Keyboard Players and Effects Pedals

[Dave Bryce]

I admit it - I’ve always been a fan of effects pedals.  Sure, the guitar players always seemed to glom onto them more than we did…but from the moment I heard my first phaser (Small Stone), I was hooked.  Effects pedals had such cool names, too - c’mon, who didn’t want an Electric Mistress?

 

Growing up, the modulation effects were definitely my faves - phaser, chorus, flanging - loved ‘em.  Still do.  Time-based effects were next for me - lusted over a Memory Man delay forever until I got one, then I used it on just about everything…and then I started messing with “guitar” effects like envelope followers (c’mon, man - that’s a synth thing!) and it’s cousin the wah pedal.  Yummy.  I dug distortion as well - EP, clav, organ - all more fun with a little hair on ‘em. 

 

In the mid-80s effects started showing up in keyboards, and for many of us, the pedals fell by the wayside.  For me, for sure…except for the phaser, envelope follower and chorus I used on my CP30.   I think the only thing I bought during subsequent years were my two Moogerfoogers (LPF and - you guessed it - phaser).  Oh wait - I got an Eventide H9 Max when they first came out.  If memory serves, I actually reviewed it for Keyboard mag.

 

These days, with my recent obsession with guitars, I find myself in possession of quite a nice pedal collection.  Truth be told, I kind of look at my pedal boards as a sort of modular synthesis, but with a much more variable tone source than basic oscillators. 😏

 

Who else is a fan of these bad boys?

 

dB

[jazzpiano88]

Big Time!   My first effect was the MXR Phase 90 in 1980 on my Rhodes Suitcase 73.     But I had it on the floor, unlike the Donald nowadays.    Just the Way you Are was the holy grail.

 

I added Chorus, but never got a flanger although I lusted for it.    I never had the super need for the Flanger as it was more for engineers running the entire band mix through it like the Doobies. 

 

Never did any reverb/delay pedals.   In the 90s I used a Quadraverb for those.

[Moonglow]

My introduction to effects pedals was when I heard Billy Joel’s “Just the Way You Are.” Ran right out and got me an MXR 100 phaser and hooked it up to my Rhodes. A few years later was the original Boss CE-1 Chorus Ensemble which I used with my CP-70 and OB-8. Still have both of those pedals, not sure if they work. That was pretty much it, subsequently relying on the EFX built into my boards.

[timwat]

Back before integrated effects, I used a Boss chorus and touch wah on the rhodes, as well as a phaser on my ARP String Ensemble. 

 

Eventually had a Castle Phaser (rack mount), MXR Digital Delay (the blue rack mount), and had CAE Sound in San Mateo build me a prototype auto-panner rack unit. 

 

But then, of course, they started integrating FX into the boards themselves. And while the built-ins weren't as good, impressive, or enveloping as their outboard rivals...it sure was easier than hooking up all the downstream. 

 

Now I'm wondering all over again what a Blue Sky shimmer would do to my Wave and OB6...

[Doerfler]

I went down the pedal rabbit hole from High School (late 70's) until very recently.  I am now almost all "in the box", with the exception of my A 100 and E7.

 

E7 currently treated with a modest pedalboard. 

 

My first pedal purchase was a Maestro MP-1 Phase Shifter for my Rhodes piano, 1977/78. I did not find out until about 4 years ago that it was designed by Dr. Moog.

 

 

[Tom Williams]

In the early 70s, with a Farfisa Combo Compact, I used a Big Muff for a while to play Smoke-On-the-Water, and then graduated to the more pleasing dirt of the Electro Harmonix LPB-1 -- Linear Power Booster -- once I learned I could increase the organ's preamp drive and turn down the LPB output for a nicer grit than the Big Muff could provide..

 

Fast Forward a decade or two, and on my other Farfisa -- VIP345 -- I used a Sholtz R&D rack mount distortion unit, that could be set to clean, gritty, or shred, in my relentless pursuit of replacing guitarists.  I also used an MXR equalizer to give the Farfisa drawbars a little more midrange bite.

[Mike Kent]

I recently sold my Rhodes but for decades ran it through a standard setup of Boss SD-1 overdrive -> Small Stone phaser -> Boss CE-2 chorus. I would sometimes swap in other pedals including Boss Heavy Metal, MXR Phase 90, Boss TR-2 tremolo and others. In the 70s I ran it through MXR-100 phaser.

