Effects questions. EH holy stain? Line 6 M series?

mickie08 · Post by **mickie08** » Wed Mar 23, 2011 5:06 pm

OK, so I have been out giggin like a madman a bit lately but up to this point acousitc (even wihen with a band). I got a couple shows coming up where I need to go full electric and need to rebuild an electric rig. Ignore the amp for right now as I am going to be borrowing a Mesa Boogie subway rocket. Guitarwise I have a new Squier jazzy on the way as well as a CV tele.

I have no pedals anymore at all. I know short term, the mesa will cover dirt, but long term I am going to be buying a fender style map more than likely (maybe a bugera bc30.. though..not really sure.) ANyway, I do not want to count on the amp dirt.

So, Are the m9/m13's really worth it. Ic an get an m9 for 349 new. My issue is how easy are they to adjust ont he fly. And I have to admit I have never once plugged into a multi effects pedal so it has to be pretty intuitive. I have no problem messing aorund with it at home, but my issue is how hard are they to adjust while playing/in between songs? I do prefer individual pedals but cost wise and for the variety of stuff you get, one of the line 6 boards (or even the boss ones) might make more sense (especiall doing primarily covers where I may want a particular sound for just like 1 song....)

Also, if I go the individual pedal route, what are the thoughts on the holy stain. I like the idea of having Tremolo, Reverb, and an added dirt option and I can get a new one for about 100 USD so it seems a no brainer (which makes me think there are issues with it or something...)

Also, reasonable options for (non behringer just due to the leads tending to pop out of them) dirt (think OCD type overdrive), delay, and tremolo if not the holy stain.

I'd love to do more MBM but I need these by the 8th so that is out and budget is definitley an issue so dwarfcraft is out.

benecol · Post by **benecol** » Wed Mar 23, 2011 5:19 pm

M13 (not what you mentioned, but what I have) is a piece of cake to adjust on the fly, plus you can easily have presets for each song/section/style. Holy Stain is a lemon.

mickie08 · Post by **mickie08** » Wed Mar 23, 2011 5:24 pm

benecol wrote:M13 (not what you mentioned, but what I have) is a piece of cake to adjust on the fly, plus you can easily have presets for each song/section/style. Holy Stain is a lemon.

Thanks. I thought I had heard some bad things about it but could not remember.

So would you go for the m13 over one of the new HD ones with the expresson pedal already built in?

ac88 · Post by **ac88** » Wed Mar 23, 2011 5:26 pm

I have a holy stain. The reverb is pretty standard, nothing too exciting. The dirt settings are kind of 'all or nothing' and aren't very tweakable. If you're playing anything but lead with the dirt it is going to be mud city. The trem is kind of muddy, and the pitchshift is useless.

That being said, it has found a niche in our practice room as a reverb for vocals. The dirty setting with the verb can get some cool lead sounds out of a keyboard as well.

ac88 · Post by **ac88** » Wed Mar 23, 2011 5:29 pm

Just curious, as someone who has logged a fair amount of posts on a guitar forum and seems generally knowledgeable about gear, why don't you have any gear kicking around? Not even one electric huh?

Nick · Post by **Nick** » Wed Mar 23, 2011 5:30 pm

I had a holy stain....it was pretty lame. The pitch shift only goes from -4 to +3 IIRC and the tremolo is always on in this mode for some reason. The reverbs were generic, as was the overdrive and fuzz. It's one of those pedals that does too many things, and not enough of them good enough. Of course if you're playing the right guitar through the right amp, as with any pedal, it might just be exactly what you're looking for. Just sayin try before you buy.

mickie08 · Post by **mickie08** » Wed Mar 23, 2011 5:30 pm

I'll pass on i then. It seemed a way to get several things I would not use very often in one pedal. I do not generally use reverb or tremolo much, but they are nice ot have every once in awhile and an added dirt never hurts but if it is muddy then no point.

I generally dislike multieffects but am leaning towards that. Plus, I may be getting into the local casinos and alot of them require you to go direct (no amps)... Especially Pala Casino and Pechanga Casino by me. Their mainstages are full on, but their bar stages have electric drum kits and all instruments have to go direct so their sound guys have full control of your levels with no stage amps allowed.. Weird, but it is what it is and they pay well if we can get in there. If have a feeling the direct out on the line 6 stuff will be much better than running a direct box off of a pedal board.

mickie08 · Post by **mickie08** » Wed Mar 23, 2011 5:35 pm

ac88 wrote:Just curious, as someone who has logged a fair amount of posts on a guitar forum and seems generally knowledgeable about gear, why don't you have any gear kicking around? Not even one electric huh?

Long story short....

2 1/2 years ago bought a house.... same week lehman bros collapsed
2 loan programs fell though due to the changing market..
Had to sell all my gear except an acoustic an 1 elecric guitar to make the deal go through (this was 2 drum kits, 4 or 5 electrics, 2 acoustics, a bass, congas, small PA (100 watt head and 2 speakers) and large PA (8000 watt with 4 15's, 2 18's and 4 12" monitors.)
fast forward 6 months later...starting to rebuild gear.
Fell and tore all 4 ligaments in my lft knee.
2 surgeries and 18 months later I am just no able to stand for long enough periods to really get back out and play.
In the meantime I had picked up some gear here and there, but have to keep selling it as numerous things happened that cost alot of moeny I didn;t have due to not working becuase of injury...
Mortgage company folded and about 16K inescrow funds were missing...
House flooded with about 60K in damages (insurance covered most of it but there were alot of littel things it did not, etc..

