Guitar effects pedals, what are the possiblities??

Fungtank

So i've been playing guitar for just over 4 years. Recently i have become interested in the possiblities of using effects to their full potenial. I mean i've always had your basic effects at hand

Looking on the net i've come across enless numbers of effects alot of em seem the same,
How can i get into the whole Tom Morello style of play?

Does anyone really use guitar effects. How?

What would be good effects to get( excluding distortion and overdrive)?

Actually whats the real difference between distortion and overdrie?

One of the sites i found was www.effectronics.com

Giblet

Overdrive is a boost to the levels, which induces gain. Distortion usually saturates the tone, and boosts the levels to induce clipping, which makes it super fuzzy.

I'd recommend a Wah and a Delay. You can get a lot of different tones by experimenting with these.

I'm looking to get a WH-1 (Whammy) pedal which Tom Morello uses for loads of his solos and werd riffs.

You can also make wierd sounds with your guitar ala Tom Morello. Eg: Pickup Switching with one volume turned off makes the stacatto he uses, which can be used to make wierd sounds, like DJ scratching.

You should definatly experiment with whats already on the guitar, like if you have a whammy bar. Mess around with it and do some pinches, or natural harmonics. Try do open string pinches with a whammy for some cool effects.

fitz

Delay is a hugely under-rated effect, and I'm also fond of Wah.
Check out the things you can do with a Line6 DL-4 Delay modeller.

At the end of the day, the possibilities are only limited by your budget.

Check out www.guitargeek.com
Look up the guitarist you want, then learn about each effect they use, what it does, and apply that to how they use it.

Most importantly, don't just try and emulate someone elses style using the effects they use.

Effects should compliment your style of playing, not make you sound like you're playing with someone elses rig.

Overdrive occurs when you push the input gain at the preamp stage of a valve amp to far. It's the sound of overloaded valves, I suppose you could say. Distortion is total saturation of the valves, when they're pushed right to the limit.
All distortion pedals essentially emulate this.
I recently got myself a Mesa Boogie V1, a distortion pedal with valves in it.
Will never buy a distortion pedal without valves again.
Lush.

Anyway, do some research and try things out, best way to go.
Don't take peoples word for things, effects are extremely subjective.
Go find what you like.

Oh, and before I forget, try to avoid combo effects. Get something that does one thing very well rather than a pedal that does 5 things kindof okay.
Line6 are the only exception to this really, their modeller pedals are very good.

Let us know how you get on, or if you have specific questions, someone here'll be able to answer...

Fungtank

Yeah i was looking at the price of individual effects... some are over $200 for a single effect!!

Can this be normal. I mean i could build the pedal for around 50!! what can they possibl-i do to with the pedal to justify those prices?

Giblet

Build Quality, structure. Everything really. Hard to build a wah the same quality as a Cry-Baby. Some homebrew effects are easy though, but the effort you put into it might not be worth it.

fitz

My Mesa pedal was €299 off the web, woulda cost over €400 here in Dublin.

Any pedal you buy, check whether it's true bypass, ie. when it's not in use, does it alter the signal passing through it? If it's true bypass, it won't.
Some pedals, while turned off, can leech certain frequencies out of the signal from your guitar, and introduce noise while doing so.
Not nice.

Also, the more complicated an effect, the more expensive it's likely to be.
A delay pedal, with a feedback control, effect level control, delay time control etc. is bound to be more pricey than a booster pedal which jumps your level up a few db.

Try things out, you'll soon see the difference between cheap effects and good ones.

Paladin

Hope you guys dont mind me setting these clear:

Basically the terms overdrive and distortion are interchangeable, but distortion usually refers to a more fuzzy sound. Most people dont really know what they technically mean (unless you are into amplifier design or something). To give you more info than is necessary:

Soft Clipping: This is usually marketed as "overdrive", where the gain is inversely proportional to the input signal level. This is typically produced either with back to back silicon signal diodes in the negative feedback path of an op-amp, or with germanium diodes or LEDs back to back in a shunt to ground.

Hard Clipping: Usually marketed as "distortion", where the signal level is restricted within a range. This is typically produced with silicon diodes back to back in a shunt to ground.

