Guitar Effect Pedalphile Thread

[G650 14273]

Just now, Buzzrock said:

The intro has never been played without a wah. It’s actually illegal.

Well put me in jail then.

[sidis 9832]

28 minutes ago, dcbc said:

My drive pedals off the top of my head: 

1983 TS9 (this is one of the later ones that had a Panasonic chip in it).  It sounded good, but I got the analog man 808 vintage mod with an old JRC4558D, and it sounds absolutely divine now.

Reissue TS808 with Analogman Silver mod.  This one isn't quite so mid humped and sounds a bit more "hifi."

Timmy V2.  Almost always the last drive in my chain.

Bearfoot Honey Bee.  I need to play with this one more.  I still haven't figured out how best to use it.

Barber Gain Changer.  This is a good one.  Plays really well with everything. 

Catalinbread SFT.  This actually is an Ampeg in the box foundation.  But it's a great drive, particularly in front of my low power tweed twin for instant 70s Stones.

You are making my poor little tube screamer mini feel inadequate (though I did just get a ceriatone centura off reverb to test it this week). 

[dcbc 14505]

11 minutes ago, Buzzrock said:

The intro has never been played without a wah. It’s actually illegal.

I believe the crime is referred to as "murder." 

 

But if you were going to do it, you'd have to be in a joint with chicken wire in front of the stage.

Edited March 2, 2023 by dcbc

[dcbc 14505]

15 minutes ago, sidis said:

You are making my poor little tube screamer mini feel inadequate (though I did just get a ceriatone centura off reverb to test it this week). 

I've heard nothing but good things about how the TSmini sounds. 

 

I've found the combo of a TS into an older Timmy (haven't played the MXR version) to be really fantastic.

Edited March 2, 2023 by dcbc

[sidis 9832]

5 minutes ago, dcbc said:

I've heard nothing but good things about how the TSmini sounds. 

 

I've found the combo of a TS into an older Timmy to be really fantastic.

if you want to hear what the mini ts sounds like, the second half (the power chug) of the golden crashes track i just put up in the share your music thread is comp->TSmini->Big Muff (with admittedly a decent amount of post-processing).  the dreamy first half is the comp->ethereal (my fav pedal that is a combo delay/reverb).

[dcbc 14505]

14 minutes ago, sidis said:

if you want to hear what the mini ts sounds like, the second half (the power chug) of the golden crashes track i just put up in the share your music thread is comp->TSmini->Big Muff (with admittedly a decent amount of post-processing).  the dreamy first half is the comp->ethereal (my fav pedal that is a combo delay/reverb).

I have pretty much no experience with a Big Muff, but I think it is doing most of the heavy lifting in what I'm hearing on that track.  Or, put another way, I can't hear a tube screamer in the second half of the track.  But who cares, whatever you're doing sounds great!

[sidis 9832]

11 minutes ago, dcbc said:

I have pretty much no experience with a Big Muff, but I think it is doing most of the heavy lifting in what I'm hearing on that track.  Or, put another way, I can't hear a tube screamer in the second half of the track.  But who cares, whatever you're doing sounds great!

no doubt that the fuzz defines the tone but fwiw, the fender amp settings were precisely the same on the plucks at the beginning as they were in the chug and despite some compression in the mix/master that occurred normalizing it quite a bit, it felt a billion times louder without losing clarity.

eta: thanks by the way.

Edited March 2, 2023 by sidis

[G650 14273]

19 minutes ago, dcbc said:

I have pretty much no experience with a Big Muff, but I think it is doing most of the heavy lifting in what I'm hearing on that track.  Or, put another way, I can't hear a tube screamer in the second half of the track.  But who cares, whatever you're doing sounds great!

 

This is a pure Muff here, with a CS-2. It's the same track that has the trem in the intro I posted for noharley. It's a black Russian, the Muffs can be a good bit different. @sidis has a newer one on his board.

 

Edited March 2, 2023 by G650

[dcbc 14505]

I love all types of fuzz in other people's rigs.  I've never been able to get it to work with what I play and how I play. 

[Paul Wesley 3288]

6 minutes ago, dcbc said:

I love all types of fuzz in other people's rigs.  I've never been able to get it to work with what I play and how I play. 

This is how I feel about Fender amps.  It's not that I don't think they can sound glorious, it's just that they don't sound glorious when *I* use them.  

