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Teach me about Effects.......

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Mac Morganfield

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Ok, so far in my guitar playing journey, i have successfully managed to avoid any type of effects, concentrating on learning my guitar/amp sounds and capabilities. Now my interest has been piqued in effects. So, the floor is your's gents; compression, screamer, delay, chorus, distortion, overdrive, flanger, etc; teach me (in laymans terms) what these effects do, what do they sound like (recommend songs to listen to that demonstrate these effects).

I'm not asking for recommendations of the best pedal in each category as that is probably subjective but if there is a definitive stomp box, please feel free to force it down my throat (figuratively speaking!).
 
I honestly don't how these sounds can be described by words. I'm sure there are sound samples, demonstrations, etc. on YouTube and other web sites. The music store might be a good place, too.
 
The first ones that pop into my head:

Chorus: The Police - Message in a Bottle, pretty much anything by them actually
Wah: Jimi Hendrix - Voodoo Chile (Slight Return)
Delay (extremely wet): U2 - Where the Streets Have No Name, Pride, etc.

I'm sure there are good examples of phaser, flanger, and the like out there, but those are what I can think of at the moment.
 
Nicely put Eric

Phaser: Breathe (pink floyd)
Flanger Eddie Van Halen (most songs i guess)
Tremeolo How soon is now The Smiths
Fuzz Pedal: Satisfaction, Rolling Stones , Purple Haze Jimi Hendrix
Treble Booster: Queen, Pink Floyd
echo: The Shadows. most 1950/60 groups
 
Many thanks chaps, much appreciated. I am familiar with most if not all of the music you have mentioned so far. So, am i to assume that a 'Fuzz' is 'Distortion Plus' which, in turn, is an 'Overdrive plus'? I'm totally thrown by an 'Extremely Wet Delay' though.

I'll tell you, i'm toying with the idea of getting some pedals to experiment with. Inexpensive but not cheap if you get my meaning. Having read through some threads and done a little research, i think my first purchase may well be a Boss BD-2 Blues Driver as this seems a little less extreme compared to a 'metal' pedal though that should'nt be discounted entirely. It's good to be able to associate an effect with a song as it can be heard in context, especially when i'm not too familiar with the names.

Thanks again fella's, keep 'em coming!
 
Many thanks chaps, much appreciated. I am familiar with most if not all of the music you have mentioned so far. So, am i to assume that a 'Fuzz' is 'Distortion Plus' which, in turn, is an 'Overdrive plus'?
Click to expand...
That's pretty fair; I'd say you have the general idea.

I'm totally thrown by an 'Extremely Wet Delay' though.
Click to expand...
One of the biggest things for me with learning how to use delay has been getting the mix (i.e. how much of your signal is affected by the delay, or essentially what % of your original signal is repeated) right. U2 / The Edge uses close to 100% mix on his delay, which results in his crazy sound. I'd say the vast majority of people use a considerably lower mix.

I'll tell you, i'm toying with the idea of getting some pedals to experiment with. Inexpensive but not cheap if you get my meaning. Having read through some threads and done a little research, i think my first purchase may well be a Boss BD-2 Blues Driver as this seems a little less extreme compared to a 'metal' pedal though that should'nt be discounted entirely. It's good to be able to associate an effect with a song as it can be heard in context, especially when i'm not too familiar with the names.
Click to expand...
The BD-2 is a good start, and a pretty nice overdrive. If I may, I might suggest you look into a multi-effects pedal that offers you a bunch of different effects. It's a good chance to get familiar with how they all work and what they sound like. I would say either the Boss ME-50 or the Digitech GNX series should be pretty cheap and either would work well for teaching you about effects. Just be sure to get one with a straightforward interface. Units like the Boss GT-10 are so complicated, it can take forever to figure them out. That's why I liked the ME-50 so much.

If you decide to go with individual pedals, that works too -- I'm just offering up another way to explore. It took me a long while to get up to speed with effects.
 
Boss has clips for all of their pedals. Here's the overdrive/distortion group. http://www.bossus.com/gear/productlist.php?ParentId=254 If you listen to the clips for the Blues Driver, Distortion, and Fuzz, you'll get a good idea of the difference between them. You might want to check out the Danelectro Cool Cat pedals, assuming that they are available in the UK. http://www.coolcattone.com/ They sound really good, they are made well, and are true bypass. Best of all, they are cheap. I've got their original Fuzz pedal. They have clips of their site too.
 
