What is more worth it?

[Hirschberger]

Is it more worth it to buy a bunch of individual pedals for effects or to buy a guitar processor like the TC Electronics G-Major?

 

[jdurso]

Is it more worth it to buy a bunch of individual pedals for effects or to buy a guitar processor like the TC Electronics G-Major?

depends on what your after. if you just need a few pedals (OD, Delay, Chorus) you may want to go pedal route. if you like a lot of fx going multi-fx units is cheaper and gets the job done. also depends on how much gear you wnat to have in your setup. some people like a lot of epdals, some very simple rack setups, a little of both. all depends what you after.

 

[Hirschberger]

Yeah because I am really starting to get into this pedal stuff, and I really like some individual pedals like the MXR Carbon Copy and the Maxon OD9 (just for example, there are tons I like), but i was also looking at like a TC Electronics G-Major, because i figure it will cost a lot for individual pedals but they both have their ups and downs, right?

 

[Commander Coo1]

yeah, im also wanting to increase my effects repitoir, i like the idea of hitting one switch that can change your amp's channel, turn of and on multiple effects, and all be controled by a simple foot controller. but it just seems like to get a reliable system you have to spend $1500, becasue the g-major has a horrible reliability reputation. its a really tough choice...

 

[Hirschberger]

yeah, im also wanting to increase my effects repitoir, i like the idea of hitting one switch that can change your amp's channel, turn of and on multiple effects, and all be controled by a simple foot controller. but it just seems like to get a reliable system you have to spend $1500, becasue the g-major has a horrible reliability reputation. its a really tough choice...

Yeah thats the tough part...

i also suck with midi and have no idea how to get what i want out of it

thats the other problem lol, I don't want to tap dance around to get a certain sound with individual pedals when i can program like midi **** to do it with one press of the controller.

Like this would be amazing.. http://www.axess-electronics.com/sc/FX1-MIDI-Footcontroller-p-16138.html

to bad i don't have roughly $1100...



I could do the petrucci route where he has ind. pedals and has a 6 presets and junk

 

[secretsoundz]

I prefer single pedals! They sound better for the most part unless you are talking super high end multi-effects units like some of the stuff from TC Electronics. Even then I prefer some good analog effects...call me old fashioned!

 

[MJ Slaughter]

I like using my Rocktron Xpression for all my time based effects, chorus, verb, delay etc. I leave it in a 2 space rack with the surge protector by my amp and it goes into my effects loop. On my pedal board I keep my other crap, volume, wah, overdrives, boosters, talk box etc which all go into the front of the amp.

Midi is a little intimidating when you first get into it but if you are mainly looking to just change presets it's not a big deal. Do you want to change individual patches on the fly with your midi controller, pedal? You could set it up to use an expression pedal, change channels on an amp, control other midi devices with your controller and possibly brew your coffee if you have a midi coffee pot. :wink: Start out simple and grow from there is my suggestion concerning midi.

I use to change patches on the fly, they call that continuous controllers cc I think, use an expression pedal but I a simple man and now just set patches how I want them and change as desired.

All that being said pedals are just plain fun and can become an obsessive hobby just collecting them. I met a guy who has over 100 pedals because he just can part with them. I suspect it is for guys like that that Fulltone named their OCD pedal for.

 

[MJ Slaughter]

Double post

 

[MJ Slaughter]

Triple post

 

[Sustain]

i have a hard time answering the poll because I never really cared for alot of pedals. I always bought rack gear, and generally single purposed rack gear.

Today has brought (so im told) alot of better pedals than the past, so maybe pedals are better now. Seems like alot of people are buying old or modded pedals tho....

I dont care for multi-fx processors because, as insinuated above, you can generally find a single item that does a single thing better than something that does 200 things half-assed.

 

[t0aj15]

One thing to keep in mind, My Boss BCB-60 pedalboard with six Boss pedals cost over $800, with my new processor I have over 40 efx (and a truck full of amps) for $500, it's dead quiet, and doesn't suck tone like most pedalbords. My pedalboards have been replaced with a Digitech GSP 1101:
http://www.digitech.com/products/multi-effects/gsp1101.php

 

[ShamefulAddiction]

My thinking is this...

To many people, myself included, there is not one effects manufactuer that makes the best of everything. We pick and choose the subjectively "best" sounding equipment from various maufacturers and stick them all on our boards to create our own multi-fx units. So you might have your overdrive from Fulltone, a delay from Boss, a phaser from EH, and a chorus from AnalogMan.

