Clueless about pedals.

Switch

Ok, so i play a lot of rock and punk (Think 90's alternative - obviously) and looking to start gigging etc but i havn't got a clue about different pedals and things. I currently have a Zoom G2 guitar effects pedal but i've been told that some normal pedals are worth getting. I suppose i need distortion/overdrive/fuzz ones and maybe a wah. If anyone can give a description or recommend some pedals i'd be grateful.

Oh, and this is for both guitar and bass.

prytocorduroy

I only had positive experiences with Boss bass pedals. They are under $100 so it's not that pricey. I have an Overdrive and Chorus and I'm looking around for some other ones I might want.

I also have an X-Series Synthe-Wah pedal which is bangin'!

xtremehardy388

For this site, you're going to be given two main suggestions for overdrive-the Ibanez TS-9 Tube Screamer and the BOSS BD-2 Blues driver. For distortion, I'd get the BOSS DS-1. It was my first pedal and I have two now. It's worked for a lot of good artists. If you want to add some mellow sounds to your stuff, chorus is a good effect. I have a DOD Ice Box stereo chrous which is great. For solos, wah and delay are good. The Digitech X-series delay is good but so are the BOSS ones. For the wah, I have crybaby which is good but there are a few out there. Don't complicate yourself with getting a bunch of pedals at one either. Get one, try it out, get to know it and then add on. If you are willing to try it, ebay has some GREAT deals. Thats where I've gotten a bunch of my pedals. Hope this helps and good luck!

Mike_Muse_Rage

The Digitech Bad Monkey is meant to be just as good, if not better than the Tube Screamer. The Marshall Guv'nor and Jackhammer pedals are also worth a look distortion-wise.

IDgotI

Peadls are like flavors of ice cream. There is no you "You should get rocky road", or "You should get mint chip." It's what you like that counts. The best thing you can do is figure out what sounds you like from the G2 and then try to get dedicated pedal versions of those sounds. That having been written, boss pedals are solid and reliable. There are lots and lots of other makers of pedals out there, but usually you wind up having to spend more money to get something better than a boss. Ther are plenty of (magnificent) expensive pedals out ther, but if you are looking for some good safe *beginners* advice, figure out what *types* of effect you are interested in and then check out the boss version. After your first few pedals you might want to begin branching out, but that's a good way to start.

Pacomc79

Electro Harmonix Big Muff and it's various forms are good ones to check out for that stuff too.

Also the Pro Co Rat/ MXR distortion plus.

I love the sound of the cheaper (55 bucks) black big muff but the jacks and switch tend to go bad because of the cheapness, they can be replaced with metal ones (and a stronger switch) for not too much money.

The Zvex fuzz factory is pretty popular in that realm as well and it's always cool to get some kind of crazy octave or something like that for solos.

Modulation is pretty personal really, it depends on your ears and perceptions as to what sounds good.


For Bass, Wah, Octave, one of the above distortions, some kind of synth or my personal favorite envelope filter. Compression dosen't hurt either to tighten things up.

All Those Yesterdays

Bass Pedal wise, I have a Boss Overdrive, and a Boss Enhancer/ Limiter, both I'm trying to part ways with if your interested.

Links

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/product/Boss-ODB3-Bass-OverDrive-Pedal?sku=151396

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/product/Boss-LMB3-Bass-Limiter-Enhancer?sku=151397

ianvomsaal

What's your price point???
I'd suggest you pick which company fits your price point, and go from there.
I've been doing this professionally for just over 12 years, and I've found Boss to be a good medium (few stragglers aside).
You can go for much more expensive and get FullTone pedals (really tops).
Or you can go just over the Boss line and get a "Keeley Modified" Boss Pedal (exceptionally good mods).
I'll just say to stay away from Digitech if you can - you can get a bad run, and spoil your pedal experience.
A Few Good General Pedals to start with are: Overdrive's, Chorus', & Delay's
Cheers . . .

- Ian C.T. vom Saal

Pacomc79

ianvomsaal wrote:

What's your price point???
I'd suggest you pick which company fits your price point, and go from there.
I've been doing this professionally for just over 12 years, and I've found Boss to be a good medium (few stragglers aside).
You can go for much more expensive and get FullTone pedals (really tops).
Or you can go just over the Boss line and get a "Keeley Modified" Boss Pedal (exceptionally good mods).
I'll just say to stay away from Digitech if you can - you can get a bad run, and spoil your pedal experience.
A Few Good General Pedals to start with are: Overdrive's, Chorus', & Delay's
Cheers . . .

- Ian C.T. vom Saal

yeah man, in that vein. Fulltone Octafuzz. That thing is awesome especially with the switchable fuzz octave. very underrated.

