What are your favourite pedals?

[Vince]

As an acoustic bass (guitar) player, I'm not big on effects.

When I use them, though, I really like my Tubescreamer. I also like a George Dennis wah I have. It's s-l-o-w as buggery to operate but it's nice for a sweep type effect on a bassline. I also have an Acoustic Xciter that I like a lot when I can be bothered dusting it off.

[jeremyb]

Boss SD3
Only has one sound; the right one.

Do you mean the SD1? Epic post slowie, should have known you'd have some gems of knowledge, especially around OD.

Yeah Mate; that's what I meant.

Jimi, who doesn't like the Timmy, raises a good point about OD pedals. They are often fussy about poweramp valves. He uses 34's, I use 84's. I can't get a Hotcake to sound anything other than nasty but he loves them with his rig.

I've come to the conclusion I need to like the driven sound of an amp, and then add a fairly clean boost to just make it haft meer mmmm, I thought the timmys weren't supposed to add much colour?

[fuzziebro]

I tend to like the classics, DOD250, Fuzz Face, Tube Screamer, Boss Super Overdrive, Dallas Rangemaster... but when I build variants of these circuits for myself or others then I tend to mod them quite a bit, whilst still retaining the essence, only one I wouldnt mod is the SD-1 its perfect in its original ugliness...

At some point I plan to get into other boutique Fuzz's that people make, but I got enough circuits to work with for myself for the foreseeable future...

Love the shin-ei fuzz - the silicon one, but again when I make it the gain control is totally custom - dont like the original at all and also the fixed tone stack at the end of the circuit is too extreme for my tastes, so I tone it down a bit...

DOD250 needs a good chip - preferably an old one, and I tend to use a mix of MXR D+ resistor values as well to get the input impedance higher for a clearer tone... also more gain is always good...

Fuzz faces are soo simple to build yet deceptively so... transistor selection is crucial - sometimes a blend of silicon and germanium works well and the eq of the circuit it vital too...

Also got a few original designs which need to see the light of day at some point...

[matman]

I don't really use effects very often but Unique's Maestro phaser is a thing of wonder. I'm pretty unfussy when it comes to delay but reckon a Flashback x4 would suit me fine. Of pedals I actually own I like my George Lynch Dragon Wah for it's more vocal 'Wow' mode and lock mode that makes it easier to get that Schenker half-cocked (ib;jb) sound.

[rickenbackerkid]

For me I've been into the boutique stuff, and the big boards, and I've come back out the other side. I'm back to simple, and for the most part cheap.

I love Boss pedals for their ease of use, great sound and reliability. The ones I recommend:

TU2, can't gig without it.
SD-1, BD-2, great low gain OD's.
TR-2, PH-2, CE-2 all great analog modulation
Any Boss delay or reverb. They are all good. My pick is the DD-20, as you can set it up as a chorus/rotary, and even a subtle reverb.
So it's more that just a delay.

MXR pedals are also great and fairly cheap, Phase 90 is awesome, GT-OD, Carbon Copy, Distortion +, etc.

Expensive, boutique stuff that I've owned and is truly worth the money:

Paul Crowther Hotcake - clean boost, overdrive, distortion, fuzz all in one box, fairly affordable and an all time classic
Neunaber WET Stereo with ExP - amazing reverb, delay, shimmer, chorus. Off the charts good, but hella expensive.
Xotic EP boost - simple slightly coloured clean boost. They nailed the tonality on this one. I haven't had any other Xotics, but they seem pretty epic.
EHX Deluxe Memory Man - amazing sound, but slightly frustrating due to it's preamp.

I personally no longer find a need for isolated power supplies, nice pedal boards and custom leads. All that stuff is cool, but adds up in cost - Custom DIY cables, $200, Pedaltrain $200, Fancy isolated Power supply $300. Total $700 - which could be a couple of REALLY nice pedals, or a second hand guitar or something.

