Pedal geeks i need u (help jjjusten make decisions about awesome pedals for his store)

jjusten - sent you an email this morning...

Follow-up, my wife got me the Earthquaker Hummingbird tremolo and I can't tell how I feel about it yet. It doesn't really have any subtlety or transparency at all, though I realized it's supposed to be that way. I tried the Valcoder at the guitar store too and wasn't crazy about it. The guitar store guy had me try the Moog MF Trem and that was better but I was confused by the relationship between the controls in the limited time I tried it.

I also tested out the Zvex Mastotron fuzz, which I've been curious about for a long time, and I LOVED it. Gnarly sounds but you can always still hear the notes. I've been using the Fender Blender for crazy fuzz leads for a while but you can't really use it on chords because it just turns into BLXLCHCLSHCLHLCHSKKSHKS. Is there anything else in the Mastotron vein I should be checking out before I buy that? I know there are 8 billion fuzz pedals out there.

Z.Vex $6000 candle-powered phaser/tremolo:

http://sploid.gizmodo.com/the-definition-of-gear-lust-is-this-6-000-candle-power-1760794913

ha I was just coming here to post that

It would be cool at gigs to hear "candle" rather than "9 volt," as in "aw crap...hey, do you have an extra candle I can borrow for my fuzz? I'll give it right back after the set."

candle pedal almost as unreliable as a germanium transistor pedal

xp - can't these ppl just get one spots and stop wasting money on batteries

There's a ZVex pedal (the Super Hard-On, I think) with a spare transistor taped inside the case. Maybe this has a spare candle taped in the case for when the main candle (*pun approaching please mind the gap*) burns out.

just got a boss DD-500. think i may be sorted for delay sounds for a while with this.

just ordered a hungry robot 'the wash' pedal - psyched for the ambient madness

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mlppMGxKhug

Still thinking of getting a Mastotron but if anyone has similar alternatives I should check out first let me know.

I tried out the EHX Soul Food. It sounded pretty bad to my ears but I feel like it's impossible to really test an overdrive using a guitar and amp I'm not used to.

The guitar store had some of these Electro-Faustus pedals/instruments that look crazy but they had just gotten them in and couldn't tell me much about them: http://www.electrofaustus.com/ Most of them seem pretty impractical but I want a Drone Thing.

i had a soul food a for a little while and didn't get on with it - it had a trebly shrillness with my guitars i just couldn't quite get rid of.

ended up getting a j rockett archer to fill the klon-clone gap - ut sounds pretty good on its own but i really like the way it stacks into drive and fuzz

those electofaustus pedals look like a hell of a lot of fun

Soul Food sounded super mid-range-y to me.

Found a deal on the Mastotron yesterday so I pulled the trigger, I now have the most obnoxious guitar tone.

http://www.oregonlive.com/pacific-northwest-news/index.ssf/2016/03/37-year-old_portland_man_trave.html

Sad news.

(founder of Catalinbread)

ugh, horrible news

I recently bought the Belle Epoch tape echo sim. It's really nice.

RIP

holy shit. nic was a friend, h0w4rd and m1k3 on his crew even moreso... i can't even begin

Yeah, I've been posting about it on the 2016 obit thread, but this was prob the better place, idk. It's brutal.

you guys, what is the sickest phaser out there?

For crazy does everything and more vibes, definitely the Chase Bliss Wombtone.

http://youtu.be/OJMgy1_yB4w

new analog delay from ibanez (the es2) just showed up and it is totally fucking amazing.

i just bought this on impulse to run synths through and use as an effect with my DAW, hope to get some useful sounds out of it.

If hiatch is looking for a more trad phaser (because let's face it, all the Chase Bliss pedals are OTT) then I'm a sucker for the EHX Stone series.

Blackout Effectors Whetstone is a pretty wild phaser as well, but the Chase Bliss still probably has it beat for versatility.

