What are the most versatile pedals for covers/function bands?

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  • monquixotemonquixote Frets: 17485
    tFB Trader
    I did a similar thing and I ended up with:
    A light drive pedal (Klon, or LS or TI boost depending on mood)
    A heavy drive MXR Super Badass (Amazingly flexible and compact)
    A wobbly thing Phase 95 as small and sounds great
    Delay - Echoplex, but anything really simple 3 knobs is fine unless you are doing U2 etc.

    When I was in a funk band I also had a SP Comp or Koji for when I needed loud punchy cleans

    There is really very little you can't do with that from a covers perspective.



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  • JohnnysevenJohnnyseven Frets: 905
    Depends how fussy you are with nailing the original tones. I'm not bothered and i've done a few wedding gigs with just 2 Boss Angry Drivers and a compressor for my clean, light dirt and more dirt needs. I used to use a few modulation pedals for certain sounds but i've since bought a Boss MD200 which will cover anything i'll ever need.
    My trading feedback can be seen here - http://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/58242/
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  • John_AJohn_A Frets: 3775
    Forgot my cat5 cable for my helix rack at one gig so played the whole thing with a jcm800 preset and my volume knob.  I noticed, but pretty sure that 99% of the audience didnt

     if you have the luxury of a few pedals, that’ll get you through most gigs if you can play
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  • robinbowesrobinbowes Frets: 3021
    John_A said:
    ...so played the whole thing with a jcm800 preset and my volume knob.  I noticed, but pretty sure that 99% of the audience didnt
    This is key...or is it?

    For me, it's a challenge to make the covers as original sounding as I can. If I wasn't bothered about that, I'd be happy with much less gear.

    I have to say, one of hte attractions of the Helix is that it's sooooo easy to create as many different sounds as you like - cleans, crunch, chimes, raaawwk! I love it!

    So, I need just one device - a Helix :)

    R.
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  • ICBMICBM Frets: 71963

    For me, it's a challenge to make the covers as original sounding as I can.
    Ha... for me the challenge is to make the covers sound as much like originals as I can :).

    "Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski

    "Just because I don't care, doesn't mean I don't understand." - Homer Simpson

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  • John_AJohn_A Frets: 3775
    @robinbowes   Totally agree with your approach, I’m the same 

    My point (I think) is that most of the gear is for the guitarists benefit not the audience, that and playing well is at leat as important as the gear you use


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  • monquixotemonquixote Frets: 17485
    tFB Trader
    In my experience people with dozens of patches often end up sounding worse to the audience because they end up with levels and eq wrong and the changes can sound jarring.
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  • PC_DavePC_Dave Frets: 3396
    p90fool said:
    @PC_Dave my requirements live are pretty much the same as yours, and I cover it with Nobels ODR-1 set to just a hint of breakup and with a fairly jangly tone, and a Marshall Drivemaster set fairly gainy but warm.

    Either of them sound good as a core tone, and I can run the ODR-1 into the Drivemaster as a boost or vary the whole lot in any combination with the guitar's volume knob. 

    But the crucial part is that I need gain levels to be totally independent of volume level to be truly versatile, so the last thing in the chain is a volume pedal, or more specifically a volume pot in a box with a bypass switch. That allows me to have loads of gain quietly (say on an outro chorus), a loud clean tone for soloing or any combination in between.
    The one I built allows me to roll it up and down with my foot as well as switch it in and out, but crucially compared to a rocker volume pedal I can see where it's set before I play a note.

    It's simple, requires no programming and is totally intuitive to use on the fly, enabling me to react to how the band is playing or how the venue sounds. The brand names of the pedals are unimportant, it's the working principle which matters.


    @p90fool thanks for the info, sounds right up my street. I really think I need to check out the Nobels before I do anything else.
    This week's procrastination forum might be moved to sometime next week.
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  • PC_DavePC_Dave Frets: 3396
    I did a similar thing and I ended up with:
    A light drive pedal (Klon, or LS or TI boost depending on mood)
    A heavy drive MXR Super Badass (Amazingly flexible and compact)
    A wobbly thing Phase 95 as small and sounds great
    Delay - Echoplex, but anything really simple 3 knobs is fine unless you are doing U2 etc.

