Need suggestions on effects stomp boxes

B

bornmad

New member
I was looking for a suggestion on effects stomp boxes, if anyone has any opinions.

I would appreciate it if anyone could tell me what they think the best brand of stomp box for each effect below is.

1. Chorus

2. Tremolo

3. Reverb

4. Wah

5. Delay

6. Flanger

I know Boss is considered a good solid brand for stomp boxes, but I was wondering what everyone thought.

Thanks for your help.
 
Boss CE-5 Chorus Ensemble. It allows you to control the amount of the effect, so it can be used in a subtle way if you like. It can also sound rich and full, and it sounds great on synths as well.

The Line 6 DL4 Delay Modeler is a versatile delay unit. It's more money than the average stompbox but it also has a loop sampler, analog delays, and other effects. True bypass switching and 16 presets make it a good choice for playing live. Definitely check this one out.
 
For a wah, off course, Jim Dunlop... What else?

(Depends on what you want actually. There's Morley and things too. Compare them and see what you need...)

Why would you want a reverb?? On most guitar-amps you have a reverb. If you need allround effects, you should look into multi-effx units... What will you use the effects for?
 
Depends on your budget, style and taste but with the latter two aside I would say most deffinatley:

Vox wah
Boss DD-5 delay

(generally speaking, the more you spend initially on good effects the less you'll waste in the long run (eg having to upgrade and then upgrade again etc)).

You have to try them out yourself. it also helps to have someone with you if you are intending on buying them if you are not experienced in this area.
 
Id stay away from any boss effects or multieffects units......really just toys...go with old school analog stomp boxes.....check out the deluxe harmonix memory man for great delay
 
this as well-harmonix memory man for great delay, forgot about them. The edge of U2 used two of these on stage in the early days (early 80's) and even put his piano through one. The boss DD's are more modern (16 bit-DD5).

I also second the staying away from multi effects units. They generally have a few patches out of the whole lot that are only half descent.
 
Bornmad,
This topic is SOOOO subjective, it really depends on your tastes, playing style, and objective. I have probably spent as much on effects through the years as I have on guitars, so I'll give it a shot.

Chorus : the older Boss units (far from toys, look at all the pro pedalboards with Boss stuff) like the CE-1 offer a thick, very EFFECTED chorus tone. Other cool pedals include the Danelectro CoolCat and the old DynoMyPiano. Far and away the best, IMHO is the TC Electronics Stereo Chorus/Flanger, but this puppy is MUCHO dinero. I have one which I got for a tremendous deal, but I would definitely pay full boat for another one if it needed to be replaced.

Tremolo : Amplifier trem (think Fender) sounds the best, but of course outboard units are more versatile for live playing (trem into delay...really cool). The Diaz Tremodillo is pretty neat, as is the Tremulator, the Voodoo Lab isn't bad, neither is the Boss. I have a rack-mount Peavey Valverb (probably their coolest piece of gear), that covers this category and the next as well.

Reverb : Why would you want a reverb pedal? Well maybe you play live on stages of questionable stability with drummers whose hairy knuckles drag on the floor and the spring reverb in your amp sounds like Godzilla is right outside the club. Or maybe you just want the different sounds offered by digital 'verbs. That having been said, I use amp verb and an outboard (see above) for my Bassman which has no 'verb. I haven't tried the Boss or Digitech floor units, but I'm sure they're not too bad for guitar use.

Wah : The newer Dunlop wah's are a different inductor and a different circuit from the older ones, which I think are copies of the older Crybaby circuit. The newer ones seem to have a sharper "notch" to the filter which I don't like, but once again its a matter of taste. The original Vox or the new Fulltone are very good, but a lot of people really like those big '70's bell-bottom Morleys.

Delay : Really depends what you want to do with the unit. Do you want a clean delay to play repeated figures or do you want a more tape delay Echoplex-y sound. For the former, the Boss DD pedals or the older Digitech Multiplays will deliver. For the latter, the Danelectro Danecho, the Korg Dynamic echo and the Akai Headrush are digital units which aim to simulate tape delay and sound pretty good. The Memory man pedals are also very cool, albeit clunky, units.

Flange : See chorus for my personal favorite flanger, which is a very clean unit. But if you want jet-like flanging, the Boss works pretty well. A friend of mine had an old Austin flanger, though, that sounded as if you were being sucked into a giant space vortex, or maybe that was the Dos Gusanos?

