Tbh I've always been the only guitarist in my bands, I'm a bit of a freak about that really. Mainly because it annoys me that local soundmen/women can't seem to EQ for shit when theres more than just Guitar, Bass, Vocals, Drums.
So my pedalboard is always populated with stuff just so I can fill out the spare space that I don't have the luxury of another guitarist to do.
In my last band I ran EHX Octave Multiplexer > DT - 10 > LPB - 1 nano > Synth Wah (setting 7: Auto wah) > DOD DFX90 (?) Analog delay > Digiverb, this was always run into a Laney GH50L with 6L6's in set to maximum drive and EQ flat central. From there I would use my volume knob to control all the gain, the LPB would give my sound a nice little shunt in the mid and high end that stopped things being muddy. DOD was nearly always on too, because for some reason the higher the unity gain that i used to put into it the more it would "duck" under the clean signal. Ergo, roll the volume off on the guitar = nice clean guitar with analogy spacialness; volume up = mental unpredictable amounts of gain with lots of low end.
EHX Multiplexer was used with later in the band when I used to bring a 1x15 with me too beef up my low end for riffage. Synth wah is an unpredictable bastard and guitar speakers fucking hate it, its either too tinny or too bassy, but set right it is nearly both and really adds this crazy throb to solos/anti-solos.
These days I run Dano Chicken salad > DT-10 > Synth Wah (octave fuzz) > MBM Crunchbox/saltbooster > Dano Coolcat Fuzz > DD-6 > Marshall Echohead > Digiverb.
Roughly the same sort of thing really but I want varying steps of gain because I am looking for bands at the moment and stylistically I'm easy, I kinda want a board that will give me my distinct traits that I've been developing, but will allow me to be a bit more creative than just quiet quiet delay delay delay FUCKING LOUD!
Phase EQ effects don't really ring my bell at the moment so I think that I will just change those from some sort of Polyphonic Octaver. I need an analog delay too.
How Do You Use Your Effects?
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bob the r0bot
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Let's see. I don't actually use all these all the time. I actually like to keep things simple.
The Hot Cake to add more gain/overdrive. The China Fuzz, for those Ron Asheton '1969' moments (ditto Fender Blender). The Echo Jr, for 50s type delay. A Micro Pog for scary organ sounds. The Fuzz Factory for gated, splatty fuzz moments. Also my 90s Russian Big Muff Pi and a Swollen Pickle Jumbo Fuzz. Oh, and a '63 Reverb to add, er, reverb.
The rest of my pedals are stashed away and pulled out every now and then. I should really just sell them.
The Hot Cake to add more gain/overdrive. The China Fuzz, for those Ron Asheton '1969' moments (ditto Fender Blender). The Echo Jr, for 50s type delay. A Micro Pog for scary organ sounds. The Fuzz Factory for gated, splatty fuzz moments. Also my 90s Russian Big Muff Pi and a Swollen Pickle Jumbo Fuzz. Oh, and a '63 Reverb to add, er, reverb.
The rest of my pedals are stashed away and pulled out every now and then. I should really just sell them.
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S. Thompson
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Nice topic, Proggy. It's fascinating to me to see everyone describe how they use their effects instead of just showing a quick group photo of them.
I have two music groups I play with, but my setup stays pretty consistent between the two despite them being very different sonically. I'm currently set up with an EHX POG2, EHX LPB-1, EHX Germanium OD, MXR Distortion+, EHX Stereo Pulsar, EHX Micro Synthesizer, EHX Small Clone, and Boss RE-20 Space Echo. Nothing really changes but the dirt, and even then I'll only swap the Dist+ for a Boss SD-1, a Reutz-mod RAT2, or a Marshall ShredMaster depending on the situation. Oh, there's also an EHX Holy Grail Plus that sits on my amp and is almost always on in Spring mode to act as a replacement for my Vibrosonic's busted tank. (I baby the amp but I've replaced the tank twice, and despite tanks being cheap, I'm just sick of not knowing if it's going to work the next time I fire the amp up.)
