Bare Knuckle Pickups Forum
Forum Ringside => Guitars, Amps and Effects => Topic started by: Slartibartfarst42 on November 18, 2014, 07:38:02 AM
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I've been trying to think of what I want that is guitar related for my birthday next month and I'm just not sure. I don't need any more than the two guitars I have, I like my amp and the core effects I use are all great. It has crossed my mind to upgrade the Boss NS-2 for an ISP Decimator and it has also crossed my mind to change the Korg Pitch Black for the TC Electronics Polyphonic tuner but neither is really a pressing need. Another idea was to get a Boss GE-7 as at the moment the only EQ I use is on the amp and it strikes me that such a pedal could be really useful.
I do have two other ideas. One is to get the EHX B9 as I've tried that and it's a lot of fun but for £160, I wonder just how much I'll use it once the novelty has worn off. The other idea is to get some sort of pitch shifter/harmonizer like the EHX Pitch Fork but as I've never tried one of those and I'm not sure how useful it is in the real world of cover songs, improvised solos and covers bands. Does anybody have any experience of these pedals who could offer a perspective?
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I got two other ideas that might be interesting. 1) If you don't have one considder getting a looper. I got a TC Ditto and it's super fun for practicing and just fooling around. It can be used in a live situation as well. 2) Get the new Beatbuddy drum machine in guitar pedal enclosure. It seems like a really great invention for practicing and writing new music.
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I've been intrigued with the EHX Soul food lately. If you would like to try a Klon type OD, which every one should, that could be an idea.
But maybe you are set on ODs/boosters?
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Personally out of all the things you mention I would go for the EQ pedal.
I have MXR six and ten band EQs and both are very useful indeed, and I've heard great things about the Boss 7-band.
I have an ISP Decimator G-String II but I also have a Boss NS-2. They compliment each other very well. I have the NS-2 in the front end to control noise from the guitar and pedals before it reaches the preamp, and the ISP is in the loop to handle the fizz and other noises (e.g., from bad power) coming out of the preamp of my Peavey 6534+ ... I place my EQ between the loop send and the DEC IN on the ISP.
There is no great advantage to the Polytune over the Pitch Black. The other guitarist in my band has a Korg and I've used it and like it. I find the Polyphonic mode on the Polytune to be largely useless
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The core effects I use a lot are a Mark Tremonti Wah (very happy with it) and everything else comes from a Carl Martin Quattro (Compressor, Overdrive/Distortion, Chorus, Delay), which I am also very happy with. I use all of these effects quite a bit and as I'm happy with them, I see no obvious need to replace or duplicate them. I know a lot of people use a looper but I don't immediately see any obvious application for it in what I play. Whatever I get, I'd like to be able to use it for both playing at home but also in a live Rock covers band with two guitarists in the line-up.
As I said, I've already tried the B9 and it was loads of fun and I can see me using it for some solos but I can also see the novelty wearing off and as the other guitarist in the band already has one, is there any point in me getting one? It was this thought that made me think of a pitch shifter as it seemed like you could get some vaguely organ sounds from it and it did other things too. However, I've never used one of these before so I'm not sure how useful they are in a live band situation. I had also toyed with a Phaser or a Flanger but I was guessing that a pitch shifter might have more applications. I might be wrong. Unless I spend a lot of money on some effect or other, I'll probably get the GE-7 as well as something else.
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I get use out of a Boss LS-2 line selector. It allows me to select a chain of effects before I actually need them, rather than stomping on two or three pedals at the start of a riff. It also allows mixing dry signal with the wet affected signal, which is very useful. You might find that more useful than a regular looper. It can only run two loops but the versatility of the ways you can run them is very helpful. For example I can turn an overdrive and phaser on before I need it and then switch to that line when I need it with a single stomp
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I do have something like that already but at the moment I confess I only use it at the start of the signal chain for when I change guitars. The obvious limitation when using it later for me is that almost all of my effects (Compressor, Overdrive/Distortion, Chorus and Delay) are all housed in the one unit in the form of the Carl Martin Quattro.