[G650 14273]

6 minutes ago, dcbc said:

I love all types of fuzz in other people's rigs.  I've never been able to get it to work with what I play and how I play. 

 

It's funny you should say that, because I pulled that Muff out of storage about a year ago, and I cannot get it to sound right. EHX is notorious for crap builds, so I don't know if something in the pedal is failing or not, or if it's the way I play now, or maybe the setup. That clip is about 25 years old, so it's stretching my memory a bit, but I know it was the Muff into a Classic 50 clean channel with the master dimed, and a touch of reverb. I would have thought I could have gotten close with the 5F6A, but it wasn't happening so I took the Muff out of the rack. I play that part with a CS2, OD808 and DD3 through my BF Bassman these days whenever it comes up.

[dcbc 14505]

1 hour ago, G650 said:

 

It's funny you should say that, because I pulled that Muff out of storage about a year ago, and I cannot get it to sound right. EHX is notorious for crap builds, so I don't know if something in the pedal is failing or not, or if it's the way I play now, or maybe the setup. That clip is about 25 years old, so it's stretching my memory a bit, but I know it was the Muff into a Classic 50 clean channel with the master dimed, and a touch of reverb. I would have thought I could have gotten close with the 5F6A, but it wasn't happening so I took the Muff out of the rack. I play that part with a CS2, OD808 and DD3 through my BF Bassman these days whenever it comes up.

It's got silicone transistors in it.  They don't seem to be subject to needing a bias knob like germanium chips do.  Having owned some old EHX pedals, did you give it a good kick and a shake?  That always got my old Small Stone to behave a little bit longer.

 

I swear, EHX should build a pedal called "What's that Rattle?"  It could just be a buffer in an oversized, unfinished enclosure.  It could have a switch on it to set it to shock you when you touch it, just for nostalgia's sake.

Edited March 2, 2023 by dcbc

[sidis 9832]

well, i really like my (new build) big muff a whole bunch so...

fixed.

Edited March 2, 2023 by sidis

[dcbc 14505]

1 hour ago, sidis said:

well, i really like my (new build) big muff a whole bunch so...

Either the "404 - Image not found!" is the joke, or it's unintended irony.

[sidis 9832]

1 hour ago, dcbc said:

Either the "404 - Image not found!" is the joke, or it's unintended irony.

ugh, fixed.  less impact now though.  

[dcbc 14505]

1 hour ago, sidis said:

ugh, fixed.  less impact now though.  

Ha!  That's awesome.  I've had some great ones.  And my Small Stone nano isn't going anywhere.  The back plate is held on with a zip tie.

Edited March 2, 2023 by dcbc

[Deej 76881]

I sold an Electro-Harmonix Holy Grail years ago on CL. Three months later I get an email from the guy wanting his money back because it started to fall apart. 

[Paul Wesley 3288]

ThorpyFX fallout cloud is the best Muff-style pedal that I've personally used.  I like it even more than the Analogman fuzz that cost twice as much (and I subsequently sold).

We are definitely living in a golden era of pedals, with products from multinational corporations, from dudes on college football forums, and from everyone in-between... literally around the globe.  Not only that, buyers can audition them on YouTube and have them arrive at the front door in a couple days.

It occurs to me that you could have eight or ten guys with pretty big pedalboards and have no pedal appear in more than one rig, and all of those chains could have a tuner, compressor, gain (or three), fuzz, wah, phaser, chorus, delay, reverb -- and each one of them could be just fantastic.  

[sidis 9832]

On 3/2/2023 at 10:13 AM, sidis said:

(though I did just get a ceriatone centura off reverb to test it this week). 

Honestly, sounds pretty good. Quite the boost. 

In the name of science, I think @Horn Dogg should send his klon over to me so that a proper A/B/X comparison can be done for the ultimate determination of any material difference based on the board’s review. I’ll send him back whichever one the board determines sounds better.  

[Horn Dogg 3938]

19 minutes ago, sidis said:

Honestly, sounds pretty good. Quite the boost. 

In the name of science, I think @Horn Dogg should send his klon over to me so that a proper A/B/X comparison can be done for the ultimate determination of any material difference based on the board’s review. I’ll send him back whichever one the board determines sounds better.  

I’ll send 9.95 for my subscription to the writeup too!

