guitar (or bass, or whatever) effects

I always envied players that could concentrate on just getting a great tone," their tone" with a few overdrives the right amp, and maybe a couple guitars with one guitar tuned diff, sooooo , after having to sound like everybody else for the last 30 years by using many pedals, sometimes for 1 stupid part, along with digital drop tune pedals, all kinds of pain in the ass guitar changes , tunings, 7 string ugh to cover any music style, finally at 50 yrs old i will be playing just for for ME lol !! simple old ts9, digitech delay, cry baby wah,, big muff, dirty jcm 2000. standard tuning, rock on.....
 
I mostly am into 'flavor' overdrives. A Direct Drive for true grit through a Fender or the Carmen Ghia. An LTD SR which is kind of a lower gain version of the Direct Drive. It's not quite as versatile, but does its own thing.

I also get a lot of use out of my Zendrive clone. No idea if it sounds remotely like a Dumble, but I dig it, esp for sustainy, smooth type gain. It seems to have more sustain than any other gain pedal I've tried while keeping the actual gain down. I use this one mostly with my Fender Vibrosonic Reverb which is pretty much a Silverface Twin but with a single JBL 15" rather than two 12s. It also does gain a lot better than most Twins I've used or owned.

Two of my favorite pedals to leave on all the time (individually, of course) is the Les Lius and and a Sweet Honey clone. I'm not sure exactly what the Les Lius is supposed to do, but with the gain cranked, it kinda sounds like a Tweet Deluxe getting ready to blow up, but more in a fuzzy way than a thin, ratty way. I tend to not use it nearly that cranked. The Les Lius is more refined and less 'blow uppy' sounding, but does something similar. Maybe with a bit less mids than the Sweet Honey. Again I'm not sure exactly what it's trying to mimic. The Sweet Honey clone is pretty--- sweet. It kinda does its own thing but is in the same ballpark as the Les Lius. I tend to use it with more gain than the Les Lius. I use the Les Lius for an edge of breakup type sound and the Sweet Honey as more of an actually cranked amp kinda sound. They are both kinda earthy and chewy though I hate using those terms. I tend to use either of these with a slightly modded Peavey Classic 30. They both also work pretty well with the Vibrosonic.

Another pedal I like to use with a couple different amps is the Wampler Ecstasy Drive (now called the Euphoria, I believe) which is another Dumble-inspired pedal. To me, this one works better with single coils than HBs whereas the Zendrive seems to work equally well with either. I usually use this one almost completely without any actual gain breakup and it adds a sort of 3D effect. Makes the amp sound more spacious. It worked particularly well with the Carmen Ghia.

I have a Neunaber Wet (the mono version) that I like quite a bit but I've tried a Hall Of Fame out a couple times and have thought about getting one, or a mini version.

I have a few others around but these are the ones I would definitely consider my keepers.

Another interesting and pretty cheap pedal is the Voodoo Labs Sparkle Drive. It's kind of a Tube Screamer clone but that offers a parallel clean signal at the same time and you can balance them. It has bit of a mid hump and rolls off the bass like a TS, but the clean signal being blended is cool. A local guy uses one and leaves it on all time and uses the guitar's volume and tone to control the gain/drive always and sounds absolutely killer. Super simple rig. Tele, Fender 3x10 Tweed Bandmaster clone and the Sparkle Drive. Man he sounds good! So good!
 
I've gotta say if you're in the market for a Tube Screamer-type pedal and have the dough the Earthquaker Devices Palisades is seriously cool. It's not one of those pedals where you have to comb through every option until you find one that actually sounds good. Each setting has something going for it.

My next drive will probably be an Emerson EM-Drive or clone. I really like what I've heard of these (at least until about 3/4 of the way on the gain).

I'm also a Direct Drive fan. Seems to work a little better for me with single coils and a cleaner amp. Super tasteful pedal. Too tasteful for what I'm doing right now.

I've been thinking I need a side project that would justify a purchase of a chorus pedal. My car has a cassette deck and I broke out my old copy of this:
Those squashed, bright , squeaky clean chorused Strat sounds are so good. Just need to find someone who can sing way better than I can so I can mainly play guitar. :(
 
Here's the current state of my main board.

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Boss TU-2>Madbean Moar OD>Pigtronix Class A Boost>Maxon AD-80 (now with a working switch!)>Malekko Trem>Catalinbread Talisman

Other than bumping down the output on the trem via the trimpot inside I think it's done for a while.

I just bought a second used Nano+ and Godlyke Power-All for my "clean sounds" board. It's going to be mainly odds and ends I already have. Should be fun.
 
My "magic formula" for getting my tone, which I love and have never heard out of any other player's rig, Big Rock, Club Rock, or Bedroom Rock: '63 Stratocaster (single mod: 5-way switch) > '70s "gray box" Ross Compressor > '59 Gibson Model GA-40, i.e., The Les Paul Amp: tweed-covered variant w/ an original (single) 12" Jensen Bluebell. Nothing on this earth I've ever heard matches this rig, and I'm including SRV's Strat #1 > Ibanez TS-9 > '6? Vibroverb (brown tolex -- must be a '60-'63?)
 
