effects pedals

fred432

What guitar effects do people here use? I'm looking out for something new. The boss pedals always do a good job but do any of the other cheaper brands come anywhere close. Anything good in the racks or boards?

rcaz

Here's my board as it was a few weeks ago;



As far as cheaper brands go, a lot (maybe even all, I don't know for sure) of the Behringer pedals are just clones of other well-known pedals. The VD-400 delay is apparently a great copy of the Boss DM-2/3, the Vintage Distortion is a Big Muff clone (I've heard one guy say he even prefers his to his real Big Muff). Danelectro also do great cheaper pedals. Electro Harmonix are a little more expensive, but I think they're one of the VERY few music companies that are both pushing the envelope (and they really are doing that) and keeping prices reasonable. Also, check out Made By Mike, affordable and very well-regarded clones.

I would say, however, that your pedal buying shouldn't be at all based on brands. Decide what sounds you'd like to get, find out what kind of pedal you need to get it, and then see who makes those pedals. Sound is the most important thing, not the name on the box!

Don't know much about racks. By 'boards', do you mean multi-effect units? If so, I don't like them at all. They take away all the flexibility and the modular nature of a proper pedal board that I love so much. And, though this is a generalisation so YMMV, they won't do any effect as 'well' as a dedicated pedal.

-=al=-

shops are gettin better at stocking pedals so lots to try out + the good ole web gave us access to the best of the best pedals and all sortsa jazz, personally i havnt bought a pedal in this country in a long time, but i know what i like and happy with my setup... proguitarshop have tonnes of videos on pretty much everything

Forest Master

fred432 wrote: »

What guitar effects do people here use? I'm looking out for something new. The boss pedals always do a good job but do any of the other cheaper brands come anywhere close. Anything good in the racks or boards?

Only a wah, which I use sparingly. I try not to hide behind effects.

Bootsy.

I use:

- ProCo Deucetone Rat. By far my favorite distortion pedal. It's got four Rat pedals in one, and two channels.
http://ratdistortion.com/products/deucetonerat/.

- Fender FDR-1, '65 Reverb Deluxe amp sim pedal. Decent enough. Nothing to get too excited about. Really good tremelo, poor reverb. I use it mostly as a boost or sometimes leave it turned on all the time with a bit of gain.
http://www.roland.com/products/en/FDR-1/

- Danelectro Dan Echo delay pedal. A really excellent delay pedal.
http://www.guitargeek.com/gearview/103/


I'm starting a new funk-style band so I need a wah! I'm going for a Fulltone Clyde Deluxe, as far as I'm concerned, the bee knees of wahs. Expensive though. If anyone is selling one let me know.
http://www.fulltone.com/CDW.asp
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qbqn8-GmQwU

I'm also looking for a EHX Microsynth. Again, if anyone is selling, let me know.
http://www.ehx.com/products/micro-synthesizer

With these two and a good fuzz, I'll be all set. A Whammy would be great too!

By the way, 'boutique', hand-made pedals are usually well worth the extra few quid over a Boss etc.

rcaz

Bootsy. wrote: »

By the way, 'boutique', hand-made pedals are usually well worth the extra few quid over a Boss etc.

Some are very very good (those Earthquaker Devices spring to mind! :eek:), but you could just as easily fall into a total 'premier pricing' scam. Over €300 for a Fuzz Factory, which is just a modded Fuzz Face, $150 for a Death By Audio Total Sonic Annihilation (a feedback loop you could build with no previous electronics experience and €20 worth of parts)... Let the buyer beware!

Forest Master wrote: »

I try not to hide behind effects.

