Guitar Effects Pedals Advice

shanejunkin

Hi All. I am trying to decide on some effects pedals and I need some advice.

My favorite guitarists are John Fruiscante, Jonny Greenwood, Jimmy Page and Dave Gilmour.

Basically I am considering buying a Boss DS1 and a ProCo Rat 2 to cover distortion. What do you reckon? Should I consider a Marshall Shredmaster?

I was also wondering should I consider an overdrive pedal also (considering those guitarists' sounds sometimes)?

Based on those guitarist what Wah Wah and Delay pedals would you recommend?

BostonB

I would say its not so much the pedal but the quitar and amp you are matching them with. Spend some time on YouTube and see what equipment you like the sound of.

punchdrunk

http://www.miaudio.com/TZ1.htm

shanejunkin

BostonB wrote: »

I would say its not so much the pedal but the quitar and amp you are matching them with. Spend some time on YouTube and see what equipment you like the sound of.

I've ordered a Fender American Standard Stratocaster and I have an old VOX AC30/6 Top Boost. Any suggestions for that combination? Or anything to avoid?

Ger8150

If you are after David Gilmour's sound, a Fender Strat is definetely a good place to start. But with Gilmour, a lot of his sound comes from his fingers, so to get anything close to it, you will need a lot of hard graft and plenty of practice. He uses a lot of 16th note triplets etc. Not trying to go too far off the point with that.

Effects wise, probably looking at a delay. The Boss DD3 r DD6 are the industry standards. Digitech do a good delay too.

darrenw5094

Does anybody else notice how the BOSS delay pedals colour the tone when it's switched on. It makes the tone horrible reverby.....if there is such a word.

My Boss DD-6 pedal might have a lot of features, but i am not liking what it does to the overall tone. Maybe some people like their tone coloured with delay, but not everyone.

lavasoft

I have the dd6 and taken it out of my line up and do without delay because it effects everything so badly, but I don't use delay much anyway I'ts like cheating IMHO get the pw10 to cover the univibe with some chours after it to get some of those amazing mid period rythem tracks, also a set set of p 100,s:eek: is good for those type of tracks especially with modern type amps.

studiorat

shanejunkin wrote: »

I've ordered a Fender American Standard Stratocaster and I have an old VOX AC30/6 Top Boost. Any suggestions for that combination? Or anything to avoid?

The Rat's a great pedal. I like the Ibanez tube screamer too. Not mad about marshall pedals, blues breaker's ok...
I'd go for an analogue delay instead, Electroharmonics Memory Man's the dogs.. Or one of those green POD delay emulators that everybody's using. It has lots of different delay types, tape, tap delays etc. useful but pricey. (reckon they more of an industry standard)

A compressor pedal would also be useful with that combination, it might help to get rid of some of the spikeyness both the vox and strat both have and you could drive the front of the vox with it too. You do know you can cross patch the vox channels??? Could also try a power soak... The compressor and the OD-1 are the only boss pedals I like...

An EH small stone would sound nice with that gtr amp combo too.

shanejunkin

Well, it turns out that the rat pedal sounds great. It's a really dirty, chunky distortion and I love it. The DS1 has turned out to be a lot lighter than I thought it would be. However, I am playing it at low levels because I'm indoors in rented accomodation. I suspect that if I crank it a bit I would get more of a crunch out of it. However, I'm going to use the Rat as my heavier distortion and the DS1 as a light or overdriven distortion. I think that's going to work very well.

I'll have to check out those electro delay pedals.

On the patching of channels, is that when you run a lead from the normal channel, for example, to the brilliant and use a footswitch to select which one is activated?

darrenw5094

One os the sale points on the Boss DS-1 is that Curt Cobain, Joe Satriani and Steve Vai had them in their setup. The pedal they used would be heavily modified and probably nothing like the stock DS-1 available to buy.

They are a hit and miss with most people, depends with your setup. Generally they are to harsh to use live. Better with Ibanez Tubscreamer or Voodoo Lab Sparkle Drive. Check them out on Youtube.

shanejunkin

darrenw5094 wrote: »

One os the sale points on the Boss DS-1 is that Curt Cobain, Joe Satriani and Steve Vai had them in their setup. The pedal they used would be heavily modified and probably nothing like the stock DS-1 available to buy.

