Toe Tapper
Normally I wouldn't join Livejournal clubs but I couldn't resist joining Kiyo's Bath. I've been in a massive Janne Da Arc phase right now and when I found out that the Keyboard player had an online blog, I wanted a piece of it. Though this is only the english translation of the official blog, it's still all good.
Anyways, now that I've bought the last guitar effects pedal in my 'ultimate' pedal setup (for guitar), I may as well document it:
Direct:
Morley Little Alligator Volume
Morley Bad Horsie Wah
Boss DS-1 Distortion
Boss PS-5 Super Shifter
Boss OC-2 Octave
Digitech WH-4 Whammy
Boss DM-2 Delay
Effects Loop:
Boss CE5-5 Chorus Ensemble
Boss BF-3 Flanger
Boss PH-3 Phase Shifter
Boss TR-2 Tremolo
Boss XT-2 Xtortion
Boss DD-20 Giga Delay
A lot of pedals, yes, enough to rival Munky's and Mike Einziger's setups. But the 11 songs that I've written (and promise to record and release... someday) will require a large setup such as this. Here's a rundown on why:
Morley Little Alligator Volume:
Sometimes the most simple effects are the most effective. Manifested from many years experimenting with the Volume pedal on the old Digitech RP6, the keyboard/violin swells + all the modulation and delays on the FX loop makes for a killer combination. Plus the Alligator has a special threshold volume so you can control the minimum to maximum sweep of the volume pedal. Putting it in front of the direct chain pretty much controls volume over everything too so that was logical. One of the many purchases off Ebay.
Morley Bad Horsie Wah:
Steve Vai's wah pedal may be innovation's biggest underdog. Not only it's a great sounding wah but the gimmick (and best thing about it) is the fact that it's SWITCHLESS. All you need is put your foot on the pedal and it's engaged. Foot off and it turns off. No tone gimmicks either, while I love wah pedals, I HATE messing with controls just to get a good Wah tone, and doing that on multi effects drove me up the wall. So having a straight forward Wah is easily a blessing. Of course putting it in the front of the chain is mandatory (for optimum performance), and the fact that all the Metallica (Binge and Purge) gigs require wah solos, it's no surprise that my pedal has beer stains all over it.
Boss DS-1 Distortion:
The usual beginner's choice, dirt cheap (got mine for $70 bucks off Ebay), and when used correctly, it's one of the few distortion pedals that sound really really good. Normally I'm an adamant Amp Distortion user and I'd plug into a 2 channel amp for clean and distortion (or in usual cases a 3 Channel Marshall) a Distortion would seem unusual. But I use this orange beauty to BOOST my channels. This pedal has a sweet sound on Clean channel, and gives me infinite sustain and controllable feedback on Dirty channel. Once I get my dream amp (a Peavey XXX), I'll have all the distortion tone's I'll ever need.
Boss PS-5 Super Shifter:
Luckily this was last year's birthday present from my sister, and that demands respect as this pedal was so damn expensive. One of apparently many Pitch Shifting devices on my menu, this pedal does it all; Doubles Octaves up to 1 or 2 up or down, Intelligent Harmoniser at different intervals up or down, and has a little warble/detune effect. Hell if I had an expression pedal plugged in it's another Whammy pedal (but in my case, unnecessary). To be quite honest, I'm scared to death of this pedal. The harmonizer is theory knowledge demanding and there's so many options I'm to scared to use this pedal on the fly (the sole purpose of why I switched to stomp boxes... to freely improvise). So in the meantime I'm only using it to double my leads one octave higher, but I will conquer this pedal and manipulate it to it's fullest.
Boss OC-2 Octave:
Why another octave pedal? Why use it when at first glance the PS-5 makes this brown thing redundant? Well first, I bought this BEFORE the PS-5. Second, it's also cheap (off Ebay anyway). Lastly, and most importantly, it's got one unique feature which the PS-5 lacks: It can double the signal with 1 Octave and 2 Octaves down SIMULTANEOSLY. My main use for this is to fatten up riffs (like how Cog fatten the riff to Doors; both Flynn and Luke use one of these), and using it together with the PS-5 (1 octave up + one octave down).
Digitech WH-4 Whammy:
My original favorite pedal, and it's obvious why everybody uses one of these (The Edge, Kirk Hammett and late Dimebag Darrell even used 2). Getting all those octave glisses on the pedal never this good. Like my Wahs, I'm extremely picky with my Whammy effects. I've tried it on pretty much every multi effect I touch from Liam's Whammy/Wah to the Digitech RP6 to various Boss and Zoom units, and to be honest, the analog pretty much sounds best (though the GT-8 is pretty damn close). The digital whammys all have that very annoying glitch that I really hated while the reissue of the original whammy is clean and almost perfect. At first I wanted the original WH-1 (extremely rare) but due to failed hunting on Ebay and the fact that I refused to pay $800 US dollars for one, I settled with the WH-4 instead.
