Guitars with built in effects..

LuttiS

So the above it obviously the winner..

But what are your views on things like Mansons with fuzz factories built in, or the ibanzeseses with kaos pads etc?

Sure in the 80's there was a cort effoktor model which had a bunch of dire effects built directly into a guitar.. 

I've always liked the idea.. obviously you have to like those effects for it to be useful, and you can't really chop & change or mess with sounds so much as you can with a pedal.. 
Liked the idea, never seriously considered it though, more of a novelty rather than something useful. 

thecolourbox

I've never been sure of the practicalities of powering them

YellowLedBetterMan

Firebird X was a great guitar once you took all of the effects out.

The only one I kinda like is the Clapton mid boost thing. And even then, my experience of it is sometimes it's a bit too much.

stickyfiddle

The Mansons with just a Fuzz Factory are really a one-trick pony to allow Mr Bellamy to do weird widdly noises on stage. For that they're great, but I don't want one. The sustainer is far more interesting though, and I could see myself with one of those, for sure.

IIRC his original black one had a FF, phase 90, wah probe AND midi strip to control a whammy, and was all used to great effect in the early live shows that earned Muse their reputation. But I still don't want one because I'm not him. 



Then you have stuff like Bilt, which have fuzzes and delays built in iirc. But I'm not sure I quite get why you'd want that stuff controllable from just one guitar when you could have it on the floor and available for any guitar. Unless you already have a use-case, in which case I'd want something custom-built to do exactly what I wanted, how I wanted. 

Flanging_Fred

Anyone remember Heartfield guitars? They were, as far as I remember, a fender offshoot brand in the 1990s. Their RR9 model had a built in distortion circuit.  I haven’t seen one of those for a long time.

CasperCaster

LuttiS said:

So the above it obviously the winner..

But what are your views on things like Mansons with fuzz factories built in, or the ibanzeseses with kaos pads etc?

Sure in the 80's there was a cort effoktor model which had a bunch of dire effects built directly into a guitar.. 

I've always liked the idea.. obviously you have to like those effects for it to be useful, and you can't really chop & change or mess with sounds so much as you can with a pedal.. 
Liked the idea, never seriously considered it though, more of a novelty rather than something useful. 

Clearly the loser - those aren't built in effects, they're stuck on effects! 

Kittyfrisk

Neil Young's early experiment at multi effects 

scrumhalf

Way back when there was a Kay LP copy with built-in effects. I never got to play one so I can't say how good/bad it was.

I suspect Sir H of 7 of this parish may have sixteen of them.

Nitefly

In the 1960's there was a Vox Guitar organ, basically a Phantom guitar with bits of organ built-in...

https://www.hendrixguitars.com/Va828.htm

ICBM

scrumhalf said:

Way back when there was a Kay LP copy with built-in effects. I never got to play one so I can't say how good/bad it was.

There's a Strat version with the same effects which came under a couple of different brands - it has distortion, boost and phaser. There's one in the shop just now for some work. (Can't remember which brand it is - maybe CSL.)

The effects aren't terrible - just generic late-70s Japanese types that work perfectly well. Whether you want them built in to the guitar is another matter... personally I've always found the revolutionary concept of putting them in little boxes on the floor so you can easily swap them for different ones if you want, and turn them on and off with your foot so you don't have to take your hands off the strings to be more useful! Not sure if it will ever catch on though.

Sarge

1970s Condor Corporation strat copy. 
Built in disto, phase with rate and a treble boost. 
The distortion sounded remarkably like a fuzz pedal and the phaser thin and swooshy, very hawkwind! 

https://photos.app.goo.gl/3xBijfPxGEk9Gsdq5

ICBM

Sarge said:

1970s Condor Corporation strat copy. 
Built in disto, phase with rate and a treble boost. 
The distortion sounded remarkably like a fuzz pedal and the phaser thin and swooshy, very hawkwind!

That's identical to the FX unit on the one in the shop.

AlbertC

Built-in FX on an acoustic. What, you say?

The Lava Me 2  - https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Lava+Me+II

Philly_Q

Fresher Straighter.

LastMantra

They would be no use to me, I like chopping and changing too much. If you only ever use the same 1 or 2 fx though I suppose it's not such a daft idea. 

JD50

Vox Starstream as used by Spaceman 3...... looks as if Vox released an updated version last year

https://voxamps.com/en-gb/product/starstream-type-1/

Sarge

ICBM said:

Sarge said:

1970s Condor Corporation strat copy. 
Built in disto, phase with rate and a treble boost. 
The distortion sounded remarkably like a fuzz pedal and the phaser thin and swooshy, very hawkwind!

That's identical to the FX unit on the one in the shop.

I would love to get another one of these, the only guitar I truly regret selling. 

Sarge

Philly_Q said:

Fresher Straighter.

Covet! 

Funkfingers

Flanging_Fred said:

Anyone remember Heartfield guitars? They were, as far as I remember, a fender offshoot brand in the 1990s. Their RR9 model had a built in distortion circuit.  I haven’t seen one of those for a long time.

Heartfield guitars were a collaboration between Fender and a Japanese factory in attempt to win back sales lost to the Ibanez RG.

I associate the RR9 with Mike Keneally of Frank Zappa’s final touring band.

•

It is about time that Harry Seven commented in this thread. Guitars with built-in effects are right up his street - obsolete AND shite! 

Philly_Q

Funkfingers said:

Flanging_Fred said:

Anyone remember Heartfield guitars? They were, as far as I remember, a fender offshoot brand in the 1990s. Their RR9 model had a built in distortion circuit.  I haven’t seen one of those for a long time.

Heartfield guitars were a collaboration between Fender and a Japanese factory in attempt to win back sales lost to the Ibanez RG.

I associate the RR9 with Mike Keneally of Frank Zappa’s final touring band.

I always mix up Heartfield and.... Starfield (had to Google that, as usual).  Both seemed to pinch a few endorsers from Ibanez - Vinnie Moore played Heartfield, Richie Kotzen played Starfield.

MikeS

Good time to remember the late and very great Danny Gatton, who was a pioneer with onboard guitar effects. Danny originally used his "Dingus" on a 3 pickup Les Paul to control reverb, tremolo, a phase shifter and an echoplex.

Here is a link to a video from 1978 with him using it on "song of India"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yZrrM8sXR70

I miss Danny, big time.