Favourite guitar effects pedal?

27 Sep 2016

I have a ZOOM 508 Delay (has various delay effects) that I love to play around with. Not sure it has the durability for serious players but its fun as fuck. One piece of advice: if you are serious about learning guitar buy an acoustic and learn to play without electronics. Or fuck it...buy a Gibson, a big ass amp and ROCK THE FUCK OUT!!!!
Incidentally...I have a wooden flute handmade by an Iroquois...with a mike and digital delay it sounds like echoes from outer space...

Some great advice above, check out everything in your local guitar shop and experiment...

The Cellist: Glissando | Lush Stories

30 Sep 2016

not sure what the difference btwn fuzz and distortion is. edumacate me? smile

You can’t truly call yourself peaceful unless you are capable of violence. If you’re not capable of violence, you’re not peaceful. You’re harmless.

1 Oct 2016

from a technical perspective there is a difference in the shape of the sound waves, fuzz sound waves are flatter than distortion, you might describe fuzz as heavier distortion; incidentally fuzz was used heavily by Seattle grunge bands, you might think of distortion as that classic hard rock guitar sound but the variations and effects used are practically infinite....I'm guessing the serious musicians on here will correct my inability to explain...or inaccuracies

Wait til you discover the E-bow...

edumacate--or did you mean this? spank

The Cellist: Glissando | Lush Stories

1 Oct 2016

Quote by sprite
not sure what the difference btwn fuzz and distortion is. edumacate me?

Fuzz sounds a bit as if the snaredrum, or anything else, is resonating with your guitar.

The earliest recording of a true fuzz sound is that of Grady Martin's guitar intermezzo and outro in Marty Robbins' Don't Worry (1961), which was caused by a faulty preamp. The intermezzo starts at 1m26s:

Grady Martin later that year recorded a lovely laid-back instrumental gem based on that effect: The Fuzz. The Ventures then came with a fuzz sound in 1962, based on Martin's: The 2,000 Pound Bee Part I, which had a lot more overtones, and Part II, which was a bit closer to Martin's. From then on fuzz became the sound of the 60's with many brands offering stompboxes.

A famous fuzz anecdote is how Dave Davies cut the cones of his speaker with a razor blade to get the fuzz sound on The Kinks' You Really Got Me.
Another well known fuzz sound is that of the Stones' (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction. And a more recent example is the fuzz bass on Muse's Hysteria.

And no, I'm not a walking encyclopedia, but I find this an interesting subject, and while I was looking for the exact story about the slashing of the speaker cones (that one I knew) I found all the rest of this info on this nice Wikipedia article about overdrive/distortion/fuzz.

=== Not ALL LIVES MATTER until BLACK LIVES MATTER ===

1 Oct 2016

Quote by sprite
not sure what the difference btwn fuzz and distortion is. edumacate me?

This is a pretty good video I found on Youtube. :)

The guy covers:

Chorus
Phaser
Flanger
Tremolo
Vibrato
Wah-wah
Delay/Echo
Reverb
Overdrive/Distortion
Noise gate
Acoustic Simulator

@Lizerotica

1 Oct 2016

Quote by Liz
This is a pretty good video I found on Youtube.

Thx. A nice reference to distinguish Phasers and Flangers. I know the different sounds, but never know which one is which. Like how many guitarists mix up tremolo and vibrato. I used to have a Fender Twin Reverb amp in the past that had a tremolo effect built in which was named Vibrato. And there are of course the whammy bars on guitars that are (mainly) used for vibrato, which are called tremolo bars.

Tremolo and Vibrato

=== Not ALL LIVES MATTER until BLACK LIVES MATTER ===

1 Oct 2016

Quote by sprite

gee, i don't know, Seattle might have a local music shop... a few things. The Donner Party was notorious for getting lost int the snow and eating each other back in 1980... or 1880... or a long time ago. i have to assume that anyone naming effect peddles after a family that ate their young has to be good. Also, Donner was the name of one of Santa's reindeer - they also called him 'The Executioner' (it's best you don't ask, i kind of like you and don't want you to suffer the same fate as Rudolf "Big Red" Guilianni). and umm... what are barre chords? are they like bar chords? lol - is that an english spelling or am i just clueless?

btw, how do you know i am not already a sexy rock goddess who can play longer and better! i'll have you know that i know 6 chords already - that's 3 more than Johnny Ramone! in 4 days, i am already better than the greatest guitar player who ever lived. oh, and yeah, thanks for the advice. i have the regular slinky ones. they came in a neon packet so i can find them in the dark, i think...

