Pedal hunt!

[Dannyalcatraz]

It had to happen eventually, I suppose.

 

I was composing a song, and I realized that I don't have the effects I need to get the sounds bouncing around in my head for some of the parts. So, in addition to all the pedals already on my G.A.S. list, I realize I need to add a good wah and flanger. Possibly a phaser as well.

 

And I know NOTHING about those 3 effects. So here I am looking for suggestions to start my hunt. I'm not on any timetable.

 

My priority is for quality& reliability. Based on past purchases, I'm willing to spend $300 on a pedal if I like it. Maybe more for something with an excellent rep coupled with power and versatility, like a Moog. I also realize that $$$ doesn't equal quality.

 

I live in the Dallas/Fort Worth metroplex, so I have lots of brick & mortar store options. Of course, I also know that some things simply aren't available here, so I have no problem shopping online. I do it all the time.

 

I have bought used pedals, so that's not a hangup, either.

 

[skipclone 1]

Personally I don`t see where $300 for a pedal is justified, based on your stated intentions. If you are looking past composing the music and want to take it to a good recording studio and eventually play it in front of people, I would agree. For what you are saying here, a multieffects unit sounds like the way to go. I`ve had good experience with BOSS gear, and Line 6 is also solid.

[Dannyalcatraz]

Well, I have no intention of public performance, but i do intent to eventually record this thing. Might use it as a ringtone...it has the feel of a 70s-80s TV cop show theme.

 

And I prefer to use MFX units almost exclusively for practice/composition. When I have a piece together, then I use my discrete pedals to recreate & refine it.

[Winston Psmith]

Okay, I'm in! Phaser & Flanger are two of my favorite toys, but while I love Filter effects, I've never been a Wah user.

 

If you want insane flexibility in a Phaser, go ahead and spend $300+/- on the MoogerFooger MF103 12-Stage Phaser. I have one, and I love it. Add some Expression pedals, some CV connections, you can lose a whole evening just starting to appreciate what it does.

 

For a classic, and very affordable, Phaser, it's hard to beat the MXR Phase 90. Dunlop makes a few models, but my current favorite is the Script logo Phase 90, the general issue model, not the more expensive hand-wired Custom Shop model. My second choice would be the RI Phase 100, for a little more variety in sound.

 

For a top-dollar Flanger, the original T.C. Electronics Chorus+Flanger is a thing of beauty, and they don't seem to have suffered the QC issues afflicting the less expensive Toneprint pedals.

 

If you want an insane Flanger, try the EHX Flanger Hoax. I won't try to explain it beyond saying that you have different LFO's, and a Delay, all interacting. Lots of sounds from the mundane to the insane, the only problem is dialing up the exact same sound twice.

 

Since you have a bunch of the Line 6 Tonecore pedals, you might try to find the Liqua-Flange module. There are more than 60 different setting options, before you start really twisting knobs.

 

Here's the thing with Wah pedals - they really do all sound slightly different. Take four or five Crybaby Wah's off the shelf, and you'll probably hear some tonal variation among them. It's all but impossible to set the internal pots to exactly the same range, on every pedal coming off an assembly line. Try out a couple of Wah's, and if you hear one that sounds right to you, get that one.

 

The good news with Wahs is that they're easy to tweak and customize. Open up the pedal, adjust the throw of the pot, and you can set your Wah for higher or lower ranges. While I don't use a Wah, I've 'tuned' lots of them for friends and music store customers, with just a small Philips-head.

 

Last note; while almost any MFX will give you a perfectly usable bank of Modulation effects, Wah can be trickier. For one thing, the throw on most built-in Expression/Volume pedals isn't ideal for Wah; for another, some of the best-sounding MFX have some very disappointing Wah effects. I've seen plenty of players with a Crybaby or Vox plugged into their MFX units.

[Caevan O’Shite]

...I need to add a good wah and flanger. Possibly a phaser as well.