    When I was in a funk band I also had a SP Comp or Koji for when I needed loud punchy cleans

    There is really very little you can't do with that from a covers perspective.



    Ideal, thanks for the info.
    This week's procrastination forum might be moved to sometime next week.
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  • PC_DavePC_Dave Frets: 3396

    John_A said:
    Forgot my cat5 cable for my helix rack at one gig so played the whole thing with a jcm800 preset and my volume knob.  I noticed, but pretty sure that 99% of the audience didnt

     if you have the luxury of a few pedals, that’ll get you through most gigs if you can play
    Totally get what you’re saying, and if my pedalboard went bye byes I’m sure I’d cope, but as I said before, if I’m feeling the sound then I play better.
    This week's procrastination forum might be moved to sometime next week.
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  • slackerslacker Frets: 2216
    ICBM said:
    I don't understand the question... light overdrive and AC/DC are the same thing .

    This bit got a wisdom from me. Most players pile on way too much gain when they think of classic rock tones ACDC stuff included. 

    For gain sounds I always run the amp (I have three that do different amounts of loud) at the point of breakup. Then one can hit harder, add a pedal or do both to get varying amounts of gain. Also keep the pedal on and roll back the guitar volume. 
    A dual stage overdrive can be useful and is still just one pedal. 

    Delay and reverb can be interchangeable. The context reverb can do delay as well. Some reverbs have modulation etc. 

    I can cover a lot of sounds with two guitars a Klon(e) a Memoryman and a Vox type amp. 
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  • vizviz Frets: 10647
    Pedal 1: OD eg Ibanez TS9 or Boss SD1
    Pedal 2: digital delay eg Boss DD6
    Pedal 3: wah wah eg crybaby
    Pedal 4: chorus eg Boss CE2

    That’s all you need really. 
    Roland said: Scales are primarily a tool for categorising knowledge, not a rule for what can or cannot be played.
    Supportact said: [my style is] probably more an accumulation of limitations and bad habits than a 'style'.
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  • skayskay Frets: 391
    With an amp set to clean-ish (AC30) one low gain pedal (usually a Timmy for me) one high gain pedal (Rat), plus maybe a delay pedal and tuner and you can do almost anything, apart from chorus or flanger or Wah pedal, but then I don’t know what kind of songs you’re covering so these are optional.

    The songs you are playing are different so this is enough variation to keep things interesting, so you don’t need different sounds to emulate the original song as long as you play it close enough to the original, no one will notice nor care. At home it’s fun to ‘nail’ the sounds on the record, but live is a different story and the ‘idea’ or ‘concept’ of the song is more important than the exact guitar tone imho.

    I don’t like to adjust pedals live, it’s too much of an unknown quantity for me, so just having a low and high gain drive pedal always worked for me as there’s enough to go wrong when playing live that having my 2 sounds that ‘work’ was reassuring and I could concentrate on playing and enjoy myself, hopefully leading to the audience enjoying it too!

    With so many comparison web sites out there, how do I choose the best one?

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  • Flanging_FredFlanging_Fred Frets: 3010
    edited March 2021
    In my covers band I sometimes use a small minimal board to play in tiny venues. I play into clean amps, usually a JCM800 but sometimes a Vox or a Mesa boogie. My mini board has

    Boss sd1 super overdrive
    Boss bd2 blues driver
    Boss dm2w delay

    That gives me clean, a couple of different crunch tones and a solo tone with both dirt pedals on. The delay gives a bit of ambience /space and that’s enough for the basics for me.  I use a headstock tuner with that little board.