The basis for all the octave/pitch shifting pedals are mostly for my lead work, and the occasional choral harmony textures, and to have these work their best, I put them as close to the front of the chain as I can.
Boss DM-2 Delay:
Probably the last Ebay purchase I'll ever get in a long long time, this pedal can only be obtained second hand via the online auction store. It's discontinued, and it would seem redundant in my case as I already have the mighty Giga Delay. But I'm a massive delay freak. I've been listening to The Edge, Robert Fripp, Adrian Belew and Joe Satriani to know that for my style, there is no such thing as 'too much delay'. Haha. Plus, this is an analog delay, so not only you get the warm surf guitar sounds, it can self oscilate and in this mode, you can control it manually in real time, something all digital delays can't do. Plus this is the delay I use mainly for leads, pretty much like all of the pedals in the direct chain.
And that's only on the front end, the rest are just a bunch of Boss Pedals...
Boss CE-5 Chorus Ensemble:
The first in the effects loop chain. A popular for all, as it really waters down your sond (beginners tend to mask their true tone with a chorus), I use mine for choral textures or Incubus style water bubbles/organ rotating speaker effect. Not much to say really, other than this model can get one of the richest chorus sounds available.
Boss BF-3 Flanger:
Quite expensive, but I haggled for it for a bargain at $200 off Galins guitars. Those "jet noises" and then some, as this has all kinds of flanger modes in one, and the sound is HUGE. Plus this model gets a new Tap-Tempo feature that lets me change the rate via tap switch.
Boss PH-3 Phase Shifter:
Yes, there is a purpose for both a Flanger and a Phaser in my setup. For all those synth pad modulation effects, this is ideal with the rest of the setup for me for all those keyboard simulation moments (and I do that a lot). I'm really getting into all of the new Rise/Fall/Gate sounds this can produce, one sounds like a 80s glitching computer. Like the BF-3, it's got a Tap Tempo option, and like the CE-5, I got it for a huge bargain from an Allans stocktake sale.
Boss TR-2 Tremolo:
The last pedal I managed to obtain (birthday present from the little sister, very sweet). Of course for all those keyboard modulation effects, one can't be complete without this simple yet very effective pedal. Twin Peaks, Nancy Sinatra's Bang Bang... it's all here.
Boss XT-2 Xtortion:
The first pedal I ever got, again a birthday present from my sister (1998). At first I thought it was enough at the time (I only had a No-Name Ibanez copy equivalent to firewood plugged into a crappy No-Name practice amp that lasted a year and a half), but as I went to the multi effects phase, I started to dislike the tin-foil 80s metal sound that I seem to have thought this pedal can only produce. So after a long retirement, I learned a few months ago that you can actually use distortion AFTER a modulation effect to DISTORT THE EFFECT for those harsh Industrial/Techno sounds. Thus, this pedal came back with a vengeance.
Plus I've made a pact to myself that I NEVER sell instruments that were given to me.
Boss DD-20 Giga Delay;
The final pedal of the effects chain, and it's my new favorite pedal. This pedal has pretty much every delay mode under the sun. Single, Dual (both which I use often with the DM-2 for double and triple delay), classic Analog (which can't self oscilate) or Tape delay, Backwards and panning delay (for more synth moments) new weird Twist and Warp effects (for auto self oscilation; ie weird assed sounds) and the mighty Sound On Sound where you can loop a phrase and play along to and even overdub over it. Like the PS-5, I'm still intimidated by the massive amount of options, but not as much. In fact, I liked this pedal so much, I even bought one for my sister last Christmas. (Jeremy and Liam found that hillarious and would've found it even funnier if my sister isn't a Keyboard player, but hey)
Yes it is a lot of pedals. But unlike the mult effects, I can use certain sounds simultaneously (eg: Flange + Tremolo). Sure a massive setup like this requires far more work than necessary (lots of tap dancing), but I like it that way. For one, it keeps me on my toes literally, and 2, you'll never know when a happy accident may occur. And I think it's obvious that all the Japanese Rock/Pop influence leaked to my SPECIFIC choice of pedals. There was a phase where I wanted to be able to create every Ayumi Hamasaki song live, but really, honestly speaking; this setup is just a bastardised futuristic version of Hendrix and Satriani. I guess I really can't stay away from my influences.
