One musician’s insight into effects pedal integration

Are you happy with your current pedalboard setup?

I am not a really tech-minded person, I tend to stumble onto things I like, and then improve them through experimentation, that’s just how I do things. For ages I was a “guitar to amp” player, no effects whatsoever…my strat with red, silver, and blue lace sensor pickups straight into my Rivera-designed Fender Princeton Reverb 2…tone for days. Then, on a whim, I borrowed a buddy’s Marshall Guv’ner distortion pedal…and bam, I was a pedal guy…next I added a tuner…will it ever end?

I have to admit, I noticed a little bit of signal loss and my normal “clean” tone was not quite as present-sounding as it had been before. I had made a sacrifice…was it worth it? Well, upon listening back to recordings from those days (listen to Daylight Messiah by Infinity Sam) I would say my clean tone was still really good. I was in tune thanks to the pedal, and in solo sections, the overdrive stomp box really helped take the solos over the top, especially if my boy John, the other guitar player, happened to step on his Rat distortion at the same time…fuzz city…from Allman to Maiden in 1 second. Overall the sacrifice was worth it in the context of the band, but I really did miss my guitar to amp clean tone…I wanted it back.

Fast forward five years, my life has taken many turns, and music has taken a backseat. I don’t live in music mind anymore, but I play quite a bit of acoustic guitar at home and my chops are still there. One day my buddy John and I decide that we want to put together an old-school honky tonk band ala Merle Haggard and Buck Owens…so just like that I was a guitar to amp guy again and I loved it…until my chicken pickin’ improved and I got a hankerin’ for that pop and slightly squashed sound that really makes chickin’ pickin’ sound yee hawww. Enter: compression pedal and a tiny bit of signal loss…but the nice snappy country lines really stood out. Calculated loss for calculated gain, I can live with that.

Now fast forward ten years, I am asked to join a 1960s cover band that is a 4 piece, two guitars, bass and drums. We cover a wide variety of 1960s music, including songs that originally had keyboards on them, and songs with varying amounts of reverb and vibrato/tremelo in the mix. By then I had started collecting pedals and bought them just to keep all my options open. I was going to need some help to pull off this gig, but which effects were essential to achieve the sound properly?

There was starting to be some overdrive in the sixties and I didn’t want to use my amp’s overdrive because it would get too loud…so my first pedal was the Big Muff Pi, check…a delay will fill up some space and will produce some rockabilly tones that the Brit bands tried to copy; I’ll add it! A lot of times a guitar solo was done on a turned up clean channel creating a tiny bit of overdrive but still basically clean, I’ll add a graphic EQ and use it as a clean boost…and I gotta have some drenching reverb on top of my amp’s reverb for those surf songs and spooky 60s solos. Add the Holy Grail Reverb…and man, I gotta be in tune…add the Boss tuner. Ok, 5 pedals, 4 if you give me a pass on the tuner; not bad right? I’m not an effects monger right? Well…here’s the test: if you want to be a player I suppose you should ask the question, “Could I pull this off with just my amp and my guitar?”

My answer has always been absolutely, the way I use effects is to enhance what is already happening and not like an instrument in and of themselves (not that there’s anything wrong with that). Most of the guys I really admire could live and thrive without effects…even the guys that use them liberally. I am not here to judge , but in my humble opinion, if you cannot turn out a good performance of your songs without your pedals…you might need to write some better songs! More substance! I will give a pass to new age artists who create big-long delay, chorus, phased, modulated, enveloping…you get it. Those guys need their effects…badly! Just for interest I will name off a few rock players that are avid effects users…but their playing is what makes the effects sound good, not the other way around.

David Gilmour: one of the tastiest player of all time, and user of many effects! Effects: delay, phase, flange, stereo splitting, compression, modulation, mutron, distortions…and many more this guy uses it all!

The Edge: great player, great hooks and riffs…some people might think he created the delay pedal! Effects: …many! But he almost always has one or more delays running at all times.

Jerry Garcia: towards the end Jerry even used an onboard guitar synthesizer, but his chops were what really made the songs (and Bob Weirs too, to be fair) and that is why their songs held up so well in acoustic format. Effects: Delay, mutron, guit synth, distortions, octave divider…etc…

Keith Richards: this guy sounds cool no matter what he’s playing through…he is often a guitar to amp guy, but even on the songs that are heavily effected…they’d be fine without the effects too. Effects: Flange, chorus, and phase…others occasionally.

Neil Young: Doesn’t need anything…raw is where he lives! Nowadays, when he plays electric, he has a device called “the whizzer” that physically turns the volume, tone, and possibly verb up on his little Fender tweed…he has made his amp his overdrive and verb devices! Genius! Effects: Tubes, springs, capacitors, and resistors.

I picked these guys because they have all been very influential in my playing and their use of effects is always tasty and classy.

Nowadays my setup is a Guild S-100 with a bigsby trem, and Fender Twin (which I use on its 25 watt setting), and the effects chain I outlined earlier. I used to run through my effects loop, but I think the input route sounds more vintage. I have to admit that when I use the Holy Grail I do lose a little signal presence, but the spooky sound I get is usually worth it, and if it’s too bad I just step on my EQ to get the signal back up…easy fix. I have really come to terms with my use of effects, I know I don’t need them, but I also know they make my job easier and add interest to the night and maybe even coax some mojo out of me on some nights…and ya’ know…I’m cool with that!

Here are a few questions to help you reality check your relationship with effects:

What effects are you running? (make a list)

What is their importance in your musical delivery? (Rate their importance 1-10, 10 being almost totally necessary)

Picture yourself not having any of the effects that are rated 6 or below…can you still pull off a great gig without those effects?

Picture yourself not having any effects that rated 7 or above. Same question as the previous question.

What effects could you add?

What effects could you lose?

Have effects had any effect on your playing? Have they made you a better player or a dependent player?

Will you put it to the test? Try playing a part that you would usually use one or more effects on, play it at practice once your normal way and then again removing most if not all effects.

Which way sounded better to you?

Which way sounded better to your bandmates?

If the effected version sounded better, is it because the structure of you part is weak and can’t stand on its own? Be honest.

Have you ever tried playing your gig beginning to end in your living room on an acoustic instrument? How did your playing / parts hold up?

Will you routinely remove effects from your practice time entirely? Make sure the chops and timing groove is still strong in your playing; effects can make some of your killer instinct get a little soft, sabotage any effects dependence as it comes up.

Pedals are fun to mess around with and can really pull different flavors out of your playing. At their best they are a spice rack that, when used tastefully, can really make a delicious dish out of your playing…at their worst they are a crutch that makes your playing lazy and makes your sound unfocused and diluted…choose your path wisely!!!!

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When he’s not enjoying fishing, road testing cables with his band, or fielding musical/instrument cable questions over the phone/e-mail, Michael handles operations and purchasing and is simply loving life. You can also follow Michael on Twitter !