[sidis 9832]

[Mileslong 4728]

[BoomMF 1399]

Without clicking I new what this bump was about. 😂

But Josh is right, listing that pedal for $650 is not the same as it selling for $650. This story works better as a cautionary tale of how too many guitarists rely too much on popular opinion and not their own ears.

Edited March 16, 2023 by BoomMF

[hullabelew 3724]

NPD on Tues. Been looking for a reverb pedal with more ambient options than what I have, but didn't want to go full Strymon $$$$ and the huge footprint. Them Strymon does this.

Love the stuff at the 6:30 more with the tap pedal and freezing the sound. You can also save one sound in the pedal and another one in the pedal to toggle back and forth.

Cloudburst

[hullabelew 3724]

Candy stocker gets an A plus. Should be working and watching the Senate hearings on SVB, but this pedal is exactly what I was wanting. The ensemble switch is big fun.

[G650 14273]

 

[hullabelew 3724]

After a couple of weeks with the Strymon Cloudburst: Background:  I have a Hall of Fame (I think I got it from Paul Wesley) that suited my needs but I wanted something that gave more ambient sounds but stay away from the $$$, big footprint Strymons. 

I record my grand daughter singing and then add guitars/mandolins to it.  It is fun for both of us and the Cloudburst has all kinds of cool ambient action that isn't a pain in the ass to dial in.  No hidden menus you have to learn by pushing a bunch of buttons and knobs or going through menus.  I have enough trouble playing the guitar without having to learn a bunch of pedal shit.  I also started playing in a praise band at my wife's church.  Probably not going to be doing that much longer, but it is great for using volume pedal swells to fill in the empty spots, something this group really needed.   

I've also found a couple of cool, always on choices that I'm having a lot of fun with, so the pedal isn't all just about the fluffy, singing/shimmering stuff and by running the HOF pedal after it, I can still add a 'regular' reverb sound.  

The 'ensemble' switch is very cool.  Off, low and high.   If I play a chord or especially triad with my fingers, the first time it will emphasis one note in the background shimmer...the next time, a different note, and the next time, a different note, so it isn't the same each time.  And it is also sensitive to how hard your pick/strum and where on the guitar you actually play.  

Fun toy for not much money.

 

[Mileslong 4728]

I find this highly offensive

[Paul Wesley 3288]

On 3/15/2023 at 8:23 PM, Mileslong said:

It would have been interesting to see what happened to the Centaur prices (my guess:  nothing).

[Deej 76881]

I think I need to just unload all my pedals except for the tuner and the Naga Viper. They are the only ones that get used, but I know as soon as I sell them, I start buying more. 

[DougO 5254]

4 hours ago, Paul Wesley said:

It would have been interesting to see what happened to the Centaur prices (my guess:  nothing).

 

I watched one of his episodes a few months ago where they blind tested various Klons, incuding an original, and Klon clones, and they couldn't distinguish it from the cheapest Amazon pedal. They already did this, but there was no big thing. The internet can be full regard. 

Edited April 17, 2023 by DougO

[DougO 5254]

I still have a Fulltone OCD v2 that my friend gave me a couple of years ago. They got up to 300 or 400 after the company got slammed for some goofy thing the owner said on twitter. They are still around 200 on reverb, but I wish I had sold it, new in the box with paper, even the receipt.

[Deej 76881]

On 3/28/2023 at 12:48 PM, hullabelew said:

Candy stocker gets an A plus. Should be working and watching the Senate hearings on SVB, but this pedal is exactly what I was wanting. The ensemble switch is big fun.

The Cloudburst rained candy.

[Mileslong 4728]

I’ve built the preeminent Klon clone and will sell it for only $5000, juts PayPal me.

[DougO 5254]

7 hours ago, Mileslong said:

I’ve built the preeminent Klon clone and will sell it for only $5000, juts PayPal me.

 

[Goredho 17413]

Got one of these incoming to replace my trusty little ditto looper.

 

Edited June 28, 2023 by Goredho

[dcbc 14505]

On 6/28/2023 at 1:46 PM, Goredho said:

Got one of these incoming to replace my trusty little ditto looper.

 

Is Yakoff Schmirnoff doing the demo?

 

I had one of the first gen of these.  For what it does, there's nothing better.  In my case, I didn't use it enough.  But these things are solid!

