Sort of newbie question

[mjareo]

I am not a complete newbie, but I am new to playing electric and getting the most out of it sound-wise.

I run my guitar(s) through a Boss ME-30 for effects and so on. I often go straight into the PA through it because I usually play in a church and the stage gets too noisy if I am mic'ing my amp. Not idea, but oh well. My question is this:

I would like to get the best sounds possible, and I love my guitar's clean tone, but when I want to use effects (disortion or otherwise) I am sort of at a loss for what they all really do, and how the combinations will affect each other. Now the obvious answer is "Play them and find out" and I do that, but I am also wondering if there is a good resource or two (books or internet - it makes no difference) that I can use alongside of playing and finding out. Duh - nothing is ever going to replace experimentation, but the more educated my experimentation, the better (or so it would seem to me).

Any thoughts?

[Easto]

I would just say keep asking questions here. Describe the chain of effects and how you're using them and we can go from there. You may want to try them in this starting order... Compression, Distortion, EQ....

Again, there are a few things that you shouldn't do but they're not written in stone. Let us know what your doing now.

[mjareo]

Pretty much at the moment, all I am using is:

Acoustic - compressor, EQ, chorus, reverb
Electric - compressor, "vintage" distortion setting, eq, noise suppressor, reverb
Electric - compressor, light noise suppression, EQ, reverb

I believe that is correct, but I need to go look at it again (I'm at work, so I'm not sure).

[edit] I am also starting to think (after having read some more information about compression pedals today) that using that on my acoustic is unnecessary, and perhaps even bad.

I have just started to use the compressor/sustain effect (in the last week) and it seems to add some nice tone and sustain, but one of my concerns is that I am perhaps chaining too much together, or overpowering the effect of one effect with another.

I hope this isn't sounding like too stupid of a question, but beyond reberb and a bit of chorus, I'm in (personally) uncharted territory. =)

Thanks!

[mjareo]

A tack-on question:

Multi-effects vs. chained pedals?

Currently, I can't afford to get all the different pedals my multieffect processor gives me, but is that something I want to do eventually?

[apl]

You might wanna check Boss's website. Sometimes they'll have patches that are supposed to sound like a certain guitarist or certain songs. Those can be helpful starting points for developing your own tones.

[Dave_M]

Originally Posted by mjareo

A tack-on question:

Multi-effects vs. chained pedals?

Currently, I can't afford to get all the different pedals my multieffect processor gives me, but is that something I want to do eventually?

I have both, single effects (such as a Crybaby wah, an MXR analog delay, an MXR compressor) and multi effects units like a GT-3 and an ME-50. The GT-3 works great in "line" mode for recording but I don't like it in "combo" mode live, which is why I got the ME-50. Since I don't often need all the capabilities of the ME-50 and I have tube amps with clean and lead channels, I usually take the single effects pedals to jams. That way I can choose to use only a wah or add in the delay and compressor as needed.

[mjareo]

Originally Posted by apl

You might wanna check Boss's website. Sometimes they'll have patches that are supposed to sound like a certain guitarist or certain songs. Those can be helpful starting points for developing your own tones.

Tried there with little luck.

About all I have been able to find for suggestions is tonedepot.com, which is nice. I suppose what I really need to do is find sounds I like listening to, then find out what kinds of effects (if any) they use to acheive it. And of course, I understand not all equipment or players are going to achieve the same sounds - I am not expecting to sound like <fill in the blank>, just to have a decent place to start from in exploring what I truly want.

[dragonworks]

Originally Posted by mjareo

A tack-on question:

Multi-effects vs. chained pedals?

Currently, I can't afford to get all the different pedals my multieffect processor gives me, but is that something I want to do eventually?

I have found that playing live and using multi effects pedals can be a real pain in the ass. You just can't lean down in the middle of a song and tweak a volume, distortion, gain, an output, and input, eq, or anything else. I finally gave up all my multi pedals for this reason and am replacing only what I use with high end chained pedals.
A real pain in the ass when you have the pedal set at home then take it out and you are playing live at a louder volume and the damn thing starts squealing like a pig. Or you hit the wrong button. Every room is different and eqs and things need to be set on the fly sometimes and you just can't do it with multi effects.

