Does your use of FX pedals negate your choice of guitar?

Rocker

Suppose you use a CS Strat and up to four FX pedals to get your sound, how much of your guitar do you actually hear? In other words would swapping you guitar for a different one (a Tele or even a humbucker type) be sonically detectable? My own experience is that having used a compressor for years, deciding not to use it freed up the tone and sound of my guitars. Suddenly my PRS SE sounded quite different to my USA Tele. Just wondered if others noticed something similar..

Guitarse

Compressors are a bit of a nightmare for me. They're either compressing too much, or too little for my liking. I find I'm forever tweaking the thing. Pain in the arse sometimes. 

DulcetJones

I've never liked compressors either, and I find using a humbucker guitar sounds better when I'm using pedals.  I don't use many, just a distortion, chorus and volume pedal but it makes a difference.  I have an older squier tele that I use when I go to jams in bars and just plug in direct rather than haul in my Les Paul and all the pedals,

Voxman

I think its fair to say that the more effects you have, the more of the guitars underlying characteristic tone gets lost, particularly with heavier distortions, treble boosts etc.  A lot of folk for years thought that the lead solo for Stairway (Led Zep IV) was play with a LP when in fact it was played with a Telecaster (as was the whole of Led Zep 1).

But perhaps more interestingly its the amp type (by which I mean fundamental design types) that has such a big impact on tone.  Some years ago at the London International Music Show I saw a wonderful demo of the 'GigRig'.  The guy (brilliant guitarist of course - can't recall who it was) was using 3 amps (a Fender, a Marshall & I can't recall the third), vintage fx pedals...and a single red Telecaster throughout.  By using the right amp & pedal combinations he could replicate everything from Brian May to Jimmy Page to Gary Moore to Stevie Vai etc etc - all with just the Telecaster.  It really opened my eyes to how surprisingly little impact the guitar you are using actually impacts on your tone, when you are playing with the right amp/effects...& know how to use them, & set them up in the right order!

Alterlifeson

It would be interesting to hear the modelling crowds verdict on this. I would hate to buy a product that makes my guitars all sound the same. Even the difference between 2 Teles/Pauls can be very distinct straight into an amp. Any Helix/Kemper users out there?

guitarfishbay

All my guitars sound different through my Axe FX2. Even the ones with the same pickup.

I'm sure the same goes for Helix, Kemper and pretty much most stuff. Even going back a decade all my guitars sounded different going through my Line 6 Flextone 2

fretmeister

Helix user here.

All sound different.

Evilmags

Compressors are not something worth going cheap and nasty on. 

dindude

I don't find this at all. Fender style bolts ons, even with humbuckers, seem to take fx better to me than Gibsons, which always cry out for a rawer tone and can sound muddy with too much fx.

Going from my Strat to my PT (Tele type with humbuckers) I have to completely redial my drive pedals.

As far as compressors go, I use a tiny bit with single coils, and even less with humbuckers. And as said above, a cheap comp kills your signal, a quality comp enhances it.

Ancient_Mariner

It will tend to depend on the effect type and depth. Give a guitar enough gain and sure it will be hard to  tell a strat from a Les Paul.

But the gentler, more subtle effects should colour tone very little - a compressor should pretty much leave the tone untouched and just effect the attack & release of the notes.

PolarityMan

Total bullshit. I pkay through high gain for my main rhythm siund and my clean sound has delay, chorus and compression. If I swap my les paul out for my brian moore there is a huge difference in sound.

vale

for me the neck is the whole guitar. if the neck is right, which so few are for me as i'm hyper fussy, the rest can be worked around. a nice bodyshape & colour (always black) a plus.

my favourite & most used pedal is probably the superfuzz, which means you will never know by listening to my 'art' whether i am using squier, fender, teisco or comb & paper.
i never play clean & usually after the distortion or fuzz there are modulations & verbs & echos to think about.

so i chose a guitar for neck playability & nice body shape, & effects do the rest.

Rocker

My compressor is a Marshall Ed box. Not uber expensive but well above the entry level priced models.  I find that I prefer the sound of a guitar plus a drive pedal (set low drive, in other words slightly more drive than the guitar straight in to the amp) over the same setup plus the compressor. My Strat is a good guitar, I like to hear what it has to bring to the party. Otherwise why buy it in the first place?

Sassafras

Too many effects can completely mask a guitar's core sound and playing technique.
Of course, I expect to be savagely pilloried for this opinion.

Neil

Sassafras said:

Too many effects can completely mask a guitar's core sound and playing technique.
Of course, I expect to be savagely pilloried for this opinion.

I agree with you.

HAL9000

At the moment, the only effect I use is an MXR Phase 90 to give that slightly swirly sound which suits some rhythm parts. Even that is used sparingly. Otherwise nothing. I've been slowly selling my effects pedals for precisely the reasons above - too many effects and my guitars all start to sound the same. The only other effect I'd consider at the moment is a light overdrive to fatten things up a bit. However, I suspect that that's just GAS as TBH I can usually get the sounds I want by setting the amp a bit gritty and then riding the guitar's volume control.

jellyroll

Depends how many variables are changed. Alter enough, and any guitar can probably be made to sound close enough to any other guitar. But with a fairly unchanged setup, you can usually tell the difference on an AB comparison.  

fretmeister

Rocker said:

My compressor is a Marshall Ed box. Not uber expensive but well above the entry level priced models.  I find that I prefer the sound of a guitar plus a drive pedal (set low drive, in other words slightly more drive than the guitar straight in to the amp) over the same setup plus the compressor. My Strat is a good guitar, I like to hear what it has to bring to the party. Otherwise why buy it in the first place?

I like the ED1, but it's not a subtle example of compression at all.

It is an effect rather than an enhancement.

Dont assume that the price has anything to do with the designer's intention.

There are many others that are subtle, or allow unaffected blend (sometimes called "New York" compression) and that's before we get to the differences in pedals with 2 knobs or 6.

Many 2 / 3 knob pedals have set parameters for things you'd probably like to tweak. Attack, Release, and Threshold settings are so important for good compressor use.

If you find a 2 knob that just happens to sound great to you despite preset parameters then that's great. But if not, then something with better control options might be preferable.

impmann

No.
It doesn't.

57Deluxe

My use of guitar dictates which pedals I chain up...

professorben

PolarityMan said:

Total bullshit. I pkay through high gain for my main rhythm siund and my clean sound has delay, chorus and compression. If I swap my les paul out for my brian moore there is a huge difference in sound.

Oooooh I always lustedvafter a Moore. 
Back in the day like.