    My ‘normal’ board has more stuff on it but it’s not strictly necessary, just extra icing on the cake
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  • downbytheriverdownbytheriver Frets: 1049
    edited March 2021
    Surely a multifx, be it Helix, GT- whatever, Plethora etc is the most versatile? I’m currently trying to sort out a GT-1000core board as my first multifx since my ME-5 back in the Stone Age. Actually, that would be a pretty good solution! 

    In fact my main gigging board is based around a MS-3 which potentially gives me that flexibility too (although I’ve used very little In The way of fx from it apart from reverb and delay up till now). On the subject of what happens if it goes bang, I also have my miniboard in the pocket of my gigbag. 
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  • PC_DavePC_Dave Frets: 3396
    Surely a multifx, be it Helix, GT- whatever, Plethora etc is the most versatile? I’m currently trying to sort out a GT-1000core board as my first multifx since my ME-5 back in the Stone Age. Actually, that would be a pretty good solution! 

    In fact my main gigging board is based around a MS-3 which potentially gives me that flexibility too (although I’ve used very little In The way of fx from it apart from reverb and delay up till now). On the subject of what happens if it goes bang, I also have my miniboard in the pocket of my gigbag. 
    As I mentioned earlier in the thread, I have a HX Stomp, but I just get option paralysis and then start to make things too complicated when I get ideas. I want simple.
    This week's procrastination forum might be moved to sometime next week.
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  • ICBMICBM Frets: 71963
    Surely a multifx, be it Helix, GT- whatever, Plethora etc is the most versatile? I’m currently trying to sort out a GT-1000core board as my first multifx since my ME-5 back in the Stone Age. Actually, that would be a pretty good solution!
    I would have (as usual ;) ) immediately recommended the ME-50, but in manual mode - where it behaves like individual pedals - you only get one choice of overdrive sound. You can boost it with the compressor to get two levels of gain, but you need an external footswitch to do that, so it detracts from the one-box simplicity of it. The ME-70 or 80 might do the job though. Probably the 70, if you're trying to keep it simple.

    I tried an ME-5 again not long ago and although it sounded great, it was just too limited and frustrating to use by modern standards - editing anything on the fly is a complete pain, it's the traditional parameter-matrix/value-button method which is basically unusable under gig conditions. There's also no tone control on the OD/DS module so you're forced to have the EQ engaged at the same time and can't use it for a separate boost or tone change.

    "Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski

    "Just because I don't care, doesn't mean I don't understand." - Homer Simpson

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  • EricTheWearyEricTheWeary Frets: 16255
    Surely a multifx, be it Helix, GT- whatever, Plethora etc is the most versatile? I’m currently trying to sort out a GT-1000core board as my first multifx since my ME-5 back in the Stone Age. Actually, that would be a pretty good solution! 


    More flexible but not necessarily more useable? Depends on the multi FX and your familiarity with it but problem shooting mid gig and making sudden changes to the set list for many of us having five big boxes with three knobs on each makes that more accessible. As I think someone said above the more patches you have the more likely you are to run into issues with levels and sounds not sitting right in the mix. Probably okay if everything is well rehearsed but for a covers/ functions band that isn't necessarily the case.    
    Tipton is a small fishing village in the borough of Sandwell. 
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  • ICBMICBM Frets: 71963
    EricTheWeary said:

    More flexible but not necessarily more useable? Depends on the multi FX and your familiarity with it but problem shooting mid gig and making sudden changes to the set list for many of us having five big boxes with three knobs on each makes that more accessible.
    Stuck record... click... click... ME-50... click...

    :)

    "Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski

    "Just because I don't care, doesn't mean I don't understand." - Homer Simpson

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  • PC_DavePC_Dave Frets: 3396
    ICBM said:
    EricTheWeary said:

    More flexible but not necessarily more useable? Depends on the multi FX and your familiarity with it but problem shooting mid gig and making sudden changes to the set list for many of us having five big boxes with three knobs on each makes that more accessible.
    Stuck record... click... click... ME-50... click...

    :)
    Yes, but I want it to actually sound good.
    This week's procrastination forum might be moved to sometime next week.
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