Hmm, a lot of people seem to think playing with lots of pedals is 'hiding' behind effects. I think it's quite the opposite. Anyone can play the guitar, and so many people just reach for the same gear that so many other musicians play, and copy their playing - not many people try to look for a new or interesting sound. And yet the ones who go out looking for new ways of doing things and try to move away from mundane guitar sounds get called out as 'hiding'. :rolleyes:

Funkfield

El Pr0n wrote: »

Hmm, a lot of people seem to think playing with lots of pedals is 'hiding' behind effects. I think it's quite the opposite. Anyone can play the guitar, and so many people just reach for the same gear that so many other musicians play, and copy their playing - not many people try to look for a new or interesting sound. And yet the ones who go out looking for new ways of doing things and try to move away from mundane guitar sounds get called out as 'hiding'. :rolleyes:

+1

Innovate, don't replicate.

By whatever means

Seziertisch

El Pr0n wrote: »

Some are very very good (those Earthquaker Devices spring to mind! :eek:), but you could just as easily fall into a total 'premier pricing' scam. Over €300 for a Fuzz Factory, which is just a modded Fuzz Face, $150 for a Death By Audio Total Sonic Annihilation (a feedback loop you could build with no previous electronics experience and €20 worth of parts)... Let the buyer beware!

http://www.guitarguitar.co.uk/pedals_s.asp?brandname=ZVEX

The cheapest (non-American) place I've found selling ZVEX. As for the Fuzz Factory being a modded Fuzz Face, this is true, but the same can be said for most other fuzz pedals taking inspiration from other sources. The Fuzz Factory is also one of the most versatile fuzz pedals I have played. It can do lots of different regular fuzz sounds as well as being capable of getting completely over the top.

rcaz

Seziertisch wrote: »

http://www.guitarguitar.co.uk/pedals_s.asp?brandname=ZVEX

The cheapest (non-American) place I've found selling ZVEX. As for the Fuzz Factory being a modded Fuzz Face, this is true, but the same can be said for most other fuzz pedals taking inspiration from other sources. The Fuzz Factory is also one of the most versatile fuzz pedals I have played. It can do lots of different regular fuzz sounds as well as being capable of getting completely over the top.

Forgot about the Vexter ones when I posted that They're really cool, without a doubt, I'd definitely find a use for one, but it has no low end.

Of course, pedals are derived from others all the time, but there's 'taking inspiration from' and then there's 'replacing fixed components with variable ones, hand-painting it and charging a bomb for it'. The Vexters are probably exempt from this though.
I have a bit of a problem with that side of the 'boutique' market.

Seziertisch

El Pr0n wrote: »

Forgot about the Vexter ones when I posted that They're really cool, without a doubt, I'd definitely find a use for one, but it has no low end.

Of course, pedals are derived from others all the time, but there's 'taking inspiration from' and then there's 'replacing fixed components with variable ones, hand-painting it and charging a bomb for it'. The Vexters are probably exempt from this though.
I have a bit of a problem with that side of the 'boutique' market.

Yeah, the low end thing makes it kind of unsuitable for bass, but for guitar I haven't really found it to be an issue. With something like a Big Muff, in a live situation you usually need to eq off low end to get it to cut through, and even then it can be just too muddy depending on the guitar/amp and the quality of the PA. In the studio it is usually standard practice when recording guitars in a band setting that there is a pretty extreme roll off below 50-100 hz. Seeing as the Fuzz Factory is bass shy it just means that it requires less high pass filtering to get it to sit.

As for the cost, you are as much paying for the hand painted work of art as the pedal. I think its good they offer both options.

Sandvich

Hmm, a lot of people seem to think playing with lots of pedals is 'hiding' behind effects.

This. I HATE this school of thought, because the same guy that says this goes off and plays some SRV "licks" through his "Sweet" Fender Princeton reverb while letting the "tone" come from "His fingers". Those kind of guys drive me nuts.

