The "Effect Pedal(s) Incoming" thread.

[shreddy bender]

1) I believe this thread was made to form a platform of levity, to remind fellow musicians that there is going to be life after isolation. I don’t believe this thread was begun to start a morality debate of how people are choosing to spend their time. If someone is in a position to purchase something, outside of the necessities, and enjoy life, then go for it. Musicians of all walks of life should honor and understand that :-) before this pandemic gripped the *entire* planet, there were people who couldn’t afford the newest Strymon, Gibson Elite, or hand-wired Vox, so they settled with what they could afford, give them the best bang for the buck, until a time presents itself that something else could be purchased. We are all still musicians, making do with what is in front of us.

2) I’m probably going to get a simple reverb pedal, maybe the aforementioned holy grail or something similar. Just deciding which one is what’s delaying it. Enjoy the pedals purchased so far, and hope everyone comes up with some amazing riffs during your isolation!

Food for thought on a simple reverb. I just got a T.C. Electronics Skysurfer pedal brand new for $75 Canadian. Does the trick for me. Has spring, plate and hall settings. It's not complicated but it works well and seems like a good quality unit.

 

[shreddy bender]

 

[Hola Vibrola]

.......Enjoy the pedals purchased so far, and hope everyone comes up with some amazing riffs during your isolation!

Yes .... riffs, not rifts.

 

[Logan]

Moving on...

Two pedals that are on my wishlist are the MXR Carbon Copy Mini Delay so I can get that rockabilly slapback (if anyone has better suggestions I'd like to hear them)

The Carbon Copies are great analog delays, and I’ve played quite a few of them in my time at the shop. You can also find Earthquaker Disaster Transport Juniors pretty regularly at decent prices if you wanted something a little crazier with more time. Also, if you want the sound of a good tape delay, I’d look for a Keeley Eccos or even a Strymon El Capistran used.

and the EHX Holy Grail Neo Reverb since my amp doesn't have built in reverb. This pedal really appeals to me because of its simplicity. All I really want is a nice simple reverb sounds and this pedal is super basic. One knob to control how much you want and a three way switch to choose what type.

Have you seen the J. Rocket Boing? Great sounding reverb that’s emulating a Deluxe Reverb’s spring tank. Single knob as well.

I can't see why I'd need an 8 knob $500 reverb pedal à la Strymon Blue Sky

Clearly you haven’t played in a worship band

All jokes aside, the Strymon stuff, while pricy, does warrant the price sound wise. The Flint would probably be something you’d be interested in if you were wanting a Tremolo as well a la “If Trouble Was Money” or some spaghetti western music.

 

[Logan]

For my list of pedals to buy, the plan is to get an Empress Buffer+ Stereo for my board, along with a Strymon Volante, Source Audio Ventris, and some sort of MKI.5 inspired Tone Bender.

This will probably happen once this is all over.

 

[NoiseNinja]

So this thread is for posting effect pedals that you are awaiting delivered in the mail or just about to order/buy.


For me personal I ordered following 4 effect pedals that I am awaiting to arrive in the mail soon:

- Nux Tape Core Deluxe (a relatively inexpensive, yet truly incredible digital emulation of a Roland Space Echo tape delay, that I plan to use as my main delay unit)

- Xvive V16 Undulator (a really cheap but incredible sounding tremolo effect, that I plan to take over from my Behringer UT100 Ultra Tremolo)

- Behringer UV300 Ultra Vibrato (a really cheap, but again incredible sounding, Boss VB-2 vibrato clone, as my current one has gone faulty on me, using it as a chorus effect, which it sounds amazing as, by having it in one of the effect loops of my Boss LS-2, blending in cleans via the other effect loop of the LS-2)

- Mosky Black Rat (a really cheap, but, if one is to believe the reviews and YouTube demos, really great Rat clone, similar to the Mooer Black Secret, just even cheaper, and, as with the Mooer, featuring both a Vintage and a Turbo mode, planing to use it as my main distortion unit, eventual with the Joyo Orange Juice that I use for overdrive stacked in front of it, and taking over from my Boss MT-2 Metal Zone, which is a bit too compressed, high gain and smooth sounding for my taste)


These 4 pedals should actually complete my guitar setup, at least for now, and next thing I plan to get is a proper pedal board to mount all the effect pedals I use for my guitar setup on.