My Jupiter-8 runs through a Boss DD-200 delay.

My JX-3P runs through a TC Flashback delay.

My Sub37 runs through a Boss ME-20, mostly for delay but occasionally for other effects.

The rotary on my Electro 6 sucks. So I run it through a Hammond Leslie Pedal.

[PianoMan51]

Today, my ‘pedals’ have shrunk down to pure information, and reside on my iPad.

 

Melodica with mic, iRig (mono in, stereo out), iPad, and a large number of cheap Eventide iOS virtual pedals.

 

For melodica the MicroPitch effect provides two separate pitch shifts, which duplicates quite well the various tuning possibilities of a three reed musette accordion.

[Canoehead]

Love me a pedalboard!  This was from a couple of years ago.
Electro -Tall and Fat - Organ Grinder - Vent - Key Largo

Voyager - tuner - Corona Mini - DD 6 - Hall of Fame Mini - Key Largo.

[Dave Bryce]

I have a couple pedal boards doing various things.

 

This rig is for my guitars and Hammond.  The bottom row (except for the H9, which is fed by the Iridium in the top row) is just for the guitars.  The top row is preceded by an ABY box that combines the output from the bottom row with the output from the Leslie preamp pedal and Phase 90 that I use with my A100.

 

 

 

This smaller board is for my electric acoustic guitar.

 

…and my Mini gets its own delay.

 

 

dB

 

[Winston Psmith]

That signed Mini is a treasure unto itself!

 

+1 on using Delay with MonoSynths! I've used a Boss GT-1 MFX with my MonoLogue, BSII, and Neutron, and I much prefer it for Synth over Guitar. It allows you to stack/chain up to 4 Delay effects. The Tera Echo effect adds some very cool Filter-like textures to the Echo effect, and the Chorus makes for a very useful Stereoizer effect, even with the Rate and Depth dials way back. 

[K K]

Used to enjoy my Mellotron M400S through a big effect pedal - a Leslie 147.

[ProfD]

My pedals reside in Line 6 Pod Go sitting atop the Rhodes.

 

Tweaking and combining FX can be as much fun as synthesis.😎

[Dave Bryce]

51 minutes ago, ProfD said:

My pedals reside in Line 6 Pod Go sitting atop the Rhodes.

 

I have a Pod XT and FSB foot pedal in the rig as well.  


I route this into the ABY box in the small pedal board from my last post ( you can see it behind the acoustic), and use that to switch between/layer the Pod’s feed in with the more straight ahead signal.  It’s cool to be able to bring in the phased “Breathe” Strat sound under a clean compressed acoustic with a bit of stereo chorus.

 

 

51 minutes ago, ProfD said:

 

Tweaking and combining FX can be as much fun as synthesis.😎

 

Oh, no doubt.  As I mentioned above, I definitely see it as a form of modular synthesis.

 

dB

[Stokely]

I have used a pedal exactly once in about 40 years of playing (to be fair, I took 20 off!)   Now that I'm down to one keyboard, and it has multiple outs, I might consider it but so far the onboard effects are getting it done (nord stage 3).

Watching Lachey Doley jam on that whammy clav and getting a great overdrive tone was pretty inspiring.  I have various guitar pedals and use a submixer, not sure about levels and impedance and all that.   Also a Lester K that I've barely used, so far I'm pretty happy with the NS3 organ for my rock gigs, but it wouldn't be hard to add it to my pedal board (which has only mixers on it, guess I should call it a "mixer board").

That one time was an Electro Harmonix Electric Mistress flanger.  I'll never forget the first (and only) gig I used it--we were a college-aged band playing college bars but had a big mixer and soundman.   He was setting up the console for the show, and I hooked up that flanger and clicked it on.  I saw his head jerk up like he heard a gunshot.  That flanger was noisy as hell (not sure if something was wrong with it or what) and he was hearing all that hiss from the main speakers    He didn't know what it was and started checking everything, I turned it off and saw him freeze, puzzled   I was nice and told him what it was, I'm sure he would have spent the gig fretting that the nasty noise would return.

