Guitar Multi-Effects...

[a.miller]

 

I'm gonna go out on a limb and say that 95% of guitarists who use these simply have no idea how fucking bad most of their tone is.

 

Case in point: I've been playing in a 50s cover band and the other guitarist just got one -- and it is killing me, literally. Why does one need such a device? I've been playing guitar for almost 20 years and I really don't think most of those tones are necessary. A good overdrive, reverb and tremolo should get most people by. Just my $.02 as I sit here with my right ear ringing.

[lamradio]

It's very true that digital effects don't hold a candle to pure, analog effects, but a lot of people use effects processsors for convenience, price, and the simple fact that most of the audience is never going to tell the difference between digital and analog. Many processors, if used right can sound pretty darn good.. If you run them through the effects loop and stay far away from the distortions, then you can get a descent sound out of them..

[Atticus]

when I was in a cover band in college I ended up purchasing some ridiculous digitech floorboard with practically every effect known to man. Getting rid of it a couple of years later and collecting stomp boxes was the best idea I ever had tone-wise and was surely a gift to anyone listening.

 

cant stand them.

[dannygutters]

electric guitars? Hooey!

 

ha. My buddy had one of these. Tho I thought his tone problem was a not practicing problem.

[a.miller]

when I was in a cover band in college I ended up purchasing some ridiculous digitech floorboard with practically every effect known to man. Getting rid of it a couple of years later and collecting stomp boxes was the best idea I ever had tone-wise and was surely a gift to anyone listening.

 

cant stand them.

Amen brother.

[rileykill]

If I ever need more than a distortion unit, signal boost and analog reverb ... I'm doing something wrong.

[BigWheeledWagon]

I've got nothing against digital effects per se, but when it comes to multi-effect pedals, the problem always seems to be that the quality of the individual effects suffer in return for having a wide variety of effects. Generally none of the effects are comparable to their analog counterparts and tend to sound thin and cold. Some of the Line 6 digital modelers aren't too bad when they only have one type of effect (the distortion modeler in particular is pretty good if used with a tube amp). I guess a lot of guitarists are attracted to the lack of clutter and easy transport of a single multi-effect unit, but in the end it's not that difficult to assemble a good pedal board (as others earlier in this thread have pointed out, you really only need a few good pedals).

 

Aside from the subpar sound quality coming from most of these multi-effect units, many guitarists who get hold of one of these boxes tend to want to get their money's worth and thus pile on tons of effects for no other reason. Many also tend to think that a kitchen-sink effects unit will make up for having a crappy amp. When I was in high school, a guitar player in one of my many bands had a unit that was top of the line at the time, and he would load up everything he could think of (compression, chorus, phase, flange, delay, distortion, auto-wah, octaver -- all at the same time). It didn't sound like he was playing guitar. It sounded like a video game.

 

I'm not saying I'm opposed to using a variety of effects -- they can be great for adding a little tonal color (just look at Nels's board) or a little experimenting -- but all the effects in the world won't make anyone's playing any better.

[ginandcigarettes]

I'm gonna go out on a limb and say that 95% of guitarists who use these simply have no idea how fucking bad most of their tone is.

 

Case in point: I've been playing in a 50s cover band and the other guitarist just got one -- and it is killing me, literally. Why does one need such a device? I've been playing guitar for almost 20 years and I really don't think most of those tones are necessary. A good overdrive, reverb and tremolo should get most people by. Just my $.02 as I sit here with my right ear ringing.

 

I

[SmokeUpJohnny]

When I played 3 times a week I always wished there was a digital multi-effects system that would take the place of dragging my bag of boxes to shows, the batteries dying, what patch cord works and which ones were hinky, etc.

 

Every couple of years I would try one with an open mind and hope for the best and they just always sounded crappy. So I would just pull out my screwdriver and take off the four little screws to my Big Muff and change the battery again after I left a patch cord plugged in after practice.

 

Maybe one day they will sound great, I'll check again in a couple years...