 

My priority is for quality& reliability. Based on past purchases, I'm willing to spend $300 on a pedal if I like it. Maybe more for something with an excellent rep coupled with power and versatility, like a Moog. I also realize that $$$ doesn't equal quality.

 

I live in the Dallas/Fort Worth metroplex, so I have lots of brick & mortar store options. Of course, I also know that some things simply aren't available here, so I have no problem shopping online. I do it all the time.

 

I have bought used pedals, so that's not a hangup, either.

 

Flanger? Give me a few examples of known recordings, or links to clips or vids of lesser-known examples of flanger deployment, that typify the sort of flanging sound that you want, then we can narrow it down...

 

 

Wah? I can highly, HIGHLY recommend the Fulltone CLYDE Deluxe wah; EXTREMELY ruggedly, well-built, improved treadle-pedal throw and feel, great sound, quiet, true-bypass, loads of features and user-tweakability. Perhaps the overall best wah ever built.

 

I bought a used '07 CLYDE Deluxe off from eBay a few years back, cleaned it up a bit, and it served me VERY well for years; when I decided to try the latest, upgraded version due to new features that made it even better yet for my specific wants and needs, I was not disappointed- it's fantastic and works EXCELLENTLY with high gain overdrive, distortion, fuzz and octave-fuzz. (WACKED or JIMI Mode, Input Level on 3 or 4 [out of 10], internal Resonance/Inductor-Gain turned up a bit, Buffer/Booster on at about 3:00 O'Clock or higher.) I then gave my first CLYDE Deluxe to a good friend, who's been delighted with it.

 

 

Here are two phasers that I've been strongly considering for future purchase, but have not tried out in person yet, the VFE Enterprise, and the Pigtronix EP-2 Envelope Phaser. They're both extremely versatile, so give these video examples a fair shake and listen all the way through...

 

I do already have another VFE pedal, a Fiery Red Horse "Saturated Fuzz" (think enhanced/upgraded triangle-era EH BMP fuzztortion. LOVE IT.). I've had it for over a year now, it's seen gigs, jams, practices, gig-bags, boxes, a real pedalboard; it is very excellent in every way and gives me a lot of confidence in the brand... I dealt directly and personally with Mr. Rutter, too, who is a really friendly, stand-up guy.

 

 

__ VFE Enterprise:

 

I am certain that I will be getting a VFE Enterprise phaser within the coming year; I just need to wait a while before I spend any more money on gear. It's fairly reasonably priced, though!

 

 

______ [video:youtube]

 

 

______ [video:youtube]

 

 

__ Pigtronix EP-2 Envelope Phaser:

 

-Pricey, but the Envelope-Phase and simultaneous-LFO-and-Envelope options are S0O0O0O0O0O friggin' cool... ! THOSE features just might combine your wah and flange/phase needs. (SOO0O0O0O0O0O0O0O0OOO WANT WANT WANT- !!)

 

 

______ [video:youtube]

 

 

______ [video:youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i9HJmqsBaSs

 

______ [video:youtube]

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Embarrassment time. I clearly have too many pedals. I have that damn Pigtronix Mothership and the ToneCore Liqui-Flange, but both are in storage right now. I've been using my MFX stuff so long I forgot about them.

 

Never tried to get a flange effect out of the Pigtronix, though.

 

That said, since I'm considering divvying up my multitude of pedals into a few discrete, genre-specific pedal boards, I may still need to purchase good pedals of those types.

 

OK...that admission done, back to the hunt..

 

For flange, I really am just looking for that classic jet flyby whoosh.

 

On the wah side, the part I hear in my brain-ear is 2 sets of 3 chords descending in pitch with the wah being applied on beat as the chord rings. Kinda "WAH-wah- wah, pause, WAH-wah-wah"...

 

That part will probsbly be fairly clean, while the other guitar part will be considerably grittier and an octave lower- maybe even featuring an Octo-fuzz (after I get the Catalinbread Perseus).

