Colorful Distortion/Feedback/Noise: Which Pedals?

[drewmanne]

I play a Fender reissue 52 Tele and a Strat through a reissue 69 Fender Twin Reverb Custom 15. I also have a Peavey 5150 combo, and a 5150 4x12 cab that I want use with the Twin if it is possible to do that.

I am trying to create some nice feedback and add color to my sound, and I want to have a variety of sounds available to me.

I play more lead guitar than anything. I like to add minimal stuff. I'm hoping to add nice distorted sounds that can ring out and feedback when I want them to.

Some examples of bands/guitarists that have the sounds i'm looking for are: My Bloody Valentine(Kevin Shields), The Pixies(Joey Santiago), Wilco(Nels Cline: Pedal board link at bottom of post). That should give you an idea of what I am looking for if you are at all familiar with those bands. Thanks

Forgot to mention I have a Barber LTD that i love.

Heres a link to Nels Cline's pedal board.
http://nelscline.com/tech.html

[genelovesjez]

You can't go wrong with a Rat, but the one you're looking for might be the Z. Vex Fuzz Factory. Check out the Z. Vex website for demo videos.

[telel6s]

I've only played one in a store (I was looking for a straight-forward OD), but my gosh the Fuzz Factory is one cool little pedal. Just twisting those knobs puts a smile on your face. All these strange noises start emerging from the amp.

And yet, somehow, it still remains musical. There is really nothing else like it.

[Aen]

Yippee for a nels cline mention!

anyway, I've been playing through an OD and putting another distortion box in the line so i can sort of "switch on" the feedback.

I'm still working it out, because often times it's just an uncontrollable SQUEEEEEEEEEEE, but if you have a pair of distortion/od/fuxx boxes you could probably work it out.

[drewmanne]

Originally Posted by Aen

Yippee for a nels cline mention!

He is really great. Can't say enough about him. His playing is great and unique, and reading stuff that he writes on his web site I can tell how cool of a guy he is.

The Z-Vex Fuzz Factory looks like the next pedal in my sights.

[camerashake]

I'm not a Wilco fan, but Cline's solo stuff is great...

The MBV sound is all about delay and reverb... You might want to check out some of the PDS delays, or something analog that will selfoscillate...

I can't tell you about the 5150, but Twin's love pedals... I found that the Marshall Drivemaster, Holowon Short Fuse, and Zoom Trimetal all worked great with the Twin... The Drivemaster was great for a JCM800 sound, the Short Fuse provided all the sound I wished a Rat could do, and the Trimetal worked perfect for noise/feedback generation. On low/zero gain the Trimetal gives you alot of growl, while retaining your picking dynamics; at high gain, huge, fuzzy (especially if you boost the bass), walls of sound are available... Great unsung little box

[Aen]

Ever pick up your delay and sweep the knobs around while your feeding back? It's pretty wicked. sorry to temporarily hijack...

[Tim Bowen]

The Tele/Twin combo is very bright. For heavy rock 'n' roll, I would recommend a pedal that has bunches of mids, gain, and compression. RAT, Barber Direct Drive SS, perhaps a Tonebone Classic.

Z. Vex Fuzz Factory is a candidate for the Cool Noisemaker Hall of Fame. It does the gamut of nasty dirt, from lo-fi blips to full out, 'my-amp-surely-can't-take-anymore-of-this' sonic mayhem; from squirrel farts to whale mating calls. However, be advised that, while this pedal is a sonic sculptor's dream in the studio or in the basement, it can be a tweaker's nightmare on the bandstand. The controls are highly interactive, and are quite sensitive in their response. In other words, you can hurt someone's ears quite quickly with the thing. If you plan to tweak the FF while on the bandstand, you'll need to know this box inside out. Also, there is no tone control, and the high end is on the brutal side. With a Tele and a Twin, you'll likely want to roll the guitar's tone knob back.

Of the guitars that I've played, a Tele bridge pup is among the trickiest, as to getting the "good" feedback stuff. Avoiding the nasty squealies (the feedback you don't want) might require some trial & error. A classic trick to induce feedback is to place the headstock of your guitar on top of the amp. Works like a champ.

Nels Cline is supercool and wears many stylistic hats.

[Cindi 500]

I may be writing nonsense, but taking the theory behind doing what a lot of S#@%gazers (^_^) were doing (layering fuzzy tracks at different EQ settings) may be the idea once you get the right noisebox, which I agree would probably be some kind of fuzz or over-the-top RAT-type stompie. If I had the gear to do it, I'd love to split the output into two amps and set one a tad mid-low heavy, the other with the mid-highs accented, and then pull out a Jaguar/Jazzmaster(for symbolic reasons, right MBV lover?) and ride the trem on every downbeat strum, with(as mentioned before) some delay and gobs of 'verb. Pixes? Um...start by taking the delay and reverb out a little, and um...well, you got me there.....Play HARD...Knock them stringies off of the saddles!

Then again, if it's just Kevin Shield's use of "feedback" you love, then I guess you probably don't need all that and can just go straight to a Fuzz Factory and walk up close to your local dimed amp, eh? Oh well~

Oh yeah, and if you've got your conscience turned off, go to a shareware site and look for *Muse live at the Montreux Jazz Festival, and DOWNLOAD it. You'll see 75 minutes of concert footage along with Matt Belamy and his incredible Manson-made axe with built-it MXR Phase 90 and Zvex Fuzz factory. He makes that thing absolutely scream, and lets the signal take over every now and then...It's an electrifying show, too!

Here's the custom monster he plays:
http://www.mansons.co.uk/show_featur...TOKEN=99106275