Am I weird - I don't like effects

paul_c2

I just bought a fairly new modelling amp with a bunch of built-in effects - auto-wah, compressor, chorus, flanger, phaser, 2 reverbs, delay, tremelo. I did a bunch of research and I knew some were naff; but I'm finding them all a bit gimmicky and can't say it improves the sound at all. If anything it just muddies things up.

Am I weird, or have I just not found the desirable settings? I've tried turning some of them right down to the minimum but even that had too much "affect" on the sound and I turned it off.

Or....have I saved myself hundreds of hours fiddling with little boxes on the floor, patch cables, wires, a few more wires, power supplies etc etc and potentially hundreds/thousands of £?

(I also bought a few pedals when I started out: a Boss Overdrive/Distortion OS-2 and Mega Distortion MD-2 - I hardly use these either).

mynamesnotbob

If they don't work for you , then of course not mad. I did find that multifx were complete pap though and I could never get anything that I didn't think sounded once.

However once I realised I wanted to create sounds they made complete sense - but without trying to sound too much like I'm patronising I had to sit there for some time to work out what each was trying to achieve, then how they go into my sound.

I love a ton of stuff for creating ambient sounds on clean, or some nice trem for a bit of interest. Metal sounds really get something from effects, if thats the sound I am after, bringing out solos or overlay pieces.

But if the sound I want is straight into the amp, with nothing added that is the sound I want. Doing some blues with anything more than a bit of verb sounds very wrong to me, but I'm sure others will love adding more.

Generally I have a floor full of effects and spend tons of time playing, but try not to use them for the sake of them. They won't make up for a bad tone, just overlay a bit of something.

professorben

Name your top 5 guitarists.
mine are ( this week)
David Gilmour
Dave Navarro
Alex Lifeson
Steve Vai
John Mitchell

i like fx........a lot.

Maynehead

I only use them to embellish certain parts of songs (normally solos), or when covering songs that demand them. I don't use any "always on" fx or even boost/distortion. I like amp gain and use multi channel amps to avoid pedals as much as I can.

The problem I find with amp based modulation fx is that you can't switch them in and out easily whilst playing (unless you have a footswitch), so you end up leaving them on for the whole song which is not usually ideal.

pintspiller

When i played lots (when i thought i was a rockstar, i would have practised 40 hours a week), i effed about with pedals a lot. Who doesn't? Anyway, I would have reverted back to straight-into-amp on a regular basis - amp od/distortion and reverb

Sassafras

Couldn't do without at least one drive pedal. I only play through clean amps or just on the edge of breakup.
I'm not bothered about other effects although I do like bit of reverb.

paul_c2

I'll persevere with the effects on the amp and see if I can tame them, or find a place where I might use them. I suspect what happens a lot is that people turn stuff up to hear the effect clearly, but it just ends up overwhelming the sound and I feel it robs a lot of the variation/dynamics achievable with the physical process of playing the guitar. I am a beginner and I want to do it right - develop a good left and right hand technique to properly control the various tones available, and play consistently. Smothering the sound with effects will not allow me to do this.

I also suspect, that these £100+ or £200+ pedals I see and hear about, the difference is like chalk and cheese compared to the built in effects an amp might typically have (unless you're lucky).

paul_c2

Also worth mentioning that initially I thought the Boss drive pedals would be great. But I've been somewhat underwelmed, especially with the OS2. I know there's mods you can do to improve the sound (well, change the sound....) and I have the capacitor ready to swap over but I've not gotten around to doing that yet. Now that I have a "proper" amp I can explore the amp's gain and various controls to produce a pleasing (to my ears) overdrive/distortion sound.

meltedbuzzbox

paul_c2 said:

Also worth mentioning that initially I thought the Boss drive pedals would be great. But I've been somewhat underwelmed, especially with the OS2. I know there's mods you can do to improve the sound (well, change the sound....) and I have the capacitor ready to swap over but I've not gotten around to doing that yet. Now that I have a "proper" amp I can explore the amp's gain and various controls to produce a pleasing (to my ears) overdrive/distortion sound.

Boss drive pedals are generally wank ;-)

what amp have you got? Is it some kind of Vox thing?

ToneControl

paul_c2 said:

I just bought a fairly new modelling amp with a bunch of built-in effects - auto-wah, compressor, chorus, flanger, phaser, 2 reverbs, delay, tremelo. I did a bunch of research and I knew some were naff; but I'm finding them all a bit gimmicky and can't say it improves the sound at all. If anything it just muddies things up.

Am I weird, or have I just not found the desirable settings? I've tried turning some of them right down to the minimum but even that had too much "affect" on the sound and I turned it off.

Or....have I saved myself hundreds of hours fiddling with little boxes on the floor, patch cables, wires, a few more wires, power supplies etc etc and potentially hundreds/thousands of £?

(I also bought a few pedals when I started out: a Boss Overdrive/Distortion OS-2 and Mega Distortion MD-2 - I hardly use these either).