I have the Germanium OD set to a less dramatic version of the Dave Davies cut-speaker-cone sound, which is on almost all the time. This is to provide a base tone with a little hair, since my amp of choice is a '73 Vibrosonic -- a 100-watt Twin with a 15" speaker. The LPB-1 is only used to boost the signal if I'm using a guitar with colder pickups than my Lace-equipped Tele or stock CP Jaguar SS. This is fed to the Dist+ (set to full Output and ~60% Distortion), which is engaged at times of great rocking. I'll use the RAT2 or ShredMaster if I feel like changing things up a bit, or the SD-1 if I don't need a full-on distort-o-tone.
I use the POG2 for many things, a few of which are: a simple lowpass filter on only the dry guitar sound, to darken things up just a little; an octave-down-only sound, with the Q in the third position and the filter at halfway for a wicked filtered bass sound; a dark Rhodesy sound with a touch of the Attack Decay slider to lessen the attack a bit and make it less guitar-like; and the classic Morello with dry and octave-down only. I absolutely love this thing.
The Stereo Pulsar is used mostly for a classic sine-wave trem sound at a fairly quick rate. I also discovered -- completely by accident -- I can have it placed before the Micro Synth and put it in square-wave mode with max depth setting (around 1 o'clock) and balanced wave shape (50% duty cycle), making it a variable-rate trigger. This can create anything from choppy staccato synth pulses to long filter sweeps when used in tandem with the Micro Synth's Rate slider. While I don't get to use this in-song often, it's my favorite effects combination.
I use the Small Clone as a subtle chorus to occasionaly thicken things up a bit, as a more dramatic chorus for the POG2's Rhodesy modes, and in full-on full-speed crazy mode during some single-note shit up high on the neck for one song's outro.
The Space Echo is used fairly often in mode 6 (echo + reverb) with a short (~50-100 msec) delay time, repeats near the edge of oscillation when really digging in, and the level about 60% of the original signal. The reverb is set around 25% just to add a little more depth to the sound. I also change up the delay time with the tap tempo at certain points. There's also a switch on the back that turns off the output of the unaffected signal, which comes in handy because I also use it a lot as a DAW insert -- on everything from vocals to drums.
While my working setup pales in comparison to some here, within my circle of musician friends I feel like friggin' Imelda Marcos. I used to harbor a bit of guilt with the number of effects I use, but because I've stuck with essentially the same chain for so long, I'm extremely comfortable at the helm. My music isn't really anything like his, but Tom Morello was (and remains) a huge influence on me with regard to sticking to a setup and working within it.
I have two music groups I play with, but my setup stays pretty consistent between the two despite them being very different sonically. I'm currently set up with an EHX POG2, EHX LPB-1, EHX Germanium OD, MXR Distortion+, EHX Stereo Pulsar, EHX Micro Synthesizer, EHX Small Clone, and Boss RE-20 Space Echo. Nothing really changes but the dirt, and even then I'll only swap the Dist+ for a Boss SD-1, a Reutz-mod RAT2, or a Marshall ShredMaster depending on the situation. Oh, there's also an EHX Holy Grail Plus that sits on my amp and is almost always on in Spring mode to act as a replacement for my Vibrosonic's busted tank. (I baby the amp but I've replaced the tank twice, and despite tanks being cheap, I'm just sick of not knowing if it's going to work the next time I fire the amp up.)
I have the Germanium OD set to a less dramatic version of the Dave Davies cut-speaker-cone sound, which is on almost all the time. This is to provide a base tone with a little hair, since my amp of choice is a '73 Vibrosonic -- a 100-watt Twin with a 15" speaker. The LPB-1 is only used to boost the signal if I'm using a guitar with colder pickups than my Lace-equipped Tele or stock CP Jaguar SS. This is fed to the Dist+ (set to full Output and ~60% Distortion), which is engaged at times of great rocking. I'll use the RAT2 or ShredMaster if I feel like changing things up a bit, or the SD-1 if I don't need a full-on distort-o-tone.
