1st peddle purchase

I have a MIM Strat and a soon to be re-capped and re-speakered Vibro Champ. I am thinking I need a peddle to play with. Where is a good source for peddle explination? What they do, how many do you need some basic theory and back ground on peddles would be nice too.

Thanks in advance.
Don

Effects boxes tutorials

http://www.harmony-central.com/Effects/effects-explained.html

http://www.goodnightkiss.com/guitarinfo.html

http://users.chariot.net.au/~gmarts/fx.htm

(links checked as a few minutes ago)

or Google for "guitar effects tutorial"

:smile:

What do you want your pedal to do? Do you want dirt? Delay? Wah? Fuzz? What do you want to spend?

What do you want your pedal to do? Do you want dirt? Delay? Wah? Fuzz? What do you want to spend?

Not sure what "dirt" "delay" "wah" and "fuzz" are at this point. I watched a utube last night with a guy that was selling a Vibro Champ amp (like mine) and he demonstrated it with some peddles and different guitar pick-up types.
The difference in the sounds is what caused me to get curious about effects pedals

PennyCentury, thanks for the links. I will read with great interest.

Pedals are cool. You don't really need them, but they can add different "flavors" to your guitar sound. Most people who use a bunch of pedals will have some of the following:

Some kind of swirly thing - Phaser, flanger, rotary speaker emulator - all make your guitar sound kind of swirly or spinny in different ways.

Chorus - The ultimate 80's guitar effect. Try one out and you'll see what I mean. It's nice in moderation, but too much and it sounds like you're wearing zebra striped spandex pants and a Members Only jacket with lots of zippers.

Overdrive/distortion/boost/fuzz - Can make your guitar sound louder, more sustainy or distorted like the stereotypical lead guitar sound. A good first pedal because it allows you to have a mellower sound for rhythm guitar and a more in your face sound for leads.

Delay or reverb - Delay makes your guitar sound Echo echo echo echo. Reverb makes it sound like you're playing inside a big space. Also a good first choice because it makes your sound more spatial or "bigger."

Compressor - takes your guitar sound and makes the quiet parts louder and the loud parts quieter to even out your sound. This can be subtle or a way over the top squooshed sound.

Wha Pedal - Is like a tone control you control with your foot. Goes from more bassy to more trebly. Think Voodoo Child by Hendrix or the theme from Shaft or Superfly.

Multi-effects units are digital units that contain all of the above and more which you can program into any combination and call up a whole bunch of different sounds with your foot while you're playing.

These are the standards that most effects pedal heads have, but there are about a million others too. Everything from Whammy pedals to Ring modulators to Amp simulators, you name it. I've got my eye on a Moogerfooger MF-102 Ring modulator if this money ever comes through. One useful thing to do is to go on Youtube and type in the name of pedals you have heard of or think you may be interested in. You will come up with all kinds of video clips showing what the different pedals can do. Good luck and don't spend too much money, hee hee hee.
-Mr. Natural

Name a couple guitar players that you love to listen to.

We may be able to suggest a pedal that will help you to get a sound that you love.

You have a Vibro Champ therefore you can already get vibe/tremolo.

Boss makes a pedal that gives both Reverb and Delay. You can get the natural reverb of a big church or hall and you get echo...echo...echo.....

It's called the RV-3.

Who do you like to listen to??

In no set order

Stevie Ray Vaughn
Buddy Guy
B.B. King
Eric Clapton
Kenny Wayne Sheppard

I have listened to a bunch of demos on Utube and I like the way the Boss Blues Driver BD-2 sounds. Looking on line I see the following:

The Boss BD-2 Blues Driver Pedal gives you the classic, bluesy sound of an overdriven vintage tube amp in a compact pedal.

Isn't my Fender Vibro Champ ( circa 1976 blue face) a "vintage tube amp"?

To bad you can't rent effects pedals like video games so you can try it befor you buy it.

Nodremark, given who you like to listen to, that pedal sounds like a good fit. See if a music store in your area has one and bring your guitar and amp and try it out. Most reasonable music stores should let you do that. Shoot, try a few others while you have the chance.
-Mr. N.