So what pedals are you soon to add to your collection?

Well, my pedal purchase didn't actully really turn out as I hoped it would, in fact kind of a complete failure, as I ended up not being able to use any of the purchased pedals for what I needed, well except for the Mosky Black Rat, which I haven't even received yet, though I likely won't be using that either, as I came up with another solution, which I think gives me a result that actually might be the better option for the kind of distortion tone I was looking for.

The Nux Rape Core Deluxe turned out to slightly suck out some of tone, contrary to what some of the reviews I read of it specifically claimed should be the case, both in buffered and bypassed mode, so might have gotten a dud one, but no matter what the result is that I won't be using it.

The Xvive Undulator tremolo pedal, while actually being an incredible sounding tremolo, turned out to somehow boost the input signal so much when activated that the circuit would overdrive, and in a quite unpleasant, unmusical way too, every time a peak was reached, so I went back to using my Behringer UT100 Ultra Tremolo, just placing my Behringer BEQ700 equalizer after it, using the equalizer's level control to even out the slight volume drop of the pedal when activated, and in the end I think it's way of doing tremolo actually might be better suited for my use anyway.

The Behringer UV300 Ultra Vibrato had a bad tone sucking buffer issue, exactly as the one it was supposed to replace, though not as pronounced and affecting different frequencies, but I found out that even if it had not had a tone sucking buffer it would have been too dark sounding for my use anyway, and in that aspect the even more faulty tone sucking buffer of my old one was actually better suited for my use, since it made the vibrato sound very bright and chimy, but on the other hand then had the issue of sucking too much bass, making the lower notes sound a bit too thin and slightly dull.

So after some experimenting, trying to use a clone of the Boss CE-1 chorus I got (though with extended controls compared to the original), instead of using the vibrato effect mixed with clean signal via my Boss LS-2, basically making it function as a chorus, as is what I did previously, as well as listening to YouTube demos of various chorus and vibrato effects, I concluded that seemingly non of them would be a fitting solution for what I wanted, so I ended up programming a patch on my Zoom G1Xon multi effect, using the vibrato effect on it, and the option it features for blending in clean signal, and then added some parametric equalizing to the path as well, sculpting my chorus tone exactly as I needed it to be for my use, actually pretty much nailing it spot on.

So now the plan is to get a Zoom Multi Stomp MS-70 CDR pedal, which has the exact same effects as my G1Xon multi effect (plus a ton of additional ones actually), and using it exclusively as a dedicated "custom" chorus effect in regular, about typical Boss sized, pedal format, in order for me to be able to use it in conjunction with my delay/reverb pad effect patches on my bigger G1Xon multi effect, and then for my delay needs, in place of the dud Nux Tape Core Deluxe, get either a Digitech DOD Rubberneck 1500ms analog delay with modulation and a dedicated build in tap tempo switch, a Line 6 M5 Stompbox Modeler multi effect pedal, which also would give me a dedicated build in tap tempo switch, as well as the option for choosing between a variety of different digital and emulated analog or tape delays, with or without modulation, or perhaps an EHX Canyon delay, and then buy a dedicated tap tempo switch for the tap tempo ctrl input that it features.

As far as distortion go I tried stacking my Boss MT-2 Metal Zone, dialed in with a kind of lower high gain, fairly mids scooped and bright (though the Mid control slightly boosted, but like in the 250Hz area), distortion tone, into my Joyo California Sound, which is supposed to be an analog emulation of a Mesa Boogie type amp (a Tech 21 California clone), which got a quite dark sounding inherrent tone, so dialed in with a fairly dark sounding and mids heavy medium gain kind of overdrive (it's Mid control boosting the frequency area around 400Hz, in a quite broad Q curve, in a regular post gain fashion, and it's Voice control (same as Tech 21's Character control) boosting the frequency area around 800Hz, also with a quite broad Q curve, but being a pre gain EQ control), and after an intense and thorough tweaking session, finding the right balance between the two pedals, ending up as stated above, I am actually really pleased with the result.

