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Guitar effects

Oh, yeah. I love guitar effects.

Any good guitar player will tell you that you have to start with a good instrument, learn good technique and tone, and have a quality amplifier. I agree. I also agree with those who say that the lion’s share of tone comes from one’s fingers. Once you have that foundation, though, it’s a blast to step on a little pedal and totally transform your clean, pretty sounds into a raging troop of screaming monkeys, fire-breathing helicopters, rude buzzsaws, and modulated head trips.

Here are some of my toys.

The pedals I include on the board changes regularly, and not all of my effects are pictured. Here are some notes on a few of the pedals and some favorite settings. For the settings, pretend all of the knobs are labeled 1-10.

Boss OC-2 Octave (octave 2: 3, direct: 4, octave 1: 6)

Morley PWA Wah(level: 4)

DOD FX 30-B Noise Gate/Loop. (release: 3, gate: 5, sensitivity: 9)

Boss AC-2 Acoustic Simulator (level: 9, body 4, top: 4, mode: enhance)

Boss SD-1 Super Overdrive (level: 3, tone: 7, drive: 4.5)

Marshall ShredMaster (gain: 8, bass: 4, contour: 2, treble: 10, volume: 5)

Boss DS-1 Distortion (tone: 7, level: 3, distortion: 10) (I’m simulating a fuzz with this setting)

MXR Micro Amp (gain: 6) (I am using this to counteract signal loss since I have so many pedals. It works great.)

Boss BF-2 Flanger (manual: 5, depth: 9, rate: 5, res.: 2)

Boss PH-2 Super Phaser (rate: 6, depth: 9, res.: 2, mode: I)

Boss DM-2 Delay (rate: 6, echo: 4, intensity: 1)(This may be the best delay I have ever heard)

Boss CE-2 Chorus (rate: 4, depth: 8 )

Ibanez LF7 Lo-Fi Filter (drive: 5, lo cut: 8, hi cut: 2, level: 6, mode: guitar)(this does a great job of imitating the “cheap transistor amp” or megaphone sound, I really like it when used with other effects like my pseudo fuzz setting on the DS-1)

All settings listed are subject to change at my whim, but this is where I had them the day the pics were taken.

As you can see, I am partial to the Boss pedals. You can use ’em, abuse ’em, and they just keep working. Fact is, I haven’t had any trouble with any of my pedals, but they are all well built. I am a little skeptical of plastic pedals, even if they sound good, so all my pedals are in sturdy steel cases. The Marshall ShredMaster is probably my best deal–I found it at a pawn shop and only paid $15 for it, in near mint condition!! I’m also in love with the Boss DM-2 and SD-1.

I have a few more not pictured. If there is interest, I’ll post again on the topic and include them in the future.

6 Comments

  1. EvilDead

    " Just victims of the in-house drive-by
    They say jump, you say how high "

    Love guitar effects too 🙂

  2. Josef Assad

    Wasn’t there this real time effects software for linux? I seem to recall toying with something like that some years ago…

  3. Jonh Wendell

    Heh, I used to be a guitarist too, in past times… And I had some effects too, I loved them 🙂

  4. matthew

    Jozef: I have heard of this one, but I’ve never tried it.

    packages.ubuntu.com/sourc…

  5. Hi

    Well … If you search for a good set of guitar effects under linux… you can test Rakarrack. The 0.1.2 version is out since 19-5-2008 and have 10 effects… The cvs version (0.2.0) have up to 17 effects including harmonizer, cabinet emulation and musical delay.

    best regards

  6. Jim Samuel

    Those Morley Wah’s are pretty tidy too I reckon… my favourite so far.

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