Hey, don't be dissin' Johnny Ramone. He knew at least 4 or 5 Chords but only needed 3!

2 Oct 2016

Quote by Nikki703

Hey, don't be dissin' Johnny Ramone. He knew at least 4 or 5 Chords but only needed 3!

which part of 'greatest guitar player ever' didn't you get? flower

You can’t truly call yourself peaceful unless you are capable of violence. If you’re not capable of violence, you’re not peaceful. You’re harmless.

2 Oct 2016

just ordeded these: Embarassed

i'll let you know how it goes. excited!

You can’t truly call yourself peaceful unless you are capable of violence. If you’re not capable of violence, you’re not peaceful. You’re harmless.

3 Oct 2016

Quote by sprite
just ordeded these:

i'll let you know how it goes. excited!

Nice. :)

So, the Mooer Reecho is a digital delay and the Biyang pedal is a fuzz box? You should have some fun with those!

Don't forget you'll need a 9v power adapter for the Mooer. Unlike the larger stompboxes it doesn't have a compartment for a battery. Hopefully it will come with one.

Let us know how you get on.

@Lizerotica

3 Oct 2016

Quote by Liz

Nice.

So, the Mooer Reecho is a digital delay and the Biyang pedal is a fuzz box? You should have some fun with those!

Don't forget you'll need a 9v power adapter for the Mooer. Unlike the larger stompboxes it doesn't have a compartment for a battery. Hopefully it will come with one.

Let us know how you get on.

i ordered a 9v power supply too, cause i'm smart like that. of course, the mooer showed up today and the power supply won't be here until tomorrow, so,.. and damn, it's like sprite size, even, which is SO cool! biggrin

You can’t truly call yourself peaceful unless you are capable of violence. If you’re not capable of violence, you’re not peaceful. You’re harmless.

3 Oct 2016

Quote by sprite

which part of 'greatest guitar player ever' didn't you get?

Thought you were being sarcastic. My Bad!!!!

But if you want to play like Johnny, you really just need a Mosrite Ventures II, a lot of heart and a bad attitude!! From what I remember from the many times I saw the Ramones, I don't think he was big into effects, LOL!! Hey Ho!!!

6 Oct 2016

Well, I guess it took a thread about guitars to briefly make me come out of my cyber-hybernation. Hello y'all, how have you been?

I've noticed that multi-effects pedals/processors are rather underrepresented in this thread, so I thought I'd chime in. I personally use a Digitech GSP-21 Pro as my preamp/processor and I've got absolutely everything I need in a single unit. This model is quite dated (mid 90s), but I can still get an almost unlimited amount of sounds out of it, most of which sounding pretty darn great. I'd say that the overdrives/distortions are its most lacking feature, but then again overdrives/distortions are usually the element that's most difficult to get 'just right' in about any amp setup; unless you can manage to overdrive a tube-amp by cranking the gain/volume to excessive levels (which is what real guitar distortion essentially is), chances are your distortion won't sound 100% genuine/organic anyway. And let's face it, the majority of us aren't really allowed to rock our guitar at loud concert hall levels.

In any case, for those who plan on investing in many different effects, multi-effects are by the far the best bang for your buck: plenty of great ones are available in the $150-250 price range. They basically all incorporate every effect that you can think of in a single unit: compressor, distortion, flanger, equalizer, chorus, delay, reverb, noise gate. Many of them also include a tuner and a built-in expression pedal, if you ever feel like messing around with pitches or wah-wahs. Considering that individual pedals cost around $100 on average, you'd have to invest nearly $1,000 to have access to that many effects.

You can also still use your favorite pedals along with most of these units, if your main gear already provides your 'signature sound' and you just want to occasionally tweak it with a few chorus/delays/reverbs. Many of them come with 'effect send' and 'effect return' sockets to create an effects loop, or you could just plug your pedals before your multi-effects unit. For example if you've already got your distortion set right with your pedals/amps, you could simply use the many presets of the multi-effects processor while disabling its own internal distortion.

