Pedal Talk

[Moss]

The tone is in the player.  

 

I always refer back to the story of a roadie that got to play Eddie Van Halen's rig on stage one time before a show.  He said it sounded/felt terrible.  Then Eddie picked it up and made it scream.. 

 

So you are saying I'm the problem?   To be fair I have people tell me they love my tone all the time but everyone elses sounds better to me.

[lamradio]

So you are saying I'm the problem?   To be fair I have people tell me they love my tone all the time but everyone elses sounds better to me.

 

Haha nah, I'm saying we as musicians are the problem..  Never being quite happy with your sound is a sign of a good musician.  Always striving to sound better, never truly satisfied.  

 

As long as you aren't playing out of a Peavey bandit, and one of those shitty plastic ibanez distortion pedals from the 90's, then chances are you have a good tone.. The rest comes from the player.  

[Ghost of Electricity]

Picked myself up one of these not too long ago:

 

http://earthquakerdevices.com/shop/arpanoid/#!prettyPhoto

 

It's the first really "wierd" pedal I've owned, and I've wanted somesort of arpegiating effect for a while.  Unlike pretty much every other type of pedal I've played on ( OD, fuzz, phase, trem, delay) this requires you to actually alter the way you play, so you're in time/harmony with the arp-action.  So there's been a learning curve.

 

Unfortunately there's no sync/tap tempo, and no presets, which means that it will probably be more for studio use than live.  (Not that you'd want it on for more than one or two songs anyway) That said, there is an octave-down setting which could be used in live context pretty easily.  And I once found a good faux 12-string setting, but haven't been able to find it again.

 

 

[Atticus]

much of a guitarist's sound comes from the player, but I don't agree with the whole "tone is all in the fingers" bit.

 

if you give a humbucker guitar through a Boss Heavy Metal pedal into a solid state amp to a player, then give that same player a strat through a mids-heavy tubescreamerish pedal through a little cranked 1x12 tweed tube amp--you're going to hear different TONES.  

[lamradio]

Well yeah, that's what I meant by having at least a decent rig.  But having tone-envy, and obsessing about one's current tone, one must not forget that much of the tone is in the player.  

 

Although I'm sure David Gilmour could make an imitation Yamaha strat ran through a Crate sing like a bird... 

[PopTodd]

Well yeah, that's what I meant by having at least a decent rig.  But having tone-envy, and obsessing about one's current tone, one must not forget that much of the tone is in the player.  

 

Although I'm sure David Gilmore could make an imitation Yamaha strat ran through a Crate sing like a bird... 

And Mark Knopfler could make it talk.

[Atticus]

 

I am thoroughly enjoying this little PT JR board I put together.  Still have the behemoth for home/recording, but this thing is so much easier to transport.  The Mobius is a black hole of time suckage, so be careful if you grab one...

[Moss]

I'm looking at putting a small board together for our acoustic gigs and that looks like about the right size.  What model PT is that? How do you secure your pedals to the board?

 

On another note, I would really like to have one of these put together for my electric set up:

 

http://trailertrashpedalboards.com/

[Atticus]

It's the PT JR. I Velcro all the pedals down. Use George L custom length cables and power the whole thing w a pedalpower2+ (w a few splitters and a current doubler for the Mobius). Real easy to put together.

[Bosco]

the more things change, the more they change.

 

 

 

How is that Neutrino?

[Atticus]

Love it.

[Bosco]

Love it.

 

How does it compare to the Micro QTron?

[Atticus]

I have not played both. I set the neutrino on the low pass filter and the low side tonally. Gets great, deep growls and Jerry-type smooth quacks. Works really well with dirt after it.

[anthony]

This might be of interest

[lost highway]

Totally of interest. Some of the pics are illegible, but it's cool to see Kevin Shields' space ship. He's got some Boss EQ pedals with really radical settings on them.

 

Also, I think Tweedy's board tends to change every year or so. Kind of like his amp selection. I'd love to hear him run through his choices and what informed them, but he seems less interested in talking gear nerdery than Nels, other than the occasional rare vintage guitar mention.

[Muzzle of Dan]

Nice link!  Thanks for sharing.

[Ghost of Electricity]

After recent back trouble, I don't feel like carrying around more than necessary, so I'm off to the gig tonight with only three pedals: a fuzz face clone, a Timmy, and a a Boss tuner. I haven't gigged with that few since I've owned more than three pedals.

[linclink]

Attention Pedal Heads!!! H-E-L-P!!! I'm looking to finally take the dive this year & pick up some pedals. My fave pedal stomping artists are Wilco (Nels & Jeff especially), Ira Kaplan of Yo La Tengo & St. Vincent (aka Annie Johnson)...

