What pedals/effects do you use?

Pedals come and go but at this time...

Dano Auto Wah
Digitech Bad Monkey
MXR Dyna Comp
A/B Box (Not Really a Pedal)

I have a Fender Deluxe 90 Amp with some effects (Chorus,Chorus,Flange) that I noodle with occassionally.

Dropped my buddy's Hot Tubes off tonight and I left him with a goofy grin on his face. Good sounding overdrive!

I have major gas for a POG, now that I've seen the demo for it.

Walter: Right you are on the crazy price. I did not buy my Vstomp new, got it used for 240 bucks I think. And it was too much even then. (I was in the grip of Magnatone-induced, temporary insanity ...) Given the way stupid pricing of many interesting pedals, buying new is not ideal. Lots of buy to try going on, so if you hang out at places like TGP emporiums, there are deals to be had.

By contrast, think I paid 100 bucks for the used Catalinbread Semaphore trem pedal. Given how good that one sounds, feels like a bargain to me.

I have a Dunlop wah I tried 2 or 3 times - certainly not for this geezer with knee arthritis. I have a fuzz/distortion combo (forget the brand) which I plug in once or twice a year. I'm with Walter - the trem/reverb pedal that comes with my Fender Vibrolux Custom. Nice thing with that amp is it accentuates that natural distortion without add-ons by controlling the volume.

Great thread!

My Pedalboard goes as such-

A/B/Y box. B channel goes direct to a tweed princeton. A goes into...

BYOC Wah
Zvex Fuzz Factory
(Big Muff clone coming here soon)
Ernie Ball Pan/Volume Pedal - Channel B goes to a VanAmps Sole-Mate Reverb out to a '64 Princeton (Brownface guts, onboard tremolo is great). A goes into...

EH Deluxe Memory Man. Dry channel goes into Tweed Princeton, Vibrato/Chorus/Delay channel goes into '64 Princeton.

So there you go. One amp handles the dry stuff, the other handles the wet. For the clip below, just the modulated delay from the DMM and the Sole-Mate Reverb are both going into the '64 Princeton, the pic in the clip shows the pedalboard (and my dog, w/bone!)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mpSpCF8iiIA

I posted that up in the Misc section, but I figure this is a good place to explain the whole layout. Starfire II Special running the duties!

Edit- oh yeah, the reason why I don't have an overdrive pedal is because I use the amp's natural overdrive via the Weber Mass 150 Attenuator. Crank the tube amp to 10, but it's at listening volumes, brilliant! Here's a clip of it that way, just the Starfire to '64 Princeton using the attenuator:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=_jgcyrM3z9c

Thanks for posting that, Jahn. I have no idea what most the effects pedals mentioned here do. It's like trying to describe a painting to a blind guy. Hearing them demonstrated makes a big difference.

Not to be a thread veer; just a quick sidebar. I worked with a blind keyboard player for a few years. The most frustrated I ever saw him was when he tried to communicate with a deaf girl.

Thanks for all the input--that's a lot of info to get me started doing some research. I guess I entered an entirely new world.
By the way, is there a site or good book anywhere that explains basics such as order of pedals in the signal chain, etc.?

gilligan

You may need to scroll down a bit but there is a good basic setup or at least a good starting point:

http://www.robertkeeley.com/faq.php#Effect%20Order

I set mine up : Boss TU-2 >MXR Dyna Comp>Bluse Driver W/Keely Mod >Aphex Acoustic Xciter> Dan Echo> out to a Fender Twin Reverb.

Guildmark said:

Thanks for posting that, Jahn. I have no idea what most the effects pedals mentioned here do. It's like trying to describe a painting to a blind guy. Hearing them demonstrated makes a big difference.

Click to expand...

There are lots and lots of video/audio demos of pedals on Youtube. Some are professionally produced by the company that makes the pedals, and some...aren't.

Do a search by name of the pedal and there's bound to be something.

