Someone stop me

[Cagey]

I'm sure you're right.

It can be frustrating, though, when you're looking to hear an example of the performance of an amp, pickup, accessory, etc. so you go on YouTube where there's presumably a "review" of the widget in question, but the guy's got so much cheese in the signal chain that you can't tell anything by it.

 

[jmcecil]

I'm sure you're right.

It can be frustrating, though, when you're looking to hear an example of the performance of an amp, pickup, accessory, etc. so you go on YouTube where there's presumably a "review" of the widget in question, but the guy's got so much cheese in the signal chain that you can't tell anything by it.

that, and no description of anything in the signal chain other than whatever is being tested.  a Fuzz from a HumBucker to a Marshall sounds completely different than the same fuzz going from a SingleCoil to a Twin.  Or, pick your combination ... even if the pedal is the only other thing in the chain, the guitar, pickups, head and cab/speaker combo has a tremendous amount to do with how the pedal interacts with the setup.

 

[mayfly]

You guys need this pedal:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1WcsV7hQ1V4

 

[bagman67]

Ah, yes.  The Black Madonna.  A classic of the gear-dweeb mythos.  Thanks for the vid, Trevor!

 

[Cagey]

I'll bet they got orders for 12,494 of them.

 

[AndyG]

Speaking as someone who probably also has too many pedals ....

Playing in a cover band, I try to achieve the (bass) tone of the song we are covering.  It is for that reason that my pedalboard has grown exponentially over the years.
Having said that, I only have 2 time-based effects (chorus and flanger), and I plan on getting another chorus to have a different "flavor" available.  Most of the pedals I use to shape my tone are gain-based ... a compressor, EQ, and 3 different drive pedals.

I know plenty of guitarists who have 4 or 5 overdrive/distortion pedals from different manufacturers.  Great way to get multiple tones out of the same guitar/amp combination.

 

[AndyG]

I've never been able to figure out why the equipment designers give them the range that they do.

Probably for the same reason that car speedometers go up to 160 MPH ....

The "sweet spot" in the middle is more accurate, and can be more easily adjusted if there are extremes at both ends.  When your speedometer tells you that you're doing 10 MPH, it is probably not as accurate as when it tells you you're doing 60.

 

[swarfrat]

I have an 11 rack. And I use exactly two patches for guitar. Well three.

AC30/412greenback into a compressor set clean right up until you spank it hard.
JCM 800 onn 6 into same setup.
JCM800 on 10 into same setup..

I have a mostly clean boost set up on distortion on each of the marshalls.

Oh, and I have a toddler who loves to play drums while I play guitar. But he only lasts about 20 minutes.  I do zero pedal dancing. It cleans up nice with volume knob. The only tweaking I do is delay tempos.  Overall I'm thrilled with my tone. The kid keeps me busy, and its a race to get some playing in before he tires out. But it sure cures endless tone tweaking

 

[KaiserSoze]

Had to laugh at myself last evening and thought about this thread.  I just took my Peavey amp, my strat, and an 808 clone to our band practice and it sounded great.  I'm embracing my guitar geeky-ness and am starting to save for a Mesa rectoverb 25 though……May the journey never end. 

 

[fdesalvo]

Best live blues tone I ever heard was @ SXSW in 2009.  Stumbled into a bar off the strip and was treated to a great blues band.  Guy was on a Classic 30 combo.  Sounded sick!