I use the POG2 for many things, a few of which are: a simple lowpass filter on only the dry guitar sound, to darken things up just a little; an octave-down-only sound, with the Q in the third position and the filter at halfway for a wicked filtered bass sound; a dark Rhodesy sound with a touch of the Attack Decay slider to lessen the attack a bit and make it less guitar-like; and the classic Morello with dry and octave-down only. I absolutely love this thing.
The Stereo Pulsar is used mostly for a classic sine-wave trem sound at a fairly quick rate. I also discovered -- completely by accident -- I can have it placed before the Micro Synth and put it in square-wave mode with max depth setting (around 1 o'clock) and balanced wave shape (50% duty cycle), making it a variable-rate trigger. This can create anything from choppy staccato synth pulses to long filter sweeps when used in tandem with the Micro Synth's Rate slider. While I don't get to use this in-song often, it's my favorite effects combination.
I use the Small Clone as a subtle chorus to occasionaly thicken things up a bit, as a more dramatic chorus for the POG2's Rhodesy modes, and in full-on full-speed crazy mode during some single-note shit up high on the neck for one song's outro.
The Space Echo is used fairly often in mode 6 (echo + reverb) with a short (~50-100 msec) delay time, repeats near the edge of oscillation when really digging in, and the level about 60% of the original signal. The reverb is set around 25% just to add a little more depth to the sound. I also change up the delay time with the tap tempo at certain points. There's also a switch on the back that turns off the output of the unaffected signal, which comes in handy because I also use it a lot as a DAW insert -- on everything from vocals to drums.
While my working setup pales in comparison to some here, within my circle of musician friends I feel like friggin' Imelda Marcos. I used to harbor a bit of guilt with the number of effects I use, but because I've stuck with essentially the same chain for so long, I'm extremely comfortable at the helm. My music isn't really anything like his, but Tom Morello was (and remains) a huge influence on me with regard to sticking to a setup and working within it.
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Last edited by avj on Mon Jan 03, 2011 10:30 pm, edited 1 time in total.
This is an excellent topic - sorry I missed it first time around, but yay for threadromancy!
I don't use effects because I like an extreme purity of tone. The ones that I've occasionally used have mostly been transparent: EHX Humdebugger or a Boss CS-2. I like some utilitarian things, and I think if I were a touring pro I would probably have a board with a strobe tuner, Hum filter, compressor, and EQ. I feel like I lose some warmth whenever there's anything between the guitar and amp, though.
A lot of modern guitar playing reminds me of the book Brave New World, when they mention that the Regulators won't approve any new sport unless it requires more equipment than an already existing sport. I worry that effects take people further away from the basic elements of melody, harmony, and rhythm and push them into focusing too much on timbre. That being said, My Bloody Valentine made some excellent music that couldn't have worked as well without the effects. Radiohead, too.
I like an acoustic or an electric with a small, clean amp. But my music is meant to be almost confrontationally airy, simple, and old-fashioned. I'm just not terribly interested in hearing effects.
I don't use effects because I like an extreme purity of tone. The ones that I've occasionally used have mostly been transparent: EHX Humdebugger or a Boss CS-2. I like some utilitarian things, and I think if I were a touring pro I would probably have a board with a strobe tuner, Hum filter, compressor, and EQ. I feel like I lose some warmth whenever there's anything between the guitar and amp, though.
A lot of modern guitar playing reminds me of the book Brave New World, when they mention that the Regulators won't approve any new sport unless it requires more equipment than an already existing sport. I worry that effects take people further away from the basic elements of melody, harmony, and rhythm and push them into focusing too much on timbre. That being said, My Bloody Valentine made some excellent music that couldn't have worked as well without the effects. Radiohead, too.
I like an acoustic or an electric with a small, clean amp. But my music is meant to be almost confrontationally airy, simple, and old-fashioned. I'm just not terribly interested in hearing effects.