[anodyne]

the TC Electronic G-Force is one of the only multi-effects that i like a lot. it's not a cost effective solution though.

[jff]

I was in a band with some guys who had these things. They never managed to find the good sounds that may or may not have been available. I think it takes a lot of tedious knob twiddling and button pushing to find the best sounds (even if all you're trying to do is pull up a satisfying distortion sound). I can't blame anyone for not going through that lengthy process. Unfortunately, the result is usually digital pedal board = goofy sounds.

[lamradio]

As I mentioned in my post above, stay far away from the distortions.. I have played hundreds of digital processors from the cheapest to the most expensive and I've never found a descent distortion sound.. BUT, if you run the processor through your effects loop, you can still preserve your amp tone.. For example, if you have a nice fender tube amp (which you shouldn't be using digital effects with anyway.. that's blasphemy), if you run the pedal straight through, you will find that it completely cancels the tube sound.. But if you run it through the effects loop, you still get the amp tone.. So you can use the digital chorus, tremelo, what have you and they sound halfway descent, but still nothing compared to analog..

[a.miller]

I

[badger]

I have to agree. Whenever I've used them live, disaster has followed close behind (too complicated, too loud, too plastic, too horrible - you name it). However, years ago I bought a cheap Zoom acoustic multi-effects unit to compensate for not having a top-end acoustic amp for live work. Last week, almost by chance, I discovered that it works quite well as a DI box for recording bass! So my advice, if you have a multi-effects unit you don't like, is plug in something else (not a guitar), close your eyes, select a totally random effect and see what happens. It might just make a redundant item slightly useful.

[ginandcigarettes]

I think it's an issue of even though a person has 2000 sounds at their feet, they may not need to use any of them. Sort of a less is more deal. For example in a nice, strummy song there shouldn't be auto-wah, hendrix overdrive, tremolo, phase and chorus put together -- that just sounds like shit. I don't think there is one 'perfect' guitar tone, but I do think that a good tone isn't going to be achieved using cheap digital effects -- It's only my opinion.

 

My frustration is compounded by the fact that the person I'm playing with has to be louder than everyone else...throw in the terrible effects, plus the loud volume, and it's just ear diarrhea.

 

My argument is that most of those effects just aren't needed. Listen to your favorite records, see your favorite bands live -- for the most part those tones aren't present. I think some people need to develop their ear more and hear the overall sound as a whole and realize that certain sounds just don't mesh with others very well. I think that's my argument -- just be really be aware of what sound you are making.

 

I get it. I really do. And I mostly agree with you. I don't think there's much distance between us at all. But I think that most of the problem you have with digital effects isn

[BigWheeledWagon]

As I mentioned in my post above, stay far away from the distortions.. I have played hundreds of digital processors from the cheapest to the most expensive and I've never found a descent distortion sound.. BUT, if you run the processor through your effects loop, you can still preserve your amp tone.. For example, if you have a nice fender tube amp (which you shouldn't be using digital effects with anyway.. that's blasphemy), if you run the pedal straight through, you will find that it completely cancels the tube sound.. But if you run it through the effects loop, you still get the amp tone.. So you can use the digital chorus, tremelo, what have you and they sound halfway descent, but still nothing compared to analog..

 

I had the same feeling about digital distortion effects for a long time, but recently I've found that a few of the Line 6 distortion sounds do pretty well when pushed through a good fender tube amp (I guess there is a technical difference between an effects processor and a digital pedal modeler, though). In a perfect world, I would have an amazing collection of vintage analog pedals and have no limits on how loud I could play. I don't often use very heavy distortion and generally just use a tube screamer and some compression to get a little bit of crunch. On the occasion that I do need heavier distortion in my home studio, I turn to the Line 6, because in my current set-up, I can't get that kind of distortion out of my amp using only analog without pissing off the neighbors by cranking the amp to seriously high volumes (I guess could get an attenuator). Also, the DM4 offers a fairly nice selection of various distortion/overdrive pedals. It's also more cost effective than collecting all the various pedals it models and then only using some of them sporadically on a song or two. Still, I'm about to move, and volume won't be an issue in my new studio, so the DM4 will probably get less use.