I'd say that the main drawback of multi-effects units is that tweaking every little parameter of your chain of effects can be quite a bit more strenuous than on a regular pedalboard. With a full pedalboard you have every knob/switch readily available for adjustment, but with a multi-effects unit you usually have to navigate through a tiny digital interface. I just tested this on my own processor, and with a long chain of effects enabled I had to press 46 times on the 'right arrow' (->) to reach the last parameter; quite a pain in the ass when you simply want to reduce your 'multi-tap feedback delay' by 10 milliseconds, haha.

Anyway, they aren't exactly ideal for a live performance setup, but if you simply play at home and want to experiment with many different kinds of sounds, they certainly can provide a whole lot of fun for a relatively low price.

Here's a demo of the Digitech RP360. Guitar Center sells the basic version for $150, or with an added expression pedal for $200. It includes over 125 different effects (32 amps, 18 cabinets, 74 stompboxes). Pretty neat/diversified sounds, especially for such an affordable price:

6 Oct 2016

Here's a demo of the (discontinued) Digitech iPB-10, which addressed the aforementioned 'tweaking your parameters' issue in such an awesome and clever way. You essentially had to incorporate an iPad into it, which is likely why it's been discontinued: the demand for that kind of product probably wasn't high enough to keep it in production. It's still a pretty original and compelling idea though:

6 Oct 2016

Here's my complete gear. I vaguely remember mentioning all of this in a similar thread, but here it is again, complete with pictures.

My cabinets, power-amplifier (left), multi-effects processor with foot-controller (right). Oh, and also my silly cat who, at the least appropriate moment, wanted to demonstrate that rubbing her chin against my cabinets is so much more fun than plugging a guitar into them:

The digital processor is the Digitech GSP-21 Pro, as mentioned above. It's rather dated but it's still being sold used for around $150-200 on Ebay and the likes. It's mountable in a studio-rack, but I simply install it in one of my bookshelves along with my power-amplifier.

The power-amplifier is a Gallien-Krueger ML-P, which is a solid-state amplifier meant to be used with stereo cabinets. 2x60W outputs, or 120W in total; it has two distinct jacks for the left/right output channels (ie. no dubious wire-splitter), and the input is also meant to receive a stereo signal. It's also a true 'power-amplifier' (and not a regular head with a preamp/amp combined), its only function is to amplify the signal of my digital processor to a loud speaker-level. The only available control on it is a 'gain' knob located at the back; this unit controls the amount of power that's sent to my speakers, and it does only that.

The cabinets are two Gallien-Krueger 112 equipped with Celestion G12 Classic Lead 80 speakers. They each have a power rating of 80W, so they're the ideal cabinets to use with my 2x60W power-amplifier; I can pretty much crank the gain of my power-amplifier all the way to the max without risking of damaging my speakers (I never do that though). I put them next to each other to take the above picture, but they're usually placed about 12 feet apart in my apartment to fully take advantage of the stereo effects.

In terms of sound loudness, I usually set the Digitech processor at 2/10 for pre-gain, 5/10 for post-gain, and then leave the Gallien-Krueger power-amp at around 6/10 gain. That's around 13/30 of the maximum power I could use, and it definitely is pretty damn loud. I probably could tear the building apart if I used this gear at full capacity, haha.

I bought all of this gear together for around $1,000 (used) nearly 10 years ago, and never had any issues so far. Gallien-Krueger discontinued their guitar amplifiers in the 90s by the way, so you might have a hard time finding this stuff online. Nowadays they only manufacture bass amplifiers; I know that Flea from the Red Hot Chili Peppers is pretty big on their gear.

These are the kinds of stereo effects that I can create with my digital processor and my two cabinets (among many others). Obviously, listen to it with stereo speakers/headphones to hear the demonstration in stereo:

6 Oct 2016

Here are my guitars. First, my electric babies:

Epiphone Special II (up), Godin SdXt (down). The Godin SdXt is my main guitar, I practically never use the Epiphone. I bought it from a friend for a very low price a few years ago, but that was mostly to accommodate him; the Godin SdXt already provides everything I need in an electric guitar, so I have no real reason to use it. It's a decent/solid guitar (especially for a beginner), but certainly not as good and versatile as my Godin.