A moderately high gain kind of distortion, with a quite raunchy and somewhat fuzzy quality to it, and in fact actually sharing some similarity to what I liked about the Turbo Rat's higher gain settings, judging from the many YouTube demos I have watched of that pedal and various clones of it, just with a bit tighter and well articulated, more mid heavy, and somewhat overall better balanced tone, as the California Sound actually managed to completely remove any hint of fizz, that sort of over emphasized, somewhere in the higher mids frequency spectrum, bite, that the Metal Zone seems to have fixed to it's distortion tone, no matter how you dial in it's EQ (unless you scoop the upper mids to the point of it sounding like utter crap), as well as it's inherent kind of over saturated (and maybe also overly compressed) character, that in my opinion always makes it sound somewhat unnatural or artificial, overall giving a distortion tone with a much more natural and balanced sound than anything obtainable with the Metal Zone by it self.

A bit like as if I actually have managed to extract some of the, in my opinion, best qualities of the Metal Zone's distortion tone, removing all the issues it got, then balancing it off perfectly, as well giving it some additional depth, and on top of all that adding some extra improving qualities from the drive of the Joyo California Sound.

Though I still can't rule out completely that I might end up liking the Mosky Black Rat in some combination with either the Joyo California Sound or Joyo Orange Juice, either stacked in front of it or after it, better, but judging from the, by now, quite a few demos I watched of various Rat and Turbo Rat pedals and clones I kind of doubt it, cause I feel I already managed to get something very similar to most of the qualities that I really love about the Rat's distortion tone, but without the issues I also got with it.

I'll place an order on the Zoom Multi Stomp MS-70 CDR pedal, for my "custom" chorus tone, this coming Thursday, and then the delay got to wait till coming the start of May, whichever of the 3 candidates I got for that I eventually end up choosing, followed by ordering a proper pedal board, to mount all the pedals in my guitar setup on, coming around the middle of May, which then finally should complete my guitar setup.

Kind of a bummer about non of the pedals that I initially ordered ending up actually being able to do what I had in mind for them to do for me, but at least now it seems like I figured out exactly how and what to get to achieve what I need.

 

[plankton]

That's the problem with many of those cheap Chinese pedals, they often come with some issues. Occasionally you do find a diamond in the rough, I have a Joyo Vintage Phase which is lovely in every way.

It seems like you're trying to stack lots of cheap pedals to compensate for each of their shortcomings. It might be better to save up and get some decent gear that doesn't come with drawbacks.

As far as overdriven tones, for me that always starts with the amp. It might be better to find the amp that gives you the best drive sound and go from there. What are you using currently?

 

[NoiseNinja]

That's the problem with many of those cheap Chinese pedals, they often come with some issues. Occasionally you do find a diamond in the rough, I have a Joyo Vintage Phase which is lovely in every way.

It seems like you're trying to stack lots of cheap pedals to compensate for each of their shortcomings. It might be better to save up and get some decent gear that doesn't come with drawbacks.

As far as overdriven tones, for me that always starts with the amp. It might be better to find the amp that gives you the best drive sound and go from there. What are you using currently?

