Newbie to effects Help!

  • Thread starter Thread starter Ollie74
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Ollie74

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Hi Guys,

I just purchaced a nice digital workstation for my PC. I'm a guitar player with very limited experience using effects. All I have is a Morley Wah and at Tube Screamer for my Tech 21 Trademark 10 amp. I want to start recording soon, but first I'd like to acquire a box or two to improve my tone.

I'm interested in the Foxrox ZIM, but I feel that it may be redundant since I have the Tube Screamer. With my amp, I feel like I need an EQ (never used one before) because sometimes there's a rattle when I play on the low strings.

All I want is a nice way to get different tones to play rock, jazz, fusion, blues, and metal. I just don't know a damn thing about effects. My idea is to get a compressor pedal, maybe a ZIM, or a RAT pedal? I really don't know. There are so many products, and I don't really understand what they do. From the sound samples I've heard on the net for various pedals, it seems like many are just distortion/overdrive. Is a treble booster useful? Right now, I'm thinking about putting a Keeley compressor in between the two overdrive stages on the ZIM. But who know, I may be just as good staying with what I have and not spending the money.

I'm sorry if my questions don't make sense. I don't really know what I want other then a great tone for recording guitar. Thanks to anyone that can help.

Ollie
 
what exactly do you want to know? i have loads of effects and have,well not mastered, but gotten very accustomed to them. but yeah,what exactly do you want to know?

chris
 
Well, the problem is that I don't get a very good tone out of my amp, although it is a pretty good amp for recording. When I hit the strings, I hear a loud scuffling sound. Don't really know how to describe it. Would a compressor or equalizer even out the frequencies so that I don't hear that loud sound when the pick hits the strings hard. Also, I don't feel like I get much headroom. As for an effects pedal, would it be redundant to have a ZIM when I aready own a Tube Screamer?

I've tried to adjust the knobs on the amp, the tone and volume knobs on my guitar, with little success. The sound is most noticeable when I'm strumming chords or playing aggressively.

Thanks for any souggestions to this problem.

Ollie
 
for what it is worth, I spent piles of dough on effect in the early 90's looking for a better sound out of my guitar/amp combo.

I did not have very much luck.

I bought a couple new guitars, and that helped a bit, but not enough.

I had EMG's put in one of my strats and that only helped a little.

Then I bought an old beat up 1970's Fender Twin Reverb and suddenly all of my guitars sounded great.

I just thought I would share it because it may save you a bunch of money over time...

If you are hell bent on petals I would suggest you find a smaller guitar shop that would either allow you to bring in your rig and test their petals out, or even better a shop that will lend you petals to try out at home.

Hope this helps.

PS: don't want to make you think the Twin is the only answer, really just trying to point out that your problem may be your amp.

Jim
 
for what it is worth, I spent piles of dough on effect in the early 90's looking for a better sound out of my guitar/amp combo.

I did not have very much luck.

I bought a couple new guitars, and that helped a bit, but not enough.

I had EMG's put in one of my strats and that only helped a little.

Then I bought an old beat up 1970's Fender Twin Reverb and suddenly all of my guitars sounded great.

I just thought I would share it because it may save you a bunch of money over time...

If you are hell bent on petals I would suggest you find a smaller guitar shop that would either allow you to bring in your rig and test their petals out, or even better a shop that will lend you petals to try out at home.

Hope this helps.

PS: don't want to make you think the Twin is the only answer, really just trying to point out that your problem may be your amp.

Jim
 
From your description it sounds like your guitar isn't setup properly. You can get them setup by a guitar tech for around $30 and it will probably play better then ever.

I agree with Jdier. If you want tone then the guitar and amp are the keys. Pedals will only take you so far. Get a Fender or Marshall tube amp (not one of their digital or solid state hybrids) and you will have more tone then you know what to do with.
 
I will third the above two responses.
Get the guitar set up, preferably with heavier strings as this will fatten the tone a bit.-$30 Strats, teles, les pauls and semi-hollowbody guitars are the way to go. Trying to sound like Stevie ray on an ibanez or jackson guitar may be difficult if you catch my drift.

Buy a tube amp. You can spend anywhere from $400 to $2000 depending how far you wish to go. Be aware that you get what you pay for. If money is a bit tight, consider the Fender hot rod deluxe or a used tweed blues deluxe off ebay. You can usually grab one for around $400. DO NOT use the drive channel on the Fender, it is transistor driven, terrible sounding, and the tube screamer through the clean channel should do you fine.

Although over the years I've gotten a bit snobbish and upgraded to boutique amps, pedals, etc., I used the above setup for years and it served me well as it has countless of other good guitar players for the type of music you're interested in.
 
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