While I completely understand (and once partially subscribed to) this ideology, when stated this way it sort of implies that it's not possible -- or even deplorable -- to write a song without focusing on the fundamentals of song structure. I think I'm most inspired by and have written a lot of material based on an interesting guitar tone. This doesn't necessarily mean I had twenty effects going, but maybe I just happened to be playing in the bathroom with a thicker-than-usual pick or something, and I was playing and hearing things in a way that differed from the norm.Will wrote:I worry that effects take people further away from the basic elements of melody, harmony, and rhythm and push them into focusing too much on timbre.
Taking it to the ridiculous hypothetical extreme, should we then compose music using only sine waves of specific frequencies at pre-defined intervals so as not to introduce any timbral elements?
Of course not. But I'm sure absolutely everyone here has at some point or another sat through really boring "effect" music. There's certainly nothing wrong with clicking on an effect or two and, if I made different music, I'm sure I would. My only problem is when an effect become the music's raison d'etre.avj wrote:While I completely understand (and once partially subscribed to) this ideology, when stated this way it sort of implies that it's not possible -- or even deplorable -- to write a song without focusing on the fundamentals of song structure. I think I'm most inspired by and have written a lot of material based on an interesting guitar tone. This doesn't necessarily mean I had twenty effects going, but maybe I just happened to be playing in the bathroom with a thicker-than-usual pick or something, and I was playing and hearing things in a way that differed from the norm.Will wrote:I worry that effects take people further away from the basic elements of melody, harmony, and rhythm and push them into focusing too much on timbre.
Taking it to the ridiculous hypothetical extreme, should we then compose music using only sine waves of specific frequencies at pre-defined intervals so as not to introduce any timbral elements?
This is the anti-commercial radical in me speaking, so take this lightly: when music is based around a given, specific effect, that's a lot less like music and more like commodity fetishism. It becomes more of a demonstration of what one owns versus what one can create, in my opinion. But I wouldn't play a shitty guitar or avoid adding digital reverb to a recording, so I don't take it to an extreme. Some degree of "stuff" is needed at minimum to make certain types of music.
And every sound has a timbre, even if it's a pure sine wave. Once you introduced harmony, even in pure sine waves, you would then have a new timbre based on the harmonic interaction.
I can say that I feel my music works better without any effects. And I can say that I think most effected guitar parts would sound better less effected (distorted, delayed, verbed, doubled, etc). But I'm a curmudgeon. Right now I'm trying to make Absolute music, and that, for me, means getting away from effected sounds.
Will wrote:I worry that effects take people further away from the basic elements of melody, harmony, and rhythm and push them into focusing too much on timbre.
You've got some solid points here, and I've been thinking about this off and on all day (and am also intrigued by the idea of Absolute music), but there's something to be said about the persuit and showcase of timbre... it is JUST as definitive in music as melody, harmony and rhythm. While those fundamentals are incredibly important, so is timbre; it's one of the facets of music/sound our brains are evolved to process in parallel with rhythm and melody (harmony being implicit in both timbre and melody) and is part of why we appreciate sounds and music at all.Will wrote:I can say that I feel my music works better without any effects. And I can say that I think most effected guitar parts would sound better less effected (distorted, delayed, verbed, doubled, etc). But I'm a curmudgeon. Right now I'm trying to make Absolute music, and that, for me, means getting away from effected sounds.
Unlike melody and rhythm, timbre is actually able to emotionally move a listener with a single note. An A# is just an A#, but depending on what instrument it's played on or voice it's sung, it can have little or great emotional impact, entirely due to timbre. Variations in timbre alone within the context of a melody can have huge impacts on one's perception and interpretation of that melody. Timbre is a powerful tool in a musician/composer's arsenal, and it should be used.
I know you aren't decrying the value of timbre at all, but, I've just been thinking about timbre a fair bit recently due to some books I'm reading and putting them into the context of the "quest for tone" that many guitarists are in
Your take is yours, and you're entitled to it... I even agree with your statements (ie. less is generally more), but I just felt like running my mouth for a second 
Donate to Ankhanu Pressekwatts wrote:That's American cinema, that is. Fucking sparkles.
I also don't use them all the same time, trying to limit it to two. I carry already either the Twin Reverb or the Ampeg + Reverb Tank, so I don't want a full board in addition. And I'm not playing modern music anyway, so ...