They are a hit and miss with most people, depends with your setup. Generally they are to harsh to use live. Better with Ibanez Tubscreamer or Voodoo Lab Sparkle Drive. Check them out on Youtube.

Do you recommend the tubescreamer and the sparkle overdrive as an overdrive option? As a kind of a lighter distortion?

Seziertisch

In my experience a Tubescreamer only works ok with a Vox-style amp. I think a treble booster would probably be more useful in your situation.

I would also agree with the above post on the DS-1.See, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QmARgeZPTN4

Also worth checking out are the TC Vintage series effects. They are the same as T-Rex, but can be had fairly cheaply from Thomann. If you youtube the T-rex effects you will find video demos from a company called Proguitarshop.com. Should give you an idea. The TC Delay is kind of pricey but is one of the best all round delays I have played. It doesn't self oscillate though. The T-Rex version is also used by Gilmour.

Otherwise, based on guitarists you mention a fuzz pedal could work well, maybe something like a Big Muff (a la Gilmour), or possibly a phaser.

shanejunkin

Seziertisch wrote: »

In my experience a Tubescreamer only works ok with a Vox-style amp. I think a treble booster would probably be more useful in your situation.

I would also agree with the above post on the DS-1.See, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QmARgeZPTN4

Also worth checking out are the TC Vintage series effects. They are the same as T-Rex, but can be had fairly cheaply from Thomann. If you youtube the T-rex effects you will find video demos from a company called Proguitarshop.com. Should give you an idea. The TC Delay is kind of pricey but is one of the best all round delays I have played. It doesn't self oscillate though. The T-Rex version is also used by Gilmour.

Otherwise, based on guitarists you mention a fuzz pedal could work well, maybe something like a Big Muff (a la Gilmour), or possibly a phaser.

Is a "treble booster" a kind of overdrive pedal? I want to get a kind of overdrive or light distortion pedal.

Thanks for the tip on the T Rex delay, I think I'll check that out, I love the sound of Gilmour's delay so I should be safe enough.

As for a fuzz pedal I think I might be OK with the Rat. It's a pretty dirty distortion and I like. However, when you say "fuzz" do you mean a heavy and chunky distortion or something else?

dr.bollocko

I have the DS-1 for my strat and I absolutely totally hate it as a pedal.
My 2 cents.

darrenw5094

The Voodoo Lab Sparkle Drive is a great light overdrive. Stevie Ray Vaughan style sound and also doubles up as a clean boost if you wanted.

The Keeley modded version of the DS-1 is a good option. Google for Keeley pedals and you will also find them on ebay.

TC Electronic have some great pedals, although not so cheap.
Carl Martin make some nice gear available for good prices on ebay.
I am wanting the Joe Satriani Vox Satchurator for €99 on Thomann.
Wonder will it make me as good as Joe himself!!!

ball ox

studiorat wrote: »

You do know you can cross patch the vox channels???

I tried doing that recently and the results were pretty poor. Had a line selector with outs into both channels, did not do what I expected it to do, sounded cack.

Seziertisch

ball ox wrote: »

I tried doing that recently and the results were pretty poor. Had a line selector with outs into both channels, did not do what I expected it to do, sounded cack.

I think what is meant here is to cascade the channels i.e put the cable from the guitar into the low input of one channel and patch the high input of the same channel into the low of the other. That is the basic principle although try it a few different ways.

As for the Rat, that is originally a distortion pedal i.e the amount of clipping is decided by the the level of the signal it receives. When you back the volume off on your guitar it should clean up quite considerably, if not almost completely depending on the pedal and its settings. A fuzz is a kind of distortion with hard clipping. It appears all of a sudden at the maximum level the circuit allows. It might be the case that your Rat is somewhere between a distortion and a fuzz.

Regardless, those smooth Gilmour leads are a Big Muff. Also worth checking out is the ZVex Fuzz Factory. A wicked sounding pedal, not as crazy as some might have you believe and definitely better suited to single note lines, but still a bit of a wild card.

In general, you should probably limit yourself to just having a couple of distortion/overdrive/fuzz tones on your board. I find keeping it to one lead and one rhythm to work best.

And lastly, a treble booster is a kind of overdrive which boosts the treble. It pushes the amp into distortion as opposed to distorting the signal before it goes into the amp. They come recommended for Vox-style amps.