I let my 6505's tone do it all, have not used effects pedals in years though I do like a Wah. The gain on my amp never hits 3, I use my volume and tone control for the pickups to add/take away grit as needed

There is an old saying, tone is in the fingers, everything else is processing
 
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I let my 6505's tone do it all, have not used effects pedals in years though I do like a Wah. The gain on my amp never hits 3, I use my volume and tone control for the pickups to add/take away grit as needed

There is an old saying, tone is in the fingers, everything else is processing

+1

All in the player. I've seen guys play a $100 POS strat clone into a $25 amp and only wish I could sound that good.

I will use a reverb pedal if my amp doesn't have it built in. If I need to be really quiet, I'll use an OD pedal, usually a Fulltone OCD.

I only own five pedals, and never use three of them.

My best tone is my Gibson ES 330 through my VOX AC15HTVH using the EF86 channel, and just a touch of reverb from an outboard pedal. Only two controls, volume and "top cut". Nothing is as fun as controlled feedback from a true hollow-body electric. Thank you, Mr. Nugent.

I still suck, but it's the best I got...

Damn, I'm going to have to dust the gear off. You guys are motivating me;)
 
I've developed more of an appreciation for power tube breakup in the last few years, so the current band setup is built around that. I've dialed the pedal gain back pretty drastically, and dropped the amp wattage. Turns out what works with an amp with lots of headroom often doesn't with one that's cranked.

I agree that it's the player, and I try not to get too into navel gazing with gear. I've seen many players live with arsenals of guitar and pedalboards that look like mission control and wonder why they bother. People are there to see a show. The visual aspect of this is part of that to be sure, but the average audience member is never going to care about all of the subtle sonic nuances the way you do.
 
Been thinking of adding a Rotovibe to my mix to give it more of that Jimi-ness to the OD. Sure wish they made a mini version. Any users have thought on this rarely mentioned (these days) pedal?
 
Been thinking of adding a Rotovibe to my mix to give it more of that Jimi-ness to the OD. Sure wish they made a mini version. Any users have thought on this rarely mentioned (these days) pedal?

I did a quick search and didn't see any mini versions. There are several on the market that have an expression pedal connection, so you could use with a mini expression pedal, but for that kind of money and real estate might as well get the real deal.
 
Secondary rig is coming along nicely. I got my PN-2 back from my friend/former bandmate who I loaned it to for something like 15 years.
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Fantastic pedal.

I'm going to swap the HOF Mini reverb out for a Boss RV-6 which I'm picking up next weekend. Really liking the spacier sounds in this box and the plate, spring, and hall are pretty decent too.
 
Agree about the PN-2. Was always a favorite along with the GE-7 and PQ-4 EQ's. The other I like is the Dimension. Can't go wrong with a Boss Verb / Delay either. Btw, if you ever come across a KMD Analog Delay check it out. Same chip as the DM2 with some interesting features. They basically look like a Boss pedal and were MIJ for Kaman / Ovation in the 80's.

I think I remember those KMD delays. Arion did a cool one too.

I had a Dimension C (DC-3) for awhile and didn't care for it. Eventually the temptation to flip it became too great
and I have no regrets. If I were in the market for a chorus right now I'd get the recent MXR Analog Chorus. Cheapish, versatile, and sounds great.

The modulated verb sound on the RV-6 is enough to stand in for a chorus for my needs though.
 
The Dimension had to be used judiciously and I only used it as a layer, not stand alone. But I know it was a very hit or miss effect. Another sleeper line were the 80's Peavy pedals in the metal cases with the big rubber "button." The delay (not shown) is killer as is the distortion, the dual-clock stereo chorus is exellent and the verb is a really great one.

Wow, the chorus has independent rate and depth for each channel and it's HOT PINK. Kind of want.
 
20429953_10209671428599008_7963405887674284249_n.jpg I've never used a pedal onstage in all my years of performing. I use a reissue 65 Super Reverb and a 70 Les Paul Custom or 79 ES349 with real 59 PAF's in it. Once in a while I bring out my 59 Bassman & 66 Fender reverb tank for special occasions. I've actually had people looking into the back of my amps trying to find effects pedals hidden. I'm a Blues musician and tone is everything from nearly silent to loud depending upon the venue and song. A few weeks ago I did a gig outside for a Harley Davidson company thing and backline was an early 70's Twin Reverb with the master volume control. Bright switch on, treble on 4, mid 10, bass 3, reverb 4, main volume 5 and not sure on the master because none of the numbers were visible. With the LP using mostly the neck pickup it sizzled so well other guitar players there were coming up asking how I got "that" tone. There are no pedals that will ring like that setup does.
 
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Picked up the RV-6 yesterday and slapped this together. Really happy with it so far. The modulated sound is my favorite, but dynamic is cool, and the + delay setting will cover the delay base just fine.
 
^Pedals that make your guitar sound like a messed up synth are in again. I for one am not into it.

I really like those Barber pedals. I wish they were smaller. The Direct Drive is a weird one. In the right situation it's the best thing ever, but it definitely does not work in my current band.

I tried out for a side project a while ago and will probably play with them again (using the above setup) once they figure their drummer situation out. The singer also plays in a shoegaze band and has a huge board. Not going to try to complete with that though.
 
They were very popular units and a lot of the guys I worked with had these and also the whole Nano line. I still have my Nanoverb and Nanocomp stuffed away somewhere along with my Ibanez DM1100 digital delay and earlier AD202 analog rack units. Which I see go for some good bucks. My personal favorites from that era are the Lexicon LXP-15 and PCM 80/81 and 90/91. I still have one of the 80's with expansion card and another favorite, a Yamaha E1010 analog delay.
Nice collection there Louis!
 
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