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I have an earthquaker devices tone job and love it. I can recommend it as a low noise, high headroom and very musical sounding EQ.
I think the ISP or tuner wouldn't be worth the upgrade.
A phaser is always a fun toy, the MXR ones are all cool.
I think though loopers are a must for the bedroom guitar player like me. Preferably with a rhythm guide built in.
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Although I play at home, it's only really practising songs I play with the band usually so a looper will have limited use. I'm inclined to get an EQ pedal as well as something else and in terms of cost, the Boss looks like a solid buy.
That leaves me with the Phaser, Flanger or Pitch Shifter (EHX Pitch Fork?), all of which would be fun to own so it's more a case of which one is likely to get most use. If I get the EQ pedal as well, I think the B9 is sadly out as it's just too expensive to get both.
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The Electro Harmonix POG 2 is very good, although maybe you mean more like whammy pedal type pitch shifting? The POG can do some of the organ sounds, and also 12 and 18 string guitar sounds, and big thick octaves. It is maybe a bit pricey though
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I've had a GE7 for years. I'm not using it at the moment but I won't part with it because I've lost count of the times it has come in useful. For a long time I used it to poke an amp on medium drive into more saturated lead sounds. You can really shape the lead tone you want. I've used it in the loop as a clean volume boost and it does this really well. It's very useful but I wouldn't say it's fun. The Ditto Looper supplies unending fun. I'm definitely going to use it live but haven't worked out the details yet. I find it help you think creatively when constructing complimentary parts. You can also create some very weird timings.
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The Electro Harmonix POG 2 is very good, although maybe you mean more like whammy pedal type pitch shifting? The POG can do some of the organ sounds, and also 12 and 18 string guitar sounds, and big thick octaves. It is maybe a bit pricey though
The POG2 is fantastic but you're right; it's a bit pricey. The expression pedal on a Whammy is great and if I got the Pitch Fork I may also get the expression pedal to go with it. To be honest, I'm intrigued by a lot of what a pitch shifter will do. Playing an octave above and/or below seems to give some huge sounds in itself but I'm also really interested in a pedal that will do harmonies as that must open up some great sounds too. I assume the Pitch Fork, Whammy and Harmonizer all do everything I've mentioned. Is that right?
Is there a pedal in existence that combines pitch shifting, harmonizing and wah all into one pedal? If not, I'll need to invent one :cool:
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Although I play at home, it's only really practising songs I play with the band usually so a looper will have limited use. I'm inclined to get an EQ pedal as well as something else and in terms of cost, the Boss looks like a solid buy.
That leaves me with the Phaser, Flanger or Pitch Shifter (EHX Pitch Fork?), all of which would be fun to own so it's more a case of which one is likely to get most use. If I get the EQ pedal as well, I think the B9 is sadly out as it's just too expensive to get both.
Of those three, I suspect you will get the most use out of the flanger. Flangers can get close to a chorus or a phaser in terms of effects and have their own thing going on as well. Phasers are a one trick pony. I have the EVH flanger by MXR and can recommend it. Bulky though and it runs on 18V
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jKfD8U_gzpY
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Is there a pedal in existence that combines pitch shifting, harmonizing and wah all into one pedal? If not, I'll need to invent one :cool:
The Electro harmonix HOG2 does, but that's getting crazy expensive :) have you looked at the Digitech Whammy DT? combines the harmonising and pitch shifting of the standard whammy with a drop tune/capo section, and it's polyphonic. brilliant pedal
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The more I think about it, the more I like the idea of some sort of harmonizer. Here's my current thinking:
Boss PS-6
I LOVE the way it does 3-part harmonies but I find the fact that you have to select the key you're playing in rather than simply play and let the pedal sort it all out to be a pain in the backside. It's also the most expensive of the three options I'm currently considering so for these two reasons I think this one is out of the equation.
EHX Pitch Fork
Again, I LOVE the idea of 3-part harmonies and with this one I don't have to worry about selecting the key in advance so it's a very handy package for a very reasonable price, though the expression pedal is extra.
Digitech Whammy 5
The big drawback for me with the Whammy is that it can't do 3-part harmonies but having said that, it does offer a LOT of other features and tons of settings and with the expression pedal included, it's arguably the cheapest here. It seems to offer many more harmony and pitch options than the EHX so has to be worthy of consideration even without the 3-part harmony facility.
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I seem to be a bit confused about the effects I have already mentioned so I really would appreciate some help.
The Boss PS-6 makes you select the key you are playing in, presumably to make sure that the harmonies actually work and I saw this as a bit of a pain in the backside. The EHX and Digitech both appeared to be better because it looked like I simply played and the pedal sorted everything else out for me. I have since read a number of comments online that suggest this isn't the case and if for instance, I was playing in the key of Am and chose to play things like the Am pentatonic and/or A natural minor scales, some of the notes I hit would achieve a discordant result rather than a harmony. If this is true, what's the point of having a pedal that is supposed to be a harmony pedal if it doesn't always harmonize properly? Is this right and if so, would this suggest that the PS-6 is a better option after all?
My other question relates to the EHX Pitch Fork as I've read a number of reviews online that complain about an awful lot of hum coming from the pedal when connected to a 9v power supply. This is a concern to me because all of my pedals are powered in this way. Is this an issue with the Pitch Fork and if so, is it possible to get around it?
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It's worth remembering that besides EQs, noise suppressors, and tuners pedals are generally 'toys' that you might use now and then but basically add up in money very quickly without necessarily being useful much of the time.
Besides an EQ think if there are any pedals you don't have that you would use a lot. For example, do you have a delay pedal, and are you happy with it? Is it something you would use a lot? The same could be said for a wah. A good investment if your style of music calls for it, otherwise a bit of a waste. A volume pedal can be very useful if you usually use the volume controls on your guitar to clean up while playing; otherwise it is a waste of money and very bulky.
Actually whether it will fit on my board and be able to be powered by my existing power supply is always a big issue for me.
These are the kinds of things I would keep in mind. It's very easy to be tempted by gadgets.
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I agree entirely and that is why I went to the expense of getting the Carl Martin Quattro; I use all of those effects quite a lot and they're all of good quality. The only other 'effect' I've bought is the Wah, which I also use regularly. Other than that my pedalboard just uses practical things like noise gate, EQ and tuner. The question you raise is an important one and is why I eventually discounted the idea of getting either a phaser or a flanger. Both would be great fun but I just can't see me using them all that much. The same logic eventually put me off the B9. I LOVED playing with it but I suspect that after a while, the novelty of having organ sounds might wear off and I'd be left with an effect that is only used sparodically and cost £160. I keep coming back to a harmonizer because it's something I can see me using, albeit not as much as my other effects but it really is the harmonizing and octave effects that I am primarily interested in rather than detuning and divebomb effects, hence my questions.
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This is very much a case of do as I say rather than do as I do ... I'm very guilty of buying gadgets that I end up not using much. I am currently building a smaller board that I will occasionally connect to the larger 'gadget' board when I want to play with toys and come up with more adventurous textures.
Basically the stuff on my main board will be the tuner, a Boss NS-2, a MXR M-80 D.I. (for when I use it with my bass) and then my effects loop (which besides the EQ and ISP includes my flanger, chorus, and delay running through a Boss LS-2 (to mix in some dry signal) followed last of all by a clean boost. These seem to be the ones that are either on all the time or are two inconvenient to split over two board (i.e., the effects loop pedals). The second board with consist of a wah, volume pedal, and two front end loops (again via a LS-2) connected to the first board via the loop on the NS-2. I know this sounds ridiculously complex but it is a good way for me to keep the toys (which are mainly front end pedals) separated from my main rig so that I am not taking thousands of dollars worth of stuff to shows where I don't need them. I may well use the two boards live if I start up a funeral doom band but it would have to be something slow like that for me to find time to use them all. I can also put bigger pedals on it or pull stuff on or off without upsetting my main gigging board. There are three 18V pedals on my main board (EQ, flanger, boost).