As fun as it is to make fun of the Edge, I think what he does is better than a lot of generic blues/metal/classic rock ****. Like Daniel Ash says, some guitarists have no interests in showing how well they can run up and down a scale. Ash often played 8-bar blues during warm ups, but wouldn't play anything like that live.

rcaz

Seziertisch wrote: »

Yeah, the low end thing makes it kind of unsuitable for bass, but for guitar I haven't really found it to be an issue. With something like a Big Muff, in a live situation you usually need to eq off low end to get it to cut through, and even then it can be just too muddy depending on the guitar/amp and the quality of the PA. In the studio it is usually standard practice when recording guitars in a band setting that there is a pretty extreme roll off below 50-100 hz. Seeing as the Fuzz Factory is bass shy it just means that it requires less high pass filtering to get it to sit.

I bet they wouldn't suit bass at all, but there's still so much lost on guitar. A Big Muff is tons more useful than a Fuzz Factory - you can always roll off the bass on a Big Muff, but you can't turn it up on a FF. I don't think you should choose your gear to suit a studio practice.

Sandvich

The Fuzz Factory has this "cheesy" effect on it too you can't turn off. When I listen to older tracks I've done with it, it sounds too much like a Kazoo through a mobile phone.

Seziertisch

El Pr0n wrote: »

I bet they wouldn't suit bass at all, but there's still so much lost on guitar. A Big Muff is tons more useful than a Fuzz Factory - you can always roll off the bass on a Big Muff, but you can't turn it up on a FF. I don't think you should choose your gear to suit a studio practice.

I've owned and used a number of Big Muffs (and clones, copies, variations thereof) and I would be slow to say that they are tons more useful than the Fuzz Factory. Different, yes, more useful, no. Big Muffs tend to have huge low end, which means that your sound tends to get lost when playing with bass and drums. The Fuzz Factory tends to naturally cut through more.

Off the top of my head, Matt Bellamy from Muse and J Mascis from Dinosaur Jr. both use the Fuzz Factory as (one of their) their main distortion/fuzz tones. I haven't noticed any particular lack of body or fullness to either of their sounds.

As for a studio practice, high passing is a general rule of thumb for electric guitars, either in the studio or playing live. The Fuzz Factory has its own high pass filtering going on, but not so extreme that it sounds thin. The only time I could foresee this being an issue is if someone were playing on their own and looking for a really full sound.

Seziertisch

Sandvich wrote: »

The Fuzz Factory has this "cheesy" effect on it too you can't turn off. When I listen to older tracks I've done with it, it sounds too much like a Kazoo through a mobile phone.

What guitar/amp were you using? How was it miked?

Sandvich

Seziertisch wrote: »

What guitar/amp were you using? How was it miked?

I don't remember to be honest. But I've used it with several different amps since and it's had the same effect.

rcaz

Seziertisch wrote: »

I've owned and used a number of Big Muffs (and clones, copies, variations thereof) and I would be slow to say that they are tons more useful than the Fuzz Factory. Different, yes, more useful, no. Big Muffs tend to have huge low end, which means that your sound tends to get lost when playing with bass and drums. The Fuzz Factory tends to naturally cut through more.

My Big Muff can get plenty trebly for my needs. Part of the reason I love it is the huge low end - makes a great texture underneath my band's other guitar and bass.

I really don't care for Matt Bellamy's guitar playing, and I HATE the whole "squeel on the Fuzz Factory for a while" part of Plug In Baby (actually, I think that's 'hiding' behind an effect). And isn't J. Mascis one of the biggest Big Muff users going? This is his collection:

Seziertisch

El Pr0n wrote: »

My Big Muff can get plenty trebly for my needs. Part of the reason I love it is the huge low end - makes a great texture underneath my band's other guitar and bass.

I really don't care for Matt Bellamy's guitar playing, and I HATE the whole "squeel on the Fuzz Factory for a while" part of Plug In Baby (actually, I think that's 'hiding' behind an effect). And isn't J. Mascis one of the biggest Big Muff users going? This is his collection:

Yeah, horses for courses really. Though if I remember correctly you are also a big Nels Cline fan, afaik the Fuzz Factory is the only fuzz he uses (at least on his live board). As for Matt Bellamy, I ain't a fan either, but his tone definitely isn't thin.

