What effects pedals should I get?

Though the easiest way to fatten up the sound of a three-piece is actually to use two amps in stereo, with two different sets of effects pedals on them.

That's how we solved the 3-piece dilemma.

I'm not a big fan of compression.

I have a dinky Digitech multi-effects box (RP100), but its effects sound a bit chilly and fake to my ear. It's useful as a tuner or for headphone-limited practice situations. Also situations when I don't know what manner of amp I'll be plugging into and want a simple all-in-one solution.

i've, semi-casually, studied classical guitar for about four years now. i just put it aside to play around with some rock guitar lessons. i'd like to buy a pedal-box, if that's the right term, to experiment with different things, e.g., delay, distortion, echo, other stuff i know but can't name. i'm bewildered by the number of choices and options, made worse by the fact that many of these pieces are bought piecemeal. i have no mechanical, put-it-together skills, so the piecemeal route is a virtually impossible path for me.

any recommendations for an all-in-one pedal box (with simple setup; guitar to box, box to amp), if such a thing exists, would be greatly appreciated.

all in one pedal boxes and multieffects usually sound like shit, and won't give you a good impression of what it's like to use an effects unit to manipulate and flavour your guitar sound. i think you're best off buying some cheap pedals to begin with, so that you don't have to flick through scroll through menus, which are unpleasant.

behringer make basic, decent stompboxes for about £20 each, they go a little up and down in price but you know. they're imitations of boss pedals, which are pretty much identical circuitry in a more robust housing. i've had plenty of fun with these cheap pedals and they can help you understand what each effect does before you go spending lots of money on better sounding more expensive equipment. they all have a similar layout so nothing is too confusing too, they aren't really instruction manual material.

http://www.behringer.com/EN/Products/

also if you buy something like a pedal power pack/daisychain power link, you can power all the pedals off the same plug, saving both electricity and money for batteries and shit.

http://www.andertons.co.uk/power-supplies/pid9393/cid591/powerbank-dc9x-10-way-fx-pedal-power-supply.asp

hope that was useful enough,

any recommendations for bass distortion pedals? Something that I can get a good grindy midrange heavy distortion out of, preferably with a blend control, and hopefully not too expensive?

oh shit i have student loans

Bass big muff is awesome.

cool, I like the regular Big Muff + the bass one is def. in my price range, I'll check it out

slightly digressive pedal-related question:

I have a DOD stompbox and one of the nuts on the input jack broke off. I should just be able to run down to homedepot and pick up a 1/4" nut to replace it with, right?

If its a switchcraft #11 it should be a 3/8 and 32 tpi.

It def won't be 1/4" because that's the interior dimension - also you best bet might be a guitar store because that's a pretty odd thread taper and the nuts at home depot etc will prob be too thick. If the guitar store dude is stupid and says they don't have it, just buy the whole jack, shouldn't be more than $1.25

i'm looking at fuzz pedals. looking around for stuff like take flight goose fuzz and the fairfield circuitry four eyes fuzz, which have really cool features i don't see on a lotta pedals, but...idk about how they sound. :\

Thanks jjj.

xp
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4iGSQEenN6s
HOLY SHIT!!!

"guitar phonograph simulator"

why

xpost yeah that thing is awesome. my only objection is it seems a little dry? i'm thinking i could work with it but idk

It needs a touch more treble for my tastes. Their 'Randy's Revenge' ring mod sounds incredible. Most guitar-centric ring mods are little more than novelty effects, but the RR sounds really usable.

xp re: 'guitar phonograph' this is the one time I'll say it, but that could be done by a VST plugin - specifically iZotope Vinyl.

I'd probably pick the Goose though.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w5zTl61qv3E
The craziness seems a bit more under control, but can be dialed in when required. Currently out of production though.

Also it can seemingly do drive/od/octave effects more easily/predicatably.

