Single guitar player... sound filler??

a good delay pedal and looper would add depth for sure.

I used to use two delays (mine were rack mount)...one set for around 333ms most of the time, and the other set for a slap back, which thickened the sound up a bit.

Cool! I have a DD-3.. . Any suggestions for specific settings?? How do I get slap back?

It's been a while, but IIRC, around 40ms (somewhere between 30-50ms I think).

You could also use a second amp and a stereo chorus. The second amp doen'st have to match the first one - it might actually be better that way. You can use the slapback as mentioned above but you can also include a nice stereo chorus - or for that matter a stereo reverb.

Or in the case of the digital reverb (something like an Alesis NanoVerb), you could pile the reverb only on one amp to give some depth, and then run your other amp almost dry.

If you had an acoustic-electric or a solidbody with a piezo in the bridge, you could run one output, like the piezo, to the 'effects amp' and have the mag pickups going through your clean or lead amp. That would sound pretty full I think.

great ideas.

slapback is a standard setting on my delay unit.

Get bigger speakers to move more air. What are you using for an amp/setup?

I would actually give a different type of advice.

I would say listen to groups that had one guitar player, like Cream, Jimi Hendrix, The Who, Led Zeppelin, Rush, or even Nirvana. Listen to how they played runs between chords, and the use of arpeggios. Especially listen to live recordings if you can find them.

When you are a single guitar player you have to learn to play both rhythm and lead at the same time. Bass and drums have to contribute to fill the spaces as well.

Of course, a single guitar band that uses effects tremendously is The Edge from U2. But, he's already done it.

Or consider a band like Low, that both allows the bass to play a prominent roll to fill in around the guitar and allows the empty spaces to play an important part in their overall sound.

I would actually give a different type of advice.

I would say listen to groups that had one guitar player, like Cream, Jimi Hendrix, The Who, Led Zeppelin, Rush, RHCP, or even Nirvana. Listen to how they played runs between chords, and the use of arpeggios. Especially listen to live recordings if you can find them.

When you are a single guitar player you have to learn to play both rhythm and lead at the same time. Bass and drums have to contribute to fill the spaces as well.

That's something I almost mentioned. I played in a four-piece band for a long time. As time went by, the singer, who play rhythm guitar, wanted to spend more time just singing. Once I became the only guitarist on several songs, I did indeed have to change my approach playing wise. I had always had the pleasure of being the "lead guitarist" meaning my parts could be complimentary to what the rhythm player was doing. Once I was the sole guitarist, that changed. I tended to use open strings more (key of E especially - say during a solo, I'd hit the low string and let it ring before playing a line up the neck).

Once we started playing musically as a three piece, it was hard to go back sometimes. It really gave me a lot of freedom and I really enjoyed the space that was possible. There's an Eric Johnson cut that I think contains my favorite one note of all time and it's pretty much a nod to Hendrix. I don't remember the name of the song (it was a vocal track I think). Seems like the bass and drums are still going, but Johnson stops playing for a few seconds and comes in with this beautiful note...a bend on the 2nd string from the 7th to the root (as in bending from the 15th fret D up to E on the B string in the key of E).

I'm the only guitar player in the band and i'm looking for ways to "beef" up my sound or thicken things up at times.

An octaver?? (isn't this more for single notes?)

A phrase sampler??

And NO... we're not getting another guitar player. We're a 4pc band and solid as is....

I'd caution against using effects to form a fundamental part of your sound. In a lot of cases this can thin out rather than beef up your sound. Instead, try these things:

Turn the bass player up, and let him fill more of the bottom end. Basses can play double stops and chords too ya know.

Rethink what you're doing. Try out chord melodies, pedaling melody lines against a drone string, different inversions and use fills whenever you can.

Pay attention to places where it can increase the impact by NOT playing. Silence can be an effective musical tool.

play louder. if you can't think of anything to fill up the silence, let out a whoop. fart a lot.

seriously, funky muted chunks, trills, slides, arpeggiated chords, different levels of distortion/effects, and rhythmic variation can add an element of fullness and dynamics, and prevent your sound from becoming too one dimensional..

I think Led Zeppelin's live playing is a great model for how to fill up your sound. In the studio tracks the guitar parts always sounded very full. You had acoustic parts, clean guitar, dirty, and so on and so fourth all going on at the same time. Plus rythym parts going under the lead playing.

A big thing I've noticed is how Page switches back and fourth between rhythym and lead based on what sticks out more on the studio track. Also, JPJ often picks up the rythym parts during solos, Black Dog is a good example. On the studio track you have this huge, thunky rhythym part playing underneath the solo, live Jones plays this on bass and Page is free to shred to his heart's content. Jones would also follow the guitar on lead playing quite a bit and then play roots or double stops for the rythym, switching back and fourth like Page or by improv-ing a riff or line in the background.

The vocalist can also help thicken up the song. Plant and Page would do lots of little back and fourth stuff, vocal areobatics and guitar licks. It filled up lulling parts and added a lot of spontinaity to the song.

I think another big part of this is the volume and power that John Bonham could get out of drums and a lot of cymbal use. Play around and see what'll fit!

For me, the masters of the fill are BB King and Mark Knopfler. They somehow know the right amount to put into filling the space - it's never too fussy and never too lean.