What I frenquently use atm is either:
- Danophobe Mini Overdrive: Dirty booster and much more presence, not really usable for much gain, but good for little gain or
- Behringer VM999: My allrounder. Can dirt-boost, overdrive, distort and also fuzz a little or
- Fredric Effects Harmonic Percolator: Can do fat fuzzy stuff. also usable as a dirty booster, when gain is turned back.
I combine that with either:
- MbM Saltbooster: It obviously makes things louder (solo party usually). In recording situations I also use it to attack the tubes of an amp, but not on stage. too difficult to change the sound when your pedal is driven that loud.
- old japanese analog delay (I rarely use it, but sometimes it's nice)
Besides of that, my main amps both have built in tremolo, and I need reverb. I have a Fender reverb unit, sadly it's not small at all ... The Twin has both, so it can stay home when I use this.
What I frenquently use atm is either:
- Danophobe Mini Overdrive: Dirty booster and much more presence, not really usable for much gain, but good for little gain or
- Behringer VM999: My allrounder. Can dirt-boost, overdrive, distort and also fuzz a little or
- Fredric Effects Harmonic Percolator: Can do fat fuzzy stuff. also usable as a dirty booster, when gain is turned back.
I combine that with either:
- MbM Saltbooster: It obviously makes things louder (solo party usually). In recording situations I also use it to attack the tubes of an amp, but not on stage. too difficult to change the sound when your pedal is driven that loud.
- old japanese analog delay (I rarely use it, but sometimes it's nice)
Besides of that, my main amps both have built in tremolo, and I need reverb. I have a Fender reverb unit, sadly it's not small at all ... The Twin has both, so it can stay home when I use this.
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deathofdreams
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i dont mean to make this a boss advert or anything, but i think my ocd makes me want pedals all the same size. i started with boss pedals and have always like them.
my set up goes like this: boss tuner tu-2 -> boss digital reverb rv-5 -> boss digital delay dd-3 -> boss super overdrive sd-1 -> boss blues driver bd-2 -> boss distortion ds-1 -> boss tremelo tr-2 -> behringer slow motion sm200 -> boss flanger bf-3 -> boss volume pedal -> 1979 musicman rp210
effects are all about what you want to accomplish. the one thing i often think though, is if we are all using the same boxes, working within the parameters, how unique can we really be? which brings me back to the player, its all about what you do with it. were all just trying to make sound and there are plenty of ways to go about it.
my set up goes like this: boss tuner tu-2 -> boss digital reverb rv-5 -> boss digital delay dd-3 -> boss super overdrive sd-1 -> boss blues driver bd-2 -> boss distortion ds-1 -> boss tremelo tr-2 -> behringer slow motion sm200 -> boss flanger bf-3 -> boss volume pedal -> 1979 musicman rp210
effects are all about what you want to accomplish. the one thing i often think though, is if we are all using the same boxes, working within the parameters, how unique can we really be? which brings me back to the player, its all about what you do with it. were all just trying to make sound and there are plenty of ways to go about it.
My setup's very simple.
Guitar (Squier Pro-tone Strat for Single-coil tones, Vista Jag for humbuckery times) >>>
my new MBM Custom Green Muff for my fuzz/overdrive and it's got the Saltbooster on it too if I want a cleanish boost or different kinda overdrive >>>
EHX Flanger Hoax for my weird tones/Chorus/Flanger/Phaser >>>
Boss DS-2 on Turbo setting for solo boosts >>>
Tiny Terror + Orange 1x12 cab (the PPC112).
I can't ever really see me needing anything else
I got the JohnnyShredfreak power supply based on Shortscalers recommendations and it is great value for money. Cheers for the help on that one folks.
Perhaps I'll get a Wah at some point down the road, and I'll maybe get a Fender amp of some sort if I want some cleaner sounds (Bassman seems the obvious choice). I'm really happy with what I have though.
Guitar (Squier Pro-tone Strat for Single-coil tones, Vista Jag for humbuckery times) >>>
my new MBM Custom Green Muff for my fuzz/overdrive and it's got the Saltbooster on it too if I want a cleanish boost or different kinda overdrive >>>
EHX Flanger Hoax for my weird tones/Chorus/Flanger/Phaser >>>
Boss DS-2 on Turbo setting for solo boosts >>>
Tiny Terror + Orange 1x12 cab (the PPC112).
I can't ever really see me needing anything else
I got the JohnnyShredfreak power supply based on Shortscalers recommendations and it is great value for money. Cheers for the help on that one folks.Perhaps I'll get a Wah at some point down the road, and I'll maybe get a Fender amp of some sort if I want some cleaner sounds (Bassman seems the obvious choice). I'm really happy with what I have though.
PLEASE!!!... Tell Me About the Fuckin' Golf Shoes!
All my effects are in little square / rectangular boxes which I link together with little guitar leads I call patch cables, then I switch the effect on or off as I require using the foot switches on top of the effect box...
Tuner > Maxx chorus (which is almost always on)> danelectro cool cat drive (for a bit of dirt)> Boss HM-2 (for more extreme distortion)> danelectro cool cat tremolo> Boss dd-3 (for short delays)> Ema analogue delay (for longer more Pad like delay).
I sometimes swap the tremolo for a GLX Fl-100 flanger depending on the songs in our set
Tuner > Maxx chorus (which is almost always on)> danelectro cool cat drive (for a bit of dirt)> Boss HM-2 (for more extreme distortion)> danelectro cool cat tremolo> Boss dd-3 (for short delays)> Ema analogue delay (for longer more Pad like delay).
I sometimes swap the tremolo for a GLX Fl-100 flanger depending on the songs in our set
XY
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gaybear
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i've never had a huge collection, or made much use of pedals, though for some strange reason i've been called a pedal whore or shoegazer.
anyhoo,
currently i use
clean/dirty/combo that's built in to my amp
some times a delay (behringer) that i love, but use on about one song per band.
and well, that's it for now.
oh, i use amp reverb. depending on the part.
anyhoo,
currently i use
clean/dirty/combo that's built in to my amp
some times a delay (behringer) that i love, but use on about one song per band.
and well, that's it for now.
oh, i use amp reverb. depending on the part.
plopswagon wrote: Drunk and disorderly conduct is the cradle of democracy.
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timhulio
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I've got an MXR Micro Amp clone that I leave on all the time. Makes stuff a bit more responsive. A harmonic percolator set halfway up is a crunchy distortion for a few songs, and the Behringer Verbzilla is used on one song for fake spring reverb. Haven't found a use for the Schaller tremolo yet, but it sounds cool so I leave it on the board just in case.
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organicgav
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My set up for Bass
Fulltone Bass Driver> EH Big Muff > Tech 21 Sansamp Bass Driver DI > Ashdown Octave Pedal > Volume Pedal > Boss DD7 Delay
I play a Fender Reggie Hamilton J-Bass as well as a Mexican J-Bass i got 8 years ago. Stuck a Gotoh bridge on it and it sounds amazing.
I run it all through an Ampeg SVT 450H head with an Ampeg 4X10 and Ashdown 1X15.
I tend to leave the Sansamp on all the time to beef up my tone a little as i find the tone from the head can be a little dead sometimes. It does wonders when using the Big Muff as it keeps the bottom end punching through without it sounding too top end.
Fulltone Bass Driver> EH Big Muff > Tech 21 Sansamp Bass Driver DI > Ashdown Octave Pedal > Volume Pedal > Boss DD7 Delay
I play a Fender Reggie Hamilton J-Bass as well as a Mexican J-Bass i got 8 years ago. Stuck a Gotoh bridge on it and it sounds amazing.
I run it all through an Ampeg SVT 450H head with an Ampeg 4X10 and Ashdown 1X15.
I tend to leave the Sansamp on all the time to beef up my tone a little as i find the tone from the head can be a little dead sometimes. It does wonders when using the Big Muff as it keeps the bottom end punching through without it sounding too top end.