It Seems I Don't Care for Most Pedals

[rayc]

I have a few pedals: four amp in a box types Behri GT21, The GFS Brownie, BDI21 & the ACTONE, a Spring Reverb faker, a Compressor, a SonixMax Stomp, a Boss DS1, a Behri Blues Driver, a Big Muff clone, a Jimi Hendrix Wah & an old Ibanez EQ thing. There're a couple of other things like a looper, a Slow Engine clone, Mel9, EBow clone and a no name booster.

Of those I use the Boss as a boost into my Marshall...works well. I use the ACTone when tracking song ideas or when I need THAT tone for my 12 string, the spring reverb fairly often, the comp for the 12 string again,the BDI all the time for bass and the Big Muff clone when I want something nasty.

I was looking at reverb, delay and trem pedals yesterday but it seems FAR easier to set tempo to match a song inside the box and as a former reverb junkie I doubt I'd know when enough is too much.

While I quite often like the sound of an overdrive/grit pedal used by other folk I don't like them when I'm using them. Then again I hear an OD pedal on Utub etc. and often wonder if the amp couldn't do that if used appropriately.

I think it comes down to discernment. I don't have the discerning ear needed to decide what sounds good. I can readily accept a sound in it's place within a mix or song, I can but in the room...no hope. That's also why I post some many versions/iterations of a song - I'm hopeless.

[Armistice]

Unless you're echoing for days, setting the exact tempo on delays and other time based effects is not that necessary - I get close enough and I much prefer to record everything with pedals on, not add stuff in the box, although I will do that sometimes - on guitars, anyway.

The main reason is that I have access to really good pedals that do lots of this stuff really well, but the VST effects available to me are way more limited. I'm sure they're out there, but having bought the pedals, I'm not ponying up for VSTs. And you just get in whatever zone you're trying to be in when you're playing the sound you want to record, in my opinion, anyway.

That said, the latest upgrades to the Kemper's delays and what have you are pretty good, so I use them as well, but while tracking, not after.

YMMV.

[CrowsofFritz]

I only have one pedal: a Boss DS1. I had a crybaby wah but it broke (luckily with the effect stuck rather than the bypass) and I donated it to the studio I learned in.

[JD01]

I think it comes down to discernment. I don't have the discerning ear needed to decide what sounds good. I can readily accept a sound in it's place within a mix or song, I can but in the room...no hope. That's also why I post some many versions/iterations of a song - I'm hopeless.

I think this is one of the keys to getting a good sound - learning to hear, in isolation, what will work in a mix.

I was looking at reverb, delay and trem pedals yesterday but it seems FAR easier to set tempo to match a song inside the box and as a former reverb junkie I doubt I'd know when enough is too much.

With delay and trem etc, I find the easiest way to set these pedals nicely is to stick a metronome in your headphones, just tap one note and adjust the time until you have what you want.

[Greg_L]

I follow the rules of APSA for pedals. They're very clear and concise and if you follow them you'll have no problems.

All
Pedals
Suck
Ass

[rayc]

Unless you're echoing for days, setting the exact tempo on delays and other time based effects is not that necessary - I get close enough and I much prefer to record everything with pedals on, not add stuff in the box, although I will do that sometimes - on guitars, anyway.

The main reason is that I have access to really good pedals that do lots of this stuff really well, but the VST effects available to me are way more limited. I'm sure they're out there, but having bought the pedals, I'm not ponying up for VSTs. And you just get in whatever zone you're trying to be in when you're playing the sound you want to record, in my opinion, anyway.

That said, the latest upgrades to the Kemper's delays and what have you are pretty good, so I use them as well, but while tracking, not after.

YMMV.

Yes, you do and it works well...you have the ear for it.

[rayc]

I only have one pedal: a Boss DS1. I had a crybaby wah but it broke (luckily with the effect stuck rather than the bypass) and I donated it to the studio I learned in.

Wahs are pretty easy to fix...I discovered while fixing one.

[rayc]

I think it comes down to discernment. I don't have the discerning ear needed to decide what sounds good. I can readily accept a sound in it's place within a mix or song, I can but in the room...no hope. That's also why I post some many versions/iterations of a song - I'm hopeless.

I think this is one of the keys to getting a good sound - learning to hear, in isolation, what will work in a mix.

I was looking at reverb, delay and trem pedals yesterday but it seems FAR easier to set tempo to match a song inside the box and as a former reverb junkie I doubt I'd know when enough is too much.

With delay and trem etc, I find the easiest way to set these pedals nicely is to stick a metronome in your headphones, just tap one note and adjust the time until you have what you want.

That metronome idea makes heaps of sense. I do know that the Reaper delays and reverbs are powerful but not very "nice". I end up reaching for some old 32 bit thing.

