In Effect

Check out my new pedal board. Unpacking and hooking up all my pedals had become quite a hassle, so I finally decided to dish out the cash. I also bought a Phase 90 to complete my floor arsenal. Here's the signal path: Ibanez LU10 tuner -> Cry Baby GCB-95 -> MXR Phase 90 -> Boss OD-3 -> Boss DD-3 -> Boss RC-2.

Originally, I intended to use Guitar Rig 2 running on my laptop in the effects loop of my amp. Although GR2 has an unbelievable amount of effects and awesome amp, speaker and mic emulations and sounds great live, it proved unpractical for many reasons. First, the laptop is much too delicate for the stage. Second, the many features GR2 offers are overkill for a player like me, who tends to use a constant tone throughout the set.

I therefore decided to rely on trusty old stomp boxes. The only effect I had initially was my Cry Baby wah-wah pedal. I then got the Boss OD-3 Overdrive to give me some boost for solos, but I grew fond of the nasal character of its tone. Then I found my old Marshall Drivemaster, which I’ve been using a lot for the last couple of months but has fallen out of favor recently. It tends to be slightly too brash for my taste. I received the RC-2 Loop Station as a gift from my wife this Xmas. That’s an awesome practice and songwriting tool. I love it to death at the moment. However, I haven’t been able to integrate it into my live playing, mainly because of its accuracy. Drummers are less so ;), so the loop eventually falls out of tempo…

Anyway, when I got this far in collecting pedals, I began to think about what other effects I will need. I was definitely sure about a delay pedal, though. I decided to get the Boss DD-3, which is simple enough. It does up to 800 ms of delay but I usually have it set to a slight “slap back” echo to add a little space to my leads and clean guitar parts. I can also play around with the knobs for some weird sound effects. I knew I could also use some sort of modulation effect. While recording at home with GR2, I got into using phaser effects for nice liquid rhythms and outlandish warbling. I chose the MXR Phase 90 for its crunchy tone and utter simplicity. The fact that the rubber cover on the knob allows you to change the speed of the phasing effect with the tip of your shoe while playing, is a great plus.

I now feel that I have a nice array of sonic tricks in my bag to keep stuff interesting without overdoing it. With the new pedal board, I have everything set and powered up, so all I have to do is plug into my amp and play.