Most overused and overrated effect

xtremehardy388

In popular music (rock, hip hop, country, indie, ect) what do you think the most overrated and overused effects are? Obviously, the end result is up the the artist but this is just a matter of opinion.

I'm gonna say Chorus. It's awesome in Master of Puppets and Nirvana but I think it's heavily used in a lot of songs (I'm guilty of using it overly in my early songs, too). Runner up would be Delay.

ScrapeMySky

I'm with you on chorus. But as I'm a big fan of delay, I wouldn't call that overrated.
Overall, I'd say the "effect" that annoys me the most, even though it's technically not a guitar effect, would be autotune or whatever you wanna call it. That annoys me enough when it's used to cover up a bad singer, which sometimes is clearly audible, but even more when it's used as an "effect".

LloydXmas

Auto tune. It's horrible

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auto-Tune

xtremehardy388

In terms of vocals, the Auto Tune is the WORST "effect" used, I gotta agree with you all there.

I love delay, by the way, I just think it's misused a LOT

mccreadyisgod

Without a doubt, it's gotta be wah-wah. I think less than 10% of players who have it, use it tastefully. The rest of the time, it's, "Hey, I'm soloing, and it will be even more awesome if I rock back and forth on this thing."

keeponrockin

mccreadyisgod wrote:

Without a doubt, it's gotta be wah-wah. I think less than 10% of players who have it, use it tastefully. The rest of the time, it's, "Hey, I'm soloing, and it will be even more awesome if I rock back and forth on this thing."

Agreed. When used well, it's awesome. But it's hard to do well.

OffHeGoes29

mccreadyisgod wrote:

Without a doubt, it's gotta be wah-wah. I think less than 10% of players who have it, use it tastefully. The rest of the time, it's, "Hey, I'm soloing, and it will be even more awesome if I rock back and forth on this thing."

True...but I don't know any other pedal I can make sex faces while doing it....so the Wah is on the top of my list.

kigcat

i personally believe that in this day and age the digitech whammy is fast becoming highly overused. seems like all someone has to do is switch it on and do a few a few octave sweeps with hammer ons and finger tapping and they are being called the next steve vai.

xtremehardy388

OffHeGoes29 wrote:

mccreadyisgod wrote:

Without a doubt, it's gotta be wah-wah. I think less than 10% of players who have it, use it tastefully. The rest of the time, it's, "Hey, I'm soloing, and it will be even more awesome if I rock back and forth on this thing."

True...but I don't know any other pedal I can make sex faces while doing it....so the Wah is on the top of my list.

HAhahaa, and your profile picture is awesome

ScrapeMySky

kigcat wrote:

i personally believe that in this day and age the digitech whammy is fast becoming highly overused. seems like all someone has to do is switch it on and do a few a few octave sweeps with hammer ons and finger tapping and they are being called the next steve vai.

You're right. Just recently my band played a show with a band where the guitar player did exactly that. But it was still fun to listen to other people praising his skills.

mccreadyisgod

ScrapeMySky wrote:

You're right. Just recently my band played a show with a band where the guitar player did exactly that. But it was still fun to listen to other people praising his skills.

It's funny, I often feel the same about delay. It's an effect that makes some guitar players look and sound WAAAY more talented, especially to people who don't understand the gear. But I love delay.... it makes me seem like a better player....

Of course, just the switch from acoustic guitar to electric guitar will make any player sound twice as good, and distortion will double that again.

xtremehardy388

mccreadyisgod wrote:

ScrapeMySky wrote:

You're right. Just recently my band played a show with a band where the guitar player did exactly that. But it was still fun to listen to other people praising his skills.

It's funny, I often feel the same about delay. It's an effect that makes some guitar players look and sound WAAAY more talented, especially to people who don't understand the gear. But I love delay.... it makes me seem like a better player....

Of course, just the switch from acoustic guitar to electric guitar will make any player sound twice as good, and distortion will double that again.

NOW do you see why I have so many pedals on my board


My wah was broken for a few weeks and I had to play without it. Well, during practice, I used NO pedals, except the channel switcher and I realized I could still sound awesome (like I used to), before I relied on pedals. Given, I did have the overdrive on, but still. I'm at the point now where the pedals are starting to hold me back. I wish I kinda had a tube screamer, at practice that day, simply to help the sustain. However, I agree that the pedals make people sound a lot better than they should. This is why I wish I started on acoustic and not electric. Electric allows you to mask your mistakes better.

keeponrockin

Being in college lately, I've been playing 95% acoustic. It's made my electric playing SOO much cleaner and more melodic.

SomethingCreative

mccreadyisgod wrote:

Without a doubt, it's gotta be wah-wah. I think less than 10% of players who have it, use it tastefully. The rest of the time, it's, "Hey, I'm soloing, and it will be even more awesome if I rock back and forth on this thing."

hahaha WORD.

gimmesometruth27

xtremehardy388 wrote:

OffHeGoes29 wrote:

mccreadyisgod wrote:

Without a doubt, it's gotta be wah-wah. I think less than 10% of players who have it, use it tastefully. The rest of the time, it's, "Hey, I'm soloing, and it will be even more awesome if I rock back and forth on this thing."

True...but I don't know any other pedal I can make sex faces while doing it....so the Wah is on the top of my list.

HAhahaa, and your profile picture is awesome

someone posted that pic in a thread on the moving train a few months ago and got banned for a few weeks over it....be careful...

ScrapeMySky

mccreadyisgod wrote:

But I love delay.... it makes me seem like a better player....

Same here!

Snoopy Died For Our Sins

nothing new, the wah-wah......listen to the George Harrison song...says it all y'all

DewieCox

Wahwah

distortion-why use pedals?

ccpa

High gain / distortion pedals. Can turn music into mud.

DirectionOfTheEye

I guess its just me but I'd say Reverb. I think reverb sounds great in its place, and terrible when used everywhere else. Maybe thats just me though. A buddy of mine I play with drowns everything in reverb even if the song doesn't call for it, so maybe thats what gets me.

Also, too much distortion being used these days. I've seen many covers of things that are supposed to have very slight distortion and people kill it with metal-type bone crushing distortion.

xtremehardy388

DirectionOfTheEye wrote:

I guess its just me but I'd say Reverb. I think reverb sounds great in its place, and terrible when used everywhere else. Maybe thats just me though. A buddy of mine I play with drowns everything in reverb even if the song doesn't call for it, so maybe thats what gets me.

Also, too much distortion being used these days. I've seen many covers of things that are supposed to have very slight distortion and people kill it with metal-type bone crushing distortion.

Define too much, in terms of reverb. I love reverb BUT it depends on the type of reverb.

Agreed with the distortion on covers. It drives me insane