You likely noticed the badass pick-guard, which I customized myself with plenty of stickers a short while ago. The whole job took me nearly 3 hours to achieve, I had to remove the pick-guard/pickups and used a scalpel to neatly trim all of the edges/wholes.

Here's a closer look:

Godin is a quality guitar manufacturer based here in Quebec, Canada. I guess there's no reason to hide this information anymore, but yes, I live in Montreal, Canada (and French is my native language if you were wondering). I paid my own Godin around $500-600 nearly 15 years ago, which is a pretty incredible price for a guitar that's fully built in North America. The only other guitars available in this price range were Mexican Stratocasters or Asian Ibanez/Epiphones, which are often hit-or-miss because of their lower standards of quality.

Godin also sells high-end models in the $1,500-2,500 price range, some of which looking pretty fucking gorgeous. I love how they've established this 'natural wood' as their signature look, with plenty of stellar wood patterns:

Godin also has many sub-brands of acoustic guitars (Seagull, Norman, Art & Lutherie, etc.); I own two Seagulls and one Norman myself.

Here are my two main acoustic guitars. Seagull S12+ (up), Seagull S6 CW (down). I play acoustically on the 6-strings 95% of the time, but it's fun to have a 12-strings at hand too for a slightly different sound:

I also have an old nylon-strings guitar (up), and another 12-strings by Norman which I virtually never use (the Seagull is better in just about every way). My father originally bought it and never really got to play with it, so he just gave it to me:

7 Oct 2016

Quote by Liz

Custom Zilla Fatboy 2 x 12 Cab (Celestion Vintage 30 & G12M Creamback)

Hello Liz. wave

Your cabinet is making me curious. Why does it have two different speakers?

Is it to cover a wider spectrum of frequencies? Or to create some sort of chorus?

7 Oct 2016

Quote by sprite
i am the proud owner of a somewhat used Fender Squire electric guitar. it's red and it has slinky strings - i know this, cause i put them on myself. laugh all you want, but i'm pretty excited to join the club. i wrote a song on it already. it's about cats. there need to be more cat songs in the world. so far, no stomp boxes, but i do have a small amp - it's a fender as well.

Hello Sprite. wave

Congrats on the newly acquired guitar. I'm not sure in which state it was when you got it, but if I may propose, I'd highly recommend that you get it nicely adjusted if you find it hard to play; even brand new guitars often need some tweaking when you get them off the store rack. This can be done by a professional for around $60-80, or if it's in a relatively good condition you could simply adjust the height of the strings yourself.

Your Squier most likely has a bridge similar to what's shown below. To adjust the height of each string, you can simply play with the tiny screws that are located on your bridge, exactly like it's shown here:

Ideally the height of your strings should look similar to this at the 12th fret:

And not quite like this:

This makes all the difference in the world when it comes to easily play chords/riffs; even the best guitarists would most certainly suck on a badly adjusted guitar. Optimally, you simply should be 'touching' the strings to play notes, rather than 'pressing' on them. Don't get your strings too low though, or they'll be constantly buzzing on the frets.

If you still can't get it right with the instructions above, a professional could also adjust the nut and the truss rod (ie. the rod that controls the curvature of the neck). I really wouldn't recommend that you do that yourself, even renowned guitarists often have technicians to do that kind of stuff for them. This could permanently damage your guitar, so no, whatever you do don't ever mess around with the truss rod.

Hope this helped and wishing you a whole lot of fun with your new acquisition.

7 Oct 2016

Quote by SereneProdigy
Hello Liz.

Your cabinet is making me curious. Why does it have two different speakers?

Is it to cover a wider spectrum of frequencies? Or to create some sort of chorus?

Howdy, Batman smile

Yes, it's to get a wider frequency spectrum. Both speakers sound slightly different so when playing live, depending on if your set is heavy rock or mainly blues, when you mic up in front of one or the other it changes the sound. Mixing speakers in a single cab can be a nightmare but certain combinations work really well. The Vintage 30 and the Creamback is a tried and test combo which just works.