[rayc]

I follow the rules of APSA for pedals. They're very clear and concise and if you follow them you'll have no problems.

All
Pedals
Suck
Ass

I think that has become, almost, my default position.
You've infected me Greg, I hear a drive or distortion pedal and immediately think a better version of it should be able to be achieved with the guitar and amp.

There's also the reality that my three amps are old &/or simple, (from the early 80s, from the late 70s and from the early 2000s but a one knob job), so I have no FX loop and I don't like the sound of distorted reverb or delay.

[Greg_L]

My dislike of pedals really only applies to distortion/fuzz. They pretty much all suck ass IMO. I fully reject modern pedal society and the disgusting idea of an amp being a "pedal platform". Ugh. Amps deserve better than that. Boosts that push an amp are great. Pedals that are the amp...no thanks.

Some pedals are a must though. FX pedals. You can't really swing your speakers around a room, so stuff like chorus and flangers need to exist. Tremolo and vibrato are wonderful. Delays and reverbs do what they do. I'm good with all that.

[liv_rong]

I like pedals.

[Lt. Bob]

I like pedals.

me too which is why I have 100

Hating pedals is for guys that think there's only one acceptable sound.
That's just boring as shit to me.
I'm actually mostly about making a guitar NOT sound the same as every other guitar.

I think it's hilarious that the same people who rag on pedals because they can get that one sound best with just an amp (often true for that one sound) will complain about much music all sounding the same.
That's why right there.

Now, if I want a blast beat or punk sound or even classic rock, then the very best way to get that is gregology, my new discipline I've just named.

He's the very best at that of anyone on the planet and once I get my new rig going I WILL be getting him to play some drums/guitar on some stuff.

But I play very wide-ranging genres and sticking a git into an amp and cranking it is just useless for many styles

[Tadpui]

I love pedals, personally. I love playing around with them, chasing different textures and tones. While I do still appreciate the "raw" sound of a good guitar into a good amp, the process of messing with it through pedals just adds to the excitement for me.

What I don't seem to care for is pedal BOARDS. I fiddle around and experiment way too much for a pedal board to be of much use to me. I'd end up spending all of my time managing cables and making things tidy, rather than just swapping this and that out, putting this pedal before that one, etc. So this is my current pedal setup. My apologies, it might trigger some people

P1230013.JPG

And these are the overflows, ready and waiting to be swapped in and put to use when the feeling comes along:

P1230015.JPG

[Lt. Bob]

love that Lone Star

What is that green pedal to the right and slightly below the wah with the cat on it?

[Tadpui]

love that Lone Star

What is that green pedal to the right and slightly below the wah with the cat on it?

I love the way the Lone Star sounds in the room, but I've had a heck of a time trying to get it to sound good on a recording. It's proven to be a tricky amp to mic without it sounding either too dark or too fizzy. Other than it's dark-matter-like weight, I think it'd make an ideal gigging amp for a blues or blues/rock guitarist.

The pedal you spotted is a JHS Panther Cub, an analog bucket-brigade delay. That's the older version of it, I think they made a regular-sized version that replaced this larger style. It's a really cool sounding analog delay that definitely has a personality of its own.

I obviously have a bit of a thing for JHS pedals. Since I lived in Kansas City for a long time, I felt like they were my home-town brand. And I like Josh's goofy personality and sense of humor, so I'm happy to support his company.

[liv_rong]

I also like them for layers and shit. But as you all know I am more of a reverb/delay guy. It is kind of my sound I guess, not a unique sound but one that resonates with me. However, I wish I could get just an awesome guitar into amp overdriven sound, but alas I cant! Sort of sometimes maybe, but not a recording of it.

I obviously have a bit of a thing for JHS pedals. Since I lived in Kansas City for a long time, I felt like they were my home-town brand. And I like Josh's goofy personality and sense of humor, so I'm happy to support his company.

Yeah I like JHS stuff too. He got a bad rap but it was all bs IMHO, everyone's pedals is variation of something already done etc. I had a mini foot fuzz one that was awesome, but I traded or sold it, cant remember. Ive gone through so many pedals its stupid, lost a lot of money too on selling/trading

I like his 3 Series stuff, or at least the spirit of them, just basic pedals. I have the delay and its super basic but sounds good! I will likely eventually get a one or two more since they are so affordable.

[rayc]

I watch the JHS videos, except for the "live" ones", when they appear.
That Series Three almost had me reaching for the BUY button for a compressor but they're quite expensive by the time they get to Australia AND I couldn't see/hear where I'd use it. I enjoy watching/listening to demos etc.
I see the Colourbox in Tad's photo, I've watched several demos of it. It seems a very cool thing on several instruments but that's as far as I get.

