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pedal virgin


GreeleyEstates

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i play clean and dirty channel with a one-button footswitch through my fender tonemaster 100w head. lately i've been toying with the idea of adding some effects to my clean channeling. i need advice from the seasoned veterans regarding what's a good basic setup (as far as brands and effects). also i've heard from various musicians that the line 6 delay pedal modeler is pretty much all i need. your thoughts?

http://img3.musiciansfriend.com/dbase/pics/products/15/150380.jpg

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Well, if you play anything like the clip on your band Website, I'm going to suggest the following:

 

- Some kind of delay, just try out everything and see what you like. Some people prefer digital, some prefer analog, some prefer backwards.

 

- Probably just one modulation effect should be sufficient for now. I see no reason to get a chorus, a phaser, and a flanger, when you've never even used effects before. For the style of punk/alt metal you're playing, I'd suggest starting with a flanger, and the Boss BF-3, is honestly the best one I've tried. It's very versatile. If you can land one a vintage ADA Flanger would be cool too. If you can afford it, the Fulltone Choralflange sounds awesome. I just prefer the slightly more avant-garde tones of my Boss BF-3. I can get some great vintage tones too.

 

- Other than that, I don't think you really NEED effects in your music. Unless you play solos, a wah is kind of useless. I don't even use one, and I consider myself very much a soloist. I don't see a point in synths or ring mods either unless you're planning on rewriting the X-Files soundtrack. Maybe other people have a different opinion on this.

Shut up and play.
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Originally posted by revolead:

I don't see a point in synths or ring mods either unless you're planning on rewriting the X-Files soundtrack.

ROFLMAO!!! :D

 

What Revo said...and you don't need a wah unless you're doing a lot of funk, or porn movie soundtracks... :eek: Seriously, let the kind of stuff dictate what pedals you buy. Ferinstance...I don't do any thrashcore or shred stuff, I'm more blues influenced, so a simple overdrive to boost my solos and give 'em a bit more bite works for me. So, I use an Ibanez Tube Screamer rather than a Death-Metal Pedal. I do use a chorus once in awhile, so I've got one of those. And, since I like a little bit of swampy stuff, I've got a Boss tremolo. That's it. Me happy.

"Cisco Kid, was a friend of mine"
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Tedster - If you like trem, check out the Fulltone trem. My neighbor sounds exactly like you in the sense that he's got some overdrives and a chorus and a trem, that's about it. He does mostly blues stuff and seems to be very pleased with many of the boutique pedals he's got. This trem is seriously the most useful trem I've ever seen. I haven't bought a trem simply because I suck at using them. I have one on my DG Stomp and it never gets used.

 

Fulltone SupraTrem

 

BTW - Fulltone Choralflange

Shut up and play.
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Originally posted by revolead:

Unless you play solos, a wah is kind of useless.

What about funky rythm ala "Shaft"? That's an Auto-wah, but the same thing concept wise.

 

Originally posted by revolead:

I don't see a point in synths or ring mods either unless you're planning on rewriting the X-Files soundtrack. Maybe other people have a different opinion on this.

Yes, I do have a different opinion on Ring Mods - You know "Goodby Pork Pie Hat" from Jeff Beck's Wired? Ring Mods are weird, but if you take a little time, you can grab some unusual, but still traditionally oriented sounds.

 

And I don't consider a synth an effect, that's a whole other deal.

 

I think a phaser is a more obvious "effect" than a chorus. A flanger is also more obvious, but has the potential to go ape-shit out of control, too. Chorus can be so subtle as to be beside the point, particularly IMHO in a live situation.

 

A delay will also be useful for overdrive leads, if you dial it in carefully.

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If you've got an amp with more than one input/channel (a la bf/sf Fenders, etc.), or use a little mixer, and effects with stereo/dual outputs, you can experiment with sending a "dry" (uneffected) signal to one input, and a "wet" (effected) signal to the other, and mix 'n' blend to taste.

 

I've gotten good results with flangers and choruses this way before. Often better than the full-on modulation!

 

True "stereo" outputs can be intentionally misused by summing to mono with such inputs or a "Y"-cord. Sometimes nothing happens, or the effect will cancel itself out if out-of-phase; sometimes, though, you can get some cool tones.

Ask yourself- What Would Ren and Stimpy Do?

 

~ Caevan James-Michael Miller-O'Shite ~

_ ___ _ Leprechaun, Esquire _ ___ _

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Originally posted by Caevan O'Shite:

If you've got an amp with more than one input/channel (a la bf/sf Fenders, etc.), or use a little mixer, and effects with stereo/dual outputs, you can experiment with sending a "dry" (uneffected) signal to one input, and a "wet" (effected) signal to the other, and mix 'n' blend to taste.

 

I've gotten good results with flangers and choruses this way before. Often better than the full-on modulation!

 

True "stereo" outputs can be intentionally misused by summing to mono with such inputs or a "Y"-cord. Sometimes nothing happens, or the effect will cancel itself out if out-of-phase; sometimes, though, you can get some cool tones.

Most (but certainly not all) pedals that have "stereo" outputs are actually a "effected" output and a "uneffected" output.

 

You can route one output of such a pedal to one amp and the other to a second amp for a pseudo-stereo effect. I like that sound with some pedals - mostly delays and modulation based effects.