And I'm guessing that the 'dry' sound of the Four Eyes is because of the JFET gain stages tending to emphasise harmonics other than the 2nd.
http://www.geofex.com/Article_Folders/foolwfets/foolwfets.htm

Annnnnnnnnnnd that's nearly an hour spent just reading about fuzz pedals. I swear that those things can be like an addiction. Heaven help anyone who gets into building their own - breadboarding fuzz circuits really chews up time, and unlike sitting around noodling on a guitar, usually there isn't even a song or riff to show for it!

yeah there's a goose staring at me on ebay me with a $150 price tag and i'm debating whether i should snag it or not. really i just want a bee baa + extra crazy knobs.

i've always wanted to dig into building pedals but i don't even have time for noodlilng on guitars anymore between school and work so that will probably just...never happen. (class was cancelled today or i wouldn't be on ilx at all).

lemme check with my pedal building dude and see if he has a moddable bee baa circuit in his bag of tricks

!!

YES DO THAT

We may have ideas for you, if you are in the cities tomorrow call me at work

so here are the things we came up with that we could do

base circuit options:
bee baa clone
systech harmonic energizer
interfax harmonic percolator
modded fuzz factoryish thing

but to add some crazy we were thinking we could pretty easily either add a LDR (light dependent resistor/magic eye) in place of any of the otherwise knob based controls, or maybe a switchable feedback looper for a different kinda crazy

any thoughts?

we had fun getting all mad scientist and cooking up that list today btw

for readymade stuff we do have 3 fuzz pedals already done and in the case, two variants of a one knob fuzz with switchable diode in/out (only diff is that one is silicon ($60) and one is germanium($70)) and a very slightly tweaked woolly mammothy thing which i think sounds pretty awes ($80)

all in plain box dimo labeled because hand painted is some bullshit imo

My local guitar shop totally ripped me off on that 1/4" jack btw. I shoulda just amazon'd it, but I was already in there. Wish I was more of a dickering guy. Anyway, I finally got the nut. You were right about HD not having the part.

The douchenozzle guit shop clerk:

http://www.baytunesguitars.com/proaudio/Images/Jeff_1.jpg

And they sell PRS guitars? Take heed of the warning signs!

It is located next to my grocery store and therefore hard to resist popping in there when I need like, a 6" patch cord or 3 guitar picks or something.

Plus, I'm sure every shop in town sells PRS as they are hq'd in the next county over.

"guitar phonograph simulator"

why

― arby's, Friday, February 3, 2012 10:10 AM

i too would like to understand this. like, it's a super cool pedal, but in what scenario, live or studio, would i want that effect on just my guitar track?

From the youtube, it doesn't simulate crackle very well at all.

i have kind of a tenuous idea of what feedback loopers really do, no idea what they do built directly into a fuzz. i've never messed w/ one personally, and i only ever see noize dudes with nine other pedals connected and i'm not sure what i'd wind up with it built directly into harmonic percolator or bee baa?

re: the LDRs, so, i would be controlling a tone knob or something the same you might an optical theremin? i can see fun things here but maybe much functionality in live situations where my pedals are on the ground and i have two hands on a guitar?

for the base circuit i'm leaning toward the bee baa or the harmonic percolator. and shit i could use a harmonic energizer clone crazy mods or no.

When I was in third or fourth grade, we all gathered in the cafeteria for a puppet show about the dangers of drugs. The lead female puppet was a singer with a beautiful voice who wanted to sing in some talent show or something, but I think she was worried that she'd blow it. So this other puppet knows just the way to help her win - by cheating using an effects pedal - The Phaaaaaaase Shifter. She can't get enough of The Phase Shifter and she keeps dialing the knobs until it makes her sound really weird. I think in the end, she develops the courage to be herself and sing with her own natural, unmodulated voice and she wins the talent show.

A few years later in high school, I started smoking pot and eating acid, but I've always steered clear of phasers.

phasers + feedback imo

see also waylon

sorry been really busy, ummm. on my lunch break here. def leaning toward bee baa + feedback looper but still open to most any crazy shit tbh. most likely going to be in mpls on wednsday night? um. oookay class...