TSJMajesty
Rock Star
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- 6,607
Hmm. I thought clip-on tuners "felt" the guitar's vibrations. Shows how much I know.
Two-pedal pedalboard
- Thread starter newpedals
- Start date
newpedals
Roadie
- Messages
- 613
Hmm. I thought clip-on tuners "felt" the guitar's vibrations. Shows how much I know.
They do feel vibrations. But apart from the TC poly clipon tuner, other tuners get distracted because of sounds in the background. TC clipon is costly, and I am clumsy. I may forget it. So a pedal tuner is more conveninent to me. Kind of a personal preference.
- Messages
- 1,801
- Sonic Research Turbo Tuner ST-300 mini
- Zvex SHO
david57strat
Groupie
- Messages
- 60
(Just kidding)
I can't wrap my head around any guitar pedalboard with anything less than a tuner and a compressor on it.
There's also at least one or two delays and reverbs, and at least one modulation on it, too.
Can't forget the amp/cab sim (usually an ACS1), since, these days, I mostly play and record through headphones, in the middle of the night (when I can hear myself think). Doing it all with pedals, rather than plug-ins.
Just two pedals, huh?
I can't do it :-(.
The only instance when I have a board put together, where no compressor or tuner are involved, is when I'm using keys. But even then, there'll be at least a delay and a reverb, plus some sort of headphone amp, if I'm just jamming late at night. An EQ can be useful, but it's not a must-have, for me, for keys.
Newpedals: I noticed a comment you made in another thread about dirt getting into the EQ slots. I guess that could be an issue. I'm not really gigging, these days (Haven't in some time), so it hasn't been one, for me. But, I discovered (after looking it up) that using a make-up brush beats having to grab a damp cloth and trying to put the edge of it in between all of those knobs. I have tons of pedals and I spent way too long keeping dust and debris off of the pedals, until I found this solution. Works like a charm! Just takes a few moments per pedal and good as new!
Also, if you're taking the brush to something with sliders, be careful not to dig into the slider slots, to avoid getting grease on the pedal or your brush. But if you brush the surfaces off however often is needed, the pedal will look like new and won't get the chance to accumulate much debris.*
*(Granted, it's not going to clean off spilled beer or who knows what that can hit a pedal, at a gig with unruly, inebriated patrons).
I even use it on an old Mackie 1604VLZ analog mixer and it sure beats digging in there with damp q-tips :-).
You may need a finer tipped one to get in between pedals with very tight spaces between the knobs.
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newpedals
Roadie
- Messages
- 613
Does the ZVEX boost react differently to something like a MXR Micro amp? Just curious.
- Messages
- 1,801
I can’t answer that. I’ve never tried an MXR Microamp.
newpedals
Roadie
- Messages
- 613
(Just kidding)
I can't wrap my head around any guitar pedalboard with anything less than a tuner and a compressor on it.
There's also at least one or two delays and reverbs, and at least one modulation on it, too.
Can't forget the amp/cab sim (usually an ACS1), since, these days, I mostly play and record through headphones, in the middle of the night (when I can hear myself think). Doing it all with pedals, rather than plug-ins.
Just two pedals, huh?
I can't do it :-(.
The only instance when I have a board put together, where no compressor or tuner are involved, is when I'm using keys. But even then, there'll be at least a delay and a reverb, plus some sort of headphone amp, if I'm just jamming late at night. An EQ can be useful, but it's not a must-have, for me, for keys.
Newpedals: I noticed a comment you made in another thread about dirt getting into the EQ slots. I guess that could be an issue. I'm not really gigging, these days (Haven't in some time), so it hasn't been one, for me. But, I discovered (after looking it up) that using a make-up brush beats having to grab a damp cloth and trying to put the edge of it in between all of those knobs. I have tons of pedals and I spent way too long keeping dust and debris off of the pedals, until I found this solution. Works like a charm! Just takes a few moments per pedal and good as new!
Also, if you're taking the brush to something with sliders, be careful not to dig into the slider slots, to avoid getting grease on the pedal or your brush. But if you brush the surfaces off however often is needed, the pedal will look like new and won't get the chance to accumulate much debris.*
*(Granted, it's not going to clean off spilled beer or who knows what that can hit a pedal, at a gig with unruly, inebriated patrons).
I even use it on an old Mackie 1604VLZ analog mixer and it sure beats digging in there with damp q-tips :-).
You may need a finer tipped one to get in between pedals with very tight spaces between the knobs.
Tuner pedals are a must for me too because clipons sometimes get distracted outdoors. Also I have forgotten clipons and broken them accidentally.
