Equalizer? Compressor? Delay?

[rugby1970]

I don't have any of these effects on my board yet I see videos touting the advantages and why I need them (hahahahahaha). Any insight from the membership?

 

[RobB]

Delay. The others? RobB does not deem the others as essential. I mean, they CAN be if you want to add noise to your signal chain. 

[Travis]

Delay is essential for me. I’ve had eq and compressor pedals in the past, well before I knew how to maximize their potential, and when they broke I never replaced them. I’ve seen that same Tim Pierce video on eq pedals more than once and I almost considered grabbing one again. But, then I looked at how many people get amazing sounds on tweed circuit type amps that have only one or two tone controls…

[Dave Scepter]

EQ is god

[BoogieMKIIA]

EQ - try it, go for fewer sliders like on a Boogie.  I think would best in the FX loop, but ya never can tell. Not essential in my opinion.

Compressor - never used one. Seems usually in the guitar signal chain in front of the amp. Play with a guy who uses one and it sounds good, easier to go into sustain/feedback at lower volumes. You get compression with many overdrives and preamps on amps that have master volumes and multiple channels. How much varies. I’ve heard people with nice clean tones use compressors, maybe the sound was a little juicy. Note that your guitar volume will not be as responsive to rolling back depending on the amount of compression.

Delay - that can cover a lot of ground. Do you mean echo, with time and feedback adjustment?  I mostly use amp reverb and chorus but have a rack delay that goes from chorus to flange to reverb to slap-back to wild echos. I like delays depending on the type and song, but only use it live on occasion and mostly for reverb. If I had a foot controller to bring up different settings I would use it more if I have room on the floor.

 

 

 

[princeofdarkness56]

Personally I prefer the good old phaser. 

[Dave Scepter]

41 minutes ago, princeofdarkness56 said:

Personally I prefer the good old phaser. 

Totally essential for wiping out those Klingons circling Uranus 🤣

[princeofdarkness56]

You 

2 hours ago, Dave Scepter said:

Totally essential for wiping out those Klingons circling Uranus 🤣

I tried to post that picture but I always have a problem doing that. Says file to large.  But I had a old Music Man amp with a built in phaser and loved it. 

[Dave Scepter]

1 hour ago, princeofdarkness56 said:

You 

I tried to post that picture but I always have a problem doing that. Says file to large.  

FYI I use "Imgur.com"... a image sharing app

[rugby1970]

I don't think a phaser pedal is for me. An EQ pedal has too many switches for me to handle plus if you have bass, treble and mid controls on an amp as well as on the effects pedal (OD, etc.) why have an EQ pedal. It just seems redundant, no?

[princeofdarkness56]

9 minutes ago, Dave Scepter said:

FYI I use "Imgur.com"... a image sharing app

You would not believe how much I dislike the 21 century. But thanks. 

[Dave Scepter]

15 minutes ago, rugby1970 said:

if you have bass, treble and mid controls on an amp as well as on the effects pedal (OD, etc.) why have an EQ pedal. It just seems redundant, no?

No, adjustment is much more precise,... cut or boost a specific freq. or dial down hiss... plus most Eq pedals have a DB boost "0-12 or more... it can act like another customized channel... or depending on where it's in line can boost pedal next in line... such as adding a little zing to a weak OD pedal 

[RobB]

3 hours ago, Dave Scepter said:

No, adjustment is much more precise,... cut or boost a specific freq. or dial down hiss... plus most Eq pedals have a DB boost "0-12 or more... it can act like another customized channel... or depending on where it's in line can boost pedal next in line... such as adding a little zing to a weak OD pedal 

Good point. I was in a band with a dude who used his EQ in the opposite way: Set for a crunchy rhythm tone/volume cut, and turned it off for mid-heavy lead boost from his Marshall's EQ stack.

Modern graphic EQ pedals have a much better signal/noise ratio than their forbears. The Boss Wazacraft EQ is a great example. Analogman has an inexpensive mod for older MXR/Boss EQ pedals that greatly reduce noise. I think the trick with EQ is to use it sparingly, especially with an overdriven amp. It's very easy to make your guitar sound like shit with one if you don't know how to notch the frequencies. Like the Boogie smile curve this dipshit has dialed in: I haven't bothered to waste my time with this, "tutorial", because it's obvious this clown doesn't know what he's doing.  

-sounds great when you're widdling at home, but as soon as you get with the bassist/drummer, the sucked mids get buried and the bassist gobbles up your bass freqs.

When I see pics of EVH's early rig with the EP3, Univox delay, Roland 10-band EQ (sometimes TWO!), MXR boxes taped to the pedal board...makes you wonder how he got that shit under control. One would think the noise would be out of control with those dimed Plexis. I have a feeling that his sound was less gain-y than people think. Power tube OD with the Variac, rather than the preamp stages doing the heavy lifting?

[RobB]

7 hours ago, Travis said:

Delay is essential for me. 

Same here. I use two: one for a quick slap-back with some warble, and the other for the Blackmore, "Mistreated", DAT, DAT, dat, dat...repeats at about 500ms.

7 hours ago, Travis said:

 But, then I looked at how many people get amazing sounds on tweed circuit type amps that have only one or two tone controls…

That's it, essentially. I've found that unless you're using a full-on MIDI, rack rig, the less things in line the better. 

[scottcald]

Delay to me is most useful and musical. The others only if you feel you need to fix things about your tone. My2 cents. 