When playing live, my hollow Guild goes into a Boss TU2 tuner, than into a Barber LTD, ZVex Box of Rock and finally into either my Echoplex tape echo or Boss DD20 delay before hitting a Fender Princeton Or Super with reverb and trem. I use the Zvex only for boosting, not distortion (the Guilds protest fiercely against it !). When recording I like to use nothing but the amps natural distortions. I have been caught experementing with a Electro Harmonix phaser, to emulate that seventies country sound (think Waylon, George Jones, ... ). Don't use that against me ! :lol:

I sold a few things off last fall and I play straight into the amp almost exclusively these days.

But I've got a few fun noisemakers for when I need them. Right now my board is sporting a Vox V847 Wah, a Beavis Audio Trotsky Drive, and an Electro-Harmonix Memory Man Deluxe.



I tend to keep the wah out of the chain unless it's presence is absolutely needed because it kills a lot of the high end and I haven't gotten around to changing it over to true bypass.

The Trotsky is a nice low gain OD type based off an overdrive circuit found in Electra guitars in the 70's. It has a nice color to it and can go from a subtle hairy boost up to a really different kind of low gain fuzz type sound. And its bright red.

I don't need to say much about the Memory Man other than I absolutely love it. I was lucky enough to pick it up as my first delay pedal and I haven't looked back.

So right now it's pretty basic, but I've been planning to add a couple more pieces later this year. Namely another Fuzz pedal (Barber Trifecta), a looper (Boss RC-2), a tuner (Korg Dt-10 or Pitchblack), and Bad Monkey. After that I think I should be more than set for effects.

I was in a funky effects-laden mood today so i took out the protestin' screamin' for mercy '65 Starfire II and unleashed some low signal humbucking fury on a 50's/60's effect (tube bias driven amp tremolo on the '65 Vibro Champ), a 70's/80's effect (Flanger from an ADA TFX4 analog rackmount) and a 90's/00's effect (digital Octo setting on a Line 6 Verbzilla). The result? Something that doesn't sound like a Guild:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wz3F6N6hPdU&fmt=18

Enjoy!

Iv'e been using the Boss RC-2 loop station to record pieces for duets. I haven't fully utilize this pedal though.
My Boss DS-1 distortion and Cry Baby Wah-Wah pedal have been collecting dust because I decided to play clean a year ago - I'm really enjoying it too. Hence, my Stratocatser has been collecting dust as well (not really, I keep it in it's case). I haven't been using the built-in distortion on my Marshal Valvstate VS-100. It has a pedal for switching the two distortions. However, it has a phenomenally clean sound and the reverb work great with my X-500. While I'm on the subject of amplifiers, I have an Epiphone Valve Junior head and cabinet that I modified (Bitmo's Trio). A clean sound was almost nonexistent with humbuckers but sounded great with the Strat's single coil pickups. I was hoping that the modification would tame the amp for a cleaner sound but I'm not satisfied. There is still too much crunch on the high end.

If you'll allow me to digress, I fancy playing jazz at some point - I haven't given up on blues or flatpicking though. I have Mickey Bakers two volumes on jazz guitar (yes, I know it's quite outdated). I have studied the first part of volume one and managed the chord progressions he has outlined. Simultaneously, I have been studying Mel Bay's Complete Guitar Method (that's when I use the loop station). It's been giving me a good foundation in sight reading and allows me to play pieces that dictates a clean sound.

Thanks for allowing me to share.

Alex

Pedals... We don't need no stinkin pedals!

Sorry, just had to paraphrase that line from "Treasure of the Sierra Madre", couldn't help myself.
Just a Boss pedal Tuner for me, I like the sound of my guitars straight into my Fender HotRod amp. It's got built in tube overdrive that to me sounds better than any pedal I've ever tried.