[Docbop]

60 years of guitar and bass and never a pedal person.  I had the basics for when something called for it and usually never used more than one at a time.   I did get into that big original Chorus pedal, but later switch to at T.C. Electronic chorus pedal.   I HATE distortion pedals from the beginning and still today.   Prefer using small amps and cranking them, more organic sounding.   My last pit band gig I use a Echoplex the original big box using tape.  I needed some weird spacey sounds for part of the show and I would grab the the handle that adjusted the tape head position and started moving that all over to get weird.   

 

Keyboards I'm kind of the same way and don't use effects much and the built in ones are good enough for me.  

[Leroy C]

When I played electric bass more, I really enjoyed effects.  Unfortunately, the bands I played in when I was younger didn't feature a lot of music that required effects on bass, so I didn't get a lot of opportunity.  I used a Boss CS-3 Compressor for any tunes that required slapping, but that was about it.

 

I've always been fond of Boss pedals, but the only one I have right now is the Boss SD-1 Super Overdrive, which I use when I noodle on lap steel.  Otherwise, I have a Zoom B3 that's fun to play around with at home.  I've always enjoyed distortion on bass, and chorus once in a while (especially if I'm playing along with post-punk albums).

 

And of course, delay if I'm going to play Pink Floyd's "One of These Days." 

 

 

[Leroy C]

3 hours ago, Dave Bryce said:

 

I have a Pod XT and FSB foot pedal in the rig as well.  

So, I gotta ask: How does the grand piano sound through the Pod XT?   

[Dave Bryce]

50 minutes ago, Leroy C said:

So, I gotta ask: How does the grand piano sound through the Pod XT?   

 

😁

 

The Kawai has a ribbon mic in it to feed the PA (just a touch ☺️) and the computer interface’s inputs for recording, but that’s about it.

 

It’s the only instrument in the room that avoids fx.

 

dB

[CEB]

I stayed away from pedals as much as I could.  I used Dr Q.  I used a wah once in a while.  I just don’t like the form factor.  I had enough pedals with the sustain pedals, CV pedals, expression pedals etc…    I used a lot of outboard rack effects.  I liked rack effects for my rigs.  Once we got modern boards with onboard effect the rack effects went away unless I decided to take out an older analog synth. 
 

 When I did get my Vent I hid it in a rack and fed it with the 11 pin socket.  Last thing I want is another foot thingy.  
 

But that is just me.  I don’t know what I’m doing. 

[jerrythek]

Back in my earlier days I was deeper into using pedals. My secret sauce for getting the Rhodes sound I liked was using a simple MXR pre-amp pedal, with the treble boosted. This created a fair amount of noise, which was perfect feeding into my Ibanez chorus pedal, as it gave it more "stuff" to swoosh around. I later upgraded to a TC Chorus/Flanger... used to use the obligatory Mutron III on my clav as well. I had a rare Ibanez Multi-delay/flanger rackmount that I used to use on the Minimoog live. Now at home I run the Minimoog through my DP/4 processor - I use the whole damn thing to create chains of effects for the synth - love it!!

 

 

[Anderton]

I found that pedals could often help digital synths blend in better with bands that were mostly analog (guitar, bass, drums, etc.). There was something about the presence of digital synths that analog pedals seemed capable of taming.

[Dave Bryce]

2 hours ago, jerrythek said:

 I later upgraded to a TC Chorus/Flanger...

I still have one!  😎
 

dB

[jerrythek]

14 hours ago, Dave Bryce said:

I still have one!  😎
 

dB

As do I. And their phaser… They’re in a box from my move… have to dig them out and see if they still work.

[The Real MC]

Not a fan of battery powered pedals.  Haven't used them since 1984.

 

Yes there are battery eliminators but they don't fix the underlying problem.  Battery powered devices have design compromises forced by the single rail system imposed by batteries.  Noise, restricted dynamic range, higher distortion.  Sometimes not a bad thing but I shy away from them.

 

I play rhythm guitar as a 2nd instrument and I prefer a straight cable between the guitar and amp nothing else.  For those rare times I need a pedal effect, I use my Vox  Tonelab SE - I can disable the amp simulator and use just the pedal effects, which sound pretty good.

