Guitarists! What FX pedal(s)?

I’m starting to get back into playing the guitar afetr a few years away. I’d like to get some sort of effects pedal to get some different tones. I’ve had a few in years gone by (Zoom 707, G2), which always seemed to sound a bit harsh and unrefined.

Just wondering what the resident STW guitarists are using in terms of muti effect. My budget is likely to be sub £200. Musical styles – general rock/indie/alternative.

IMO for you the best fx unit would be the Boss ME70 – all the Boss stomp boxes in one unit – absolutely loving mine !!

Boss are good. Line 6 have the HD series which is pretty decent as well. don’t forget your amp may have effects built into it.

Cheers – is it intuitive to use? I seem to remember spending hours twiddling knobs (ooh er missus) and not really making any improvements to the sound…

Electro harmonix clone theory and a boss blues driver for me!

“I had a Boss ME-70 and then sold it to get a Line 6 HD300. IMO, the ME-70 isn’t as versatile and doesn’t “feel” as good. The HD300 amp models are much more detailed than the ones in the ME-70. There is also a noticeable difference? in touch/response. The Line6 software that allows you to edit your sound via USB is a big plus”
quote a youtube comment

Just been looking at the youtube clips of the ME-70. Seems really good, although with all these things, a bit of talent probably does more for the sound than the pedal does 🙂

I’ll go and have a look/listen to the hd300. Maybe a bit outside my budget at the moment though…

Sell a kidney…

Joyo american into Line 6 M9 –

http://youtu.be/ESVR95r8-qM – scroll to the end for more dirt

Already sold both kidneys for bikes. Wonder how much a half-pickled liver is worth…

http://rev967.com/how-much-is-your-kidney-worth-on-the-black-market/

Joyo do a few cheap clones of expensive pedals. Generally pretty decent IMO.

What do you mean by tone? Only changing your guitar or amp or using an amp modeller will give you a different tone. Effects will just work on the tone you already have. Amp modellers are OK but you never get the immediacy of response of the real thing. Modellers always sound like a well recorded version of the sound of the particular amp you’re modelling playing in the next room- which might be just what you’re after.

Anyway for dirt you can’t go wrong with an Ibanez Tube Screamer and a bit of delay and reverb. For a clean sound I wouldn’t be without a decent chorus.

My Zoom G3 is great, and sounds amazing.

The amp sims are excellent and it has a wide variety of great effects, all in a handy, compact package.

Some americans bought a shitload of joyos ultimate drive pedals £30 painted them and sold them on as boutique pedals for £180 – in fact theres one still in Andertons floor dispay case.

There was quite a bun fight over that last year

In my view – Joyo/Belcat are perfectly ok for most peoples needs and i’ve found the amp sound series extraodinary value

Plumber +1

Great way to try out different sounds without breaking the bank IMO.

Anyway for dirt you can’t go wrong with an Ibanez Tube Screamer

Joyo do a nice clone of that. 🙂

http://www.mooeraudio.com/en/product.asp

Have the shimverb, very impressed

Personally I tend to prefer the old stuff; soldano gto, ada flanger, EHX memory man, etc

this is my mates shop

http://www.effectpowersupplies.com/

I’ve never been impressed by the sound of any multi fx I’ve tried. Single pedals always seem to do a better job. Bit more expensive though.

http://bigbitefx.com/

Vox Wah Wah and a modified Ibanez TS-9 Tube Screamer for me at the moment. MIght get a decent reverb box at some stage but my amp has ok reverb at the moment.

Behringer are cheap, cheerful, but sound excellent.
Much prefer them to the other cheap stuff out there.

Can’t beat Korg for multi FX, imo, they really are excellent.
Great amp modellers too.

Multi FX suck a big dogs whatsit….

Guitar* > Cable > Fulltone OCD > Cable > AMP

What else do you need!

*Les Paul or a Telecaster No wacky colours and no pointy bits!

Multieffects have always sounded harsh and unrefined to me, but the Zooms are even more so. I used to play through a Digitech RP300, it was alright, but it never felt ‘direct’ enough for me.

Have you considered going Amp shopping?

Depends what your doing doesn’t it? I mean I’ve got a little Roland amp that has about 20 or so FX built into it, fine for me at home messing about, probably not for someone who’s doing gigs and wants a particular sound.

If you don’t need overdrive, the TC electronic rack products are great and in plentiful supply on eBay.

I prefer pedals when using an amp – although I do use the fx simulators when quiet practicing using amplitube on my phone – and they are fine for use with headphones

I have the green joyo tube screamer clone – and it really is very good for the money.

Also a crowther hotcake and a very old boss od/ distortion pedal

I quite fancy some slap back delay and tremelo effects – but I will be trying the joyo versions before I spend money on anything more expensive

I’ve never got on with multi effects. I’m not a great pedal user, but I prefer the immediacy of a pedal with knobs than using a menu based preset system. The major problem I’ve found is that you need different FX settings for different amp settings, so unless you always use the same amp with the same settings, you end up having to be very organised with your presets to keep the two in sync. It’s also only the more expensive fx which allow some effects to be used at the front end of the amp, and delay / reverb in the fx loop.

I’m using a Joyo tremolo and Boss DD-20 at the moment, which is probably about as complicated as I can stand ;-). Happy with both pedals….the DD-20 is ace….really easy to use looper and delay at the same time.

Those Joyo and Behringer pedals do seem like very good value. And a good bit simpler compared to all the twiddling required on the multi-effects units.

Food for thought indeed!

Multi FX will have about 34,000,000 effects that you will never use. Build up a collection of nice pedals based on the effects you want and spend time learning how to use each one before getting the next.

IMO.

Multi FX will have about 34,000,000 effects that you most guitarists will never use

Most guitarists are luddites that is true

😀

Grevioustim if you ever fancy parting with that hotcake?

I quite like my very old Yamaha Fx500 with pedal board. But I do sound very 80’s and early 90’s.. But the thing cost me £50 on ebay including postage – and it does for vocals and bass too.

Of my two pedals my fav is an MXR analogue Carbon Copy. I also use a Boss OC-3 octave pedal. Thats it for me, a simple soul really

I’m not a great fan on ‘multi-effects’. Normally I just use a wha-wha, and nothing else. But I just got a second hand auto-wha, and a phaser. Been having fun with those.

Got a second hand looper pedal. Now, they are great fun, and a tool to improve your playing too!

SB

Guitar* > Cable > Fulltone OCD > Cable > AMP

What else do you need!

*Les Paul or a Telecaster No wacky colours and no pointy bits!

I am in the less is more camp myself too – a tele, a good quality lead and an amp gives you lots of scope. A tiny bit of reverb from the amp if you have it, a bit of overdrive and maybe a bit of compression if you do a lot of lead

Soul > fingers > guitar > Behringer TO800 > Roland Microcube > ears > soul : repeat

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I’m doing it wrong, aren’t I?

If you’re just after some fun sounds for practice and a bit of jamming, then I’ve always found the Zoom stuff to be perfectly fine. But as some folks have pointed out, it’s easier to twiddle knobs than page through menus, so you might prefer something like the EHX Tone Tattoo and go from there.

Holy moly Chipps, that’s one big plate of spaghetti 🙂