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I wouldn't say that the DL4 would be "all you need." Unless you were a pretty serious delay freak, who wanted a 14 second looper and 13 different delay flavours!

 

It is a great pedal, although I ditched mine eventually because I was really starting to notice a few characteristics to the sound that I just didn't like. Namely the harsh, "digital" sounding repeats and thin bottom end.

 

The stored presets are tricky too because you have to guess where the knobs are set, kinda like starting from scratch every time. Pros? The expression pedal opens up a world of possibilities and the looper is cool.

 

If you're just starting to build some effects. I'd recommend the Boss DD3, a small digital delay which uses an analog chip and sounds much warmer than the DD6, also has a HOLD function which can chop up sections of the repeats and feed them back...very cool and unique feature that you will not find on any other delay pedal, about $100 new.

 

After that? It's all down to your tastes really. I'd suggest a Tremolo pedal because it's not modulation and can be very versatile. Check out www.analogman.com for the modifed Boss TR2 Tremolo. The Boss pedal is good, but suffers from a volume drop when engaged.

 

Mike eliminates this problem and replaces lots of parts to leave you with a very versatile and effective pedal...but I'm biased as Trem is my favourite effect.

 

One other thing to remember is the pedals bypass. With two or three Boss pedals you probably won't notice a difference, but if you intend to have four pedals or more, look for True Bypass because too many Buffered Bypass pedals will choke the response of your guitar.

 

You need to get to a guitar store and get plugged into as many colourful little boxes as you can. This is a great/terrible time to buy pedals because there are so many available!

 

Give us a couple of examples of the players tones you admire and I'm pretty sure someone will know what they're using to get that sound.

 

Best of luck...

 

Tea. :thu:

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Teahead (THE pedal guru),

One other thing to remember is the pedals bypass. With two or three Boss pedals you probably won't notice a difference, but if you intend to have four pedals or more, look for True Bypass because too many Buffered Bypass pedals will choke the response of your guitar.
I think that, if your amp has an EFX loop, an A/B/Y box can (true) bypass the whole EFX string for a clean signal. I'm not quite sure how to do it though.
Gotta' geetar... got the amp. There must be SOMEthing else I... "need".
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Teahead,

I think I'm just about holdin' the phone until blue gets back.
Two gurus *is* better than one :cry::D

 

Hence my skulking about ebay, and my George Dennis "Distorted Mind Rock" for $35.50 :thu:

 

And my soon to come (I hope, blue?) "Super" Fuzz for $56.

Gotta' geetar... got the amp. There must be SOMEthing else I... "need".
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Actually, a wah's not a bad idea. The reason most folks might dissuade someone from using one is that they think it's just for rocking back and forth during solos. Nuh uh, you can do a lot more.

 

Remember, a wah sweeps through bass and treble frequencies, and in the process, does some filtering. That can be useful for emphasizing lines in rhythms, and solos. It can also be used as a boost, focusing on a particular frequency. Most wahs boost the guitar signal slightly when turned on. Definitely not just for rocking back and forth.

 

I don't use my Dunlop wah all the time, and when I do, it usually isn't only for the typically regarded purpose (lately anyway).

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you guys are good eggs. thanks for all the advice. strangely enough i AM planning on doing bad 70's prn style muzak, so i'll just get like 15 wah pedals and hire people to help me obtain the sound i've always DREAMED of! lol. jk.

 

hmm...i'll have to try out the line 6 and that boss one that was mentioned. i'll haul all my gear to guitar center and say, "now look here! i'm gonna hook this up and crank it up super loud, and you're gonna give me a ton of pedals to try out". i'm a guitar center sales rep's dream. then i'll learn one solo and play it repeatedly all day like most GC patrons on saturday afternoons.

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Originally posted by GreeleyEstates:

"strangely enough i AM planning on doing bad 70's prn style muzak, so i'll just get like 15 wah pedals and hire people to help me obtain the sound i've always DREAMED of! lol. jk."

:cool:

 

Here, Greeley, you need one of these:

 

CLONK http://www.musicplayer.com/ubb/icons/icon2.gif http://www.zvex.com/images/newseek.GIF

CLONK http://www.musicplayer.com/ubb/icons/icon2.gif Z. Vex Demo Video

 

CLONK http://www.musicplayer.com/ubb/icons/icon2.gif http://www.zvex.com/images/oosm.jpg

CLONK http://www.musicplayer.com/ubb/icons/icon2.gif Z. Vex Demo Video

 

Originally posted by Dr. Taz:

"Actually, a wah's not a bad idea. The reason most folks might dissuade someone from using one is that they think it's just for rocking back and forth during solos. Nuh uh, you can do a lot more."

You are so right, good Dr. Taz! :cool:

Ask yourself- What Would Ren and Stimpy Do?

 

~ Caevan James-Michael Miller-O'Shite ~

_ ___ _ Leprechaun, Esquire _ ___ _

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Nobody pull any triggers on Seek Wahs and Ooh Wahs just yet! Zach is currently shipping the Ooh Wah 2 to dealers, which has the advantage of returning to step one of the sequence and waiting there until you turn it back on again.

 

This was something, I think, he developed for the Seek Trem because it operates that way. He obviously thought it was a good idea to revise the Ooh Wah design too.

 

Just a heads up! If you've just bought one... :P

 

Tea. :thu:

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