[mjareo]

That is a really good point - and well taken, too, as I had that happen only a week or two ago.

[dragonworks]

Originally Posted by mjareo

That is a really good point - and well taken, too, as I had that happen only a week or two ago.

I have been playing live for 40 years. I finally went out and bought a top of the line lexicon GR something or other guitar processor to replace my art EC command center. Things go for 1400. Still all the same problems. Got rid of it.
I haven't found one yet to be as versatile as individual high end pedals. Plus, who needs all that junk anyway. They have their place in the studio, but I don't care for them live at all. Just my 2 cents worth. I know there are those who will disagree with me.

[79_Les_Paul]

Multi effect units are nice but one of the biggest problems is most of the factory sounds are out of control....you hit the delay and it goes on forever or the reverb sounds like a bottomless pit.

a friend of mine recently bought a Vox Tonelab? i think it's called... about 600 bucks. it's got alot of decent sounds but not very user friendly.

I actually own a DOD G7....a real simplistic rack unit that has some good distortion with clean, reverb, compressor, chorus and gates....

they can be had on Ebay for less than 100 dollars. I have a midi control pedal with mine so i can change programs without turning the big black knob...lol

another problem with multi effect units was described above, you can't really tweak them on the fly....and what sounds great when your by yourself, rarely works well when the rest of the band is playing along.

[gibsonguy09]

[QUOTE=79_Les_Paul]Multi effect units are nice but one of the biggest problems is most of the factory sounds are out of control....you hit the delay and it goes on forever or the reverb sounds like a bottomless pit.

My multi-effects pedal has nice soudn for 175 dollars. I have reverb control and all of that good stuff on it so i have control over my beast!
-peace Eric

[Dani Pace]

One of the easiest to use, user friendly multi effects pedals that I've found is the DOD FX7, 30 easy to set memories in sets of three. The flange and phase shift are a little noisy but otherwise a pretty good pedal. I've been using one for several years both on and off stage.

[Bahrain_Phill]

For years I always used individual stomp boxes etc...Always wanting more I decided to get a multieffect pedal. I got the Toneworks AX1500G. I now would have to agree that the multieffect concept isn't very good. I suppose when working with in a budget it will work in a pinch. But all in all, I like the cost (individul effects cost a TON) but I dislike the amount of control I have over my tone.
If you are looking for a specific tone, try describing the tone and see how people would suggest you achieve it. Or go to www.guitargeek.com where they have block diagrams of hundreds of different guitarist and bassist's rigs. You may get some ideas from browsing their archive. Just some thoughts.

[mjareo]

Yeah - since I started this question, I found guitar geek and I am getting an idea of what folks use to achieve their sound.

As to the chained vs. multieffects, I think I definitely want to do multiple pedals, but it was hard to pass up the ME-30 for $80 on ebay (including shipping). It works for the interim, I guess!

[astoebe]

Originally Posted by dragonworks

They have their place in the studio, but I don't care for them live at all. Just my 2 cents worth. I know there are those who will disagree with me.

I agree with you....

[andydeedpoll]

hhmm... i'm the only person in my band who uses individual effects. everyone else has either a cheap multieffects pedal or just uses their amp settings.

they really don't understand why i'm so happy to spend so much more on individual boxes... i love the fact you can have them spread out all over the floor in front of you ... if you suddenly decide "hey, i want a little swell using the wah..." you just hit it, and wallwah ( )! it's there. any changes you want to make, its so easy - its just sat there with its little dial. plus, when you're testing out the effect you want for a song, you can kinda compensate one thing with another - so if you're using phaser and distortion at the same time, you can change the settings on both at the same time, and see what mixture of both sounds best.

personally, all that freedom over your sound is brilliant. but i do like using lots of effects, and its rare for me to not have some sort of effect change in a song. mmm.... distortion and wah, or phaser, or flanger sounds ace if you're other guitarist is playing the same riff an octave lower with heavier distortion.

Andy