I'm not even sure what a Big Muff is supposed to sound like in the flesh, I have used the black Russian and the US reissues, as well as boutique clones of the original and the green Russian one. They all sound quite different. Swapping between them you would not even know that they were necessarily supposed to be essentially the same circuit.

Seziertisch

Sandvich wrote: »

I don't remember to be honest. But I've used it with several different amps since and it's had the same effect.

You've used it with several guitars and amps, but can't remember what they were? I know from my own experience that problems with nasty frequencies with fuzz pedals are usually down to the amp and speaker being used.

rcaz

Seziertisch wrote: »

Yeah, horses for courses really. Though if I remember correctly you are also a big Nels Cline fan, afaik the Fuzz Factory is the only fuzz he uses (at least on his live board). As for Matt Bellamy, I ain't a fan either, but his tone definitely isn't thin.

I'm not even sure what a Big Muff is supposed to sound like in the flesh, I have used the black Russian and the US reissues, as well as boutique clones of the original and the green Russian one. They all sound quite different. Swapping between them you would not even know that they were necessarily supposed to be essentially the same circuit.

Nels has (or at least had, his own site is way out of date) a Fulltone '69 too. He uses the fuzz factory mostly for its self-oscillation (rolling his volume knob up and down to change the note of the oscillation and then using the whammy pedal after it), I'm not sure how much he uses it for 'traditional' fuzz though. Like i said, I'd definitely find a use for a ff, I'd probably do some Nels-copying with one.

Good point about the Big Muff, it seems like 'big muff' is used to describe any big bassy fuzz that doesn't oscillate sometimes.

Sandvich

Seziertisch wrote: »

You've used it with several guitars and amps, but can't remember what they were? I know from my own experience that problems with nasty frequencies with fuzz pedals are usually down to the amp and speaker being used.

Well, I would have used it with my Roland Microcube and Vox DA5, as well as my ZT Lunchbox, Vox AD30VT, and probably my Vox AC4. Pretty sure I've used it through other people's amps too. Most of those amps are pretty small, but you shouldn't need a bit amp for it to sound good.

Sandvich

El Pr0n wrote: »

My Big Muff can get plenty trebly for my needs. Part of the reason I love it is the huge low end - makes a great texture underneath my band's other guitar and bass.

I really don't care for Matt Bellamy's guitar playing, and I HATE the whole "squeel on the Fuzz Factory for a while" part of Plug In Baby (actually, I think that's 'hiding' behind an effect). And isn't J. Mascis one of the biggest Big Muff users going? This is his collection:

I think Matt Bellamy is pretty good, I don't mind the squeel at all, it kinda gets you riled up.

He actually rarely uses the FF though, he mostly uses his Marshalls.

rcaz

Sandvich wrote: »

I think Matt Bellamy is pretty good, I don't mind the squeel at all, it kinda gets you riled up.

It annoys me the way it's so aimless, just noise to fill a gap while he poses. I thought it was cool when I first heard it, then I realised there are way better guys who use weird noised to much better effect and can actually put their noises in context.

Sandvich

I suppose yeah but I think you can fall into the trap of thinking it needs a context. It was just a cheesy "tuning in the radio to the song" effect and I think it works well in the context and feel of the ablum.

Seziertisch

Sandvich wrote: »

Well, I would have used it with my Roland Microcube and Vox DA5, as well as my ZT Lunchbox, Vox AD30VT, and probably my Vox AC4. Pretty sure I've used it through other people's amps too. Most of those amps are pretty small, but you shouldn't need a bit amp for it to sound good.

There's your answer. Non-tube amps (for the most part) with smaller speakers. The shortcomings you are hearing are the amps and not the pedal. In particular I have found modelling amps to be particularly unsuited to any kind of dirt pedal.

Sandvich

The AC4 is an all tube amp, and it has plenty of bass response for a 10" speaker.

