keep going

  • Suede HeroPick a song and hear it played, then play along while Strumly scores every chord change in real time.
  • Practice streakPractice days and streaks for finished lessons and quizzes, tracked on your device with no account.

Free course

Read the book, then play it.

Strumly's free course turns this material into a playing order: the book's song lessons live in its Repertoire & tone stage, and the course finishes with the coach listening to you play. It runs 20 steps across three stages, each step linked to a real Strumly tool, lesson, or guide, and saves your progress on your device with no sign-up.

  1. Stage 1 · 12 steps

    Foundations

    Tuning, chords, rhythm, scales and your ear: the mechanics everything else stands on.

  2. Stage 2 · 6 steps

    Repertoire & tone

    The book's four sample song lessons, plus the guides on smoother chord transitions and designing a practice routine.

  3. Stage 3 · 2 steps

    Train with the coach

    A measured coaching session with focused drills and an exact next assignment, and a streak that keeps you honest.

Want the theory first? Strumly's guitar theory lessons teach chords, scales and intervals on the fretboard, each checked with a quick quiz.

Start the free course →

Sister sites

More guitar references from the same desk.

Chord reference

Guitar Chords

A chord finder and chart with fingering diagrams, plus a scale trainer, chromatic tuner, and metronome. No sign-up, no tracking.

  • Chord chartOpen, barre, 7th, maj7, min7, sus and power chords in standard tuning.
  • Scale chartAll 12 keys, with major, minor, the pentatonics, blues, and all seven modes.
  • F majorThe 133211 barre shape, with chord tones F A C.
  • Minor pentatonic1 b3 4 5 b7, the rock and blues default where most lead guitar lives.
  • Blues scaleThe minor pentatonic plus the b5 blue note.

The full shelf

Guitar Services

The guitar work of Jason Colapietro in one directory: two published books, a signal chain reference, chord and scale libraries, and AI practice tools.

  • The Signal Chain, summarizedThe book's chapters and song workshops by part, summarized from its Strumly listing.
  • Signal chain guides, summarizedThe eight guides above in one place: topology, impedance, cable capacitance, true bypass, pedal order, gain staging, effects loops, and power.
  • Chord and scale libraryEvery chord and scale on guitarchords.info in one index: 39 chord shapes and 12 scales and modes, with formulas.
  • Practice toolsStrumly, Suede Guitar Tuner & Studio, GuitarHub lessons, and Suede Sing for voice.
  • About guitar.servicesHow the directory is put together, and where the signal chain guides live now.

Lessons

GuitarHub

Guitar lessons with lifetime access, plus free practice routines and advanced drills. Its 30-day practice planner and tools run in your browser with no account.

Tuner and setup

Suede Guitar Tuner & Studio

A chromatic tuner and metronome with Standard E, Drop D and alternate tunings, an intonation check, and saved setup notes. On the web and on iPhone.

For guitarists who sing

Suede Sing

Singing practice with live pitch feedback, warmups and songs. The pitch meter and vocal range test are free.

By Jason Colapietro, founder of Suede AI.