Multi-driver cabs are definitely the way to go. If you have a speaker which typically has good mids and highs but a soft low end, you could pair that with something like a G12H that has a heavy low-end. They will fill in for each other.

Love your guitars btw. I've played a friend's Godin Passion RG2 which is a lovely instrument.

@Lizerotica

7 Oct 2016

Quote by Liz
Howdy, Batman

Yes, it's to get a wider frequency spectrum. Both speakers sound slightly different so when playing live, depending on if your set is heavy rock or mainly blues, when you mic up in front of one or the other it changes the sound. Mixing speakers in a single cab can be a nightmare but certain combinations work really well. The Vintage 30 and the Creamback is a tried and test combo which just works.

Multi-driver cabs are definitely the way to go. If you have a speaker which typically has good mids and highs but a soft low end, you could pair that with something like a G12H that has a heavy low-end. They will fill in for each other.

Love your guitars btw. I've played a friend's Godin Passion RG2 which is a lovely instrument.

Very cool stuff, I never really ventured into that kind of cabinet customization.

I presumed that it could also offer a slight chorus effect since one of the speakers could potentially 'kick in' before the other at certain frequencies, thus creating a very short delay between the two (and a chorus). I can actually perform something similar with my processor and my two cabinets: I can set an infinitesimal delay between the two channels and it sounds like two guitarists are playing in harmony together with the exact same gear, one on each speaker.

Do you actually play live with that cabinet? And is the back open or closed?

And Godin are fine guitars indeed, I'm actually surprised that you knew about them; I really didn't think that they had that kind of worldwide notoriety. My sister lives near La Patrie where all the bodies/necks are originally crafted and I drive by that factory a few times per year. La Patrie is a tiny village of around 750 people and Godin's factory looks like a local workshop just like any other, you really wouldn't think that internationally renowned guitars are coming from there. Anyway, you give your friend a big hug for encouraging my local economy, haha.

This is a picture of La Patrie, Quebec:

Godin also has a few other workshops where they assemble their guitars however, three in Quebec and one in New Hampshire, USA. My own guitar has "Assembled in the USA from parts hand-crafted in Canada" written on the head.

Here's a tour of their Richmond, Quebec workshop (presented by Robert Godin himself). Very interesting if you ever wondered how electric guitars are actually manufactured:

I especially enjoy the part starting at 6:45, where you can see all the work on the neck/frets. I wonder if substandard guitar facilities in Asia go through all that trouble to check if everything is perfectly leveled... most probably not. I mean, I even encountered crappy guitars where the nut slots weren't evenly spaced, and plenty of others also have sharp fret edges when you move your hand back and forth along the neck.

8 Oct 2016

Quote by SereneProdigy
Very cool stuff, I never really ventured into that kind of cabinet customization.

Actually, I don't get any chorus effect through the cab at all. Not that I've ever noticed anyway. I use a TC Electronics Corona pedal for that. smile

I do play live with the cab. I actually paid a small premium for Zilla to put a three-piece back on it. That way I can use it closed on stage and open back at home. Very handy!

There are quite a lot of music dealers in the UK who sell Godin instruments. I just had a quick look and you can pick them up from Guitar.co.uk, Gear4Music, GuitarGuitar, Thomann... most of the big retailers. Perhaps they've got a bit of a following now.

@Lizerotica

8 Oct 2016

Quote by Liz
There are quite a lot of music dealers in the UK who sell Godin instruments. I just had a quick look and you can pick them up from Guitar.co.uk, Gear4Music, GuitarGuitar, Thomann... most of the big retailers. Perhaps they've got a bit of a following now.

I see them here in the Netherlands as well.

=== Not ALL LIVES MATTER until BLACK LIVES MATTER ===

9 Oct 2016

Quote by Liz
Actually, I don't get any chorus effect through the cab at all. Not that I've ever noticed anyway. I use a TC Electronics Corona pedal for that.

I do play live with the cab. I actually paid a small premium for Zilla to put a three-piece back on it. That way I can use it closed on stage and open back at home. Very handy!

There are quite a lot of music dealers in the UK who sell Godin instruments. I just had a quick look and you can pick them up from Guitar.co.uk, Gear4Music, GuitarGuitar, Thomann... most of the big retailers. Perhaps they've got a bit of a following now.