I reckon a great sounding, practical rig would be:

TU-2
Clean-ish boost (Xotic EP or SD-1)
Overdrive (Xotic BB or Hotcake or Timmy
Delay (MXR Carbon Copy or Boss DD)
Line 6 M9

That way you have super nice quality on the overdrives and delay that you use all the time, and every FX you can think of to add to it for the random FX you might only use sporadically.

[H671]

I play in church & not in a band situation, so I don't need to duplicate any particular style.
Normally, I play straight into the amp, but on the odd occasion I use my Zoom multi effects - probably considered entry level but I love them, they are dead simple & quick to set up and I can always get my sound. A couple of months ago I bought a Korg Pandora Stomp - also very simple & convenient.

I often look at all of the amazing pedal boards on this site and gas like crazy until I realise that most people would need to get a second mortgage on their house to be able to afford them

[Slowy]

Just thinking Hamo, the very best pedal I've ever bought is the one I resisted for years forking out for; a decent power supply. Thought a wall wart and daisy chain was good enough but so many little issues just vanished when I plugged in the big fella.

[jeremyb]

so many little issues just vanished when I plugged in the big fella.

Thats what she said!

[Molly]

Watched Johnny Marr on YouTube showing off a Boss GT-100. Never considered anything like this before but maybe I should....

[jeremyb]

Watched Johnny Marr on YouTube showing off a Boss GT-100. Never considered anything like this before but maybe I should....

Mark has one (Sopachrga) I'm sure he will bring it to the next gearfest

[Kloppsta]

Watched Johnny Marr on YouTube showing off a Boss GT-100. Never considered anything like this before but maybe I should....

GT-100 is very cool indeed. Talk to NZRS_Matt, he rocks one. That in itself is a stellar endorsement for the product. Matt is no slouch and his tone is , plus he could be rocking whatever he wants but chooses the GT-100. Nuff said if you ask me.

[The Scarecrow]

I'm the most uncork-sniffy person when it comes to pedals... mainly because I haven't really used individual effects in 7+ years now. Prefer multi-fx, because my ears don't really tell the difference in most cases between a $300 delay and the built in one on my ME50. All just easier to me in one package (oh-er!) but YMMV.

However, when it did use them, I did have my faves which sat on my board for years:

TU2 - Easy to use and see, solid construction and reliable. Plus, you could power other pedals off it.
Ibanez Phaser Tone - old 8 or 9 series pedal from the late 70's. Single speed knob a-la Phase 90. Gorgeous.
Boss CE3 - clear shimmery chorus tones
MXR Carbon Copy - Simple to use and sounds great
Boss SD 1 - Level up, gain down, tone to suit. Easy.
Seymour Duncan pickup booster - clean boot that could make single coils sound like h/b's. These are underrated.
Hotcake - medium gain OD, or low-gain boost. Loves some amps, hates others. Hit/miss, but when it hits.. winning.
G2D custom - does modern medium to high gain with ease, makes a clean amp sound like a dirty, dirty beast on meltdown.

[Molly]

Mark has one (Sopachrga) I'm sure he will bring it to the next gearfest

GT-100 is very cool indeed. Talk to NZRS_Matt, he rocks one. That in itself is a stellar endorsement for the product. Matt is no slouch and his tone is , plus he could be rocking whatever he wants but chooses the GT-100. Nuff said if you ask me.

Cool! Mr Marr was saying he honestly couldn't tell the difference between it and his boutique pedals. He's a good Northern lad so I believe him (even if he does come from the wrong end of the East Lancs).

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NFbo58jcyi8[/youtube]

[sirvill]

Just to confuse you more, I ran heaps of pedals in the loop of my JCA22H when I had it and didn't notice any tone suck at all, but then maybe I'm just shit, so give it a go



For that JCA22H, get a boost or an overdrive to add some tightness for the very high gain stuff - will help heaps with Metallica

[The Scarecrow]

For that JCA22H, get a boost or an overdrive to add some tightness for the very high gain stuff - will help heaps with Metallica

^This... I'm running the OD channel gain around 2-3 and boosting it with a Mooer Hustle Drive.