There's also this

http://www.mrblackpedals.com/products/gilamondo

And this

http://skreddypedals.com/skreddy_pedals_little_miss_sunshine.php

Oh and this

http://www.alexanderpedals.com/shop/la-calavera

This weeks moment in incoming nerd obsession:

http://youtu.be/h7GSdXqfyXU

oooh, lotsa good options, thanks all. chase bliss sounds crazy!

must admit I forgot about this one from when I was thinking about getting a euro case last year, that's probably a whole other can of worms (lol @ the boss burn at the end too): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0TPMHVHsp14

not sick, but after trying a zillion phasers i'm down to the good old one-knob script phase 90 and a BJF tiny orange

hardest one to let go was a Maxon PH-350, which does trad phase sounds like a champ but also gets pretty crazy if you want it to

i need a boost pedal for my bass. what should i get?

doesn't have to be clean, just loud. if it does other weird fucked up sounding shit (i.e. cool features), that would be great.

update to the update i posted on the other thread:

i tried using this echo pedal as an outboard effect with my DAW, and after i got the routing figured out, i was getting way too much of the dry signal back from the pedal (even with the mix knob turned all the way up). ideally i want a true 100% wet signal that i can mix with the original dry track, but maybe that's not how guitar pedals work?

i was able to get the end result i wanted by putting the resulting track through a Soundtoys echo plugin, but having the pedal earlier in the chain gave it some cool texture and pitch-bend effects.

Can't stop won't stop. On their way.

http://www.alexanderpedals.com

https://youtu.be/wgUuScoevGQ

JJJ do you know these guys?

http://www.redpandalab.com/

They have a dealer right up the street, so I don't want to crowd anybody, but yeah, they're cool. If anybody here ever wants their stuff, I've got an agreement w/the dealer for when I need it.

Oh man the Digitech Dirty Robot is the synthy filter matrix bizness

These are the things I step on most of the time:

http://i67.tinypic.com/358xic6.jpg

It has the sounds I need but it is not QUITE right.

Basically, I want to have a very simple board with one clean, one dirty, and one weird sound (flange, phaser, delay) - all with the same perceived loudness. Then I need to be able to boost each one a predictable amount (for solos or fingerstyle). So, six sounds total.

Right now it goes tuner, then boost, then the Weird sounds. It gets a touch of reverb at the end (because I hate my amp's onboard reverb). Currently the Blonde pedal is serving both as amp emulation/DI (for situations when I'm running direct) and as the main source of distortion! This is untenable.

I would like to reliably add a tasteful, musical amount of crunch without altering the apparent volume. In this quest, I am often frustrated by how many pedals are heralded for being responsive to dynamics - that is, when you play harder or louder, you get more of whatever it does. That is the opposite of what I want! What I want to do is play the same weak-ass way I normally play, while having the effect produce its, y'know, effect.

I have had lots of pedals that seem to require a lot of signal to Bring the Weird (Q-Tron for example). I can get there by putting a boost in front of it, diming the guitar, etc. But then when I stop wanting that sound, and wish to switch back to clean, the levels are all wrong. I do not want to try to manage this transition in a gig setting.

