What pedals/effects do you use?

Happy Thursday--

I took my first step into effects pedals today and got myself a boss chorus ensemble and a (dunlop) MXR carbon copy analog delay pedal. I've had a digitex rpx400 processor/interphase that I use for a recording device, and that has a ton of effects built into it, but I imagine that quality pedals would have a better sound. Its' got a lot of presets that make me sound like Incubus and bands that I've never heard of, but I play mostly classic-rock-based stuff. I'm looking for the basic effects that mostly 'flavor' the sound as opposed to 'shaping' it. Also, how much of a difference wil I hear between analog and digital devices? I've got a Fender Tele and Fender Hot Rod Custom tube amp, and I hope to soon be acquiring a '60's Starfire 3 or 5.
Any suggestions would be great, even for a chorus or delay pedal (I've got 30 days to return).

Thanks for input--Happy May Day!

gilligan

I don't play with effects much, but I have a Dunlop Rotovibe (chorus/vibrato), a wah, a couple of distortion pedals.
The Dod Deathmetal distortion pedal is the biggest tone sucker that I have.(It was a gift! ) It really loads down the signal whenever you are plugged into it.

I had built a "Tube Sound Fuzz" from the Craig Anderton book and that was a really nice od. My buddy has a Tubescreamer that also is a great pedal, although not quite in the same league with his EH Hot Tubes od. He's also a big Pod fan, although he hasn't had a good amp to record with until now.

For chorus, I've never found a pedal that can beat the Electro Harmonics (EH) Small Clone,
the ones made in New York, not the Russian ones. I tried many others, but in my opinion, the Small Stone is the best chorus sound ever ... even for acoustic guitar.

I don't use any distortion pedals; only my tube amp distortion.

I like the Digitech Turboflange for a flanger ... lots of flanging variety and options for crazy sounds too.

Used to not use pedals much, but lots of recent experimentation resulted in the following set-up:

Burriss Boostier (clean boost) into Xotic RC Booster (mostly clean boost) into Catinbread Semaphore (trem) into Hughes and Kettner Replex (delay) into VanAmps Sole Mate (spring reverb).

Most of my amps are non-reverb, ergo the Sole Mate. Except for tremelo, everything is always on ... any necessary overdrive comes from the amp, with guitar volume acting as the solo boost pedal.

MD

The setup I used to use all the time was way before the appearance of boutique pedal makers, so this is a really antiquated mix by today's standards. Geezer alert!

Most of the time I used only a Morley Volume Wah, a Boss OC-2 Octave pedal, and a Digitech PDS-1002 digital delay pedal--a real dinosaur. On certain occasions I used my original Lexicon JamMan with a memory upgrade to get the full 32 seconds of delay and looping. Now, of course, you can get hours of delays and storable multi-tracks in a little footpedal. But back in the day, this rack unit was killer. For overdrive (outside of my amp's) I used the classic Chandler Tube Driver for big ole fat tube distortion with a great EQ section for really varied qualities. Lastly I sometimes used my Electro Harmonix Deluxe Electric Mistress Flanger.

All I can say is that I'm overwhelmed at what's available nowadays. Too much too much! I could just spend years with one of the multieffects pedals one can buy for $200--really crazy. And modeling electronics choosing different amps and speaker setups? Even if it doesn't sound as good as the real thing, I'm sure one can get some good tweaked sounds. Kinda like finding the best fake banana flavored candy--ya know it's not real, but maybe sometimes it's still good.

I'm curious to try out some of the newer stuff when I get a chance. 8)

I don't use a lot of effects, but I do use reverb, tremolo, echo, and vibrato, and I usually have some kind of clean boost with me to give the amp that extra little push for a couple of songs or solos.

I've recently switched to a non-reverb, non-trem amp, so I'm planning to get a reverb tank that has tremolo built in, I'll probably end up with the weber kit version of this. ("weber torevibe")

Otherwise, I usually take a Fulltone univibe with me, an EH Lpb-1 clean booster, and a BYOC Delay. (to be replaced with something analog as soon as I find something I like and can afford).

I also have an overdrive/booster pedal that I take on gigs where I have to get on a plane and can't take an amp : I often get stuck with promotor-provided twin reverbs and they're way too loud to get some natural amp overdrive.

Finding an overdrive pedal that leaves a hollowbody's low end intact is harder than you'd think, but I recently found a Prescription Electronics "dual tone" pedal secondhand, and it works great.
I've used it with a twin reissue already, and it helps to get me closer to the sound and feel of a 40 Watt Fender that's working hard, at volume levels that don't take my head off.

