General Music Chat

So I went to a jam a while back...Took my 30 watt Supro combo amp, and a 3 or 4 of my old pedals. The two other guitarists there had these elaborate set ups with separate pre amps and power amps, and full 4' racks full of effects, each with coffee table sized switching systems on the floor. These fellows clearly were amused at my approach to gear (could they be more condescending as they chortled out the term "old school"? ). Well the laughing stopped when the playing started. My tone cut right through the drums and bass ...these other 2 guys, you couldn't actually hear them, you just sensed a sound like a swarm of bees, and mosquitoes buzzing around the room. I don't think I'll be dumping my amusingly archaic gear in favor of set ups like their's anytime soon!

That's what I experience every time we have another band open up for us or share the gig.... the other guitarists have tons of effects and it takes them literally about a half hour just to get their effects wired up! I go up there.. takes me about 3 minutes to plug my head into the cabinet and my channel changing foot pedal to my head...that's it... any effects I need are already built in and they sound awesome. I just basically use clean with a tinge of chorus.... built in insane overdrive for leads.... regular overdrive without reverb for powerchords.. and echo for certain tunes... that's it... nothing more the whole night! If I do need say a flange in a certain part, I'l just manually set it on the head.... These guys with their million pedals are just whacked out because most amps today have good enough built in effects!

Well I don't really mind effects if you don't go crazy with them. I've always favored the idea of buying stand alone stomp boxes to multi-effect units, or racks full of stuff. I must have about 20 stomp boxes lying around, but I'll just pick the 3 or 4 I think will be most appropriate to the gig/jam situation to bring with me. I've heard guys get great stuff from effect racks, but for myself I still prefer separate pedals.

....again.... not one freakin' effets pedal here and every freakin' song I do sounds like it's supposed to.... Just gotta know how to program your "inner" amp! Let the channels do the work! Took me almost a year to learn how to perfect this sound... Low's ...High's...mid's... distortion.... reverb... clean... It takes a looong time to get it just right but it's well worth it come time to setting up and breaking down!

I would love to have the need for an awesome amp like that, for now I just use a 90 dollar processor to duplicate a few thousand dollars in pedals...just wish I had the wah looped through distortion, an autowah, and a whammy pedal, but I'm still a poor ass bassist and every one thinks I'd be going nuts with all that stuff, y'know interesting accent to certain kinds of guitar solo's, the occasional bass fill, or to help the drum line make a melody

Oh yeah... forgot to mention, my channel changing box also has a built in wah-wah pedal/ volume pedal..

Doesn't matter what you got, as long as you know how to use it. I like the multieffects pedals for what I do. The thing is, when you listen to them at a music store on a small amp at a lower than stage volume, they sound great with all the sustain in the world. Run it at a high volume in a real band situation though, and you get that "swarm of bees" sound. This is because they program them with lots of gain so that they sound great off the showroom floor. It's like an amp. If playing at a low volume at home, you'll crank the gain more, but if you turn the master up, you have to come down on the gain to make it cut through. Multieffects pedals are the same way. I program them at a high volume to get the sound I want.
Our band opened at a club for some friends of mine that put together a local "Supergroup" comprised of various members of now defunct local bands. All were good players and had great equipment. Both guitarists had bought the new Boss multieffects pedals (at the time) and I was using an older version that I had had for about 4 or 5 years. They were a four piece and we were a three piece. When we got up to play, I just hooked up my older Boss pedal into their lead guitarist's Laney amp. We jammed away and everything went smooth. Then they got up to play and here come the bees. I was walking around the room and this guy who was a friend of theirs, but didn't really know me from Adam, came up to me and said, "I got one question. How come your guitar is the only one in here that sounds like it's got balls?"
It's all in the programming, baby!!
They had brand new pedals, Gibson Les Pauls, Strats, Teles, Esp guitars, Laney stacks, Fender stacks, and were actually, to me, more accomplished guitarists. Me, I walked in with my old beat up pedal and my pawnshop Hamer Slammer guitar (that I had tweaked the whammy and lockdown and replaced the pickups) and had tone for days while they were creating quite a buzz (bees).
Ya gotta have the sound down.

Oh, and they were constantly tuning the guitars between songs. I never had to touch a single one of my fine tuners.

Great topic. I'm a bass player with no effects other than what's on the amp. It takes me about thirty seconds to have my sound ready. I always get a kick out of seeing lead guitarists with a vast array of effects and they have no idea how to use any of it. It reminds me of the saying jack of all trades and master of none. How many different effects does one need? I can see it if your set list contains songs from many different genres, but most of us stick with a few genres. We had a guitarist audition with us a while back and he had a dizzying array of effects and yes it sounded like a clusterbuzz.

I haven't used digital effects live for years, was always an analog guy anyway. Basically just Boss Super Overdrive, Flanger and a wahwah is my normal live setup. Most of my tone comes from the Marshall anyway. But in the studio, where they're more controllable, the digital effects have a purpose.

I dont vary tone much. Just the volume and tone controls on my guitar.
I like to let my amp do the work. But then there is not much variation in our overall sound so it's no biggie.
At times I think I'd like to go back to an amp with some built in effects and multi channels. But I really like my amp. Still like a kid with a new toy I guess.

Some of the bestest axe-murderers I ever saw only used a tube screamer & a compressor/limiter. I've played with tweakers who had far too many sounds to stay on the right page in any given piece, & they are a huge turnoff. The ones who have studied their equipment, though, & use it tastefully, are a joy to share a stage with.

All these things you guys are talking about are all the stuff I have problems with. I'm kinda new at this stuff. Ive played alot but when I get up on stage with others I always have problems with my tone , volume,Or tuneing. I have a Gretch electromatic with a floting bridge. I was at a blues jam the other night and found a way to keep in tune with these critters is to pin the bridge from underneith. luckly I know a great tec that fixes almost anything I'll be picking up tomorrow . Cant wait to see what a change it makes. I'm also playing through a fender devlle tube amp. If anyone has any tips for me I would greatly apreciate it. Im glad to of joined this club of musicians.

Wisebrow, you may possibly have stumbled onto one of the most peculiar and go-against-the-grain sites in the whole known universe of mankind. A group of people who are in the same field and profession, who openly share trade secrets, no no, not for the almighty dollar, but for the sole purpose of actually just helping each other out.
A little helpful hint here:
Whenever you have a question, the more specific you are about it (such as equipment brand and model number), the more specific the advice you get. There are a bunch of great musicians on here and the total amount of experience would boggle the human imagination.
Welcome, glad to have you here.

All this talk about digital effects made me realize my old Boss unit was outdated so I went out and bought a new Boss ME-50 yesterday. Same cost as the ME-70 but the ME-50 has all of the distortion effects intact, the ME-70 uses amp modeling. Probably never use it in The Farleys but in the prog metal stuff I've been writing I can see using it. Just another paint brush for the palet.