I haven't finished the smaller board yet - I've had really bad luck lately with sellers online, including a shortage of velcro for the two pedaltrain products I bought from different suppliers (the Pedaltrain Jr and the Universal Bracket kit) - but this should be the layout:
(http://i.imgur.com/aBq4nOY.jpg)
I can't imagine using more than this on a regular basis. The other guitarist in our band uses wah; no point in both of us using it. Of course I had to buy a second power supply (a Fuel Tank Junior), so it all gets rather expensive.
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Well, both Digitech and EHX have now confirmed that their pedals are NOT harmony pedals regardless of what is said about them doing harmonies. They both play set intervals and as a result will go out of tune with some notes. They are strictly pitch shifters, which suggests that some of the labelling is a bit misleading as they do say that these pedals have harmony options. It even says so on the actual Whammy pedal! In fairness to Digitech, they did suggest the old Harmony Man as an alternative purchase, which would be completely accurate on single notes but as it's not polyphonic, would be useless on chords. Unfortunately that's all I know about the Harmony Man at this stage so I've no idea if it's worthwhile or not.
EDIT: Having scoured my options it looks like without spending silly money on the Eventide, I have just two options:
Boss PS-6
I still dislike the idea of selecting key manually and I find the S-Bend feature horrible BUT, it is polyphonic so I can play chordal as well as single not harmonies.
Digitech Harmony Man
This one sounds better to me and offers more options but would it be frustratingly limiting only being able to play single notes?
I'm really torn on this one. I love the polyphonic nature of the Boss but in every other respect, the Digitech seems better. Any thoughts, especially from those who have tried these pedals?
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Its expensive but this seems to be the best regarded option
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/NEW-EVENTIDE-PITCHFACTOR-INTELLIGENT-HARMONISER-PROGRAMMABLE-GUITAR-EFFECT-PEDAL-/320912841486
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I've been trying to think of what I want that is guitar related for my birthday next month and I'm just not sure. I don't need any more than the two guitars I have, I like my amp and the core effects I use are all great. It has crossed my mind to upgrade the Boss NS-2 for an ISP Decimator and it has also crossed my mind to change the Korg Pitch Black for the TC Electronics Polyphonic tuner but neither is really a pressing need. Another idea was to get a Boss GE-7 as at the moment the only EQ I use is on the amp and it strikes me that such a pedal could be really useful.
I do have two other ideas. One is to get the EHX B9 as I've tried that and it's a lot of fun but for £160, I wonder just how much I'll use it once the novelty has worn off. The other idea is to get some sort of pitch shifter/harmonizer like the EHX Pitch Fork but as I've never tried one of those and I'm not sure how useful it is in the real world of cover songs, improvised solos and covers bands. Does anybody have any experience of these pedals who could offer a perspective?
I loved the B9 up until I played a Maj7th interval and it made a horrible noise - I don't know why it struggles with that particular interval but its a deal breaker.
If you want to treat yourself, what about a set of top notch guitar cables and patch leads - it made a noticeable difference to my tone
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I find the S-Bend feature horrible
Seriously? It's called that? Not sure if S-bend means the same thing everywhere in English, but here it refers to a toilet trap
edit: I watched a couple of videos of that S-bend thing and it sounds like shiteeee, so I guess the name is appropriate!! Especially as a whammy. I will admit that it can do some cool Devo style effects though in the following video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LfWHqiCGW28
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Seriously? It's called that? Not sure if S-bend means the same thing everywhere in English, but here it refers to a toilet trap
edit: I watched a couple of videos of that S-bend thing and it sounds like shiteeeee, so I guess the name is appropriate!!
So you can see why I wasn't impressed!!! The ONLY advantage the PS-6 has over the Harmony Man is that it's polyphonic. Unfortunately, that is quite a big feature. If it wasn't my dilemma wouldn't be so diffitult.