Keeley's DS1's are outstanding and I got a lot of miles out of my Keely Rat2.

All Those Yesterdays

Pacomc79 wrote:

yeah man, in that vein. Fulltone Octafuzz. That thing is awesome especially with the switchable fuzz octave. very underrated.

Keeley's DS1's are outstanding and I got a lot of miles out of my Keely Rat2.

If you can afford fulltone, it's worth the purchase. Fulltone makes some amazing stuff. OCD, 69 and 70 fuzz etc.........

armanHammer

Mike_Muse_Rage wrote:

The Digitech Bad Monkey is meant to be just as good, if not better than the Tube Screamer. The Marshall Guv'nor and Jackhammer pedals are also worth a look distortion-wise.

I love my bad monkey.

Switch

All Those Yesterdays wrote:

Bass Pedal wise, I have a Boss Overdrive, and a Boss Enhancer/ Limiter, both I'm trying to part ways with if your interested.

Links

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/product/Boss-ODB3-Bass-OverDrive-Pedal?sku=151396

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/product/Boss-LMB3-Bass-Limiter-Enhancer?sku=151397

Unfortunately, i'm based in the UK. The price on shipping for that would be OTT.

However, although i understand what overdrive is, what is a Limiter/Enhancer? And a chorus pedal? This is what i meant about clueless

Edit. I'm thinking, if i got my G2, is it gonna be necessary to get any pedals? There's loads my Pedal can do (although a dedicated pedal might be easier to work) and maybe it'd be better use of my money to get the equivalent B2.1 Bass Pedal, and maybe trade in my G2 for the G2.1 with the expression pedal on it.

Saying that, i'm running through a crappy 10w amp. Maybe money would be even better spent getting a guitar/bass stack?

lucylespian

All excellent advie abovem,as usual, from your friendly Pit gearwhores, but it really sounds though you still be at the stage where you need to hang aroudn shops trying stuff and asking questions until you get thrown out,m then go back and do it again.

Tone is such as massive thig, and you are right when you say your amp is not really suited to teh prupose of adding pedals for gigging sound.

A new amp is your next important purchase before you add a bunch of pedals.

xtremehardy388

All Those Yesterdays wrote:

If you can afford fulltone, it's worth the purchase. Fulltone makes some amazing stuff. OCD, 69 and 70 fuzz etc.........

The '69 is AMAZING!!!! I've had the privilege of playing one and it was such a great pedal.

All Those Yesterdays

xtremehardy388 wrote:

The '69 is AMAZING!!!! I've had the privilege of playing one and it was such a great pedal.

'69 is cool, Doesn't get to crazy wild.

All Those Yesterdays

Switch wrote:

Unfortunately, i'm based in the UK. The price on shipping for that would be OTT.

However, although i understand what overdrive is, what is a Limiter/Enhancer? And a chorus pedal? This is what i meant about clueless

Edit. I'm thinking, if i got my G2, is it gonna be necessary to get any pedals? There's loads my Pedal can do (although a dedicated pedal might be easier to work) and maybe it'd be better use of my money to get the equivalent B2.1 Bass Pedal, and maybe trade in my G2 for the G2.1 with the expression pedal on it.

Saying that, i'm running through a crappy 10w amp. Maybe money would be even better spent getting a guitar/bass stack?

Chorus: mixes a varying delayed signal with the original signal to produce a large number of harmonically related notches in the frequency response. Chorus was huge in the 80's. People use it a lot on clean tones. I personally think chorus can be over used, and is over used a lot. People use chorus on bass and guitar.

The Limiter/ Enhancer: Acts as a compressor. To put this in easy way to under stand it. Here's an example. Playing bass down the neck, doesn't cut thru as much as when you play way up the neck. The pedal allows you to even the outputs up so the level doesn't change consistently.


The only reason I'm getting rid of that is due to I bought that back in my solid state days of playing. Tube amps have some natural compression, so I don't really rely on it as much now as I used to. I'll still use a tube compressor in the studio, but live I don't worry about it.

I'm really trying to simplify all my set ups. I think people become to dependent on effects.

PACO and MIG, can probably be 10,000 times more clear in explanations then I can be.

xtremehardy388

For chorus, just listen to Nirvana and you'll figure out the sound (Come As You Are, Smells Like Teen Spirit, and lithium). I agree, now-a-days, people are relying too much on effects and are trying to look better than they actually are by masking mistakes with pedals.

Pacomc79

xtremehardy388 wrote:

For chorus, just listen to Nirvana and you'll figure out the sound (Come As You Are, Smells Like Teen Spirit, and lithium). I agree, now-a-days, people are relying too much on effects and are trying to look better than they actually are by masking mistakes with pedals.