I offer no opinion on pedal users or pedal abusers. Pedals and guitars do wonderful things but for my purposes: writing and recording songs arranged and tweaked as I go, things like reverb, tremolo and delay are easier and undoable/redoable in the box.
Like I wrote, " I don't have the discerning ear needed to decide what sounds good."

[Lt. Bob]

I obviously have a bit of a thing for JHS pedals. Since I lived in Kansas City for a long time, I felt like they were my home-town brand.

I have some of the Ross pedals from Chanute KS
I have the flanger, the stereo delay, the 10-band graphic and combo pedal with phaser and distortion.
not that many double pedals back then

[Tadpui]

I like his 3 Series stuff, or at least the spirit of them, just basic pedals. I have the delay and its super basic but sounds good! I will likely eventually get a one or two more since they are so affordable.

I've ALMOST pulled the trigger on a few of those 3 Series pedals a few times over the last year. I haven't yet, but I'm sure one (or more) of those generic white pedals will be keeping the dust bunnies company on my floor before too long

I watch the JHS videos, except for the "live" ones", when they appear.
That Series Three almost had me reaching for the BUY button for a compressor but they're quite expensive by the time they get to Australia AND I couldn't see/hear where I'd use it. I enjoy watching/listening to demos etc.
I see the Colourbox in Tad's photo, I've watched several demos of it. It seems a very cool thing on several instruments but that's as far as I get.

The Colour Box was kind of a disappointment for me. It does what it says, which is to allow you to drive actual transformers into clipping. But there's just something weird about the gain staging on it...there's no gentle saturation, just clean and then too much clipping. I need to spend some time with it again and see if I'm just being too picky.

Compression on guitar is a strange thing. I LOVE compression on just about everything, but on electric guitar it's a pretty specific effect. And I don't really like it. If I was doing spanky chicken pickin' or funky Nile Rodgers stuff, I might use it more. You see I'm actively using the old cheapie Boss Compression/Sustainer, and the nice Keeley 4-knob compressor is sat aside. Years ago I thought I'd upgrade the CS-1 and bought the Keeley. But that's when I realized that I never use the CS-1 as a compressor, just as a sustainer. It's bonkers, too...I call the CS-1 my "chaos button". With the sustain all the way up, it's a wild ride to engage that pedal. The motto of that pedal is "you'd better be doing something, because all hell is going to break loose as soon as you stop playing". I love it

I have some of the Ross pedals from Chanute KS
I have the flanger, the stereo delay, the 10-band graphic and combo pedal with phaser and distortion.
not that many double pedals back then

I never knew that Ross was made in Chanute! I grew up not too far from there, and I remember seeing Ross pedals on my friends' floors and in the local music shop. I didn't realize they were a relatively local company. That flanger is kind of legendary, isn't it? For some reason that's the effect that I most associate with Ross.

[Lt. Bob]

Hating pedals is for guys that think there's only one acceptable sound.

I hate pedals and don't think there's just one acceptable sound. So....

Well first off, you saying you hate pedals is an exaggeration.
You have a pedalboard and you have a few pedals you use regularly.
You have expressed a strong preference for a Ross flanger because there was a song or two you needed a flanger for and you cared enough to care which flanger sounded good enough.
If I gifted you my red Ross you'd be quite happy to have it.
So you don't totally hate pedals.
Having said that, they're a small part of your needs and not really a part of your general sound.
And for recording purposes I think you're actually mostly talking dirt boxes when you say you hate pedals and for that sound an amp cranked is definitely the best.

But just a guitar into an amp can only sound like a guitar into an amp.
Sure ...... there are a lot of different ways you can set the tone and you can play it clean or very dirty or various levels in between but it's always a guitar into an amp.
To me that's a fairly small amount of possibilities.

Now you know I respect your skills a lot so it's not a criticism in any way.
But you can not make your guitar sound like an organ .... I can.
You can't sound like a synth ...... I can.
You can't sound like a Rhodes thru a Leslie ..... I can.
You can't do some of the ambient stuff I use regularly but I can and I have several different varieties of compression which can be essential for some genres.

And before you even say it, I know you don't want to ..... but I do.
I can't do sections for a funk tune with just a guitar into an amp but I can with some of my pedals ..... and I can do strings and I can do sci-fi sounds and on and on.

IF a guitar into an amp is the thing you're going for then it's the best way to do it and sometimes it's what I'm going for and it can get frustrating when I have a hard time getting that right..
But personally after 58 years I'm looking for even more sounds other than a guitar into an amp, glorious as that can be.

I still love rock guitar music and would personally use that Marshall sound in a jazz song .... why not?
But I love all the different sounds I can get with my pedals and find them fun and inspiring.