Mac Morganfield said:
I'll tell you, i'm toying with the idea of getting some pedals to experiment with. Inexpensive but not cheap if you get my meaning. Having read through some threads and done a little research, i think my first purchase may well be a Boss BD-2 Blues Driver as this seems a little less extreme compared to a 'metal' pedal though that should'nt be discounted entirely. It's good to be able to associate an effect with a song as it can be heard in context, especially when i'm not too familiar with the names.

Thanks again fella's, keep 'em coming!
Click to expand...

When i first purchased the BD-2 i thought it was rubbish as i had the gain too high, just lower the gain to about 12 and the tone to about 9. Now add a SD-1 or OD-3 as a booster (no gain) and you will have a good rock sound.
 
ROG. I think the only track that trumps 'Bang Bang' for tremolo is potentially, "Rumble" by Link Wray. They were certainly the two tracks that inspired me to build a tremolo pedal that's for sure.

As for learning about what FX you like, I would suggested an inexpensive multiFX unit would definitely be worth considering. You have all the FX you could want, they all work nicely with each other (with a pedal board now approaching 20 pedals myself I can assure you not all pedals work with all others) and you get to find out what you like and don't like with minimal outlay. Then if you decide you really need a better fuzz/chorus/delay whatever, you have a benchmark to shop against.

That's what I did anyway. I started with a Zoom 505. Just awful by today's standards, but it did teach me what most of the typical guitar FX sounded like.

Be warned though, as a few of us on here can attest, once you go down the rabbit hole of chasing the best individual FX sounds, it can be a lengthy and expensive process and you might just find at the end you really only needed a good guitar and amp after all ;)
 
Thanks chaps, this is coming together quite nicely. I must say, the 'Multi FX' units were tempting at first and i have not totally disregarded them but i'm cautious of being swamped by effects and the temptation of using them for the sake of using them to the extent of losing focus of the actual playing. If i could use a military analogy; the single effects pedal could be like a Sniper in that the precision of the action means you have a better than average chance of sloting your target. The Multi FX could be seen as carpet bombing in that yes, you'll probably hit the target but it's all the collateral damage that comes with it! I may be way off...........

Call me an old traditionalist, maybe even a Luddite but i quite like the idea of having a box of pedals and messing about with them. Is it that they are so tactile? Maybe it's because each have their own job to do with limited variables within that premis? Maybe the Multi FX pedals mean i have to sit down and read a manual for hours when the individual pedals could be seen as more intuative? I'll go to a shop when i get the opportunity to try some Multi FX pedals for size and maybe, in the meantime, i'll trawl e-bay for some 'pre-loved' reasonable standard pedals cheap.

Thanks again guys, keep 'em coming........
 
Ch0jin said:
ROG. I think the only track that trumps 'Bang Bang' for tremolo is potentially, "Rumble" by Link Wray. They were certainly the two tracks that inspired me to build a tremolo pedal that's for sure.
Click to expand...

When I turn on the tremolo effect on my amp, those are the two songs I play to dial in a setting. :)
 
I like the path you're on, Mac. While I love sculpting my sound with effects, I also enjoy the simple guitar-cable-amp route. Sometimes when I use different effects, my playing style also changes.

If I were to suggest a few boxes to start with, I'd go with an overdrive and a delay. After that, perhaps a chorus and maybe a compressor.

Some multi-effects have too few foot switches, which means more time scrolling through menus and using your hands instead of simply tapping a switch to toggle a single effect on and off.

So yes, go try a few boxes and effects to see what appeals to your ear and needs. Also, check out threads like this,
What's the pedal you can not live without?
http://www.thefret.net/showthread.php/16592-What-s-the-pedal-you-can-not-live-without
 
For something not as complicated as a multi-effect pedal, you can get an amp with multiple effects. My Vox VT-30 has 11 effects +reverb that has given me a nice intro to what each effect is like.

I always think of Rebel Rouser for tremelo. Am I right there, right?
 
Mm. I'm always a bit torn about pedals. Basically I think all you need is a good amp turned up loud and a nice strong guitar hooked up to it.

But. Always good to have a couple of variations of gain, so at least one OD/drive pedals is great to have. For instance, I have one OD pedal dialed way lower than normal sound, but with more drive, and that's what I use when the other guy plays a solo.