After typing all this, I have to pause and say that my views (and everyone else's opinions, as well) are really all just a giant load of crap when it comes to a topic as personal and variable as this. They are all valid for each of us in turn, but you really need to get out and try stuff out, then take it home and try it some more (buy from someone with a good return policy if you can). I've gotten some really good sounds out of a Zoom 509 modulator pedal, but tons of people bash Zoom gear as being universally turd-like. People praise the Ibanez Ts-808 overdrive, but I've used one and its just not worth the "vintage" price for me to buy it. I'm not saying it wasn't GOOD, though. So I could have saved myself a lot of typing and said "try for yourself", but I like talking about this stuff almost as much as I like playing through it, so here we are.

I WILL say, at the risk of being flambeed, that nothing really sucks, there's a use and purpose for everything that sits under my hyperactive toes or on my never dusty pedal shelf.

peace.
 
Guys, I just wanted to say thanks for all of your opinions.

I have heard good things about the memory man as well, and I know that this is a subject that can get a million different.

I do want to say that I own a POD Line 6, and I love all of the other effects on it, and they are basically what I use in recording.

I was just curious to see what pedals people would suggest in case I wanted more versatility in an effect.

However, I am not 100% pleased with the reverb on the Pod LIne 6.

Not necessarily for its sound, but because it leaves me with little options in tweaking or differen types of reverb.

I use reverb a lot in my playing, and delay, and chorus as well, but a good reverb unit is what I am looking for.

Sometihng that is really versatile, and tweakable.

I assume a memory man deluxe is what I should think about.

Would anyone else second this?
 
For the cost of all those pedals you could get a studio quality multi FX processor, It'll sound better and be MUCH more flexible than a bunch of pedals. For just a little more money you could get a cheap Lexicon and never again have to look elsewhere for Reverb, Delay, Chorus etc. The only problem that you would have is that you would either need to run it in your amps FX loop or you would still need to use the POD as a Distortion generator/Front end to bring the guitar signal up to line level.
 
The Memeory man will knock your socks off with tone. It's not ultra flaxable as far a delay time and such, but if you want a nice effect, it will surly please. THe Line 6 is amazing too, but those two are in different categories.

Tremolo. Unless you HAVE to have some tube driven tremolo, you are ABSOLUTLY wasting your money unless you get the Danelectro Tuna Melt. The thing just flat out beats the VoodoLabs trem, makes the Boss look like a Joke. Plus it's like $30. GET Two! I went and tried every brand out there. For me it was between a Gyatone Flip (tube) trem and the Danny. I could have gone either way really, I liked them both, but the price got me. I'm going to add another Tuna Melt soon, keep one on "hard" the other on "soft" - hell maybe I'll get three. I'd still like to have the Flip. I do like tremolo. I used to have a Mesa Tremoverb- that was a nice sounding trem, but it only at a few settings. For high gain trem sounds- that thing was Killer! But really overall I like the danny even better than that! The other Danny mini-effects haven't impressed me too much but get that Tuna Melt (or two) and you'll be trem happy for a while.

For a nice cheap Chorus, Check out the Arion Chorus. Cheap Plastic box, like $30, but I've seen it in many pro's rigs (Right next to Boss Chorus's) I'm with bornmad. THe TC Electronic Stereo Chorus/ Flanger is killer but, yes it's very expensive. Wish I had one!

I like the vox wahs and the cry-baby's. I have three crybaby's. One sort of works. They get scratchy. I like the tone so i just deal with it.

I like DOD flangers and envelope filters. Kind of edgy but cool.

-jhe
 
James,
You haven't tried replacing the scratchy pots in those Wah's? Last time I checked (admittedly quite a while ago) they were like 10 or 12 bucks. I think the name was HotPotz or something cheesy like that. Actually a little on the expensive side for what they are, its not like they are mil-spec Clarostats or anything, but way better than putting up with all that scritchy-scratchy stuff.

The DOD Envelope filter is pretty sick, switch that one on and raise Johnny Wadd from the dead. Long live the porno-pedal.

I guess I'll have to check out this tuna-melt thingie, sounds like a pretty killer deal. I really should just build one myself, but it would probably cost about twenty bucks in parts anyway and I should really spend more time on writing and recording.

peace.
 
I'd have to agree reverb is a studio effect, at least for guitars; I've never found the need to use one playing live.
 
effedupstrat said:


I guess I'll have to check out this tuna-melt thingie, sounds like a pretty killer deal. I really should just build one myself, but it would probably cost about twenty bucks in parts anyway and I should really spend more time on writing and recording.

peace.
Click to expand...