That might very well be how it seems to you, but not really how I see it at all, well obviously there's my Behringer tremolo, sure, but beside from the slight volume drop when engaged it's a great pedal in any other aspect, and boosting the Behringer EQ's level control ever so slightly handle the volume drop perfectly fine (and unlike the 2 dud Behringer Vibrato pedals I got the tremolo and EQ doesn't suck any tone at all whatsoever), as for chorus, I came to the conclusion that shaping my own using a digital multi effect would be the only way to get exactly what I wanted (well except for if I stacked just the right vibrato pedal with the right equalizer pedal and blended in cleans via my Boss LS-2, that might very well do the trick too, but that would just be more stacking pedals), cheap or not, after having listened to a long list of YouTube demos of various chorus and vibrato pedals, including some quite expensive pedals as well, and as for distortion I would most likely be stacking a distortion and an overdrive together anyway, even if they had been expensive pedals, to get exactly what I want, and for sure no amp has the distortion I am looking for, think pretty much a Rat type high gain distortion character, though it too lacks a little something to fit my bill exactly, so staking it with just the right OD pedal would be able to fix that, I happened to be able to get what I want by stacking a Boss MT-2, which might have a bad reputation, but really is more of a mid priced pedal than a cheap one, with my Joyo California Sound, which works exactly as it is supposed to, and which is an almost exact clone of the quite expensive, but unfortunately discontinued, Tech 21 California pedal from their Character series of pedals.

No amps to my knowledge got that really raunchy, kind of fuzzy, high gain distortion tone that I am looking for, as said think a high gain Rat type distortion with some quite specific modifications, but basic character wise exactly the kind of distortion tone I want.

As far as I know you need a solid state distortion device to get that kind of distortion tone.

What I really want is not any great sounding tube distortion, it's a very specific raunchy and somewhat fuzzy high gain solid state distortion.

And spending thousand of dollars just to get an amp with just the right type of tube overdrive on a separate channel with an EQ option, and which also, and more importantly to me, would have just the right clean sound (which would get hard since I usually prefer the kind of cleans solid state amps are capable of), just to make the solid state distortion I feed it with sound just the way I want it to, honestly seems like a waste of money to me, that I could put much better use to, and which I by the way don't have either, when a solid state overdrive pedal placed after the distortion can do the job just as well, if not better, for me, and especially since clean tone by far is my main sound and that I only really use distortion occasionally and sparingly.

So except for the tremolo + EQ, which I most likely could get perfectly well around by buying the original Boss TR-2, that my Behringer tremolo is a clone of, I can't really see other examples that really supports the general tendency that you seem to see, and as the EQ placed after it actually fixes the issue completely and perfectly I honestly don't really mind having that 1 extra pedal taking up space, when the alternative is spending money, that I could use more wisely on gear updates I really do need, on the much more expensive original tremolo, just to get exactly the same effect, but saving the space that 1 single Behringer/Boss sized pedal takes up.

My problem is not really cheap pedals (well except for the dud ones I got in my last purchase), it's being very specific about what I want, which I guess, beside obviously not making things easy for me, in any other aspect only really ought to be a good thing.

I don't want to just sound generically great, I want to sound very specifically exactly like me, which might not always necessarily be the same as what the common consensus of sounding great might be.

As for cheap pedals being of inconsistent quality I can only agree with you though, you are perfectly right about that part, the way my recent pedal purchase turned out should be a testament of that, but I mainly bought those, not primarily because they were cheap, but because they had the sound I was looking for, judging from the YouTube demos I watched featuring them at least, and had they actually worked as they were supposed to they probably would have been the right pedals for me too, well except for the Vibrato, which I later realized wouldn't have been able to do what I was looking for, even if it had worked as it was supposed to, or even if I had spend a lot of money on a more expensive one for that matter, as I need it to be EQ'ed very specifically, which I then discovered a digital multi effect was the perfect solution to.

And to answer your question about what amp I got, it's a 160W solid state Peavey Solo Special 112 combo, equipped with a 12" Scorpion speaker unit, and to me it sounds great.

As said cleans is actually by far my main sound, and I actually prefer the kind of clean tones solid state amps are able to deliver, and for my sparingly used distortion tone I kind of prefer it in a way only a solid state device would be able to give me as well.

