Who uses a minimlaist approach to effects?

I know there are some who have tons of effects and can have all kinds of sounds, but for you guys out there who only use a very select few effects and use them sparingly (not really to change your sound but just to add to what is already there), what do you use?

I'm beginning to rethink my effects strategy, and now I'm leaning towards just a really good compressor and chorus pedal.

95% of the time for me it is guitar to head.

The other 5% comes in a song where I use a phaser on the clean channel for about a total of 1 minute out of a 4 minute song.

IMO it just sounds better, and I dont have to keep tripping over cables and pedals, or forget which pedals do what, and when they need to be on.

It also keeps me from randomly stepping on the suck pedal at a show

With pedals I like it simple, but my attitude may change. I may add a few pedal more pedals later as life goes on.

Chorus for clean stuff. I have 2 delays. One is "short" to make my guitar sound bigger or to add to clean stuff. The other is "long" is for little leads 'n' solos here and there. Sometimes I put them together, its strange to say the least.

I don't have a problem tripping over cables. Awnser? Pedal Snake!

I recently sold off all of my effects pedals and pedalboard! After running too many effects, I had forgotten how good the tone was underneath, not only how it sounded, but how it felt! There was more interaction between my fingers and the speakers! No more effects here!

I just have a Barber LTD (OD), a VooDoo Labs MicroVibe and a Petereson Strobostomp between me and the amp. All TB. I tried putting the wah back in the mix, but it just sucked tone, and I didn't want to get caught up in buying more stuff to correct what wasn't wrong to begin with! I use just a touch of verb on the amp.

I went with the MicroVibe as my "texture" pedal because it was a little "different," and pretty versatile. I can dial up some fake leslie chop, do thye psychadelic thing, or be really discrete with it to get some chorus-like (but NOT chorus-like) swirl. I really only step on the thing about twice a night.

The OD pedal is indispensible, though. Gives me a 3rd and 4th gain & tone option on a 2 channel amp.

I find that for gigging and most band-related endeavors, I like the most scaled down FX setup possible. So that always includes a highly tweakable wah (currently I'm liking the Ibanez WD7), and depending on the mood (and which amp I'm using) may also include a Sparkle Drive or a Carl Martin compressor. I typically don't have anything in the FX loop.

When jamming around by myself or recording, however, I'm more of an FX junkie. Still nothing over the top, but I have a couple rack FX units I may throw into the loop for basic chorus/delay. But I'm just too lazy to haul them out for live performance!

--B

I'm just starting to get back into effects after several years of playing completely dry. I can't help it, I really love the sound of a guitar interacting directly with the amp. So I built a multiloop pedalboard that completely bypasses them if I'm not using them. Which is about 90% of the time.

My effects of choice?
Wah
Delay
Tremolo

Used very sparingly.

I have about 9 pedals on my board ie comp, delays, wah, od, dist, chorus, phaser & tuner. The only one I have on say 80% of the time is my T-Rex comp/nova. All the others I use pretty sparingly. I could probably live with just my Comp/nova, DD5 and TS9 but I like to fool about with sounds to keep me sane. Heaven for me is a great clean tone that you can sprinkle a few effects over.

I used to use multi effects pedals with an old Marshall Valvestate but when I got my first valve amp (mesa .22 calibre studio +) I got rid of the Korg unit I had and changed to stompboxes.

Now I only use what I need at gigs.... TS808 Tube Screamer, Morley Wah, MI Audio Tube Zone, Korg DT10 Tuner, Bonehead Booster (home made) and MXR Phase 90.


Shane

how do you find that morley wah with your boogies distortion? i've heard that it sort of disapears under high gain...

i just started buying effects because i started getting into soundscaping and the post rock sort of sound. Sparkledrive is the only effect infront, and in the loop: ehx pulsar, boss ph-1r, and an ehx holy grail.

in future, i could see myself adding a volume pedal for swells, and a good sampling delay like the dd-20 or the dl4. perhaps a really nice compressor for some squish, and a fuzz factory for crazy fuzz...i could go on...

how do you find that morley wah with your boogies distortion? i've heard that it sort of disapears under high gain...

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I don't use the boogie's dirty channel. I did when I first got the amp but after getting the Tube Zone I realised the pedal delivers the overdrive sound I am after so I just use the clean channel on the amp now.

Guitar->wah-> MKIV. Maybe a little delay in the loop for solos.

That's it with the MKIV. I'm always stunned to see people talking about stacking OD/distortion/booster/etc... in front of a Mesa. Keep it simple is my motto. The mesa sounds great by itself.

Scott.

Guitar -> Wah -> MkIII (Vibe -> Delay in loop)

I go through various stages of FX use. I'm currently on a minimalist slump.

What I notice is that when I'm spending alot of time at home playing quiet my pedalboard starts to get huge, but when I play loud/live I start to hear all this **** that I couldn't hear before and I end up playing dry 95% of the time (not including delay). For example, cool sounding phaser rush at low volume becomes over the top swooshing at high volume, so I end up stomping the pedal back off and never touching it again for the remainder of the gig.

These days, the delay is usually always on unless I'm playing something fast and technical, the Vibe is used for occasional colour, and the wah (modded for TB) is neccissary though rarely used.

I use my TA into the intellifex by the fx loop, and then the 20/20, no more fx i need the more fx you use the dirtier your signal is.

All I ever use/need is a good wah pedal.

*raises hand*

Right now I am guitar>cable>amp. I am digging just using the two channels for clean vs. gritty and using the controls on the guitar to change my sound. I could see getting a wah again at some point.

I do use a touch of reverb and gain so I can't call myself a true purist. Hell, true purists only play acoustic.

I was an effects freak back in the day. I ended up going rack and had more effects in the chain than I would care to say. I ended up hating the tone. I got rid of the rack gear and went back to plugging in directly to the amp head. I slowly brought back some stuff to color things in a bit but normally still play completely straight and organic. From time to time I will use a wah, rotovibe, OD, chorus, and eq but never all at once and very rarely more than a couple at a time at that. I have a few pedals that I have experimented with trying to find particular OD sounds. Basically, I use the OD as a clean boost but flavor it a little sometimes depending upon my mood.

Mark IV makes for an awesome rhythm channel set on lead with eq. I find it so good that I have to OD it to get a boost for fills and leads. I have been thinking about using R2 as a lead channel but with some sort of OD(s) or other stomp box to take me out in front of the Lead channel played straight.

screamingdaisy said:

Guitar -> Wah -> MkIII (Vibe -> Delay in loop)

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exact same but with a MkIV. i picked up a sweet sound mojo vibe last week and i'm blown away. its not nearly as one-trick as i thought it would be.

i love a mild chorus effect on cleans and didn't want to get a cheap boss that's just over the top in intensity, or spend hundreds on a boutique effect just to keep it at 1 or 2 intensity. my solution is the modulation delay mode in the boss dd-20, just a tad of choral coloration on top of the delay you dial in.

I'm a recovering fx junkie. I used to use chorus and delay just as a starting point and then add from there.

These days I basically use reverb, eq, and sometimes a wee bit of phaser. That said, when recording, I tend to do a fair bit with eq, stereo positioning, duplicate tracks w/different eq, etc.

Here's my chain Guitar>HBE Wah>HBE Chorus>BB Pre> MKIV Wide combo Running Dry, DI>G-Major with FCB1010 controller>Simul 395> 2-1x12 Thieles. The pedals are true bypass. The G-Major is used sparingly and is not fed back to the MKIV.

K.I.S.S.

I used to have a huge rack of effects, no more............. :mrgreen: