Minimalist/Exhibitionist?

thecookman · Post by **thecookman** » Tue Feb 28, 2012 12:22 am

Mike is a poster/moderator here

Of this I am aware. It's how I ended up on here. A friend had him make one and I enquired about a build too. Followed my nose here. They're great pedals.

I am just intrigued as to peoples use of pedals/reasons etc as I only own 4 pedals and only use 3 of them for gigs but with just those 3 I've been able to get any and every sound I have wanted. Admittedly my creative reach is small I just like to know how people get their 'sound'. A lot of alchemy seems to go on and tone hounds spend years and thousands of pounds to get their sound or, by extension, someone else's sound. I always liked Graham Coxon's philosophy: "Let's see what happens if I grab the guitar up here and stamp on this pedal"

taylornutt · Post by **taylornutt** » Tue Feb 28, 2012 1:32 am

I have always enjoyed my big pedal board and then I started a gig where I had to bring my guitar , pedalboard and amp. My big board worked great, but this gig made the big board difficult even in the rolling hard case to manage. So I grabbed a Pedaltrain mini and tried to capture the essential sounds from the big board in a lighter rig. So now I have two boards and I can use either depending on the situation. Why choose when you can have both.

Small board

Big Board (I have a couple of MBM pedals on here as well)

h8mtv · Post by **h8mtv** » Tue Feb 28, 2012 2:26 am

I make pedals. I have around a hundred in my personal. I have like 5 on my board, one being a 3 way splitter. I don't really "get" huge boards either, but I sure am glad some folks have them.

Nick · Post by **Nick** » Tue Feb 28, 2012 3:46 am

vierphoria wrote:I've never understood people who prefer less versatility over more versatility.

That makes it sound like you probably listen to Muse.

I walked down that road long enough. Had a two of everything pedalboard plus a Roland GR33 midi setup. And I still only had two feet, I was playing the pedals more than anything. Fuck I used to work in a music store selling pedals all day, and explaining to customers why one is better than the other, or why their board was missing something they needed.

Well guess what, I don't need a fucking Wah Wah pedal because they make EVERYTHING sound worse. Same goes for a phaser, flanger, etc. It all colors the fucking sound of my guitar, which is supposed to sound like a guitar. It doesn't need to sound like an airplane, or a spaceship, or Don't even get me started on fucking envelope filters they all sound like garbled up nonsense and non musical. Delay pedals are great if used tastefully, but they're usually not, so fuck them too.

I have versatility. A pedal for dirt, and the spring reverb and tremolo in my Fender Twin. Oh and a tuner for keeping shit in tune, but I imagine if you get enough spaceship pedals you probably don't even need one of those anymore.

I've never understood condescending gear snobs

honeyiscool · Post by **honeyiscool** » Tue Feb 28, 2012 4:48 am

I like effects that work with the sound of a guitar, rather than against it. I love tremolo, I think tremolo about a very human quality about it. Chorus and reverb definitely help out. Fuzz, octaver, wah, you can really work these things in interesting ways, too, though it gets harder and harder. For me, it ends at effects like phaser or flanger. They basically sound like you turned on an effect and no longer are particularly musical or interesting because the first few songs you ever really liked with flanger on (Dennis and Lois by Happy Mondays, Girls and Boys by Blur, for me) are probably the only songs you thought it was well used. If it actually made a guitar sound like an airplane, it'd be nice, but largely it makes it sound like you bought a flanger.

Sloan · Post by **Sloan** » Tue Feb 28, 2012 5:18 am

I don't have a need for much effects for what I'm doing. I keep a tuner and a wah in the chain.

Jaded · Post by **Jaded** » Tue Feb 28, 2012 6:05 am

The mention of Kevin Shields always makes me think do i really need a huge pedal board? The isn't anything tour was like two Marshall Guv'nors a rack reverb and one or two other boss pedals (like a PN-2 and a PQ-4 or something?) and it's the album i prefer.

I've got 10 in my setup at the moment. Wah, tuner, 2 dirts, aw-2, ce-5, ps-2, memory toy, digiverb, amp footswitch. I don't think it's excessive as i use them quite a bit and they're all relatively different.

Though ideally i would like to end up with more sounds/versatility with fewer pedals, like replacing the memory toy and ce-5 with a ps-3; i'd still have two delays but it's detune mode can cop some nice chorus type sounds. The only reason i have a reverb pedal is for Gated reverb.

Fran · Post by **Fran** » Tue Feb 28, 2012 6:24 am

Nick wrote:
vierphoria wrote:I've never understood people who prefer less versatility over more versatility.
That makes it sound like you probably listen to Muse.

I walked down that road long enough. Had a two of everything pedalboard plus a Roland GR33 midi setup. And I still only had two feet, I was playing the pedals more than anything. Fuck I used to work in a music store selling pedals all day, and explaining to customers why one is better than the other, or why their board was missing something they needed.

Well guess what, I don't need a fucking Wah Wah pedal because they make EVERYTHING sound worse. Same goes for a phaser, flanger, etc. It all colors the fucking sound of my guitar, which is supposed to sound like a guitar. It doesn't need to sound like an airplane, or a spaceship, or Don't even get me started on fucking envelope filters they all sound like garbled up nonsense and non musical. Delay pedals are great if used tastefully, but they're usually not, so fuck them too.

I have versatility. A pedal for dirt, and the spring reverb and tremolo in my Fender Twin. Oh and a tuner for keeping shit in tune, but I imagine if you get enough spaceship pedals you probably don't even need one of those anymore.

No plans to fit a chaos pad into the Ovation then Nick?

Well put but quite brutal, i feel like that about gear overload some days.

One other thing, i've found what works well at home at low volume usually sounds like shit at rehearsal. Also, when you get a useless sound man playing live it can be a challenge to hear you are in tune without loads of modulation and repeats, and there is nothing worse than that guitar player that steps on his tuner pedal after every song.

Thom · Post by **Thom** » Tue Feb 28, 2012 9:04 am

thecookman wrote:Thom: A). Good to see a lefty guitarist actually playing left handed B). What's the Behringer Slow Motion do? (I'm sure I could hazard a guess going by the name...)

Cheers, there are quite a few lefties on here

The Slow Motion is a clone of the Boss SG-1 Slow Gear, it's basically a volume swell pedal. Bit of a one trick pony, but good fun.
From the Boss site:
"The SG-1 Slow Gear effect sounded like a guitar player riding the volume knob of his or her guitar. This produced a cool swelling sound with a gradual attack, almost like a violin."

Simon · Post by **Simon** » Tue Feb 28, 2012 9:27 am

Depends on the music you play. My board is predominantly made up of Delay, Drive/Dirt and Reverb. I've got 3 delay pedals on my board at the moment and while I realise it may be seen as a tad excessive, I still enjoy having the option there. I very rarely use more than one at a time as it makes everything sound muddy as fuck, but they all serve an individual purpose. Same goes for drive/dirt pedals. When my band were still actively gigging/writing/practicing etc. I used to use a different combination of pedals for every song we played, I enjoyed having that option but I can totally see the flipside of it where you just have one sound and stick to it.

I had a practice with a couple of mates the other day and I just took my Tele and reverb pedal with me and I enjoyed the freedom to just leave the reverb on and concentrate more on actually playing/writing guitar parts.

Also, fuck phaser/flange/chorus pedals. They sounds crap.

UlricvonCatalyst · Post by **UlricvonCatalyst** » Tue Feb 28, 2012 9:34 am

honeyiscool wrote:I like effects that work with the sound of a guitar, rather than against it. I love tremolo, I think tremolo about a very human quality about it. Chorus and reverb definitely help out. Fuzz, octaver, wah, you can really work these things in interesting ways, too, though it gets harder and harder. For me, it ends at effects like phaser or flanger. They basically sound like you turned on an effect and no longer are particularly musical or interesting because the first few songs you ever really liked with flanger on (Dennis and Lois by Happy Mondays, Girls and Boys by Blur, for me) are probably the only songs you thought it was well used. If it actually made a guitar sound like an airplane, it'd be nice, but largely it makes it sound like you bought a flanger.

For me, the key to using flangers, phasers and vibratos is subtlety. When flanger was part of my sound (playing bass in the mid-80s) I basically used it as an ersatz chorus pedal in all but one song. When I got into playing with phasers recently I found that a slow, shallow sweep can sound great. Vibrato sounds shit if it's a heavily detuned rapid wobble, but can sound really nice if you minimise the depth control and keep the speed conservative.

I agree that modulation FX are gimmicky, but if you use them sparingly they can add some nice textures to your sound without always veering into Leslie cabinet/jet plane/spaceship territory.

vierphoria · Post by **vierphoria** » Tue Feb 28, 2012 10:26 am

Nick wrote: I've never understood condescending gear snobs

I'm not condescending, and I'm certainly not a snob.