Anyway, I would start to get back to where I had some gear and shit and then something else would happen. things are a bit mroe stable now...

Live journal post over.

benecol · Post by **benecol** » Wed Mar 23, 2011 5:38 pm

mickie08 wrote:So would you go for the m13 over one of the new HD ones with the expresson pedal already built in?

Eh? Not seen them. But yes. Expression pedals are tuppence-ha'penny. Plus you can use two with the M13.

mickie08 · Post by **mickie08** » Wed Mar 23, 2011 5:40 pm

http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/PODHD500/

http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/PODHD300/

Mages · Post by **Mages** » Wed Mar 23, 2011 5:44 pm

yeah those are PODs. they're amp sims. the M13 is a multieffects unit. they are both cool, it just depends what you want. if you have an amp you like already it would make sense to get the M13. those HD PODs are really cool though, but they are more if you want something to plug directly into a PA or power amp.

mickie08 · Post by **mickie08** » Wed Mar 23, 2011 5:50 pm

Mages wrote:yeah those are PODs. they're amp sims. the M13 is a multieffects unit. they are both cool, it just depends what you want.

Thats the thing. I do not know. I have never used a multi effects pedal and that is why I am asking here. I want something that has alot of options (which to me is the only point of these), and that will sound OK if I need to run it direct into a PA without an amp. In ways that makes it sound like the hd500 pod would be the best bet since it has the amp sims as well. But again I don't really know. Hell, I am thinking of getting one of those little pedal amps or getting like a sansamp and using that as my direct out and going with a normal pedalboard as that is what I am comforatble with, but it will cost a fortune to set that up.

Mages · Post by **Mages** » Wed Mar 23, 2011 5:55 pm

yeah, those new HD PODs are really cool. I think it will sound more than ok plugged into a PA (as long as the PA doesn't suck, and the sound guy knows what he's doing). you could also build a rig with the HD POD and a power amp and your own speaker cab. it could be a guitar cab or not, the POD has cabinet modeling you can turn on or off.

ekwatts · Post by **ekwatts** » Wed Mar 23, 2011 6:05 pm

The Holy Stain is a really good pedal. When I decided to do a clean sweep and restart my pedalboard from scratch that's what I began with.

After a while I started using it for the distortion section as the fuzz and distortion sounds were really fucking nice. It was the revelation of using the volume knob to regulate the amount of distortion that really cracked it for me. And then I fell in love with the trem, which is also a really, really nice trem. There's not a whole lot of control over the actual effects which is what fuelled my initial hatred of it. But after a while it didn't bother me at all. I started to love the way they sounded. It doesn't do much, and the things it does do aren't the most versatile, but all of the effects (apart from the utterly useless pitchshift function) sound so nice that it doesn't bother me at all.

plaidbeer · Post by **plaidbeer** » Thu Mar 24, 2011 1:24 am

I have a Magicstomp that I like for reverb and modulation (it does dirt, too, but I'm not fond of the presets). I no longer use my phaser pedal and rarely use my flanger and chorus pedals because the Magicstomp does those effects well. From what I've read, it's basically all of Yamaha's SPX-series effects in one pedal. You can use the three knobs to tweak basic parameters. If you have a PC or pre-OS X Mac, you can use Yamaha's free editing software to further tweak and save your own programs (has a USB port). You can also download other people's programs from the Magicstomp site or from the Yahoo Magicstomp groups.

Got mine for $85 at a shop in Fayetteville, AR. They've long been discontinued, but I usually see them for $100-$125. Check the used sections of GC, Rogue Music, Starving Musician, etc.

Some of the examples here are sort of cheesy in the first two vids (in a cock rock way), but you get the general idea as to the range of sounds. Third demo is his "shoegaze/ambient" demo:
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Mages · Post by **Mages** » Thu Mar 24, 2011 3:08 am

oh yeah, another multi effects unit to look into is the ZOOM G2

it has a hi sample rate modeling engine and features effects, amp sims and cabinet modeling. also there's the G2nu:

which has a USB connection for recording to the computer and uploading patches and stuff. you can connect an expression pedal or there is also a version that has the expression pedal built in. people were talking about the rumored line 6 M5 but fuck that, this is same thing, already on the market and probably cheaper.

ekwatts · Post by **ekwatts** » Thu Mar 24, 2011 1:06 pm

I had one of those Zooms for ages and it really is a great little machine.

mickie08 · Post by **mickie08** » Thu Mar 24, 2011 4:03 pm

I thinkI ma either going to go with the Boss me50 or the Line 6 floor pod. Both are 199 (though the boss has a $30 rebate). Both have the volume/wah option which I would like a volume pedal. Both seem to a bit of everything and seem function fairly easy. Also, with their cost not to obad, I can still go about my business of building real pedal board back up slowly.