[Larryz]

I couldn't help if I wanted to as I don't use Wah, Flange or Phase...I do have access to the sounds via a mutli-effects unit but I still don't use them. I will throw in one concept and that is that I'm betting on your dream sound and the song(s) you have in mind being a success! Good luck with the project...ring ring!

[Winston Psmith]

 

For flange, I really am just looking for that classic jet flyby whoosh.

 

On the wah side, the part I hear in my brain-ear is 2 sets of 3 chords descending in pitch with the wah being applied on beat as the chord rings. Kinda "WAH-wah- wah, pause, WAH-wah-wah"...

 

For that Flanger sound, dial up the Sine Wave on the Liqua-Flange, set the 3-position Model switch to Analog, with Positive feedback. Start out with the knobs around 9 o'clock, experiment from there. The "Vintage' setting is supposed to model the classic MXR Flanger, but an A/B comparison with the real thing didn't even come close, IMHO.

 

If you want beat-driven Wah/Filter effects, you need to try out the Line 6 FM4 Filter Modeler, or the Roger Linn AdrenaLinn III. I have an FM4 and an AdrenaLinn I, and they're both very cool devices. Start out with the Throbber or Seeker effect on the FM4; on the AdrenaLinn, you'll just have to dive in to the Factory Presets, at first, find something that sounds close, then start tweaking. The AdrenaLinn gets deep, like the Modulation Matrix on a Synth, but once you get into it, there's a wealth of sound-sculpting potential.

[Dannyalcatraz]

I don't know if I want an auto-wah. That wasn't even on my radar. What are the advantages and disadvantages they have vs a traditional wah?

[Winston Psmith]

I don't know if I want an auto-wah. That wasn't even on my radar. What are the advantages and disadvantages they have vs a traditional wah?

 

Sorry to say, part of the answer gets into semantics. The simple answer is they're not really the same, although they're all variations on a Band-Pass Filter effect. The difference is in how the effect is implemented or applied. If you want the degree of control and even subtlety you can get out of a good Wah pedal, an Auto-Wah isn't what you want.

 

Some so-called Auto-Wahs (I blame Boss) are Filter effects driven by LFO's; you turn it on, set the Rate and the Frequency, and you get a sound kind of like a Wah pumping to a beat. It's very static-sounding, and unresponsive to playing dynamics. The Throbber and Seeker models in the Line 6 FM4 are LFO-driven, although they also have other features.

 

OTOH, some folks say Auto-Wah when they mean Envelope Filter; think Jerry Garcia, and the vocal-like tone that opened many of his guitar phrases. The tune Estimated Prophet is just dripping with Envelope Filter sounds. Both Garcia and Bob Weir are using Envelope Filters; Garcia has a Mu-tron, and Weir has an Ibanez AF-9.

 

[video:youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k8r1agmJ5Ao

 

Envelope Filters are extremely responsive to playing dynamics, so much so that they tend to work best as the first effect in your signal chain, right after your guitar. Envelope Filters are popular for Funk bass and Funk guitar. Plug into an Envelope Filter and play a quick string of 9th chords with downstrokes, tell me what you hear? Bootsy's bass is usually plugged into an Envelope Filter, too.

 

Coming back around to why I suggested either of them in the first place, as I'd said in that previous post, if you want beat-driven Wah/Filter effects, with more control, you should consider something like the FM4, or the AdrenaLinn. If want to sync Filter effects via MIDI, the AdrenaLinn is the friend you haven't met, yet. Neither one is really a substitute for a Wah pedal, although the FM4 offers a standard Wah effect if you connect an Expression pedal to the Q Filter model. I just think you'd find something to like in them.

 

FWIW, the Line 6 M5, M9 and M13 all feature the FIlter/Wah models from the FM4, along with a legion of other Line 6 models and effects. I've considered adding an M9 to the S/R loop on my GT-10, but then, I'm not a well person.