Mad Dog..+ 1 on the Sole Mate. It's a tremendous pedal. Great reverb.

I also have a Keeley Compressor that I have on most all the time.

And for OD I have a Subdecay Liquid Sunshine.

Yo Walter! Did you see this one?

One of the guys from the Maggie/Valco group made a vibrato/reverb tank!

Default said:

Yo Walter! Did you see this one?
One of the guys from the Maggie/Valco group made a vibrato/reverb tank!

Click to expand...

Default,
That is cool! :shock:

Haha! You know, I've been looking at that auction a couple of times already, I did see it!

As promising as it looks, I have vibrato in pedal form (probably nowhere near as nice as authentic Magnatone/varistor vibrato, but it does work), and I do love that choppy, blackface Fender type Tremolo, preferably "post-reverb", like in a Fender combo amp.

So what I'd ideally want is a tube-driven spring reverb with a trem circuit after it, which is what the Weber Torevibe kit looks like to me. And if I can dream out loud, I'd have it all in one box - with a switch that toggles between blackface tremolo and magnatone vibrato.... :lol:

But I would bid on this Ebay one if I could afford the "extra luxury", it does look very interesting.

This one is a combo of an Ampeg reverb circuit and a Magnatone 260 vibrato circuit. The guy had NOS varisitors that he used for the tank, because modern ones don't work in the classic Maggie.
That's going to make my clone a bit more difficult, because I'm going to have to experiment with components. :?

Do you have any idea whether this is a one-off, or whether the guy is building more?

The more I look at the auction text, the more confused I am by that "mix" knob, simple separate vibrato intensity and reverb intensity controls would have made more sense to me.....am I missing something?

He built it, basically to see if he could. He has a small supply of varisitors that work in the circuit, and he said he was going to build some more.

I'd love to get my hands on that stand-along reverb/vibrato, see what it can do. From the builder's notes in process, it sounds like all modern varistors he tried were not effective in one way or other. For the moment, he has to rely on a small stock of NOS varistors. So he will make more of these units, but how many more??

There is a workable pedal alternative -- the Austone Vibrostomp. It's true pitch shift vibrato on one side, fender BF style trem on the other. I had one of these for a while. The trem portion was not to my taste, but the vibrato section surely was. Excellent sound. Ultimately I ended up selling it ... the appeal of that vibrato (at least for me) is due in no small measure to the amps themselves. I found I would use the magnatone if I wanted to hear that vibrato. It just wasn't the same with the V-Stomp through other amps. If I didn't have a 260, I'd still own the pedal.

whoa, Mad Dog, just looked around online for that pedal you mention - that's a $400 pedal! I'm sure it's great, but I'll stick with the vibrato side of my uni-vibe clone for a while I think.

I use a very good sounding Koch Twintone amp + Koch Cabinet.
I play over the clean channel and for effects I use :
Barber Direct Drive SS ( Which I use now and then ) with the drive knob at minimum to get a real nice, just over the edge sound.
Keeley Compressor ( 4 knob ) that I have on all the time.
Barber LTD used as a clean boost.
I love the combination of those pedals with my Koch amp. The setup gives me a real satisfying sound. And mostly I get real good comments after a gig about the sound.

Here's what I currently have in my signal chain:

-Z. Vex Super Duper
-EH Little Big Muff
-EH Micro POG (Poly Octave Generator)
-Digitech Whammy WH-1 (the original Whammy)
-Moogerfooger ring modulator
-Boss Loop Station RS-2 (the new small-sized one)
-Ernie Ball volume pedal

Horuss, any thoughts/impressions on that POG?

I've been using a Boss DS-1 for almost a decade. It's super reliable and good for what I do. I like a super-saturated distortion that still lets the Guild's natural tone breathe. I've also been known to throw in an EH small clone, a Sovtek Big Muff (tank green), an EH holy grail reverb, a Dunlop Rotovibe, a Dunlop High Gain volume pedal, and a Boss PN-2 Tremolo/Stereo Pan. The PN-2 sounds super sweet to run the Muff and the DS-1 along side each other or oscillating in a dual input amp.

Default said:

Horuss, any thoughts/impressions on that POG?

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Mine is the newer Micro version, which is limited compared to the original POG. I personally am willing to sacrifice some of the features/sounds for a much smaller sized pedal.

The sound is definitely 'digital' (not much warmth) but it does a really nice 12-string and organ effect. Though I prefer the WH-1 Whammy and the (analog) Foxrox Octron for single note octave-up and octave-down, nothing compares to the POG for tracking.