[danelectro]

I have two things to say.

 

1) Not everyone that uses a multi EFX unit has bad tone.

 

2) Individual analog stomp boxes aren't a guaranty of good tone.

 

The tone is in the player, either you have it or you don't and that means having the ability to dial in musical tones. I'm not in the 'I need 250 tone modes at my feet' club but I know guys that are and do it with great success. A friend of mine, who gigs regularly, uses a Line 6 Floor Pod straight into the PA, no amp. His tone is killer. I also know guys with pedalboards full of boutique gear that sound like anus. It really depends on the player.

[jff]

Very often, guitarists emply a person to switch their effects on and off for them from offstage. I wouldn't be surprised if some of these effects are rack mountable versions of the effects that are available in some of these multi-effect units. I also wouldn't be surprised if these guitarists are folks who are considered to have amazing "tone". Believe it or not, rockstars that can afford (or be given free of charge) any piece of gear on the market occaisionally use cheap gear (Alex Lifeson uses some Behringer equipment, for instance).

 

I'm sure the multi-effects have a lot of good sounds available. My only problem with them is that the process of finding the sounds is an endeavor I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy.

[lamradio]

I have two things to say.

 

1) Not everyone that uses a multi EFX unit has bad tone.

 

2) Individual analog stomp boxes aren't a guaranty of good tone.

 

The tone is in the player, either you have it or you don't and that means having the ability to dial in musical tones. I'm not in the 'I need 250 tone modes at my feet' club but I know guys that are and do it with great success. A friend of mine, who gigs regularly, uses a Line 6 Floor Pod straight into the PA, no amp. His tone is killer. I also know guys with pedalboards full of boutique gear that sound like anus. It really depends on the player.

 

Right on! I couldn't have said it better myself.. It is all in the player. A guy I used to know got to roadie for a Van Halen concert and he helped set up Eddie's Gear. He was lucky enough to play one of his guitars through his rig, and he said that to him, it sounded like complete ass.. So that proves that a lot of it is in the player.. A great player with a good ear can make any effect sound good.

[jimmyjimmy]

With all due respect to Eddie VH there have been periods in his career when his sound or "tone" was indeed as you put it "sounding like complete ass".

 

I guess most guys go through this tho. Clapton after the Money and Cigarettes period had way to many effects going on all at once; (Early nineties was notorious for that god awful jingly Chorus sound permeating everything.

 

Some guys are wizards with effect chains and their sound is intregal to their overall performance. Others are better served keeping it simple.

 

As a guitarist myself, I love stompboxes of all kinds and find it a joy to play around with them, but you'll never find me playing out anywhere with anything more than an overdrive/fuzz, a reverb if necessary and a tremelo. Anything more and it's just a mess I can't pull of.

[a.miller]

Anything more and it's just a mess...

I agree. I think the old KISS -- Keep It Simple, Stupid -- is a good thing to make note of when playing music.

[danelectro]

anything more than an overdrive/fuzz, a reverb if necessary and a tremelo. Anything more and it's just a mess I can't pull of.

 

I am guilty of having 11 pedals on my board univibe-ocatave\fuzz-wah-2 overdrives-compressor-chorus-phaser-flanger-20 db clean boost-delay. But I rarely use more than OD and one modulation or filter effect at one time. I get reverb from my amp so I don't use my analog delay much.

 

For me effects are for slight coloration though some can be necessary if I'm trying to get a certain sound. For example if I want a Hendrix\Machine Gun tone it's necessary to kick on the Univibe and some light OD.

[anodyne]

i usually run a chorus, phase 90 or small stone and some kind of overdrive set with no distortion to boost the front end of the amp. i have a delay, but i kinda suck at making it sound like i want it to.