 

The only pedal effect I own is my recently acquired Ventilator II.  I had been gigging my Leslie 760 until we played a venue where there is just no room for the bulky Leslie cabinet.  I left behind my XK3 because the onboard Leslie sim is embarrassingly bad.  But the band missed my Hammond work so my hand was forced for the Vent.  At least it is not battery powered. 

[bjosko]

I couldn’t live without my purple Ibanez stereo chorus pedal on my Rhodes Mark II (Suitcase). I got a Small Stone phaser from my parents back in the 80’s, but couldn’t find a use for it back then, and left it somewhere.

When the first better organ clones came out ( Nord C1), my Hammond gradually lost to the clones, and a Vent was needed for the last growl. I still used the Hammond at rehearsal and a few gigs. Then my Leslie was down for a year or so, and the Vent was connected to my orgen. A Hall of Fame was added. When I finally got my Leslie fixed, I used the vent from my Hammond to FOH, and the Leslie for monitor at stage.

Now my Hammond residence is in my living room, directly connected to my 147. Here I have added my own “pedal”, I built in an L-Pad in the Leslie, so I can drive the Leslie harder without blowing out the windows. Still miss that reverb in there, so I am thinking to add a TrekII effect loop.

 

 I picked up the guitar a couple years ago, so my pedal collection for this have grown, shortly tried with a multi pedal ( Headrush), but I am more to knobs and the analog feel, and love to try out different stomp boxes. I am a terrible reseller, so my collection are growing. 

[SamuelBLupowitz]

I have a Morley wah pedal (actually a "distortion wah volume") that the drummer in my high school band bought me as a gift when he got an unexpected bonus at work. I have gotten a ton of use out of it over the years, beyond its initial "I wanna be Cliff Burton" application as a bass player (though I have played in a couple of bands where I've paired it with a Big Muff, and boy does it make the Metallica happen). 

 

The little bit of grit the wah alone gives makes it awesome on clavinet; I love a snarly, bitey wah tone for that. I've messed around with flange on the clav as well, and even a Digitech Polara reverb pedal with some out there "shimmer" and "reverse" effects. I've used phaser pedals on my Wurlitzer, and even used the fuzz on that once -- not a ton of definition, but great for a really over-the-top sonic punch in the face.

 

And of course, if anything can be sent through a Leslie, it will be sent through a Leslie. That is, of course, even more unwieldy than an effects pedal, but it's one of the fun parts of having a home studio.  

[Leroy C]

17 minutes ago, SamuelBLupowitz said:

I have a Morley wah pedal (actually a "distortion wah volume") that the drummer in my high school band bought me as a gift when he got an unexpected bonus at work. I have gotten a ton of use out of it over the years, beyond its initial "I wanna be Cliff Burton" application as a bass player (though I have played in a couple of bands where I've paired it with a Big Muff, and boy does it make the Metallica happen). 

Sounds like a great way to play along with the John Wetton King Crimson albums!

[Iconoclast]

I used to run my Hammond XK3c through a PodXt which served many uses. Mostly, it gave me a volume pedal!  But I used the delay and some of the reverbs on it almost all the time. Had a few moments where I used a Flanger and the PODXt had a great one. And I also took more than a few organ solo's with the wah pedal. Really cool and unexpected, you'll definitely get the audience's attention with that one. 

[KenElevenShadows]

On 7/28/2023 at 7:00 PM, Dave Bryce said:

 

 

These days, with my recent obsession with guitars, I find myself in possession of quite a nice pedal collection.  Truth be told, I kind of look at my pedal boards as a sort of modular synthesis, but with a much more variable tone source than basic oscillators. 😏

 

Who else is a fan of these bad boys?

 

dB

 

We had a quick exchange on FB about this already, but for everyone else, yeah, I tend to "play" the pedals live and in the studio quite a bit. I've been doing this for quite a few years, and sometimes my musician friends and I refer to it as more of a "sound design" approach. Regardless, we play the pedals as if they were musical instruments, which they sort are. 

 

BELOW:

During the pandemic, I made a few of these recordings just for fun, and I've shared them here before. But this gives you an idea of a quick improvisational thing while looking at more or less what I still have for pedals (I swapped out the Echolution for an updated Echolution because I was having continuing issues with this Echolution).

 

 

BELOW:

This is one of my actual songs "properly recorded', using the same setup. I also use a Korg MS-20 with my setup, although it doesn't appear in either of these two videos.