A delay can be nice to thicken up leads some, and make them stand out a little better. I wish I would some day learn to dial in a very nice solo delay myself, but I'm usually not happy with the results. But I do use some in the background to give it some width.

But, basically...I find them a distraction too often. Sure, on some songs...say CCR's Born On The Bayou you do need a specific effect like a tremolo, sure...but more or less, whenever there is a guitar intro with some clearly chorus sound or flanger or even delay, I tend to think it'd sound so much better without the effect masking the sound so much. Thus I don't use them myself. Maybe a touch of reverb in the studio or if the amp has one built.in. Maybe. But it's hard to find a verb that actually _adds_ to the sound and makes it bigger, instead of washing away all clarity and intensity. But there are some good reverbs out there.

What's my point? To each their own. It's not that I don't dig FX in guitars, it's just that they tend to be overused so easily. I would not mind having a dozen different fx pedals, if someone would turn them on when needed, and in that case I might use some pedal maybe on one song for 10 seconds, and another pedal in another for same, etc. etc. Just droplets of spices here and there.
 
Know what you mean Dee, thats why i thought i'd ask on here and start simple. Anyway, an update. I've bought a bunch of pedals for a reasonable price that were advertised in the back of a local free paper. I went round to the guys house and he was selling off his son's gear as he's lost interest in guitars and gone to Uni (the son was there as well and could'nt be less interested). Anyway, there were a load of Boss pedals; DS-1, DD-3, CH-1, OS-2 and a Keeley modified BD-2 all on an old BCB-6 pedal board. They all seem to work well, the BD-2 really sounds great. I'm just playing around with them individually at the moment, particularly as i don't think i need two different overdrives in one chain. I'll do some reading up on what order they should be in but i've heard that Boss used to supply a document with 'recommended settings' to get you started and i've looked on the Boss site but can't anything on there, anyone have any pointers? Thanks again peeps!
 
Start with drive, end with delay.

BUT if you have several drives, leave one last in the chain and see how that works. Experiment.

As for settings, try keeping drive/gain knobs at like 1/4th first, record it, see if it's enough. Very easy to use too much gain IMO. Try 2 drives on at once but both low gain. again, experiment.
 
Thanks fella's, lots of fun there! Ok, At home i use my Sg Standard through a Vox AC4TV and at work (lunchtimes, i'm a good boy) i use an Epiphone Dot studio faded through a cheap little 'Rocksta' practice amp with a 3.5" speaker. It's not great but it makes a noise. Anyway, it's very light and whilst practising yesterday i accidentally pulled it of the desk and it fell into the solid metal (mild steel?) office waste paper basket. Now, i like my Classic Rock but found the sound this created was mid way between Classic Rock and Metal! It must be the reverb in the basket or the fact that the speaker was being reflected out by the bottom of the bin and the harmonics changed but hell was it effective! Very dirty, incredible bass; it must have been done before!

By the way, the pedals are great but i REALLY like the Keeley modified BD-2. I've not used a standard one but this just seems to give me everything i need, from clean drive through a crunch to some nice distortion. I even knocked the gain off and the tone mid-way with the level up and it was like a volume pedal. Big thumbs up here!
 
Aw jeez! This is getting out of hand now! I sold some stuff on e-Bay the other week, just trash i've had lying around. Anyway, i made some cash and could'nt really find a guitar i liked within my price bracket so the lot went of 'pre-loved pedals. So, in the last few weeks i have got myself (deep breath):

Electro Harmonix: Big Muff, Double Muff, Small Stone, Holy Grail, LPB-1 and Pulsar

Boss: CS-3 Compressor

ModTone: StutterKill

I got some good deals as well so there is now plenty to play with in Morganfield Towers!
 
Distortion is beautiful, controlled chaos (kinda like an ideal society).

Chorus is similar to the doppler effect, but in slow-motion (depending on the speed/rate you apply.

Flang is best left in the past.

Delay - read links by products from Alesis to Line 6 and you'll have a good start to your knowledge.

Find youtubes of Ibanez Tube Screamer pedals (or 'boutique' company models) to hear to edginess of this effect. Stevie Ray Vaughan added a bunch to his sound...

Cheers.

http://pages.videotron.com/swguitar
 
Last edited:
Algonquin said:
+1 on the that!... but that's just my preference.
Check out YouTube, there should be oodles and boodles of clips there of every pedal imaginable!

Cheers :beer:
David
Click to expand...

-1 on that! I just built one and I love it so much more than my phaser....
 

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