Couple things I learned early...

Youtube demos are not a great way to learn about a pedal. Sound quality is poor and your equipment is different than the demo'er.

BUY USED. Look for bargains and don't hesitate to buy/try/sell pedals. Many times the pedal you think is going to be great isn't and if you bought it cheap you can get your money back. People at thegearpage.net are constantly doing this, look through their classifieds.

If you're handy with a soldering iron (or willing to learn) check out http://www.generalguitargadgets.com and http://www.buildyourownclone.com/index1.html and build your own pedals

Get a Digitech Bad Monkey and an Electroharmonix Memory Boy. It should set you back no more than $150 for both.

Guitar -> Bad Monkey -> Memory Boy -> Vibro Champ

Thank me later (just kidding)

In followup the nice thing about the above combo (BM and MB) is that the Memory Boy includes the 200mA adapter and the pedal itself only runs at 32 mA (I measured after I bought it) This will allow you to run both pedals off of the same adapter. You just need to buy a daisy chain cable from your local music store. I think the last one I bought was $6. Hope this helps.

Get a Digitech Bad Monkey and an Electroharmonix Memory Boy. It should set you back no more than $150 for both.

Guitar -> Bad Monkey -> Memory Boy -> Vibro Champ

Thank me later (just kidding)


Yes! That's really a darned good suggestion. The Bad Monkey is a great overdrive (worth twice the price). I have a Bad Monkey and a Memory Boy...that would be a great combo.

The Memory Toy costs even less.

Bad Monkey Link (http://guitars.musiciansfriend.com/product/DigiTech-Bad-Monkey-Tube-Overdrive-Pedal?sku=150831)

http://img3.musiciansfriend.com/dbase/pics/products/regular/0/9/8/239098.jpg

Memory Toy Link (http://guitars.musiciansfriend.com/product/ElectroHarmonix-Memory-Toy-Analog-Echo-and-Chorus-Guitar-Effects-Pedal?sku=502713)

http://img3.musiciansfriend.com/dbase/pics/products/regular/3/2/9/615329.jpg

John

I did a video with a Bad Monkey and a Memory Boy (and a looping pedal) not long ago.....

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Based on that list a OD like a Tubescreamer or bad monkey would be fine but your amp turned up will do that for you . You do want a wah, a crybaby or vox is basic. BBE is tempting but the fulltones look awesome. Also maybe a Univibe type pedal like a dunlop univibe or also...Fulltone deja vibe or Voodoolabs Micro vibe.

http://proguitarshop.com

Best website to listen to pedals.

The demos on ProGuitarShop are amazing.

Based on that list a OD like a Tubescreamer or bad monkey would be fine but your amp turned up will do that for you .

Champs are splendid but Champs on 10 can get a bit dark and boomy.

Stevie Ray Vaughn
Buddy Guy
B.B. King
Eric Clapton
Kenny Wayne Sheppard

I don't think you'll get close to any of these sounds with a Champ cranked. I couldn't with my Champs.

An overdrive and an echo are darned good building blocks.

I like gearmanndudes video demos too, his You Tube Channel is here (http://www.youtube.com/user/gearmanndude).

Cool vid studio1087,

What kind of looper are you using? I use the looper on my SMMH but any more than 2 loops and it gets kind of muddy.

As well the Memory Toy would be good but you would then still have to buy an adapter ($20). Plus the adjustible mod level is nice on my Boy.

It's the Boss RC-2 (the single pedal red guy). I tried the The RC-20 (the double pedal unit) and it confused me. I bought it and sold it in three weeks.

I saw the RC-2 used with the instruction book at Music-Go-Round...got a great deal. I like the single pedal unit more. Fun little thing.

Funny thing about the RC-2....I never read the book. I watched three demo videos on youtube and just started using it. Pretty simple.

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loop station

I would go reverb if you do not have a good amp, as that will make your sound more full and complete. Playing clean into something that's not loud can make it seem like there are "gaps" between notes...the echo/reverb kind of fills in the gaps to make it more complete. Just my 2 cents.