What are you all using for effects? I'm looking for an awesome blusey sound with a little bite. Any suggestions for pedals? I'm using a Marshall MG 100 fx and my new AM Special. Sounds great already but you can always get a little more right?.....

It's not about using a pedal, it's about learning to play with feeling. No pedal can give you soul!!!

Playing with heart, emotion and a good tube amp!

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Being able to play and enjoy music is a gift that's often taken for granted.

Don't leave home without it!

Well, I really have to disagree with Miami Mike there...I think it really depends on what kind of music your doing and what kind of sound you're looking to achieve. Pedals are excellent tools that if used correctly can give a player an additional layer of creative expression that simply can't be achieved without them.

Can a person be a great guitarist with only a guitar and a decent amp (tube -or- solid state)? Abso-fragin-lutely. Take a look at blues legend B.B. King...a guitar through a Lab L5 (a solid state amp mind you). That's -all- he needs. Can a person be a great guitarist using various effects? Abso-fragin-lutely. David Gilmour, Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, Jimi Hendrix and COUNTLESS others! Wah pedals, flange pedals, delays/echos/reverbs, distortions, over-drives. I will agree with Mike in that the "soul" does have to be there first...a lot of people seem to use FX to cover or "hide" their playing and that's not really much good. Otherwise to me I think pedals can just give you soooo much more to work with.

As to which pedals to use, personally I would suggest researching your favorite artists to find out what they use and start from there. For example, I'm a big Pink Floyd fan and while I do try to create my own sound, David Gilmour has been a very heavy influence on me so I do tend to use a lot of delay and flange and heavy distortions and such. That said, one of the totally brilliant things about pedals is that you can "turn them off". Personally I tend to play a pretty wide variety of music...classic rock, blues, oldies and my wife and I write a lot of our material as well. As such when we're doing covers, I use whatever I feel is appropriate to the particular tune we're doing. If we're doing "Comfortably Numb" by Pink Floyd, then yea, I'll use a lot of delay and flange. If we're doing "Spooky" by the Classics IV however, I go completely clean other than a little reverb. In this new band I'm in we're doing a rather "loose interpretation" of the Funkadelic great "Maggot Brain" so I'm running a TON of effects on that one...even broke out my ol' Crybaby for that one! LOL! Also right now I'm doing quite a bit of Santana so I recently went out and picked up a Compressor pedal...Boss CS2...and I gotta tell ya, I'm -really- digging that little sucker! I'm not really sure how I lived all these years without one! LOL!!!

That said I would also like to add that you should -never- be afraid to experiment a little either. For example a number of years back we were doing the old War tune, "Lowrider" and for the main riff I actually used an old DOD Envelope Filter...sounded pretty wicked in a funky sort of way! LOL! To me a big part of being a musician is finding your own sound. I don't want and I don't try to sound like anyone else most of the time...I do my own thing and I like people to associate my playing and style with -me-. I do try to pay a bit of "tribute" to people who have influenced my playing when I'm doing certain songs but in the end, it's still me up there playing...not Clapton, Gilmour, Townsend or anyone else.

So again, listen to your favorite artists...people who's sound you really dig and find out what they use (if it's someone famous chances are there's plenty of info on their rigs on the internet) and just go from there.

Good Luck,
Jim

Look i get it! believe me i know about feel and sould and vibe! that is how I play. I dont read or write music but can play be ear and feel. Just was curious what people are using. Thats all!

Pedals can't do for you what a good tube amp can.

But you might want to look into some overdrive pedals. Like an Ibanez TS-9 or TS-808. Just beware of their marketing tactic. They want you to think SRV would only use a TS-808 when in reality he also used a TS-9 (which is $100 cheaper). You should also look into a Boss Blues Driver, which has a bit more gain. I've played through one and I liked it a lot. If you have a slightly larger budget look into a Fulltone OCD or a Fulltone Fulldrive 2. If you want something versatile enough to handle everything from pop to punk to rock to blues then look into a Visual Sound Jekyll and Hyde.