Don't get me wrong a multi-FX modeler may sound very good, but to someone that just has to have that Small Stone sound, only a Small Stone will do.

 

[t0aj15]

To many people, myself included, there is not one effects manufactuer that makes the best of everything. We pick and choose the subjectively "best" sounding equipment from various maufacturers and stick them all on our boards to create our own multi-fx units. So you might have your overdrive from Fulltone, a delay from Boss, a phaser from EH, and a chorus from AnalogMan. Don't get me wrong a multi-FX modeler may sound very good, but to someone that just has to have that Small Stone sound, only a Small Stone will do.

I used to hold the same opinion, until the GSP 1101 & the Axe-Fx came out, the Axe-Fx of course being in a class by itself. Modeling has moved to a whole new level now and the GSP 1101 copies VERY closely many pedals (including the Small Stone BTW) to a point they now make much more sense because the sound IS there without the tone sucking that multi-pedal boards and all the cabling that go with it bring into the signal chain, not to mention the noise they introduce (a big pet peeve of mine). Add to that the fact that you get several choices of each effect, for example you have a choice of 17 different distortion pedals as well as multiple choices of ALL the efx, and many of them can be routed either in front of the amp or in the loop as you choose when using the 4 cable method. Add all that versatility and ability with great sound and low $ and it seems like a no-brainer to me.

 

[GIG4FUN]

voted pedals.

I used rack gear my whole lofe until now! Take a look at my 1st ever Pedalboard in the effects area under "Which Pedalboard?"

haha, I'm all in.

 

[6L6C]

To many people, myself included, there is not one effects manufactuer that makes the best of everything. We pick and choose the subjectively "best" sounding equipment from various maufacturers and stick them all on our boards to create our own multi-fx units. So you might have your overdrive from Fulltone, a delay from Boss, a phaser from EH, and a chorus from AnalogMan. Don't get me wrong a multi-FX modeler may sound very good, but to someone that just has to have that Small Stone sound, only a Small Stone will do.

I used to hold the same opinion, until the GSP 1101 & the Axe-Fx came out, the Axe-Fx of course being in a class by itself. Modeling has moved to a whole new level now and the GSP 1101 copies VERY closely many pedals (including the Small Stone BTW) to a point they now make much more sense because the sound IS there without the tone sucking that multi-pedal boards and all the cabling that go with it bring into the signal chain, not to mention the noise they introduce (a big pet peeve of mine). Add to that the fact that you get several choices of each effect, for example you have a choice of 17 different distortion pedals as well as multiple choices of ALL the efx, and many of them can be routed either in front of the amp or in the loop as you choose when using the 4 cable method. Add all that versatility and ability with great sound and low $ and it seems like a no-brainer to me.

I agree with you I have a GSP1101 also unit just covers so much ground and your right those the stomp box models are pretty close to the real deal units. There was even a time where I was just using the first half of the 1101 just for the stomp box models and a Rocktron Xpression in the loop. I stopped using the 1101 but not because of sound quality but it’s not as tweak-able as other units. I’m the guy with a calculator setting up my delay times for different tempos. BTW I did NOT sell the 1101 just use it with a smaller rig that I have, the sound quality is fantastic. But there again that is one of the cool points of the unit as far as programming (kind of between a stomp box and a full blown processor)


Bottom line I have always been a rack guy as far as time based effects the problem is some of the newer boutique stuff is just amazing. Two things I like and insisted for the front end is the BB preamp and the Keeley Compressor. I never used compression before I never found anything I liked without going to extremes. I only use compression on the clean channel BTW just to tame it a bit. The BB on the other hand, as far as I’m concerned just doubled the channels on my Mark IV. Unlike other gain boxes it does not take over the amp just enhances and I find less is more with this pedal 50% gain at tops.

So as of two days ago I’m using the best of both worlds.

 

[tjlincoln]

You can have simplicity with pedals too. I use a RMJ RG-16 with my roadster. I have eight midi controlled loops plus I can control all the functions of my amp from the midi controller as well.
I set it up with 10 presets and 5 instant effects.

E.g. program 1 on midi: switches to channel 1 clean, and turns on my Diamond Halo chorus
Program 2 on midi: turns on channel 2 (slight dirt) with my T-Rex Reptile delay

So easy. I get midi control (1 button tone changes) AND I get analog pedals.

Effects: T-Rex Moeller OD, Diamond Halo Chorus, T-Rex Reptile Delay, Xotic AC Boost.