The essential Blues Effects Pedals

[RocketRobinson]

OK, so I play bass in a fun and active band, but I also have spent some time playing guitar in previous bands. Now our band is going to have an "alter ego" blues band, and I am going to be playing much more guitar. I have a bunch of analog effects pedals (chorus, distortion, phaser, flanger, wah, delay, thru a Fender DeVille 4x10, strat guitar)still can't get that thick lead blues sound I want. There are a THOUSAND pedals on the market (tube screamers, compression, overdrive, etc), what essential pedal (pedals) should I look at? THANKW!

[pinkjimiphoton]

all ya really need is a decent overdrive, a wah and an echo, really...just don't get too gainy, and don't be afraid to crank some midrange up. a touch of reverb, and you're there.

humbuckers will give ya more midrange...and a phatter tone, but it's hard to beat the neck position of a strat for a nice blues tone.

use the lo gain input of the amp (if it has one) and keep a close ratio between preamp gain and master volume.

some guys like a chorus, but i find it just is too homogenized to really work for blues.

really all ya need to do is drive the amp hard, so when your guitar is cranked it screams, and when it's down it cleans up some.

purists will say a gibson guitar and a fender amp is all ya need.

others will say a strat/tele...but anything works...it's more in your fingers and attitude than anything else...hope this helps man.

ps..try your overdrive with all the knobs about half way up...that actually seems to work most of the time.

peace!

[desertbluesman]

I would say the less effects you have the more blues you is......

 

I agree, a good distortion pedal, one with lots of EQ and do not get too gainy. just enough to make the tone sound like you are driving it hard. Fender Hot Rod Deluxe with a good tube distortion stomp using only the clean channel and on board verb will do the trick. I suggest the Nady TD1 cheap and no stomp has more tone control that that one http://www.amazon.com/Nady-TD-1-Classic-Distortion-Pedal/dp/B0002GU1ME I have one I have been using for years. I like it so much I bought a second one as a backup.

[Caevan O’Shite]

First- (pedal stuff to follow below)- with NO pedals whatsoever, crank your tube-amp (for straight-up blues, highly recommended over SS, hybrid, and modeling amps) RIGHT up, WAAAY up- but begin with your guitar's volume-knob turned all the way down, bringing it up gradually...

 

Run the amp's Master-Volume high, and (if it's got one, or more) the Pre/Gain medium-low, medium... You must find the balancing-point between them. Try the Middle up quite high, perhaps even all the way up, with Treble and Bass to taste. Some amps, and some guitar/amp combinations, require different general EQ settings, though- for example, when running my Les Paul with humbuckers into the lead/overdrive/"Soak"-Channel of my Carvin Vintage 33, I dime both the Treble and Bass (all settings given within a 0 - 10 range), while setting the Middle a little over 4, with the Master-Volume anywhere from 4.5 to 10 (usually no higher than "Noon", but situations vary), and the Pre/Gain "Soak" around 3 or 4... I never even use its clean/"Rhythm"-Channel, instead doing all my "channel-switching" with my guitar's volume-knob!

 

Use your guitar's volume-control and your picking-hand dynamics to "play the amp", varying from clean to cleanish-overdrive to overdrive to distortion as you bring up the guitar's volume-knob and play softer to harder. Roll it back down, and it's cleaner again when you want it.

 

Have the amp turned up to the point where it will be louder than you actually want for playing chords when the guitar's volume-knob is all the way up; this will give you a range of headroom, dynamics and cleaner to meaner overdrive tones, AND when it's nearly or all the way up, it will yield fat single-note and double-stop "lead" tones for solos and fills.

 

 

What's more essentially Bluesy than that?

 

 

As for pedals...

 

Try the above "play the amp" approach ALONG WITH any pedals that you use; for example, that's what SRV did, among many, many other players, WITH his pedals AND amps...

 

 

Ibanez 'Tube Screamer' overdrives and similar pedals have long been a favorite amongst Blues and Blues-Rock guitarists. There are LOADS of "clones" and OD-pedals that are based to one degree or another on the venerable TS...