Andrew

Guild X160 Rockabilly
Guild B302-A
Guild Peregrine Custom
Gibson es-135
Gibson Les Paul Standard

I am new to the electric guitar world, but I like what an Aphex Bass Xciter does for the sound of my Gretsch. I will be experimenting with an Aphex compressor shortly. I am looking for a "Chet" sound for fingerpicking.

axiology said:

Pedals... We don't need no stinkin pedals!

Sorry, just had to paraphrase that line from "Treasure of the Sierra Madre", couldn't help myself.
Just a Boss pedal Tuner for me, I like the sound of my guitars straight into my Fender HotRod amp. It's got built in tube overdrive that to me sounds better than any pedal I've ever tried.

Andrew

Click to expand...

Heh, most days I'm with you on that! Guild to amp, with just an attenuator so a dimed tube amp won't blow the doors off. That's all tube amp overdrive in action, chewy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_jgcyrM3z9c&fmt=18

Electric rig only - acoustic setup=totally dry(!!).

I'm not exactly sure about the order, but it's loosely:

- Boss TU-2
- Boss LS-1 Line Selector (can use this for two instruments into the same amp, or one instrument into two amps, depending on the setting)
- Reverend Drivetrain II (crunch)
- Reverend Drivetrain II (solo/more crunchy)
- Boss DD3 (slapback)
- Boss DD6 (echo,echo,echo...)
- Boss CH1 (chorus)
- Ernie Ball Volume Pedal

I'm a big fan of the Drivetrain II pedals. They're the only ones I've heard that don't screw with your tone too much, and have a genuine tube-feel to them. Lots of body too.

I just made some changes to the pedalboard I use for gigs, now consisting of, in this order:

Korg DT10 tuner
Diamond Compressor
Catalinbread Hyper Pak "dirty channel" (usually considered a low gain overdrive, in a very small package)
MXR Carbon Copy analog delay
Catalinbread Semaphore tremelo (4 knobs, 2 switches, for more control than you probably need, but it sounds good and isn't as expensive as some of the other better sounding trems)

I'm probably going to switch over to George L's cables with right angle connectors so I can reclaim some board space and add one more pedal, which is a Barge Concepts FB-X Feedback/Looper pedal. Then I will put everything after the compressor into the loop and control the dry/loop mix with an expression pedal.
I'm not a heavy delay user by any means, but I really like a nice analog modulation delay and the Carbon Copy is good for the money and is compact. The expression pedal will allow me to pull the delay out for the beginning and ends of phrases without a sudden cutoff or having to hit a switch at the right moment; the actual blend is more abrupt than I would like, it's not a perfect system, but it works well enough to be much better for me than hitting the delay switch all the time.

I took off most of the knobs so they won't move during transit (I use an SKB board that goes into a cordura bag and I have often had issues with knobs moving which I didn't notice until it was too late). I have a Voodoo Lab Pedal Power 2 power supply, which takes up a bunch of space on the board, but seems to be high quality (not noisy thanks to the toroidal transformer) and allowed me to ditch the wall wart I had been using. I really hate wall warts especially at gigs when I have to set up quickly and never know how many outlets will be available, how far away they will be from where I will be standing, and sometimes have requests from my slacker bandmates to use slots on my power strip, where the wall wart takes up a lot of space.

The Wife & I spent the morning down at the Farmer's Market. Band was setting up & I noticed the Guitar player had a Keeley Sticker on his Boss BD2 Blues Driver. Fella claimed it was his favorite pedal & the mod was a fine investment..

Checking on the Keeley site it's $65.00 for the mod.

I like what My BD2 does at low volumes with the Starfire thru my Silvertone 1471. I bought it on a slow day at the pawn shop for $25. , in the box, like new. Thinking on sending it in to Keeley, any opinions?

http://www.robertkeeley.com/product.php?id=14

http://instruments.shop.ebay.com/items/ ... m270.l1313

well seein' as how much they seem to go for modded, at least you can recoup your losses if you end up hating it. but since you like the original, the modded version can only be more so, right? i'd only recommend against it if you didn't like the stock pedal and thought the mod would make it into a different pedal - which it won't.