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guitar effects pedals

July 20th, 2006 | music

It’s in the back of every electric guitar players mind: should I get a new effects pedal or not? The good thing is that pedals are fun…effects are fun. But like most things the bad usually outweighs the good.

Pedals usually increase noise in your signal path. Plug that expensive guitar into that expensive amp and there’s low noise (hum). Sadly plugging guitar into pedal, then pedal into amp can not only increase the hum, but also kill some of that sweet sound of your expensive guitar/amp combination. Of course there are effects loops in amps, but some effects (like wah-wahs) are meant to go in front of the signal and sound awful through loops.

Pedals are expensive, especially considering what they do and the amount you use them. If you play guitar alot, you can justify buying an expensive guitar and amp because it’ll be in constant use. Now how do you justify buying a $150 Flanger pedal? I don’t know of a song that uses a flanger during the entire song, and honestly, there aren’t many songs that even require a Flanger-type sound. Is the intro riff of that one song really worth an extra $150?

While they may look like a great buy, digital multi-effects pedals/modelling pedals usually suck. It’s true a multi-effects pedal can include a model of numerous distortions/overdrives, choruses, reverbs, delays, flangers, phasers all in one box for $150, but each sound is usually rubbish when compared to the real effects pedal. For example a sound model of an Ibanez TubeScreamer just isn’t the same as a real TubeScreamer. Sorry.

Now, with all that in mind, here’s a list of effects pedals I’m trying to convince myself I should get:

1. Boss OC3 SUPER Octave: Playing one note and hearing two octaves would be cool. But how often could I use it?

2. Boss PS-5 SUPER Shifter: It can do loads of neat tricks, but like most effects, it’s not something that could be in constant use. Plus, to get max benefits from this toy, you need to buy this…more money spent.

3. DigiTech Whammy: This looks like a fun pedal. It can do many of the same things the Boss SUPER Shifter does. Tom Morello used one during his Rage Against the Machine days (maybe still does…I’m not sure). The main problem here is the numerous reviews I read noting reliability problems…especially with this newest version.

4. Ibanez Tube Screamer: Ibanez has re-released a couple version of this baby…the TS9, TS9DX, TS7, and TS808 (pictured). If were to get one I’d buy the TS808 or TS9. The main problem here: I don’t need an overdrive pedal as I use my amp for that.

5. Moog effects: Simply put, all of them are cool. Sadly, all of them are quite expensive.

6. Electro-Harmonix Big Muff Pi: A classic pedal. But, like the TubeScreamer mentioned above, I don’t need any distortion/overdrive pedals.

7. Electro-Harmonix POG: Insanely cool. But insanely expensive, and it’s not as cool as the HOG (see below).

8. Electro-Harmonix HOG: Currently my most wanted effect. It’s also the most expensive, but from the sound samples I’ve heard it’s worth it. The bad thing is that to get the most out of the pedal you also need to buy this and one of these. But still, I may just have to go for it. Maybe Electro-Harmonix could help me out and send me a free “test” HOG (hint hint)?

2 Comments

  1. PDF
    July 20th, 2006 at 1:12 am

    I’ve always had a thing for the looks of the Tube Screamer. The Pi is rad looking too. Plus it is called Pi. Distortion pedals are the only cool ones. Maybe I should get one.

    Congratulations on actually being able to find things on MF.

  2. majafa
    July 20th, 2006 at 2:27 am

    I use the “search by brand” option alot.

    If you think finding stuff on MF is hard, don’t even try music123.com a.k.a. wwbw.com

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