I  find that most fx muddy the sound
Usually I only use a little bit of delay

Subtle , very refined touch-sensitive OD pedals can be good sometimes (for me), Those Boss ones wouldn't be  like that
most built-in FX are pretty awful

try the amp clean, but with a small amount of compression and delay, with nothing else

paul_c2

meltedbuzzbox said:

paul_c2 said:

Also worth mentioning that initially I thought the Boss drive pedals would be great. But I've been somewhat underwelmed, especially with the OS2. I know there's mods you can do to improve the sound (well, change the sound....) and I have the capacitor ready to swap over but I've not gotten around to doing that yet. Now that I have a "proper" amp I can explore the amp's gain and various controls to produce a pleasing (to my ears) overdrive/distortion sound.

Boss drive pedals are generally wank ;-)

what amp have you got? Is it some kind of Vox thing?

Yeah I now realise that. I think I'll keep these two though, I bought them secondhand and I could always sell them again if I found myself never using them. The amp is a Vox AD50VT.

timmysoft

I don't like effects, I sometimes like them when other people use them, but they aren't for me. How are you using the boss drive pedals? There's good sounds in both of those for sure.

mike_l

meltedbuzzbox said:

Boss drive pedals are generally wank ;-)

Depends a lot on what they're being used with. For example a SD-1 into a dirty valve Marshall is a thing of beauty. Into a small transistor amp yes, boxy and not great.

@paul_c2
try using the FX with the levels turned down. Personally I love the MXR Phase 90's, but keep the control to around 25-33%. Just enough to have an effect, not so much that the only thing you hear is the effect.

Drew_TNBD

FX r gr8

RocknRollDave

Could just be that the built-in FX aren't very good.

I have a Line 6 amp with built-in FX that I bought off a mate to use as an emergency back-up and it has phaser, chorus/ flange and delay. The delay is usable, but I have not found a setting for the other FX that works for me at all, yet with separate pedals I can find all kinds of usable sounds. The control of the various FX is severely hindered by LIne 6 trying to keep it simple for the novice by having just the one control, instead of the usual rate/ depth/ mix etc settings one would use. 

ICBM

I find effects very useful for accenting certain parts in songs - I don't always use them (apart from reverb, which I usually always like to have) but I wouldn't want to do without them entirely.

The effects on the AD50 aren't great - as you've said, they're not very subtle or inherently natural-sounding. They're usable if you persevere with setting them carefully though. The amp should have a footswitch to turn them on and off - if you don't have one you need a two-button switch, one is to select the two channel memories and the other for the effects. (If I remember right it was an extra-cost option with the AD series.)

For what it's worth the Boss OS-2 is a great pedal - but like most Boss overdrives and distortions it sounds much better into a valve amp at gig volume than a small solid-state one at home. I've never understood the common hatred for them even there though.

professorben

meltedbuzzbox said:

paul_c2 said:

Also worth mentioning that initially I thought the Boss drive pedals would be great. But I've been somewhat underwelmed, especially with the OS2. I know there's mods you can do to improve the sound (well, change the sound....) and I have the capacitor ready to swap over but I've not gotten around to doing that yet. Now that I have a "proper" amp I can explore the amp's gain and various controls to produce a pleasing (to my ears) overdrive/distortion sound.

Boss drive pedals are generally wank ;-)

what amp have you got? Is it some kind of Vox thing?

i like them, but then again I've never tried wanking with one. 

Sassafras

I think if you're a beginner you're doing the right thing by concentrating on learning to play the instrument and not the effects.
All the delays/flangers/fuzzes/overdrives and God knows what else can come later.

Sporky

I like effects, but I think it is important to be able to play without them so that you can then slather on maximum sound-mangling, backed up by the smug satisfaction that you're still a "proper" guitarist.

professorben

Sporky said:

I like effects, but I think it is important to be able to play without them so that you can then slather on maximum sound-mangling, backed up by the smug satisfaction that you're still a "proper" guitarist.

Depends what you are going for, I'd say guys like Mr The Edge, Matey from The Cocteau Twins, Andy Summers etc were more defined by their use of effects than without, I can't imagine 'Where the Streets...' Being written on a Strat into a Vox dry, I'm a firm believer in effects, but spent most of my formative years plugging in direct, mostly cos I played in a comedy punk band, but as I've evolved as a player I've incorporated more and more fx into my sound. 

Dopesick

It took me roughly ten years to fully embrace FX pedals. Up until then I was just using a cheap delay pedal on the odd occasion - I didn't even know what a tremolo pedal was. I just focused on my drive tone and sometimes distortion pedals to go with my Laney GH50L (great amp btw).

God knows how I started digging into the whole delay/reverb/trem/phaser/flanger/etc business, but I do know it was a very dark day indeed. I think when you start properly discovering them, it's nice to have a full set to choose from, and of course - it's a shitload of fun.