Now to buy a power supply to power 13 pedals and mount them on a massive plank of wood...
Anyways, now that I've bought the last guitar effects pedal in my 'ultimate' pedal setup (for guitar), I may as well document it:
Direct:
Morley Little Alligator Volume
Morley Bad Horsie Wah
Boss DS-1 Distortion
Boss PS-5 Super Shifter
Boss OC-2 Octave
Digitech WH-4 Whammy
Boss DM-2 Delay
Effects Loop:
Boss CE5-5 Chorus Ensemble
Boss BF-3 Flanger
Boss PH-3 Phase Shifter
Boss TR-2 Tremolo
Boss XT-2 Xtortion
Boss DD-20 Giga Delay
A lot of pedals, yes, enough to rival Munky's and Mike Einziger's setups. But the 11 songs that I've written (and promise to record and release... someday) will require a large setup such as this. Here's a rundown on why:
Morley Little Alligator Volume:
Sometimes the most simple effects are the most effective. Manifested from many years experimenting with the Volume pedal on the old Digitech RP6, the keyboard/violin swells + all the modulation and delays on the FX loop makes for a killer combination. Plus the Alligator has a special threshold volume so you can control the minimum to maximum sweep of the volume pedal. Putting it in front of the direct chain pretty much controls volume over everything too so that was logical. One of the many purchases off Ebay.
Morley Bad Horsie Wah:
Steve Vai's wah pedal may be innovation's biggest underdog. Not only it's a great sounding wah but the gimmick (and best thing about it) is the fact that it's SWITCHLESS. All you need is put your foot on the pedal and it's engaged. Foot off and it turns off. No tone gimmicks either, while I love wah pedals, I HATE messing with controls just to get a good Wah tone, and doing that on multi effects drove me up the wall. So having a straight forward Wah is easily a blessing. Of course putting it in the front of the chain is mandatory (for optimum performance), and the fact that all the Metallica (Binge and Purge) gigs require wah solos, it's no surprise that my pedal has beer stains all over it.
Boss DS-1 Distortion:
The usual beginner's choice, dirt cheap (got mine for $70 bucks off Ebay), and when used correctly, it's one of the few distortion pedals that sound really really good. Normally I'm an adamant Amp Distortion user and I'd plug into a 2 channel amp for clean and distortion (or in usual cases a 3 Channel Marshall) a Distortion would seem unusual. But I use this orange beauty to BOOST my channels. This pedal has a sweet sound on Clean channel, and gives me infinite sustain and controllable feedback on Dirty channel. Once I get my dream amp (a Peavey XXX), I'll have all the distortion tone's I'll ever need.
Boss PS-5 Super Shifter:
Luckily this was last year's birthday present from my sister, and that demands respect as this pedal was so damn expensive. One of apparently many Pitch Shifting devices on my menu, this pedal does it all; Doubles Octaves up to 1 or 2 up or down, Intelligent Harmoniser at different intervals up or down, and has a little warble/detune effect. Hell if I had an expression pedal plugged in it's another Whammy pedal (but in my case, unnecessary). To be quite honest, I'm scared to death of this pedal. The harmonizer is theory knowledge demanding and there's so many options I'm to scared to use this pedal on the fly (the sole purpose of why I switched to stomp boxes... to freely improvise). So in the meantime I'm only using it to double my leads one octave higher, but I will conquer this pedal and manipulate it to it's fullest.
Boss OC-2 Octave:
Why another octave pedal? Why use it when at first glance the PS-5 makes this brown thing redundant? Well first, I bought this BEFORE the PS-5. Second, it's also cheap (off Ebay anyway). Lastly, and most importantly, it's got one unique feature which the PS-5 lacks: It can double the signal with 1 Octave and 2 Octaves down SIMULTANEOSLY. My main use for this is to fatten up riffs (like how Cog fatten the riff to Doors; both Flynn and Luke use one of these), and using it together with the PS-5 (1 octave up + one octave down).
Digitech WH-4 Whammy:
My original favorite pedal, and it's obvious why everybody uses one of these (The Edge, Kirk Hammett and late Dimebag Darrell even used 2). Getting all those octave glisses on the pedal never this good. Like my Wahs, I'm extremely picky with my Whammy effects. I've tried it on pretty much every multi effect I touch from Liam's Whammy/Wah to the Digitech RP6 to various Boss and Zoom units, and to be honest, the analog pretty much sounds best (though the GT-8 is pretty damn close). The digital whammys all have that very annoying glitch that I really hated while the reissue of the original whammy is clean and almost perfect. At first I wanted the original WH-1 (extremely rare) but due to failed hunting on Ebay and the fact that I refused to pay $800 US dollars for one, I settled with the WH-4 instead.
