guitar pedals

Greg_L said:
opto what? I have no idea what that is. I just want something that goes tremolo-lo-lo-lo-lo-lo.
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Hell, they all do that. It's just a question of how they accomplish it. You should probably take rustman's advice, as I couldn't pick a Fender amp out of a lineup if all the other amps in the lineup were Crates. :laughings:
 
Lt. Bob said:
I'm getting rid of mine immediately!!

:D








Actually ..... I AM pretty picky about choruses. Because of how they work most of them add an out-of-tune element to the sound and I freakin' HATE that! :mad:

But some don't ....... I'm not sure why since the detuning is kinda how they work. But the ones that don't make it sound out of tune are the only ones I use.
Currently on my board is an E.H. Electric Mistress stereo chorus/flanger. It's pretty cool
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that out of tune sound is what I don't want as well, but listening to demo's it seems that if you just don't put the rate or one of them up too high then it doesn't do that but it still gives the nice sound
 
This is exactly the sort of sound I like. Listen to the difference between 40 seconds and 50 seconds. Doesn't sound out of tune at all (apart from the song he is playing doesn't exactly help that).
 
ollie99 said:
This is exactly the sort of sound I like. Listen to the difference between 40 seconds and 50 seconds. Doesn't sound out of tune at all (apart from the song he is playing doesn't exactly help that).
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Yeah, subtle chorus sounds great. The detuned effect is caused by turning both knobs up too high. There's nothing particularly special about the CE-5. Most chorus pedals can sound good if you don't overdo it.
 
Tremolo is just one of those circuits no one knows what they have, but they know if they like it. You can do 'tremolo' a number of ways, but it all starts with a LF oscillator.

  1. The overall gain goes from 'zero' to 'normal' at the rate of the oscillator. That's the Fender way.
  2. The overall gain can go slightly 'up' and 'down', around your normal volume. Again, this is based the oscillator frequency.
  3. The overall volume can go 'up' and then back to your normal volume. This one I like.
Now Fender uses an opto-coupler to alternately have the volume 'normal' or grounded out to 'zero'. That's what Boss copies, and I never understood why people have a mod to compensate for the volume loss.
One of my faves is a weird old tube amp from Hohner. It used an early FET to add a cathode bypass capacitor to a gain stage. So the volume went way up and back to normal. Cool. No one complained about a volume loss with that sucker. :thumbs up:
 
You might get two pedals and have crap, running $5000 worth of guitar through $225 worth of noise. Or you could look at the Line 6 stuff. There's the Line 6 Floor POD Multi Effects Pedal; or the Line 6 POD 2.0. When I worked in NYC, all the guitarists use them for sessions. They would walk in with a guitar and the POD and have everything they liked and everything you might request all lines up. Check them out. They're a lot higher quality than those piece of crap noise generators called pedals.

ollie99 said:
Hi guys,
haven't been on here in a while but a question came up so here I am.
It is my birthday at the end of this month and I have decided to start building my collection of guitar pedals (well actually I already have a wah). However I have a very limited knowledge on pedals so I am basically asking for any ideas to what I should get! I'm not sure what sort of pedals I want although my amp is a marshall dsl 401 so I am quite happy with the overall sound at the moment, just looking for add ons really. I think my maximum price is about £150 so I'm guessing either 1 very nice pedal or 2 just not as expensive pedals
Thanks for any help
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You'd definitely get more bang for the buck from the Floor POD. Hell, one or two regular pedals will cost at least as much.
 
I have a POD 2.0 ..... terrible sounding.
Even my VAmp sounds better.
If you're gonna go Line 6 you want to go to the XT Live at least.
 
One of the best tremolos I know is in my main studio amp Dynacord Twen II, German copy of Fender Deluxe. On the other hand, the vibrato in my Vox AC-30 doesn't sound good at all. It got little better when I changed the tube, but still...
Vox AC-30 is also very good amp with/without effects (the Edge from U2, Brian May and many more) even Brian Adams was using one live (hidden at the backstage), for the audience there were Marshall piles to look at :-)
 
I've got the pod 1 and 2 and since I have moved on to better equipment I have no use for them and I never particularly liked the sounds. Also, I don't mind getting one pedal for the price of an effects box or whatever, I'm planning on building up a collection of pedals
 
Bob is giving out some very solid advice.. I will also throw in my 2cents, and that "ain't" worth much. The first thing you need to do is listen to whatever style that you plan on playing the most, or try to find "that sound" somewhere in a recording that you are going for. You need to really be familiar with your current rig, and the sounds that you can acheive out of if also to fully realize how certain pedals will affect it (if that makes any sense) - go to Sam Ash, Guitar Center, etc. and play/demo ANY and all pedals that you may be remotely interested in. Try to pick out a setup (guitar and amp) in the store that is similar to what you own, as this will give you a more accurate idea of how those pedals will sound when you get them home. Nothing sucks worse than playing through a setup that sounds like studio magic in a store, spend a bunch of money on pedals that sound great through it, then get them home and realize that they now sound nothing like you want through your rig. Just keep doing what you are doing, research, and most importantly - listen - and again, buy the pedals that you like, everyones taste is different. I have a few different setups, depending on what I am recording or playing live - I will outline a few. I do not use many pedals at all, as I try to get most of my tone from fingers, guitar, and amp - then simply put the final "polish" on it with pedals.

For Rock - Sovtek Mig 100 Head through Marshall 2x12 Cabinet loaded with Vintage 30s - use a Les Paul and an occasional Boss DD3 Delay (set very mild), also will use a FullDrive Pedal as a Boost, not for Distortion - this setup can head the direction of a great metal distortion as well if you push it over the edge with the FullDrive

Country - Music Man RP 100 Amp with whatever guitar needed, most of the time a tele w/Brent Mason pickup configuration in it. Set the amp clean, use a mild bit of compression (from a Marshall ED1 compressor, good price point, and I compared it for an hour to a Keeley and there is not $125 difference in the two) - If I want the more "edgy tele bite", leave compression on, add a smal amount of overdrive via a Fulltone OCD (great great pedal) - also will add a touch of delay at times as well. I also use a hand built clean boost pedal a lot with country.

I also do have a chorus/delay pedal in my main board - it is a VSI H2O pedal which I am very pleased with the delay. If you are set on chorus, this is a great pedal, and can be picked up somewhat reasonable. I rarely use chorus, but when I do, I use very very little. As mentioned before, it can turn your tone to poo quickly. I only use it for some older Albert Lee type stuff, and also as said, the same result that I use it for can come from a Phase Shifter (and the RP100 has a decent one built in, so the chorus is rarely used) I use a Boss TU3 tuner which I love, and also an Ernie Ball VP Jr. Volume Pedal.

Effects are something that can really help, or really hurt your tone. To me, the compressor is sometimes misunderstood and something that you really have to develop a knack for how it will work best, or if it will work for you at all. I am a firm believer in not completely creating your sound with pedals, but enhance it with them.
Hope this adds just a little bit to this thread - we all have our opinions on what works for us - but in the end if we (and you) are happy with the results, then mission accomplished
 
I agree with JHudson (and you others). You need to know what you want, try effects and amps with your rig. And you need to know the differencies, like single coil and humbucker pickups etc. Then you start to learn to hear the subtle differencies between different setups (like od vs. fuzz, what does the compressor do etc.). Also, in many cases the order of the effects is important. Once I was in a music store and the seller said to me that I can't put octaver after distortion, well I know many people don't, but I liked it. It takes a lot of time to find out what you like, especially if you don't know what you are looking for. Many times I got the effect for a tryout from the shop, which was nice.

Good luck and happy learning!
 
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