To be honest it's not much better at taking pedals than my modeler was. The Microcube is good at taking pedals but has a tiny speaker. Keep in mind using those amps I was recording direct out, so speakers didn't really matter.

Usually the problem with modelers is that they get too muddy with distortion - not too sterile. It's not the 90s anymore.

Seziertisch

DI'd fuzz guitar won't give particularly pleasing results in most cases. Even with amp modelling and speaker simulations it is more than likely going to have too much fizz.

Sandvich

Seziertisch wrote: »

DI'd fuzz guitar won't give particularly pleasing results in most cases. Even with amp modelling and speaker simulations it is more than likely going to have too much fizz.

I don't know what modellers you've tried. Often with modelers the problem is that they overcompensate for the fizz and round everything off too much. The PODs are a good example of this as they aim for a very "Produced" sound out of the box - one reason why it can be awkward using them live.

The Valvetronix stuff can get a bit fizzy but it depends which setting you have it on.

Seziertisch

Sandvich wrote: »

I don't know what modellers you've tried. Often with modelers the problem is that they overcompensate for the fizz and round everything off too much. The PODs are a good example of this as they aim for a very "Produced" sound out of the box - one reason why it can be awkward using them live.

The Valvetronix stuff can get a bit fizzy but it depends which setting you have it on.

The modeller isn't the source of the fizz, the pedal is. Otherwise, the big problem with modellers is the lack of body to the sound. It is like a photo of a sound as opposed to the sound itself.

The POD is particularly bad, fine for jamming at home but otherwise fairly unusable. I know a number of mix engineers (both live and studio) that groan inwardly when they are given POD guitar sounds to work with.

Either way, you want to hear what your Fuzz Factory can do, plug it into a tube amp with a good 10 or 12 inch speaker. When Zachary Vex designed it, he tested it through tube amps and voiced it accordingly. As I said before, if a reputable fuzz pedal isn't delivering the goods, the problem is elsewhere. Owing to the nature of fuzz it can easily accentuate problem frequencies resulting from eleswhere in your set up.

Sandvich

But like I said - most modelers filter out that fizz to compensate for their own fizz.

When Zachary Vex designed it, he tested it through tube amps and voiced it accordingly.

It's not good just because it's a boutique pedal and Zvex designed it.

It's not even "fizz" that's the problem - it's the voicing of the pedal in general.

Seziertisch

Sandvich wrote: »

But like I said - most modelers filter out that fizz to compensate for their own fizz.



It's not good just because it's a boutique pedal and Zvex designed it.

It's not even "fizz" that's the problem - it's the voicing of the pedal in general.

You've used it with small modelling amps for the most part. This is not how it was intended to be used. The pedal is not voiced for such an application nor are modelling amps voiced to take dirt pedals. Unlike a tube amp, overdriving the input does not cause the amp to compress more. Furthermore, I can't imagine that any of the amps you mentioned come with what could be called a great speaker, functional at best I would say. Cheaper guitar speakers can have unpleasant frequency characteristics that certain pedals/amps just exacerbate.

In terms of the how good the Fuzz Factory is, quite literally Zachary Vex went around from city to city presenting the pedal at various guitar shops. Most places said it was cool, but they couldn't really see it selling. Eventually an employee at one place in New York came after him and asked him to sell him one privately (after saying that he wasn't interested in taking an order for the shop). This one guy showed it to someone else he knew who also wanted one and it took off from there. Supposedly Kirk Hammett from Metallica played one and was so impressed with it that he bought all of the Fuzz Factories that the shop had in stock, saying he wanted to use it on the record he was in the middle of recording (either Load or Re-load) and didn't want someone else to beat him to getting a recording of it out there. If you go onto Wikipedia and look at all the names that own/use the Fuzz Factory, you will see the names of some of the best guitarists out there, guys that have great tone, who don't seem to have any issues with the voicing of the pedal.