uups

http://i64.tinypic.com/34ya7nl.jpg

Puffin, it's funny you mention that you dislike when a pedal responds to dynamics. I recently started to get a lot more serious about developing the idea of creating my tone — or at least what I get in my head as the ideal sound that I'm going for. When I first started playing, I was going for economy, so I tracked down a Boss RV-3, which combined digital delay and reverb. I like playing almost all the time with at least some delay and always 100% of the time with a significant amount of reverb, so I used it a lot. It was really my first experience with any sort of effects pedal, so I didn't have any gauge for anything at all in the area of dynamics or ranges of sound. I wanted it to make an echo sound and it did. The deeper I got into playing, the more I wanted to get away from a clean, un-effected tone. I tried a lot of different things: distortion, flange, phase, chorus, etc. Maybe it was because Robert Smith praised them so heavily, but I was always drawn to the Boss pedals. I definitely like their design and housing, for they are practically damage proof. But, one day, and I'm not sure what prompted it, I decided to start researching different delays. The Carbon Copy was the one to really catch my ear. I loved how thick and muddy it was and it was so dynamic and responsive — everything the RV-3 wasn't. In the end I decided to keep both and I sometimes stacked the delays, but I always used at least the reverb only settings on the RV-3. Over time, I started to really get annoyed with the Boss pedals I had (and, by this point, I had accumulated quite a few) where they were supposed to alter my tone. Especially with the RV-3, it didn't matter how soft or hard I hit the strings, it would just blurt out this stagnant wall of stock reverb. It was a nice sound, but not at all unique. Even with some of the more flamboyant effects like their Phase Shifter, I found myself feeling like I was playing inside a factory preset. This was definitely not limited to just Boss pedals, as I found the chorus and flange pedals by TC Electronics to have similarly limited palettes — though each manufacturer definitely has their own "vibe" to them.

So, recently, I decided to revamp my pedals and it's really prompted me to pick up the guitar a lot more frequently. Here's what my pedals look like now:
http://i.imgur.com/XrWxugB.jpg

And I ordered the Echoplex Delay and am awaiting its arrival (I'll decide after playing with it whether I want to keep the Carbon Copy or not).

Unlike you, I feel like I need pedals that respond differently to different playing because, although brands like Boss or TC Electronics make very good gear, without that responsiveness, I feel pretty stifled and uninspired. That being said, I did hang on to the Waza Craft Blues Driver because I do feel like it pushes the M300 Reverb and the Analog Chorus into even more possibilities.

All of that is true and right and good, but particularly in a gigging situation I want to go to the right sound with one stomp and not too much thought, but dynamics-responsive pedals tend to require thought and adjustment. Fine for recording, not so much for a club stage when I'm also worrying about my drums, the set list, loading in, drinking, is the mandolin tuned, is the previous band off the stage yet, did I bring extra batteries, etc.

Case in point: I like Blues Driver dirt fine, but if I put it after the boost, then that means my dirty lead tone will be more distorted than the dirty rhythm tone (because it's being driven harder, as is right and good). Which is antithetical to the goal of a clean boost.

have you tried using a compressor to even out your dynamics? i've just started using an xotic sp compressor and it does a great job of smoothing out my shitty rhythm playing and even shittier leads when i'm using dirt pedals.

In that case, I guess it goes to show that I don't play out at all. It's just me and my guitar in my bedroom.

So I got the Echoplex today and I was able to play around with it for about an hour before I had to be to work. I was really impressed with the tape delay effect. It really makes for some strange and interesting echo sounds. It doesn't have the ambient wash that the Carbon Copy does, so it's a unique addition to my palette.

I have had lots of pedals that seem to require a lot of signal to Bring the Weird (Q-Tron for example).

I have this issue with some of mine: the slow gear pedal, for one, and some of the settings on the line 6 synth emulator pedal. Putting the basic Boss Overdrive pedal ahead of them solves the problem. Dunno if that would solve your dynamics issue ... turn on OD for the "needy pedals" then turn it off for the regular ones?

I can do that but it requires multiple stomps to get the desired sound. Let us say I am playing a clean rhythm part most of the song, but then wish to play a solo with (say) envelope filter. I have to hit the boost then the effect, then play the solo, and then remember to turn both off before going back to the normal bit, and that is suboptimal on stage. Also the boost level for helping a needy pedal may be different from the boost required to simply give me the same tone only louder. Strong preference for one stomp per sound here.

You could get a switching unit and run those two pedals in an effects loop of their own. You leave them on and then one stomp on the switcher. If you don't need those in any other configuration, there are simple little 1 loop switchers for like $40.

http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/OC1L

Thanks, that would certainly work for the needy envelope filters/ring mods etc. (he said, as his dreams of a compact and simple 6-pedal rig drifted ever further into the misty distance).

Or only buy pedals that have their own volume/gain controls.