 

 

Edited June 30, 2023 by dcbc

[Deej 76881]

In Soviet Russia, pedal loop you. 

[dcbc 14505]

3 minutes ago, Deej said:

In Soviet Russia, pedal loop you. 

Fucking Surly!

[Goredho 17413]

30 minutes ago, dcbc said:

Is Yakoff Schmirnoff doing the demo?

 

I had one of the first gen of these.  For what it does, there's nothing better.  In my case, I didn't use it enough.  But these things are solid!

 

 

Yeah, there are some newer things, but from what I can tell, they aren’t overtly better. They are a lot more expensive and many have had buggy releases, so there are a lot of mixed reviews.  They have more tracks, more sample time, better midi integration to stay in synch with a drum machine or whatever, the ability save your loops, but they don’t seem any better at the basic job of allowing you to layer up a multitrack/multipart composition in real time with a workflow optimized for live performances.

I have a 30 day return policy on the boomerang, if I don’t bond with it, I’ll probably look at the Aeros loop station.  Significantly more expensive.

 

Edited June 30, 2023 by Goredho

[Chad Fuck 17718]

Bumping this because I have a pedal problem.  No, this isn't that kind of confession.  I am not ready to concede that my pedal buying has gotten out of control.

No, rather, this is a very specific issue.  I have a long time friend from college who's husband passed away a couple years ago.  He was pretty involved in the Denton music scene and had a fair bit of gear.  She finally decided to part with some of it, and figuring I could both expand my collection and do a solid to an old friend, I bought a couple of the decedent's old pedals.  Feeling pretty good about myself for a very modest act of charity combined with GAS, I was very pleased to find a package on my porch containing a moderately used MXR Phase 90 and a Bigshot ABY pedal.  Here's the problem:  they fucking reek of patchouli.  I mean, it smells like Eeyore's Birthday party on steroids has inhabited these pedals.  

Anyone got any ideas how to get rid of this smell?  

Edited July 2, 2023 by Chad Fuck

[Goredho 17413]

13 minutes ago, Chad Fuck said:

Bumping this because I have a pedal problem.  No, this isn't that kind of confession.  I am not ready to concede that my pedal buying has gotten out of control.

No, rather, this is a very specific issue.  I have a long time friend from college who's husband passed away a couple years ago.  He was pretty involved in the Denton music scene and had a fair bit of gear.  She finally decided to part with some of it, and figuring I could both expand my collection and do a solid to an old friend, I bought a couple of the decedent's old pedals.  Feeling pretty good about myself for a very modest act of charity combined with GAS, I was very pleased to find a package on my porch containing a moderately used MXR Phase 90 and a Bigshot ABY pedal.  Here's the problem:  they fucking reek of patchouli.  I mean, it smells like Eeyore's Birthday party on steroids has inhabited these pedals.  

Anyone got any ideas how to get rid of this smell?  

This is gonna be your best shot…

[Chad Fuck 17718]

1 minute ago, Goredho said:

This is gonna be your best shot…

I'm afraid you're right.  If it were any other sort of transaction in the world, I could send them back and say, "sorry, I don't do those smells anymore."  

But now they're just sitting out on my back porch airing out.  

[G650 14273]

[Chad Fuck 17718]

Yeah, but some are my friends and I just don’t know how to tell them.

[dcbc 14505]

Wipe them down carefully.  Set them outside in a safe place.  That's a good haul.  So I assume they must really stank.

[G650 14273]

8 hours ago, Chad Fuck said:

Yeah, but some are my friends and I just don’t know how to tell them.

So in more important matters what other stinky pedals is she trying to move?

[Chad Fuck 17718]

So in more important matters what other stinky pedals is she trying to move?

All the pedals are sold. She is still trying to sell his 70s vintage Acoustic 150 amp stack. Should probably go in the amp thread, but since you asked here:

If anyone is interested I’ll put y’all in touch. Likely a Forney pick up. I doubt she’ll ship it.

[G650 14273]

Ha, nice. My dad has a garage full of Acoustic amps in various states of disrepair. He got a little carried away on eBay a few years back

[Chad Fuck 17718]

Ha, nice. My dad has a garage full of Acoustic amps in various states of disrepair. He got a little carried away on eBay a few years back

That’s right, I remember you saying that. She’s priced it at $400 which seems reasonable to me. Would’ve made teenage me really happy. I just have no use for such a thing today.