[polara]

I never got into using a compressor 'til I tried a good one. I got an Origin Effects Cali76 used and it's my "mo betta" pedal. It makes everything sound like it's coming through a bigger amp and higher volume. By comparison, when I tried an MXR DynaComp, it sounded cool if you want that Nashville thing, the Tele-compressor-Twin Reverb sound, but the Cali76...dang I never knew that a compressor pedal could b useful before I got that sucka.

I use delay some as more of a deliberate effect, but since it has an expression pedal to control the mix, it's nice to add just a little for the bigness.

[Jimbilly]

I've got one of those old Boss GE-7s, made in Japan, I bought it new.  I found it most useful as a volume 'cut' when on, and turn it off for louder solos.  The tone shaping is good if your amp needs it, but if your amp sounds great with the onboard tone controls, then why add an eq?  I suppose it would be smart to use the eq pedal to make the amp fit better into the mix of the band, but I doubt most people use it other than to sound good to their own ears for live.

One of my 'bass rigs' includes an old Phase Linear E51 rackmount (pro audio) 5 band parametric eq, - super cool piece of gear.  As a bit of a sidenote, It always seems like around 400hz sounds bad to me, if I'm eq ing almost anything on a small board with sweepable mids, 400ish is usually what gets cut a little. 

 I read some ancient Rolling Stones interview, really early days, I think it was Keith that said something like "you should never use delay, because it makes you sound better than you actually are" - which to me is the exact reason why I should use, and have used delay.

[Brooks]

I dunno about "essential". I use all three on my Pod Go, but I didn't always bother w/ 'em in the past. For me it depends on what kind of gig I'm doing.

Comp (or some kind of volume boost) I find useful in 2 guitar bands, unless you have a really good soundman who is paying attention (sure, right). Delay is useful in trios to make the sound larger or less dry. I like delay & comp together for solos (if I don't need the boost in volume I might skip the comp). EQ I use for tweaking up the low end on bridge pup hard rock tones, I switch it off for the neck pup so its not too muddy. In the past I have gotten by without all three, but I like the flexibility you can get using them.  

[rugby1970]

Great responses, thanks. How this all started is trying to learn the rhythm part to China Grove by the Doobies. On the how-to video I watched the presenter recommend adding delay which got me to thinking. Then I also remembered the Tim/Phil video about EQ pedals. Basically, I'm just a couple of pedals and right into my amp kind of guy; the fewer knobs, switches and buttons the better I like it.

[HamerCustomEr]

5 hours ago, polara said:

I never got into using a compressor 'til I tried a good one. I got an Origin Effects Cali76 used and it's my "mo betta" pedal. It makes everything sound like it's coming through a bigger amp and higher volume. By comparison, when I tried an MXR DynaComp, it sounded cool if you want that Nashville thing, the Tele-compressor-Twin Reverb sound, but the Cali76...dang I never knew that a compressor pedal could b useful before I got that sucka.

I use delay some as more of a deliberate effect, but since it has an expression pedal to control the mix, it's nice to add just a little for the bigness.

Many people love the sound of compression, but they don't realize it, because it is their overdrive pedal that is doing it!  I'm not talking that squashed Dyna-Comp effect, either.  I am talking about a quality compressor that is doing its job subtly:  making the loud parts a bit quieter, and the quiet parts a bit louder to make your sound smoother and more balanced.  Personally, I love the Diamond Compressor.  Many users have it always on, but I like to turn it off.

[JGale]

Quote

 

I dropped a Barber Tone Press for a clone of a Dinosaural® OTC-201 Opticompressor. I can get it to sound like the Barber but with NO quack. Parallel or no parallel switch. Two knobs Balance/Volume and Sustain.

You can buy another clone of the OTC from ThorpyFX as the Fat General. It has a bright switch in addition. 

Very subtle to not so subtle. The clone, at least, has a switchable buffered bypass.

Another interesting pedal that recently arose is the Rothwell Love Squeeze which purportedly boosts only the low signals.

Yes they make a kit.

 

I have no idea what just happened to the formatting above.

[Dutchman]

If I'm playing country a compessor is a must have to get the twang. Otherwise my signal chain is comp, light OD, cranked OD, phaser, delay, reverb, and booster. I think booster's are super duper!!! Hit that 1st tube HARD!!! All into whatever old school black faced fender I feel needs to have the cobs blown out of it!! This week it's the AA864 Bassman, last week a 64 Bandmaster. They do sound and respond diferently!

[dhuber]

I own a lot of amps and pedals.  I rarely use a compressor.  I think if I played more country music, I'd use a compressor more.  I use delay when the song calls for it.   I own a Whrilwind Perfect 10 EQ.  It's works really well.  I get the idea of using a boost pedal or EQ to bump up the mids or push the front end of an amp going into a lead.  However If I was in a live situation with my Hot Rod Deluxe (too much bass) or Panama Loco amp (not enough bass), the Perfect 10 EQ would be a necessity.

Side note:  I recently picked up an Ibanez Nu Tube Screamer.  I run the gain all the way down and the clean mix nob at 2/3 plugged into a Princeton Reverb.  This configuration really bumps up the mids going into the amp.  Same thing as above just another way to get there.

[Disturber]

I have a delay, I don't use it all the time. But in some songs it is necessary. 

What I need: delay, phaser, overdrive (or fuzz), wah wah.

[gorch]

On 5/23/2022 at 12:16 AM, princeofdarkness56 said:

You 

I tried to post that picture but I always have a problem doing that. Says file to large.  But I had a old Music Man amp with a built in phaser and loved it. 

Phasers don‘t load on full battery. Check that.
 

I like compression and reverb, individual or both. Plenty of gain is not to bad either.