The basis for all the octave/pitch shifting pedals are mostly for my lead work, and the occasional choral harmony textures, and to have these work their best, I put them as close to the front of the chain as I can.
Boss DM-2 Delay:
Probably the last Ebay purchase I'll ever get in a long long time, this pedal can only be obtained second hand via the online auction store. It's discontinued, and it would seem redundant in my case as I already have the mighty Giga Delay. But I'm a massive delay freak. I've been listening to The Edge, Robert Fripp, Adrian Belew and Joe Satriani to know that for my style, there is no such thing as 'too much delay'. Haha. Plus, this is an analog delay, so not only you get the warm surf guitar sounds, it can self oscilate and in this mode, you can control it manually in real time, something all digital delays can't do. Plus this is the delay I use mainly for leads, pretty much like all of the pedals in the direct chain.
And that's only on the front end, the rest are just a bunch of Boss Pedals...
Boss CE-5 Chorus Ensemble:
The first in the effects loop chain. A popular for all, as it really waters down your sond (beginners tend to mask their true tone with a chorus), I use mine for choral textures or Incubus style water bubbles/organ rotating speaker effect. Not much to say really, other than this model can get one of the richest chorus sounds available.
Boss BF-3 Flanger:
Quite expensive, but I haggled for it for a bargain at $200 off Galins guitars. Those "jet noises" and then some, as this has all kinds of flanger modes in one, and the sound is HUGE. Plus this model gets a new Tap-Tempo feature that lets me change the rate via tap switch.
Boss PH-3 Phase Shifter:
Yes, there is a purpose for both a Flanger and a Phaser in my setup. For all those synth pad modulation effects, this is ideal with the rest of the setup for me for all those keyboard simulation moments (and I do that a lot). I'm really getting into all of the new Rise/Fall/Gate sounds this can produce, one sounds like a 80s glitching computer. Like the BF-3, it's got a Tap Tempo option, and like the CE-5, I got it for a huge bargain from an Allans stocktake sale.
Boss TR-2 Tremolo:
The last pedal I managed to obtain (birthday present from the little sister, very sweet). Of course for all those keyboard modulation effects, one can't be complete without this simple yet very effective pedal. Twin Peaks, Nancy Sinatra's Bang Bang... it's all here.
Boss XT-2 Xtortion:
The first pedal I ever got, again a birthday present from my sister (1998). At first I thought it was enough at the time (I only had a No-Name Ibanez copy equivalent to firewood plugged into a crappy No-Name practice amp that lasted a year and a half), but as I went to the multi effects phase, I started to dislike the tin-foil 80s metal sound that I seem to have thought this pedal can only produce. So after a long retirement, I learned a few months ago that you can actually use distortion AFTER a modulation effect to DISTORT THE EFFECT for those harsh Industrial/Techno sounds. Thus, this pedal came back with a vengeance.
Plus I've made a pact to myself that I NEVER sell instruments that were given to me.
Boss DD-20 Giga Delay;
The final pedal of the effects chain, and it's my new favorite pedal. This pedal has pretty much every delay mode under the sun. Single, Dual (both which I use often with the DM-2 for double and triple delay), classic Analog (which can't self oscilate) or Tape delay, Backwards and panning delay (for more synth moments) new weird Twist and Warp effects (for auto self oscilation; ie weird assed sounds) and the mighty Sound On Sound where you can loop a phrase and play along to and even overdub over it. Like the PS-5, I'm still intimidated by the massive amount of options, but not as much. In fact, I liked this pedal so much, I even bought one for my sister last Christmas. (Jeremy and Liam found that hillarious and would've found it even funnier if my sister isn't a Keyboard player, but hey)
Yes it is a lot of pedals. But unlike the mult effects, I can use certain sounds simultaneously (eg: Flange + Tremolo). Sure a massive setup like this requires far more work than necessary (lots of tap dancing), but I like it that way. For one, it keeps me on my toes literally, and 2, you'll never know when a happy accident may occur. And I think it's obvious that all the Japanese Rock/Pop influence leaked to my SPECIFIC choice of pedals. There was a phase where I wanted to be able to create every Ayumi Hamasaki song live, but really, honestly speaking; this setup is just a bastardised futuristic version of Hendrix and Satriani. I guess I really can't stay away from my influences.
Now to buy a power supply to power 13 pedals and mount them on a massive plank of wood...