Comments on: A Gaggle of My Favorite Guitar Pedals, Effects Boxes, Units, Whatever!!!

By: SuperfuzzBigmuff

SuperfuzzBigmuff — Wed, 04 May 2011 05:24:15 +0000

Old Bigmuffs are a must. I specialy like the Sovtek, really don’t know why but it’s easier to get the sound with any guitar/amp combination. The Boss old trusty DS1 is THE DISTORTION, no discussion. Other pedals that must be named are ProCo Ratt 2 and the MXR Distortion +, the early ones that give a warm creamy distortion full of colour.

By: Cat MacKinnon

Cat MacKinnon — Wed, 04 May 2011 03:34:22 +0000

hey now, some of us actually like that Big Country sound! Stuart Adamson and Bruce Watson had some of the most unique guitar tones in the history of the instrument, especially on albums like “The Crossing” and “The Seer”. the combination of the MXR Pitch Transposer, some chorus and delay helped make them undeniably unique. like a lot of 80′s bands, they often used solid state amps (especially Stuart), so there was that “sterile” sound, but i don’t think it was necessarily a “bad” tone, unlike a lot of other more New Wave-type bands who seemed to enjoy sounding like amplified icepicks.

i think the great thing about both Bruce and Stuart’s setups is that they were deceptively simple, but between the MXR Pitch Transposer and their willingness to try unorthodox settings on the few other effects they used, they managed to create a new sound that no other band since has really been able to replicate. that, along with Stuart’s brilliant songwriting ability, really made Big Country stand apart from other 80′s bands and why they still have an extremely loyal following, despite Stuart’s passing ten years ago.

By: Joe

Joe — Tue, 03 May 2011 19:22:17 +0000

Nice article. I don’t agree at all about the Tubescreamer–it colors my guitar tone more than any other overdrive I’ve used, though not in a bad way–but otherwise, these are some seriously cool pedals. Incidentally, on the vibe clones, the Danelectro Cool Cat Vibe can get some pretty awesome swirl going, though it takes a five-minute no-parts switch mod if you want to be able to use it live.

By: Steve Raimer

Steve Raimer — Thu, 10 Feb 2011 01:49:51 +0000

Joey – Great column as always! Question – what are your thoughts on the Ibanez Tube Screamer Classic TS10? I’ve used one for years and never really used an original – wonder how much I’m missing. Also, since I know you like unconventional – for the rare times you want a Flanger, try the Boss Bass Flanger BF-2B. I always found guitar flangers to be harsh. The Bass Flanger gives a guitar a nice fat bottomed flange effect. Try it – you’ll like it!!

Cheers.

By: Mitch

Mitch — Fri, 04 Feb 2011 06:40:37 +0000

Really enjoyed this article. Two of my personal favorites however would definitely be the old EHX Big Muff NYC and the classic bulky 5 knob Memory Man. But yeah, other than those I’d have to agree with you on all of these.

By: Gordon Kaswell

Gordon Kaswell — Thu, 03 Feb 2011 20:24:35 +0000

More intriguing stuff! Thanks, Joey! The one that interests me the most is the micro amp. Sometimes I just want to get a bit louder–that’s all!

You never said what the Purple Peaker and Mutron actually do.

I’ve got a Fulltone Fat Boost (original version) that I like a lot. It adds some “meat” to the single coil sound of my Strat, clean or overdrive. And speaking of overdrive, after trying all sorts of pedals, I went with the Deltalabs TO-1 (Tube Overdrive-1). As I understand it, Deltalabs used to be a boutique pedal maker, but got bought out by Guitar Center. The TO-1 sound warm and smooth, with just enough midrange hump to make the guitar stand out in the mix. Chords sound like chords. No fizziness! Cost me $40, new. Actually, I like it much better than the new Tube Screamers (which sound harsh, to me), but it all depends on your rig, of course.

I used to have an MXR Phase (90, I guess) pedal. It sounded great on my bass guitar. The only thing I didn’t like was that you couldn’t control the intensity of the effect, only the speed. In the studio, of course, you could address that by running it through a channel insert.

By: Chuck

Chuck — Thu, 03 Feb 2011 20:19:36 +0000

The Ibanez 10/power series contains some gems. I use the Swell Flanger (SF-10) and the DDL (no 10 after this one.. it’s just DDL) Digital Delay. I also have a SC-10 Super Stereo Chorus that belongs to my friend.

I think the delay may be best of all and competes with the flanger for collectors value. It does what I want for the most part, but sometimes I would like endless, spacey delay. The flange gets crazy, gnarly feedback and also some nice note shifting sounds – maybe that’s the “swell”.. certainly not like other flangers to me. The chorus is just kind of standard. These are actually the only pedals I own now. Sometimes I run them all together.

By: rob

rob — Thu, 03 Feb 2011 20:06:44 +0000

Great article. Especially liked the Purple Peaker – I’ll have to check that out.

Btw The boss Orange disortion is the DS1.

By: Ray Schoch

Ray Schoch — Thu, 03 Feb 2011 19:33:05 +0000

I’m not much into effects pedals, and have only owned two over the course of many years, but the one I’ve hung onto and used with some frequency is the Voodoo Labs Tremolo, which sounds just gorgeous when the song calls for that effect.