For the record, that's a DS-1 into a EHX Clone Chorus.

All Those Yesterdays

Switch wrote:

Unfortunately, i'm based in the UK. The price on shipping for that would be OTT.

However, although i understand what overdrive is, what is a Limiter/Enhancer? And a chorus pedal? This is what i meant about clueless

Edit. I'm thinking, if i got my G2, is it gonna be necessary to get any pedals? There's loads my Pedal can do (although a dedicated pedal might be easier to work) and maybe it'd be better use of my money to get the equivalent B2.1 Bass Pedal, and maybe trade in my G2 for the G2.1 with the expression pedal on it.

Saying that, i'm running through a crappy 10w amp. Maybe money would be even better spent getting a guitar/bass stack?

Fulltone has a dealer over there too it appears

http://www.fulltone.co.uk

xtremehardy388

Yeah, and the small clone is analog chorus too.

Rhyno

Haven't read all of the posts yet, but read a few. I'm clueless about pedals too and have been wondering how I can get stone's sound from the original recording of the main riff of alive. Just love that sound. Anyway, I assume it's some sort of distortion. Anyway, I currently play an Epi Les Paul Custom with a Vox Valvetronix. When working on the riff to Alive, I just can't seem to get the sustain I need to make it sound right. Any suggestions would be appreciated!

dcfaithful

If you're looking for sustain...i'd recommend a sustainer...i have a MXR dyna-comp that works wonders...I've been thinking about getting rid of it...send me PM if your interested

ianvomsaal

Rhyno wrote:

Haven't read all of the posts yet, but read a few. I'm clueless about pedals too and have been wondering how I can get stone's sound from the original recording of the main riff of alive. Just love that sound. Anyway, I assume it's some sort of distortion. Anyway, I currently play an Epi Les Paul Custom with a Vox Valvetronix. When working on the riff to Alive, I just can't seem to get the sustain I need to make it sound right. Any suggestions would be appreciated!

Boss CS-3 Compressor/Sustainer http://www.bossus.com/index.asp?pg=1&tmp=23

- Ian

keeponrockin

I would reccomend the MXR Dynacomp. Definitley more, I unno, I just think it sounds better.

Novawind

I like my Dynacomp for what it does (sustain) and evening out the signal, but just beware that most every compressor (except maybe a high end Keeley?) will suck your tone right out the window. Just something to consider. If you're looking for stronger sustain and you're playing a strat, try blocking the tremolo so your bridge acts more like a hard-tail, that way your strings will vibrate a bit longer.

lucylespian

Rhyno wrote:

Haven't read all of the posts yet, but read a few. I'm clueless about pedals too and have been wondering how I can get stone's sound from the original recording of the main riff of alive. Just love that sound. Anyway, I assume it's some sort of distortion. Anyway, I currently play an Epi Les Paul Custom with a Vox Valvetronix. When working on the riff to Alive, I just can't seem to get the sustain I need to make it sound right. Any suggestions would be appreciated!

Les Paul through a Marshall. Since you already have the LP, try adding more distortion to maximise your sustain. As a general rule, great tone is always obtained by turning your amp up loud. Not always possible, but all the great tonemeisters played with the amps turned up. It's hard to get good sustain in your bedroom, unless you have deaf neighbours and tolerant parents.

keeponrockin

Novawind wrote:

I like my Dynacomp for what it does (sustain) and evening out the signal, but just beware that most every compressor (except maybe a high end Keeley?) will suck your tone right out the window. Just something to consider. If you're looking for stronger sustain and you're playing a strat, try blocking the tremolo so your bridge acts more like a hard-tail, that way your strings will vibrate a bit longer.

On clean, I agree. On distortion, the tone loss isn't AS noticable, but the compressor isn't needed if you're cranked anyways.

ianvomsaal

I almost never use a compressor on clean.
I really don't find a need for it since I usually get good clean tone and sustain.
Now with overdrive, I find I like to use the compressor/sustainer a lot (especially on solos).
I agree about the Keeley Compressor - it's next on my list.

- Ian

IDgotI

chiefojibwa wrote:

anyone else a fan of plug and play?

Probably *everyone* here, esspecially when plugging a good guitar into a nice amp. Putting pedals between the two sometimes doesn't really cancel out that simple pleasure at all.

keeponrockin

IDgotI wrote:

Probably *everyone* here, esspecially when plugging a good guitar into a nice amp. Putting pedals between the two sometimes doesn't really cancel out that simple pleasure at all.

Ya, I like plugging in and playing, but sometimes its great to give options!