I owned a Roland JC-120 Jazz Chorus solid state amp at one point, which unfortunately I was stupid enough to sell, and that would honestly probably be the ideal right amp for me, but the Peavey Special's cleans does sound great to me as well, and with some EQ'ing I think I finally managed to hit a very close to perfect tone for me using that amp as well (and we are even really talking fairly minimal EQ adjustments and fine tuning of the tone, like boosting just the right frequencies with just the right kind of Q curve, just about 1 to 2 dB).

The build in distortion of the JC-120 was right out horrible though, and the distortion channel on my Peavey is not too great either, though I actually really prefer to use dedicated pedals for that anyway, and, as said, with the kind of distortion tone that I am looking for a solid state one would really also be the only way to go (though stacked in front of just the right tube overdrive might very well actually work great for me, but I already argued for why that wouldn't really be the right solution for me anyway earlier in this post).

Tone wise the result is what really matters to me, how you get there is, if not completely irrelevant, at least then far far less important, and if it takes you a couple of extra pedals to get there then it's really rather marginally how much more complicated and inconvenient that in reality does make things for you.

 

[plankton]

You clearly know what you want. Good luck on your search.

 

[Chuteboxehero]

Picked up these 2 recently. The Tumnus is a great Klon clone. Just a fantastic mellow overdrive. The J Rockett is basically a TS style overdrive but with the hot switch on, it gets heavy! If you like your TS9 but wish it had more balls, this is the pedal you need.

 

[NoiseNinja]

So I got my Moksy Black Rat, Rat Clone, and the Zoom Multi Stomp MS-70 CDR pedal.

The Zoom works great for what I intended it to, a deep lush chorus effect, by using the vibrato effect on the Zoom, mixing in 55% clean signal, and then throwing a 2 band parametric equalizer into the equation after the vibrato, to make it less murky and more sparkling sounding.

I also found that I prefer the Moksy Rat in the vintage setting, and set to a medium gain type of distortion, stacked in front of a Joyo Orange Juice, set to a medium gain type of overdrive, over my Boss MT-2 Metal Zone stacked in front of my Joyo California Sound.

So all in all this was a success.

Also I narrowed my quest for a delay pedal down to either the digital EHX Canyon or the analog Xvive Echoman, both sounding amazing, judging from the YouTube demos I watched featuring them, the Echoman actually having been designed by the same guy who designed the original EHX Memory Man, being a vastly sized down and allegedly vastly improved version of the Memory Man circuit as well, and with a delay time up to 600ms.

Here's a couple of YouTube demos of the Echoman:



So it will be that one or the EHX Canyon that will complete my effect pedals setup by the start of May.

Then I only miss a proper pedal board to fix my pedals to.

 

[plankton]

that will complete my effect pedals setup by the start of May.

You know you're never really done, right?

I finally got time to build the first of two fuzz pedals I had sitting in the shed, the Burns & Baldwin Buzzaround. It's nasty!

 

[plankton]

Almost forgot, I've also got a DOD Rubberneck on the way from the US. I've always wanted one but they're not cheap, especially with the exchange rate, but I got the tip off on a great sale price and jumped on it. Can't wait to play around with this thing, I've seen Andy play lots of pedals, but rarely are they so good he can't keep from smiling!

 

[TDA1966]

I managed to score a new MXR Il Diavolo overdrive for $60 on ebay. Should have it saturday.

 

[TDA1966]

It arrived. It's a beast of an OD pedal. Can't believe I got it new for 60 bucks. I stack it with my EHX Crayon for a roaring tone on the Fender Princeton reverb. Adrian Smith's early 1980's SG days reincarnated maybe....

 

[NoiseNinja]

So I got my Moksy Black Rat, Rat Clone, and the Zoom Multi Stomp MS-70 CDR pedal.

The Zoom works great for what I intended it to, a deep lush chorus effect, by using the vibrato effect on the Zoom, mixing in 55% clean signal, and then throwing a 2 band parametric equalizer into the equation after the vibrato, to make it less murky and more sparkling sounding.

I also found that I prefer the Moksy Rat in the vintage setting, and set to a medium gain type of distortion, stacked in front of a Joyo Orange Juice, set to a medium gain type of overdrive, over my Boss MT-2 Metal Zone stacked in front of my Joyo California Sound.

