Hey everybody,

What are the best sounding effects? I have used various pedals and outboard gear through the years and have my favorites but what do you guys like.
I think the new POD's sound ok, but....I don't know....I wish it were a little less digital sounding( whatever that is).
I currently use a Jerry Donahue preamp and I have been satisfied with the range of tones I can get, but there is no substitue for a great tube amp.

Has anyone heard anything that just blows them away?

a tech 21 sansamp acoustic di.. the best money i ever spent on a piece of music equipment. i recommend it highly!

Cool, I haven't seen one of those. Is it a straight DI or does it have tone adjustments and stuff on it?

And do you use a pickup or one of those under saddle transducers on your acoustic....I am looking at retrofitting a guitar I have.

it has bass,treble and a parametric mid adjustment where you pick the frequency you want to boost or cut with one knob and use the mid control to boost or cut it. it has level knob and a seperate knob called blend which adjusts the plain signal with the units incredible tube emulation capabilities.it has a super quiet effects loop, 1/4 inch and mic cord outputs,phantom power,ground switch and is powered by a 9-volt or ac or phantom power. i'm telling you this is the most incredible piece of equipment i have ever seen in 13 years of professional playing. i've spent a lot of money on stuff in my time. if you buy this and don't like it i'll buy it from you because i want another one just for safe-keeping. i use it with a hollow body thru a fender blues jr. and with a martin acoustic w/ piezo,and a washburn rr200[sammy hagar acoustic type guitar] thru a trace elliot ta-30r. if i didn't have the tech 21 i would have thrown the washburn over the hill by now. i'm serious, if the tech 21 acoustic di could cook, perform kinky sex i would divorce my wife and marry it...buy it you won't regret it

Hey that sounds like what I am looking for. I have a really good sounding Yamaha guitar an I want to put an undersaddle pickup on it to play live. Thanks for the info

Kev

Just the basics, man. For the full range, just use a Crybaby 535Q wah-wah pedal, and the Danelectro Fab-Tone for a clean, awesome crunch.

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Newer but classically good pedals/effects:

Original Chandler Tube Driver
T.C. Chorus
T.C. compressor/sustain
Carl Martin overdrive
Arion stomp-box tuner - cheap and fairly transparent; the first of it's kind I believe
Digitech Whammy II
POD
Alesis Quadraverb - overly-long reverbs for ambient stuff. Leslie was decent
SPX-90 (original) - wacked out regeneration effects (newer versions won't let you do this)
Sansamp
Boss Metalzone - quick and easy scooped sounds
Rocktron Voodoo Valve - totally flexible, pre-gain semi parametric eq
Rocktron Intellifex - 8 discrete voice chorus
Rocktron Hush - a noise gate for live use that actually works decently
Yamaha 100, Korg SDD series delays - simple and characteristically dark/80's digital delay

moogerfooger has no rivals. the ultimate in sonic perfection that can be sadistically mutated into whatever pleases you.

Not a "stomp box" like the Moogerfoogers but 19" sonic perfection - The TC Electronic G-Force.

Unlike most others, the presets are useable and give a great clue as to where to start !!

Even though the sound is superb, I still run it in parallel with my triaxis through a Bradshaw Dual STereo Line Mixer - don't need to, just prefer the sound that way !

i got the tc electronic flanger/chorus pedal and it sounds sonically great but the insanity leaves something to be desired with it. too subtle for me but its great to split for a stereo spread.

Yeah, The TC Chorus is excellent, the only other one I like a lot is the 8 voice chorus in my Rocktron Intellifex - sounds very lush but can be a moose to program right !!

You say you like the TC to "split" sound - live I tend to run my Triaxis dry, through the FX return of my heartbreaker combo and take the left and right outs through my FX like the TC G-Force then through a Boogie 290 power amp and a pair of 4x12 cabs.
Having one dry and two wet cabs gives a HUGE stereo spread but keeps the power because of the dry centre speakers.

Much easier to do in the studio of course but rather than record one dry track and take sends to the fx, I prefer to record all three cabs. This "wastes" two tracks for audio that could have been saved by using FX sends and returns but I like the sound :-)

Lexicon Vortex, great chorusing and delayed rhythmic effects.

The best effect is a good amp.

Very astutely put Sir Bob !!!

There is more than a hint of truth in that !

I love the new Electrix Mods - the filter factory (although I don't use it as much as the Q-Tron+, it is more versatile) and especially the EQ Killer - it has an effects loop so you can send all your (adjustable) highs, mids, or lows to a preamp or filter or anything you like. I like having heavier distortion on my High end, and chunky distortion on my mids . . . but in truth, after I got into tubes, I stopped using effects for about a year. They do seem 'added' to my ear now - when I used a digital multi-effects, I loved using effects to spice things up . . . now, I just add effects to make a track seem 'different' . . . the only thing you can expect to hear from me consistently is my (currently lame-ass) playing and souped-up tubes. Although I do love my Leslie cabinet.

"Best sounding" is such an objective thing.... personally, I've always been more interested in "strange" than "clean", which explains my love of ElectroHarmonix stuff. Hard to beat the Small Stone phaser, Electric Mistress flanger, etc. for really wild sounds. I also like the cheap DOD stuff for their psycho tones.

drfuzz, try the moogerfooger pedals. they are stranger than strange and KILLS the small stone cold [i have one]. not to mention they are clean as hell as well. plus they make the ElectroHarmonix look like childs toys.

I really like the Line6 pedals.
Buddy