I dont think either will overload or saturate valves. That is what is referred in the amplifier industry as "breaking" the valve

Valves do sound better with distortion in most peoples opinions because of the way if affects the aforementioned "gain is inversely proportional to the input signal". Valves seem to 'mechanically' induce slightly different distortions than transistors dont do which sound richer. There is still some argument over this but Im pretty convinced its the mechanical effect. Maybe Ill do my docterate on this one day Lots to learn first though

A word of warning about wah pedals, and dont by any means let this put you off, but it can be really difficult to use sometimes, to tap your foot and play complicated riffs isnt as easy as it looks

fitz

Good wah takes practice, you're dead right there.
But it's worth it...wah is a great effect when used well.

Oeneus

I think it might be worth looking into MIDI in this day and time.

When used right you could set yourself up with an extremely versatile effects system.

It will surely cost a bit though. But the range of guitar effects out there that are MIDI controllable is rapidly expanding.

The Digitech Whammy being one of them, aswell as Line 6's rackmounted effects (eg. Pod Pro, Echo Pro, Mod Pro etc.).

I would love to have a MIDI system set up but I can't afford it by far. I'm probably about £4000 off.

It's something I would really like to do as I'm becoming a lot more experimental nowadays with my playing.

But what I have planned for the future instead is to get the following:
Digitech Whammy
Line 6 delay modeller
Line 6 modulation modeller, or just a phaser, depending on my budget
Z vex Fuzz Factory or Fuzz probe.

Fungtank

Cool.
Are there any other guitarists other then tom morello who use effects in the ways that he does?

Oeneus

Matt Bellamy from Muse is a really good example. Takes it many steps further than Morello would.

fitz

Originally posted by Fungtank
Cool.
Are there any other guitarists other then tom morello who use effects in the ways that he does?

Regardless of whether you like them, check out Johnny Greenwood and Ed o' Brien's setups from Radiohead.

Masters of using effects, they're frightening...

Antisocialiser

Regardless of whether you like them, check out Johnny Greenwood and Ed o' Brien's setups from Radiohead.

AGREE

Matt Bellamy from Muse is a really good example. Takes it many steps further than Morello would

DISAGREE

dabhoys

Originally posted by Oeneus
Matt Bellamy from Muse is a really good example. Takes it many steps further than Morello would.

I know everyone is entitled to their opinion. But are you talking bout the same Tom Morello?? I think Matt Bellamy is a excellent guitarist. But I wouldn't say he took it further then Tom.

Tom has a pretty simple set up. Matt Bellamy has mad serious nutty effects built into his guitar and uses a sersious amount of effects ala Synth style.

I know tom has one Custom Ibanez with buildt in effects. Other then that he generates all his 'Sounds' with Flagner, Eq, Delay, Wah, Whammy and his guitars. Thats it.

Tom's idea was the sounds are there you just need to know how to obtain them.

Matt Bellamy isn't like that in anyway. He laces his guitars with effects and other things. Read about it in the interview in Guitarist. Not to mention he's using a german Diezel head. With about 100 mics in front of it.

Tom Morello still uses the same amp he got back in 88' he recons he has never changed the tubes or even opened it up. He said him and his tech are oblivious to whats going on in there.

Again I think Matt Belemy is excellent and fine musician. But he didn't take tom morello style a step further. He just added more effects...

dabhoys

Originally posted by Fungtank
Cool.
Are there any other guitarists other then tom morello who use effects in the ways that he does?

Sean Beresford of Living Colour was doing alot for guitar inovation before tom stepped up. I do believe this one was one of toms influences.

Oeneus

dabhoys, We are talking about effects here. So, you say Matt Bellammy uses more effects, which is what I thought the guy was asking for.
And the fact that He uses more effects does kind of mean he's taken the whole effects thing a step further than Morello.

Sorry. I don't even know what i'm talking about now . Despite your reply implies that it opposes my comment, it seems it agrees with it as well.

Oh Goddamn it! I'm lost. Nevermind.

Giblet

I wouldn't mind a theramin built into my guitar!

dabhoys

Sorry bout that Oeneus I took wat you said the wrong way. I thought you meant he was a better player then Tom

Sorry bout that

Oeneus

Oh no no! I love them bothas much as each other! But I love Matt's singing, though!

dabhoys

I due believe Tom was recently playing around america with an acoustic guitar and singing folk music under the alias Nitecrawler.

Antisocialiser

Nightwatchman was the name and hes actually not bad. Check out house gone up in flames