Compressors are tricky. I had borrowed a friend's board and he had one with a blend knob which was easier to dial in. But I enjoy hearing the dynamics as I play, so I don't use compressors at all.
If you are recording, reverbs are necessary to smoothen things. I have read that some people use delay often while recording, because it can be used as a prominent effect to highlight certain parts.
Some overdrive pedals have 2/ 3 band EQ and it is very handy.
It had never occured to me that makeup brushes can be used to clean pedals. I am gonna try it soon. Friend has a GE-7 on her board. I am gonna visit her on Sunday.
david57strat
Groupie
- Messages
- 60
I'm okay with clip-ons if I'm going to the park or something and a pedal tuner would be impractical/impossible to use.
The thing that drives me crazy about clip-ons like the Unitune or Polytune is that they have that damned auto shut-off feature after a few minutes (can't remember the exact time).
When re-stringing a guitar, I take probably 15 minutes or so, stretching and re-tuning the instrument, so the strings can stabilize and behave themselves (Nothing worse than an out-of-tune guitar).
I don't like having to turn a tuner on over and over again. I like having it as an always on pedal (even when I'm playing) and not in the signal chain .
I won't buy a compressor that doesn't have a blend knob. I think the only compressor pedal I've ever owned, that didn't have one was a CS-2, that I bought back in the early 90's (?). I absolutely hated it. I don't care for the complete squashy effect, and the blend knob makes it possible to still have a reasonable amount of dynamics in your playing come through, while also having an effective enough compressed signal to keep things as tame, as necessary. It's kind of a trade-off, but dialed in properly, it's really effective, while not being distracting to an audience, or the player.
The compressor can also help with sustain, if you're playing electric lead passages, where you wants the notes to ring out a little more.
I still have some old dbx 166a compressor that I used in my electric guitar rack and a 166XL that I used, when I was doing rack guitar stuff and for live sound, but (especially in guitar work) the effect seems too prominent to my ears. Blend knobs work wonders. Best of both worlds.
I used a pair of Presonus Studio Channels, which were tube mono preamp/eq/compressor, combined. The parametric EQ was wonderful - very sweet. But it's all pedals, now. I used to refer to the rack boxes as "the hernia boxes". Would never travel anywhere with those, now, for guitar work.
I use reverbs because I never want to sound like I'm in a small acoustically dead-sounding bedroom (because to me, the sound of a bone-dry guitar - whether electric, or acoustic, is awful), while I'm playing, but as if I were in a large hall or auditorium, or someplace BIG lol.
At some venues, I was often asked (by other band members lol) to back off the reverb (although I admit, I hated it, since I was so used to the long, spacious trails provided by the effects, that often couldn't get out of the natural sound of reverb in the room), so it wouldn't make the music completely undefined/muddy (lack of note definition).
At home or at a live venue, reverbs and delays combined can sound incredible - but too much can make the notes indistinguishable. With reverbs, these days, dialing in the right amount of predelay can keep your initial notes clean and very well-defined, while also being able to enjoy nice, long trails, and backing off the wet mix on a delay can let you have just enough bounce, while not feeling like you're on an out-of-control merry-go-round.
In a solo instrument, it's not as bad, but combined with other instruments (especially in a band setting), using too much of the two - catastrophe can ensue.
I don't use drives that much, but I hear what you're saying, as far as built-in EQ on some of these pedals. They certainly help!
Dedicated Equalizers can work wonders, compensating for room defects, fine-tuning an acoustic guitar pickup (dialing out the quack found on piezo pickups, for instance - ringing out feedback frequencies in stage monitors- making the output of different guitars match each other, when switching instruments, sweetening spiky frequencies that can be annoying, etc.
They can also be used as clean boost, or for a quick mid-scoop sound :-).
The one brush I have seems to work well, but I may pick one with a thinner brush on it, so I can easily reach in-between the knobs that are tightly spaced together, rather than reaching the brush over the whole knobs and trying to squeeze into the space in-between with that same brush.
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david57strat
Groupie
- Messages
- 60
Exactly!Love that hack! I use fine Paint Brushes for dust removal and cleaning
of gear like mixers and pedals. Easy Breezy!
New pedals was just suggesting paint brushes, so it’s time to visit one of the Sherwin Williams stores and see they’ve got.
newholland
Roadie
- Messages
- 418
hm. if my amp has dirt, probably a tuner and a micro amp. without dirt.. woof. itd be some sort of drive pedal- mebbe an ocd or a sweet honey od.. ive yet to meet a great drive pedal thatd do what i wanted, but im sure itd be out there. but i could make do with just a tuner with an amp with a drive channel.