Let me tell you a little story about building pedals. My friend liked my old Big Muff. it's a real old one, it dosen't have the regular "Big muff" on black logo. The print is smaller, the pie is smaller and it has the Electro Harmonix square face dude in the corner. I'd love to date that thing but I haven't done the research. Anyways. My friend decides to build one. Gets a circut board, all the right pots and transistors and stuff, even got some old stock capacitors. All in all the parts were like $95! I paid $100 for the vintage Muff. Grated the thing is in horrible shape, barely works, but it's a cool vintage muff! He builds the thing and it sort of sounded like a big muff, but didn't have half the gain. Finally he scraped the project cuz he coudn't get what he wanted. So he's minus $95 and a lot of time and frustration for nothing.

Ok the plot is even thicker. Some history. When I got the Muff. It didn't work. I did some soldering, and got it going. That thing was a bastard still though. It still had a short, had to kick it and hope it would stay on. The bypass switch was screwed too. My friend borrowed it to work on his copy and offered to take a look at it, redo my crappy soldering job, and bybass the bypass switch if possible. he calles me and says "I'd like to replace the wire for the power in this thing, i think it will cut down on the noise" (Damn that thing was so noisy!) I gave him the OK. I had already messed with it enough so I was sure he wouldn't do further damage, the ground from the battery was what was causing the short anyway. He replaces the wire and the battey clip. The noise floor drops dramitically, no short, horrah! But it just DOSENT SOUND THE SAME. :( I heard it and told him to put the old wiring back in. But... a few days later... "uhhh.. I can't find it... I must have threw it away"
Doh!

I owed him some money so I told him he just bought my big muff and to forget about it. We agreed. But damn I kinda felt sorry for him, basically paid for two Vintage muffs and didn't really get one! :D
The modified Muff still sounds pretty cool though. It's a bit smoother, but donsen't have the air that it once had. He tore apart the one he built, and use some of the parts for a pedal he never finished. Some of his stuff was starting to sound good. I wish he haden't given up on building pedals.

my story dosen't have too much to do with this thread but... anyway...

I haven't replaced the pots in my wah's. I'm just lazy. I have one with an octave fuzz that is really cool that I should definitly fix. The pot is stuck on one notch, which is kind cool actually. The one that I use isn't so bad. I rotated the throw in such a way that it's all the way to the bottom of the sweep, and the scratch is right near the top, so it really only scratches when I click it on, which I don't do cuz I switch it on in a loop (with my MXR Blue Box :D)

For envelope type effects check out the Electro Harmonix Bassballs. That thing is like an envelope filter turned inside out!

I saw that Mars has the Tuna Melt for $19. I think i may get another and check out the other mini effects more closely. I haven't tried some of them, maybe there's another gem in the bunch!

(sorry guys for such a long post :) )

-jhe
 
James,
I've been into electronics and effects building for years, plus my father was a repair tech and a pack-rat, so I have access to lots of cool parts. The last things I built were a talk-box and an octave distortion. The real cost outlay is in the time it takes to build and test this stuff, time which I don't really have enough of as it is. Of course the homebuilt stuff attracts a lot of attention from other players when I play out, but then maybe its just that I've got so much crap spread out in front of me on the floor that people can't believe I cart it all around or that I actually USE it all.

I think my Big Muff is a little newer than that one, but its still noisy as hell.

I have a Blue Box too. I think we're a rare breed.

peace.
 
im a die hard boss fan so im going to recomend boss down the board. except the wah -cry baby of course. but speaking of jim dunlop, the roto vibe is cool for tremolo effects. im thinking of getting one, but im still not gonna get rid of my old green boss
 
Here's some for you:

Unlinke most of the people here I am not very fond of Morley or Dunlop wah pedals.

My choise was and will/would be the George Dennis Optical wah pedal. Great sound, great control with one minor drawback: the rotary knobs (which I never touched again once I'd set them) are kinda cheapish.

Second: For acoustics, I recently tried the boss ad-3 (larger brother: ad-5 but that's not really a stomp box)

The AD-3 is a combined chorus / reverb / anti feedback unit that sounded GREAT with my ovation celebrity deluxe straight into the board.

I hope I've helped some. Whatever I and anyone else say here, it's really your own ears that'll eventually be the judge.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top