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The jungle of effect pedals
Today there is many options. Many different sounds can be incoporated in your guitar playing. Finnguitar will outline some of the choices and attempt to group and catagorise them. First of all the big choice is between a multi pedalboard or a series of individual effect pedals. Finnguitar has choosen to have a serie of individual effect pedals and therefore pedals boards will not be described in details or a Boss ME 20 for practice and small gigs. The basic pedal for Finnguitar is an overdrive pedal that creates a rich overdriven sound. It is used instead of the thinner and sharper natural sounf deom cranched up amplifier. All other pedals are for fun or to put a little colour on the tone.
Finguitars basic choice is an overdrive pedal
The most basic pedal is the overdive pedal. There are many
brands to chose from. Boss makes good choice, which also can be
bought as cheap copies by Beringer. There are other good brands.
Finnguitar has chosen an overdrive pedal as main guitar effect
pedal. Ibanez classic tube screamer TS 9 has been chosen as
the the basic overdrive pedal. Drive is set to 2/3, tone is set to
neutral and Level is set so it plays a little loader when turned on.
Distortion
For a few songs a overdriven sound is not enough. Finnguitar
have tried a lot of distortion pedals ranging form Boss distortion
pedal to metal distortion efect pedals. Finnguitar has landed
on ReezaFRATzitz from Danish company Orkestergraven.
The pedal produces a fat round, warm pleasant distorted sound.
Tone, Bias and Gain is set to around middle, but can vary. This
pedal can be used together with the Ibanez tubescreamer.
Volume is set so they guitar sounds loader when pedal turned on.
Wah Wah
Is it possible to live witout a wah wah pedal? Probably yes
it is. But is not so fun. The wah wah pedal is used with
your foot. Move foot up and down with a good rythm
and use the effect in solos or in the rythm part of the song.
No recommendation for a specific brand. Try different out.
Delay pedal
Another fun fedal is the delay pedal. Finnguitar have tried quite a
few and is satisfied with Ibanez Delay/Echo DE7. The pedal
provides a nice delay with extra reverb. It gives a spacy sound
and together with wah wah pedal it becomes really special.
The mode is set to delay, the delay time is set to correspond to
the basic rythm. The repats is set to around 4 and the delay level
to around 3
Phaser pedal (Chorus pedal sometimes used instead)
The phaser pedal are a classic pedal that adds a little colour to
the sound. It makes the guitar sound very friendly - a little like a
synthesizer. Often used is Boss Phas shifter (PH-3)to get a mild
brushing effect on rythm guitar. Set level so it does not alter
the volume on the guitar. Set rate to around 1/4, Depth to
3/4 and res fto 2/5 and stage to 10 (Deep).
Other pedals
There exist a long list over pedals that also can be used. Finnguitar has tested most of those and do not feel that they add much to his sound. The fuzz box is alternative to distortion. Instead of boosting the guitar with a sustainer a volume pedal can be used. The octaver gives an extra bassy tone to a solo, so it sound a little bit as playing the octave below on the guitar. The flanger is a good alternative to a phaser and chorus pedals. In an tempt to make the guitar sound acoustic an accoustic simulator is a possibility - it will almost for certain not sound as an acoustic guitar. The best advice is proably to try them, think about, try them again and then make decision as conservative as possible and ask yourself: Can I really use this sound for any songs.
Power supply
If you use more than one pedal a multi
power supply adapter as Baby can be
recommeded:
A guitar multi effect processor (Boss ME-29) is used for practice and small gigs
Boss ME-20 has almost all the sounds that Finnguitar needs. It holds the same sounds described above. Only the compressor / sustainer cannot be used as Finnguitar normally does. So this rare effect is not used when this set-up is used.
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