I believe you concerning the chorus, no worries. That was just me presuming stuff, haha.

I'm quite impressed that you play live with a band. Do you play covers mostly? And from which bands? And what are your favorite stage antics? glasses8

Godin guitars are definitely more widespread than I thought. It's weird because even here in Montreal, our local artists really don't endorse them all that much. You can spot an odd Godin on stage every now and then, but as a general rule our musicians predominantly favor Fenders/Gibsons just like anywhere else. Traditions are definitely hard to break, but it's fun to see that Godin is slowly building a reputation for itself on the international market.

I also briefly checked your Chapman guitar, by the way. Very nice one, it has that simple/vintage look to it, which I love. I remember you mentioning owning a Kramer with a tiger-pattern too, do you still play with that one as well?

10 Oct 2016

Quote by SereneProdigy
I believe you concerning the chorus, no worries. That was just me presuming stuff, haha.

I'm quite impressed that you play live with a band. Do you play covers mostly? And from which bands? And what are your favorite stage antics?

Godin guitars are definitely more widespread than I thought. It's weird because even here in Montreal, our local artists really don't endorse them all that much. You can spot an odd Godin on stage every now and then, but as a general rule our musicians predominantly favor Fenders/Gibsons just like anywhere else. Traditions are definitely hard to break, but it's fun to see that Godin is slowly building a reputation for itself on the international market.

I also briefly checked your Chapman guitar, by the way. Very nice one, it has that simple/vintage look to it, which I love. I remember you mentioning owning a Kramer with a tiger-pattern too, do you still play with that one as well?

I'm in an all-girl rock band called *redacted*. We play a lot of classic rock covers but some original songs as well. Zeppelin, Floyd, AC/DC, Aerosmith, Rolling Stones, U2, Guns N' Roses...

We've got a battle of the bands gig later this month which should be fun. Got a lot of practice to get in first. Embarassed

Glad you like my Chapman - it's a gorgeous guitar. It looks like a fairly classic Tele but really it's a rock machine in disguise. The pickups are actually both humbuckers - Seymour Duncan Hotrails in the neck and a Little '59 in the bridge. I still play my Kramer from time to time as it's got a Floyd Rose floating tremolo.

@Lizerotica

10 Oct 2016

Damn, SP coming out of hibernation with a cross examination.

Videos would put all doubt to rest, just saying. What rocker wouldn't want to show off, especially after putting the name of their band out there?

10 Oct 2016

Quote by Magical_felix
...especially after putting the name of their band out there?

On second thought, I don't think posting that was such a good idea.

@Lizerotica

10 Oct 2016

Quote by Liz

On second thought, I don't think posting that was such a good idea.

Her band's name was Grab em by the Pussy. If anyone is wondering.

10 Oct 2016

Quote by Magical_felix

Her band's name was Grab em by the Pussy. If anyone is wondering.

better than my band - we're called "The Prick Stabbers" smile

You can’t truly call yourself peaceful unless you are capable of violence. If you’re not capable of violence, you’re not peaceful. You’re harmless.

10 Oct 2016

Quote by Magical_felix
Damn, SP coming out of hibernation with a cross examination.

Videos would put all doubt to rest, just saying. What rocker wouldn't want to show off, especially after putting the name of their band out there?

Dude, this is a hardcore discussion for hardcore people. You trying to fit into the world of electric guitars is akin to this:

18 Oct 2016

Just wanted to give a shout-out to my new favourite strings. D-Addario NYXL are hands down the best strings I have ever put on a guitar. Their marketing bumpf states that a "high carbon steel alloy is used for unprecedented strength and improved tuning stability compared to traditional nickel wound strings".

This weekend I swapped out the Regular Light 10-46 set for one of their 10-46 Balanced Tension sets and they are excellent. Balanced Tension for those that are wondering uses a different gauge range. The standard 10-46 set comprises of 10, 13, 17, 26, 36, 46 gauge strings. The BT set uses 10, 13.5, 17, 25, 34, 46. The idea is give the player a more consistent feel between strings for evenly balanced bending. You can have a read of the technical aspects here if you're interested:

http://www.daddario.com/balanced_tension.page

The only downside to these sets are the cost. They are not cheap.

@Lizerotica