Your Pedal rig?

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Jul 10, 2003
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I currently am pretty much a meat and potatoes person when it comes to playing guitar, clean or distortion but lately I feel the need to build up a pedalboard, even if it's not too extensive this was what I was thinking:

Chorus(probably a Boss), Overdrive/Boost(TS9), Dunlop Crybaby Wah, Digitech Whammy Pedal, Maximiser(either a Boss EH2 if I can find one, or a BBE Sonic Stomp). I use my amp's distortion which I think sounds great as I spent hours dialling in a good tone out of it.

Currently, my other guitarist is using a Boss GT8(with it driving his Crate Powerblock, all his distorted sound come from it, also has his cleans with a little bit of delay and chorus), Dunlop Crybaby 535Q Wah, Digitech Whammy Pedal and Boss EH2.

Should I go analog for effects, especially for chorus/phaser/delay etc or should I just get a multifx like a GT8 or 10? I definitely want to get a Whammy pedal at some point in time just to play around with. Also what effects do you guys tend to use alot apart from distortion obviously? My band's sort of a progressive black/death metal sound. I'll post some samples in the future. :)
 
I've got pedals that I never use, here's a list...

-Boss Acoustic Simulator (Very handy because I dislike acoustics)

-Morley Bad Horsie II Contour Wah (Best wah ever, Crybaby is over-rated)

-Morley Little Alligator Volume Pedal (It's a volume pedal... yep)

-Rocktron Hush Pedal (worthless, get the rack version)

-Digitech Death Metal (under-rated imo)

-Boss Hi-Band Flanger (vintage pedal, my brother lost it a few months back so I need to search for it)

-Ibanez Tube Screamer TS-9 (I have the pedal, I have the USA made 70's era Fender Strat, now all I need is a Fender tube amp to nail that SRV tone.)

As for advice, go to a guitar shop and try it out yourself, that's the only way you'll really know what you want.
 
i to have a slew of pedals i rarely use
-mxr smartgate(only one in my signal chain)
-boss chorus ce-5
-mxr carbon copy delay
-ibanez ts-808
-mxr 10 band eq
-4 distortion pedals from the no $$ days
-boss metal zone
-dod thrash master
-digitech metalmaster
-zoom 503
as for the gt-8 i have played with one for a bit and its pretty fkn nice i dont think you can go wrong with it. just play with it and see what you like. im a believer of qualityguitar->noise gate->tubeamp and thats about it the less clutter the better tone imo.
 
I was considering the Bad Horsie Contour Wah instead of the Crybaby 535Q, the only problem was the pricing difference. Also used to have a Boss GE7 7 band equaliser, but I sold it because I was low on cash at one point.

My other guitarist, told me I should get a Boss DD5 then Chorus first before thinking of buying a Wah and Whammy. Easy for him to say, his pedalboard's already good enough. How do you run your pedals through? I was thinking of putting a Delay then Chorus through the FX loop and a wah then whammy and finally sound maximiser in that order of signals. Good idea?

edit: I might be buying a Boss DD3 and CH5 2nd hand, only thing is that I can't find any information on the BOSS CH5. There are only 3 reviews of the damn thing on Harmony Central, all before 2002. Are these pedals discontinued and does anyone have any clue how they sound compared to a CH1 and CE5?
 
uh. well, before I went tubin' I had:

Line 6 uber metal for distortion
Zoom 505II for the different clean effects
Boss LS-2 Line Selector to immediately jump from one signal to the other

through the clean channel.

Now I don't use any of them, though I'm keeping the Line Selector because it has tons of uses. I'd like some kind of super chorus, or.. whatever... something with reverb, and chorus...stuff..and something which doesn't eliminate the volume by like 43533%..
 
I was considering the Bad Horsie Contour Wah instead of the Crybaby 535Q, the only problem was the pricing difference. Also used to have a Boss GE7 7 band equaliser, but I sold it because I was low on cash at one point.

The Bad Horsie Wah is spring loaded which is awesome and more comfortable. You could always settle with the basic Bad Horsie instead of the contour wah.
 
I am an absolute tone nut! When I first started playing seriously with my old band I was playing through a mesa tripple rectifier and JCM900 heads. I never was 100% satisfied with the tone and it was a hell of a lot of gear to haul around on my own. When I got the go ahead on a line of credit from the bank I immediately sold my gear and ordered a Krank Rev1 Head and cab. I ended spending about $4400 on it but I fell in love with the sound of this beast. My only problem was the amount of gain It took to get that saturated sound. I ended up using so much that I lost allot of clarity and note separation.

The solution for me was to buy a few pedals to shape the sound and add more gain complexity. Now, Ive never before let anyone peek inside my "Tone Box" but since many others around here have shared their secrets that I have learned from I decided to share my best combination of pedals that help me get the exact sound I was after. I would describe the tone as very heavy, a good thick tight low end, lots of grindy cruchy mids and smooth processed high frequency's. Once I get my website up and running Ill share some of my work.

So the "Tone Box" is pretty much an old camera case modified to accommodate 3 pedals, leads, power supplies and a power bar. (Now mind you, this was set up for stage use, and the only time is use batteries is when I record) The pedals are set up in a chain on the amps loop like this: Amp loop out --> Voodoo Labs Sparkle Drive --> MXR KRK 10 band EQ --> BBE Sonic Maximizer --> Amp loop in. Each pedal adds a little drive and the end result is SICK TONE! Makes me evil grin every time I hear it.

ToneBox.jpg
 
I have a Darelectro FAB Chorus Pedal and its crazy. Also a G1 sound effects pedal, RC-2 Loop Station, and a Phaser Soundtank I never use
 
I've been using a Line 6 POD XTLive ever since they came out, and I love it. It's very simple to use, and sounds great direct, through an amp or PA system. It's almost like using a "pedal rig", since it has digital simulations of "pedals" - i.e., Tube Screamer, RAT, Boss MT2, Mutron, Tube Driver, Boss Chorus and Flangers, MXR Phaser, etc. - and it has a combination Volume/Wah.

No batteries or patch cords.

Not to be an ad for Line 6, but their stuff does sound great. Listen to any of my albums - but actually, you should listen to any of the Ayreon albums - Arjen Lucassen almost always records using a Line 6 POD XT Rack - all direct.