And I don't listen to Muse. But I do listen to MBV.

johnnyseven · Post by **johnnyseven** » Tue Feb 28, 2012 11:25 am

UlricvonCatalyst wrote:
honeyiscool wrote:I like effects that work with the sound of a guitar, rather than against it. I love tremolo, I think tremolo about a very human quality about it. Chorus and reverb definitely help out. Fuzz, octaver, wah, you can really work these things in interesting ways, too, though it gets harder and harder. For me, it ends at effects like phaser or flanger. They basically sound like you turned on an effect and no longer are particularly musical or interesting because the first few songs you ever really liked with flanger on (Dennis and Lois by Happy Mondays, Girls and Boys by Blur, for me) are probably the only songs you thought it was well used. If it actually made a guitar sound like an airplane, it'd be nice, but largely it makes it sound like you bought a flanger.
For me, the key to using flangers, phasers and vibratos is subtlety. When flanger was part of my sound (playing bass in the mid-80s) I basically used it as an ersatz chorus pedal in all but one song. When I got into playing with phasers recently I found that a slow, shallow sweep can sound great. Vibrato sounds shit if it's a heavily detuned rapid wobble, but can sound really nice if you minimise the depth control and keep the speed conservative.

I agree that modulation FX are gimmicky, but if you use them sparingly they can add some nice textures to your sound without always veering into Leslie cabinet/jet plane/spaceship territory.

A good flanger can be really versatile and sound great, where would John McGeoch have been without his?

wwrrss · Post by **wwrrss** » Tue Feb 28, 2012 12:05 pm

All depends on the band, I do some gigs with just a 1 dirt pedal and some with 2 amps, 2 chains with about 5 dirt in each for pure horribleness. I find it annoying when I see people with boards full of unused pedals though, just leave them at home.

Nick · Post by **Nick** » Tue Feb 28, 2012 1:03 pm

vierphoria wrote:
Nick wrote: I've never understood condescending gear snobs
I'm not condescending, and I'm certainly not a snob.

And I don't listen to Muse. But I do listen to MBV.

Not understanding why someone might have a different preference than you makes you a snob.

Guess that also makes me a snob.

vierphoria · Post by **vierphoria** » Tue Feb 28, 2012 1:56 pm

Nick wrote:
Not understanding why someone might have a different preference than you makes you a snob.

Guess that also makes me a snob.

Not necessarily.

I only meant to say that if you have LOADS and LOADS of stuff, you're probably bound to be experimenting and finally achieve a sound that is entirely yours. That's at least what I'm going for. I'm not content with a rig that will sound like an clean electric guitar; I want to create wide landscapes and interesting textures. That's probably a result of listening too much to everything remotely related to MBV. I don't know.

I really admire the Joshua Hayward sound. He uses A LOT of effects, but he uses all of them, or so he claims.

louis · Post by **louis** » Tue Feb 28, 2012 2:42 pm

I used to just use an over drive and a distortion pedal back in the day, but with my current band I'm making a lot more noise/atmospherics so needed a bit more to work with. The only one on my board that I could probably do without is the tremolo.

Noise reducer (jaggy so noisy)
\/
Fuzz
\/
Distortion
\/
Overdrive
\/
Tremolo
\/
Volume pedal
\/
Whammy pedal
\/
Delay
Output----Bypass
\/------------\/
Reverb
\/----> AMP 2
Looper
\/
AMP 1

Post by **Mike** » Tue Feb 28, 2012 3:50 pm

I have my days when I only use an Overdrive pedal (or two) and a Clean amp sound, but then I have others when I throw a Delay, Chorus, Tremolo and now I have my EHX Deluxe Electric Mistress clone, a Flanger into the mix.

It's all dependent upon how I feel but I know I'll always be happy enough with just the one or two pedals at my feet. It's fun to have the others though. I've had aircraft carrier boards and I've used no pedals.

Post by **Hurb** » Tue Feb 28, 2012 4:09 pm

I don't care about this thread but was happy to see Mikes name at the end of it!

Yay Mike

thecookman · Post by **thecookman** » Tue Feb 28, 2012 6:15 pm

Heh. Thanks Hurb.

'Yay Mike' indeed.

Lotta hate for them Modulation pedals I see.