I need help with two things. First off, if anyone would like to list their essential pedals (knowing my predilections/ taste) for me to look at & go crazy & list as many as you want, but if you could put the most essential at the top that'd be helpful & I'd be most grateful.

Secondly I loaned a friend money for a Gibson SG (with P-90's) & I'm selling his old Les Paul for him. A guy who's looking to buy the Les Paul has gear to trade, including a load of pedals. Since I'm owed money, I can take some of the payment in the form of any of these pedals. So check them out & let me know any that you love, why you love them, what they do & what you think a good used price would be for them! Thanks!!!

Here's that list of pedals.

Echoplex Echoplex EP-3

EHX English Muff'n 

Dwarfcraft Synth Mangler $160

LAL Rattle Crow $300

Jax FY-2 

Jax Surf Siren Wah  

Ibanez PH7

John Hornby Skewes Phaser (vintage/rare)  PZ-III 

Snarling Dogs Bootzilla 

Voodoo Lab Sparkle Drive 

Digitech BP80 

Digitech Hothead 

DOD classic tube 

Danelectro Cool Cat 

Danelectro FAB series (distortion, flange, Echo & OD) 

Danelectro MiniEffects (5 effects) with case 

Dunlop Jimi Hendrix Fuzz Face 

Washburn Phaser 

Zoom G1 

Behringer Digital Reverb 

Behringer Digital Multi FX 

Ernie Ball Volume pedal 

Mesa Rocket footswitch

[lost highway]

Sorry, this is going the other way- the negative way... but for what it's worth,

 

I don't love much of anything made by Danelectro, Behringer or DOD.

 

The Ernie Ball volume pedals are solid, but a volume pedal is kind of a utilitarian device to express your swells (like Nels) or if you like fooling with backing off how hard you hit an overdriven amp- kind of a cut to clean idea.

 

Phaser is an acquired taste.  If you're into it I'll bet you can find a winner among the Phasers you've listed, most probably the Ibanez. I don't know Jax stuff, or LAL so I can't speak to those.

[GtrPlyr]

I'm not usually a guy that uses a lot of pedals, but I needed to put together something with a wider sonic pallet for a new band I'm playing in. Once I pulled out all the pedals I was going to use, I realized I was going to need a pedalboard; having pedals loosely strewn all over the place just wasn't going to work. I looked at various commercially available boards before deciding to save some money and build my own. I started with an IKEA Hejne shelf and took it from there. Finished it off a few weeks ago. Used it at band practice a few days later, man what a difference having an organized board makes. I ended up making a few tweaks the other day, removed a few pedals, added a few and here's where I'm at now:

 

[Fritz]

I'm not usually a guy that uses a lot of pedals, but I needed to put together something with a wider sonic pallet for a new band I'm playing in. Once I pulled out all the pedals I was going to use, I realized I was going to need a pedalboard; having pedals loosely strewn all over the place just wasn't going to work. I looked at various commercially available boards before deciding to save some money and build my own. I started with an IKEA Hejne shelf and took it from there. Finished it off a few weeks ago. Used it at band practice a few days later, man what a difference having an organized board makes. I ended up making a few tweaks the other day, removed a few pedals, added a few and here's where I'm at now:

 

 

 

That is one of the most neatly arranged pedal boards I've ever seen. A pleasure to look at.

[GtrPlyr]

That is one of the most neatly arranged pedal boards I've ever seen. A pleasure to look at.

 

Thanks Fritz. It was fun to put together.

 

Some of these pedals haven't seen the light of day in a long time, and a handful didn't make the cut. The Mobius made a few pedals redundant, not that I have room for anymore. If I ever need to free up space in the future, the Octave pedal is far from essential and would probably get the cut.

[Atticus]

Current boards

 

[Atticus]

I'm not usually a guy that uses a lot of pedals, but I needed to put together something with a wider sonic pallet for a new band I'm playing in. Once I pulled out all the pedals I was going to use, I realized I was going to need a pedalboard; having pedals loosely strewn all over the place just wasn't going to work. I looked at various commercially available boards before deciding to save some money and build my own. I started with an IKEA Hejne shelf and took it from there. Finished it off a few weeks ago. Used it at band practice a few days later, man what a difference having an organized board makes. I ended up making a few tweaks the other day, removed a few pedals, added a few and here's where I'm at now:

 

 

I have an expression pedal set up for my Mobius--looks like you do as well but I couldn't tell for sure.  Opens that machine up to 100 new dimensions...

 

ps how do you like that Caverns?

[PopTodd]

I need to start playing around with pedals. All I have now is my TurboRAT. That's it. Either straight in to the amp, or that nasty-ass thing. (And I mean "nasty-ass" in the best-possible way.)