I always play though a Screamin' Eagle that was custom made from http://www.sbnpedals.com/. It has three different overdrives in one, plus bass boost. It's the best sounding overdrive I've ever heard and it's the best bang for the buck.

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I keep delay on all the time - either a short or a long delay, but always on. It makes your guitar stand out in the mix better than reverb. I use a Voodoo Lab Sparkle Drive (Keeley modded) set to just enough gain to make the guitar sound more intense without being really dirty - if that makes sense. The only other effects I use are chorus, roto machine (leslie emulator) and wah but only only on a few songs.

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Frank
A legend in my own mind.

With my Marshall MG250 DFX and my '04 Strat w/noiseless pups, I'm using a Boss CS-3 Compressor, Sustainer, Boss DD-5 Delay, Boss Blues Driver, and a Boss TU2 Tuner all tucked away in a Boss powered pedal case.

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Life is like a sh*t sandwich. The more bread you have, the less sh*t you have to eat.

I only use compression when I record. I don't like it live because it takes away from your ability to play with a lot of dynamic range. I had one on my board for a long time and took it off and I haven't missed it even once.

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Frank
A legend in my own mind.

I go back and forth with pedals. I do play mainly blues and right now I use a Boss EQ, Hardwire Reverb, TS808 OD, Love Pedal pickle vibe, and Fulltone Clyde wah, A 59 Bassman RI with a CS 60s strat and a SG. I love my sound at the moment but that could change tomorrow.

I agree on the Boss Blues Driver, I've played through it and love it. There's a Keeley mod version that supposedly rolls off a little of the bite so it doesn't get too sharp.

You might like the DoubleDrive or a tube driven pedal :

http://www.siegmundguitars.com/pedal.html

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Being able to play and enjoy music is a gift that's often taken for granted.

Don't leave home without it!

It all depends on what sound you want.
What pedals do I use? Any old junk I can find lying around the place.

Well you have more gain than anyone will ever need on a MG, theres reverb too isnt there?
Get a delay pedal, they imediately make you sound twice as good or twice as bad.

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No no and no

Guitar->BigMuff Pi->CarbonCopy Delay->12 Watt Tube amp. The BigMuff Pi might be what you need. Make sure and try the "Pi" version. It has a couple variations that the regular Muff doesn't.

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-Kirk

GUITARS
'12 Sonoran Acoustic - black (dated 10/31/12)
'13 Standard Strat
AMP
Vox ac4c1-bl
PEDALS
Compressor
Big Muff
Vox Stomplab 1G
Carbon Copy Delay

I chop and change. These are two set-ups I use mostly:

• Strat> Vox Wah> Jim Dunlop Fuzz Face> Ibanez TS9

• Strat> Vox Wah> EHX Big Muff Pi> EHX English Muff'n
I might add a chorus/uni-vibe type of effect... And I also like the reverse-delay effect on the Boss DD6.

The next one I'm after is a Fulltone OCD or a Fulltone FullDrive2... Can't decide between the two. I'm sighting my eyes on getting the Fulltone DejaVibe too.

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• Fender American Series Stratocaster (Olympic white, maple)
• Gibson Flying V (dusty faded cherry)
• Fender 1969 Custom Shop Stratocaster (3-tone sunburst, maple)
• Fender Highway One Stratocaster (Honey blonde, rosewood)

Just a couple of days ago I dusted off some old effects after buying my new Jimmy Vaughn Strat and Blues Jr.I bought a Danelectro Tremolo and Danelectro Vibe.I now use in my living room rig.J.V. Strat-Marshall Guv'nor-Vox Clyde McCoy wah-Danelectro Vibe-Danelectro Tremolo-Blues Jr. With this set up I can get a very Hendrixy vibe with all effects engaged and really get inspired to keep on playing.The Strat and Blues Jr. are a deadly combo on their own also.

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'65 Strat,65 Mustang,65 Jaguar,4 more Strats,3 vintage Vox guitars,5 Vox amps,'69 Bassman with a '68 2-15 Bassman cab,36 guitars total-15asst'd amps total,2 vintage '60s Hammond organs & a myriad of effects-with a few rare vintage ones.