 

Speakin' of TS stylees, the Voodoo Lab 'Sparkle Drive' is a cool, enhanced/upgraded TS sort with the addition of a blendable clean/straight signal. (As clean as your amp will let it be- crank the amp and also the Sparkle Drive's output and it will be like your "straight" guitar-signal blended with the pedal's own overdrive; this can preserve the natural attack that can be rounded-off by the TS style overdrive, too.)

 

 

IF YOU HAVE SINGLE-COIL PICKUPS IN YOUR GUITAR, I can highly recommend the Home Brew Electronics Compressor Retro (HBE CPR for short). MAGIC on a Tele's bridge-pickup, and great on neck-pickups and single-coils in general. Nnnnnnnnnnnnot so good on humbuckers, though (as is the case with most compressor-PEDALS).

 

Pricey, but easily worth several pedals in its versatility and dual-channels (plus your "straight"/bypassed tone, giving you at least three main sounds), and very dynamically responsive- I can HIGHLY recommend the Fender-flavored Radial Tonebone 'Trimode' hybrid tube/SS overdrive/distortion pedal.

 

__________ http://www.tonebone.com/images/trimode-top-labeled.jpg

 

You can dial-in two different overdriven sounds, say, for rhythm and lead, and switch between 'em, as well as your "straight" sound when the pedal's off. It responds well to your picking-dynamics and the guitar's volume-knob; it plays well with other pedals, including putting things like fuzzes and wahs before its input. And its 2nd-channel also has its own effects-loop for patching-in other effects- like, say, an echo- that will come on along with the 2nd-channel when it's selected via the footswitch, all in one stomp.

 

 

Now, in the 'maybe not what you'd expect at first thought of "essential Blues pedals" department'...

 

 

I get a LOT of miles out of my Boss RT-20 'Rotary Ensemble' pedal, a Leslie/rotary (and even Univibe) sim-pedal. People LOVE it when I use it to get that whirling, grinding, gurgling Leslie sound with my guitar, especially when I switch between its fast and slow speeds, and I love it, too. Sounds GREAT in a blues-setting.

 

If you prefer the more purring warble of a Fender/Leslie Vibratone kind of rotary-speaker sound, look NO further that the Option 5 'Destination: Rotation Single' pedal; all-analog, warm, LUSH, feature LOADED, beautiful. HIGHLY recommended. I specifically needed the Leslie spinning-horn-tweeter/rotary-baffle-woofer kind of sound, so I got the Boss RT-20; but I sooo very nearly ALSO got the Option 5 Dest:Rota Single, as well... TOTAL SRV Vibratone in a pedal! I still want to get one...

 

 

I also occasionally use my Foxrox 'Octron' on Bluesy tunes, usually with its Octave-UP (octavia-style octave-fuzz) OFF, and its Direct and Octave DOWN (Mutron Octave-Divider type octave-down) blended for a big, fat funky Blues With Authoritah kinda tone with SERIOUS sneering attitude!

 

And Octavia-style Octave-UP octave-fuzz (such as that also offered buy the Foxrox 'Octron') can sometimes be just the thing for Blues-Rock lead forays if you know how to use it; flip to the neck-pickup, stick mainly to the 12th-fret and up at first, experiment with rolling back the guitar's volume-knob just a smidge, maybe roll the tone-knob down all the way, maybe leave it full-up; experiment with pick-attack, angle, pick-placement along the string's length...

 

 

I ALWAYS take at least these three pedals (plus a StroboStomp tuner) with my Carvin Vintage 33 amp, placed in this order:

 

Guitar > tuner > Octron > Clyde Deluxe Wah > RT-20 "Leslie" sim > amp

 

 

I'd be remiss if I didn't also HIGHLY, HIGHLY recommend D R "Pure Blues" strings for GREAT blues tone; solid/pure nickel wrap on round-cores for the wound-strings. Fat, warm and bluesy. Brings MORE out of your amp and pedals; my very favorite strings for Les Pauls or other Gibson or Gibson-style dual-humbucker axes, in 10's or 11's. (I bet that, as you're also a bassist, you'd love 'em in 11's; that's what I use on my Les Paul.)

[pinkjimiphoton]

high nickel content is a GREAT tip, caev...the more nickel content, the rubberier and warmer and phatter the tone...

the belltone strings i use now have a high nickel content, and you can get two sets for 10 bucks...even with custom graphics on them for that price, which is INSANE...

 

the rotary is a good tip as well, you'd be surprised how often you can use it as an alternative to the more generic chorus sound folks use...a slow leslie is called chorale, anyways, and it can help comp nice chords if used subtle ...or nail that SRV "cold shot" vibratone thing.

 

but the biggest thing really that caev points out is volume.

most of the cats i've played with or worked for tend to dime stuff on their amps, and get everything off their volume knob on the guitar. i do the same if playing just guitar and amp, and spent years with a hot-rod princeton i gutted (crammed a super reverb/ampeg ass end, a marshall style preamp with gain and mid boost in there and managed to save the reverb and trem pumping at one point close to 70 watts thru a celestion g12m100.. ....somehow i gotta get it back, had to pawn it when i moved to my present location...somebody shoot me) with a boss super overdrive (not as muddy as a tube screamer to me) a crybaby and an echoplex...i didn't need anything else. you really don't either...more so than anything else, in blues, less is more.

but remember, your tone is in your heart and fingers as much as your gear...so don't feel you need or don't need anything...go with what your heart and soul tell you, and you'll nail it.

try to find a happy medium, where you can hear the windings in the strings with your guitar turned low, and a phat warm tone that seems to change at every notch of your guitar...so when ya lean on it it get's crunchy...and so that when pegged, it gets dirty, but not to the point of the latest shred superstar...there ARE actually places you can get away with it, but you're better off to use the lo z input of a totally cranked tube clean channel than a distorted one. lo z will give you a lot more ass than the more weasily thin hi gain one...yes, you gotta crank the amp substantially more in some cases, but i think you'll find the overall tone will improve.

 

one last thing that can be useful is a simple compressor, too...

alot of peeps use dynacomps or something similar, that can help even out your tone and dynamics, and make everything more controllable from your guitar.

 

now go make some music!

[RocketRobinson]

Awesome tips, Mr. C. I have seen some of your other posts (also the volume tip), and you really put a lot of time and effort into very well delivered posts. Thanks, I look forward to putting this advice to use ASAP! (PS- Freddy Doughty in our band is also Irish thru and thru).

[RocketRobinson]

All great tips- thanks all who responded, I will be making a trip to my local gear shop as well as further experimentation with amp / guitar settings.

[Larryz]

You can get some cool blues sounds out of that 410 without any pedals...try the volume about 1/2 way up and the master volume way down (barely on just a touch), then kick it in to "more" drive (both red lights lit on the foot pedal)...gradually increase the master volume and it'll kick into overdrive to beat the band, but don't blow your eardrums out...you can go into overdrive and back to clean just by using the right hand footswitch...haven't been using mine lately so can't remember all the other settings (ie. treble, mid, bass, presence, etc.) but halfway on all should be a good starting point...

[Caevan O’Shite]

By the way- search-up the fairly recent EMG SCP posts and threads here; THAT'LL fatten up lead-tone in a natural, smooth way, clean or overdriven!

 

(Search-tip: also search for the misspelled "EMC SCP")

[RocketRobinson]

OK, and wow- so I cranked up the volume all the way (clean channel) with volume on the strat off (original '69 three single coil)with all treble/mid/bass halfway, presence at 9, and ooooo- it's never sounded like that- no pedals at all! Still will be experimenting with some dirt, the master volume and gain and the eq, but NICE. Only problem is some amp hiss when pedalboard is in line, but in a live situation shouldn't be too big an issue. Maybe I should leave it at home. Thanks guys!

[pinkjimiphoton]

hiss won't be noticeable in a live or even stufio environment once you're actually playing...so don't sweat it too much.

one way to reduce hiss, and phatten it up, is to lower your treble and or presence slightly.

 

another thing...use your tone controls, try setting the amp tone with your pickups tone knobs dialed back a little bit. then compensate on your amp, and you'll be able to dial in a little extra when ya need it, or cut it back to brown it up some...

and of course, with guitar nearly cranked, and tone pots rolled down, there's that woman tone....makes it go oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooohhhhhhh...

 

it's a beautiful thing...have fun mate!

[Caevan O’Shite]