So all in all this was a success.

Also I narrowed my quest for a delay pedal down to either the digital EHX Canyon or the analog Xvive Echoman, both sounding amazing, judging from the YouTube demos I watched featuring them, the Echoman actually having been designed by the same guy who designed the original EHX Memory Man, being a vastly sized down and allegedly vastly improved version of the Memory Man circuit as well, and with a delay time up to 600ms.

Here's a couple of YouTube demos of the Echoman:



So it will be that one or the EHX Canyon that will complete my effect pedals setup by the start of May.

Then I only miss a proper pedal board to fix my pedals to.

I reconsidered my options for a delay, and I think my conclusion is that I will get neither the EHX Canyon or the Xvive Echoman, but instead likely will get a Line 6 M5 Multi Stompbox Modeler.

The M5 has a dedicated tap feature, a nice selection of different great sounding delay models with a good amount of adjustable parameters, I will be able to swap between different delay types with saved settings using the pedal's build in foot switches, and should I later wish so it gives me the option for connecting an expression pedal that would allow me to control whichever and as many parameters simultaneously I should wish, as well as it also features a ton of other great sounding effects, should I find the need for using any of those at some point.

Sure it will take up more space than any of the two other delay pedals I first had in mind, but it's not really like it is crazy big, just about the size of 2 regular Boss sized pedals stacked against each other, and with all the features it got I think it is very much worth it:

And yes, it is a fairly old digital multi effect by now, but even though I wouldn't use any of it's drive models I would dare claim that it in fact isn't outdated at all, the modulation, reverb and delay effects it features are still really solid, and as an example the big green Line 6 DL4 delay pedal, from which the delay models of the M5 origins, is still found on many professional artists's pedal boards as their main delay unit, Bill Frisell, one of my absolute favorite guitarists by the way, just to name one.


Also I ponder on sucking up and buying the original Boss TR-2 tremolo, even if I actually really like the sound of the Behringer clone I got currently, and don't really mind needing an equalizer with a slightly boosted level control placed after it, taking up space, in order to remedy the slight volume drop of the Behringer tremolo when engaged (an issue the Boss TR-2 used to share with the Behringer clone, but as far as I am informed should have been fixed with the more recent batches of the TR-2).

The reason for me pondering on investing in the original Boss TR-2 is actually because I do really love the sound of the Behringer, but unfortunately it has developed an issue with the input and output jack sockets that will sometimes cause scratching noises or even complete signal drop outs, which I so far though always have been able to solve by placing a finger on each side of the jack plugs connected to the pedal and then pressing them closer against the pedal's input and output jack sockets.

Though that is hardly any valid lasting solution, and I suspect the issue likely might develop for the worse over time.

But I guess that is the kind of issues you are supposed to expect from pedals of that kind of questionable build quality, which is the real main reason that I am seriously considering investing in the original Boss version of the pedal this time.

If there's one thing that no one would ever argue against about Boss pedals it is that they are extremely sturdily build, so might be worth the extra money to prevent me ending up in a similar situation down the line, plus with my recent bad experience with the Behringer UV300 vibrato, no less than 2 different units of that pedal having a faulty buffer that seriously sucked tone, I am kind of wary about buying any other of the Behringer pedals ever again, despite neither the Behringer UT100 tremolo, the BEQ700 graphic EQ or the GDI21 preamp/drive that I own suffer from this issue whatsoever.

Though judging from the various YouTube demos I watched of the Behringer clone and the original Boss tremolo the Behringer UT100 Ultra Tremolo (exact same as the UT300) is a bit more pronounced and throbby sounding compared to the Boss TR-2 at about the same settings, which I personally actually prefer, but I assume I would be able to get the same kind of effect from the Boss by turning up it's Wave and Depth control a little higher than how I have my Behringer set, as the actual basic kind of tonal character of the two pedals is pretty much the same.