People who use sooo many effects...I don't get it

[milod]

I have the Boss Leslie emulator I've used in some gigs with one other guy swapping songs, add a bass and drums, but mostly with older blues stuff where I was the B3 and he was the guitar, if that makes sense.

 

But my little 30-watt Kustom AE amp is my regular "carry out" piece and it has a Zoom 707II almost hardwired into it along with the wheeled suitcase carrier it's now connected to. I just basically use one setting and the tuner.

 

The one setting adds a bit of this and a bit of that just enough to give a warmer sound with a bit more overtone - more or less to sorta emulate a bigger speaker and tubes, I guess. At my age I really don't care to haul around my big tube monster.

 

m

[McDuff]

I play an un-plugged acoustic guitar..... Pedals and amps seem terribly confusing and scary to me. Electric boxes are devils magic I tell you! They can certainly sound pretty awesome though.

[FirstMeasure]

Distortion is an effect.so is Eq

I love this kind of grey zone. Distortion is an effect, but what about an old Marshall with no Master Volume turned up so loud its distorting? Is that still an effect? And with the E.Q., an equalizer that's inline between you guitar and amp, or in the amps effects loop is an effect. But are the built in tone controls and effect.

 

The Bass, Mid, and Treble pots are a three band E.Q. that effect the signal, so is that a built in effect? It could be easily argued that an amp with built in Gain or Master Volume has a built in overdrive or distortion.

 

Of course, reverb is a built in effect, too. It has been since Fender realized they were selling almost as many Reverb Units as they were Amps, so might as well build that effect right on in. Tremolo was a pretty popular built in effect for a for a while, too.

 

I guess by that definition every guitar and amp ever built has effects, and unless your pickups are hardwired to the power amp and speaker you use effects.

[milod]

I've always maintained that an electric guitar functionally is only part of the instrument. What the listener hears is not the pure sound of strings, but rather strings on a specific platform as transferred through electronics to a speaker or speakers.

 

Even that - even purely acoustic instruments - is then affected by various acoustic factors.

 

In my youth, there were more than a few folks who detested electric guitars - and yet were perfectly willing to adapt to public address systems so their music could be heard by audiences in various sorts of venues ill-designed acoustically.

 

I've also figured that the fuzz was initially designed as an extreme design to make the electric guitar sound more like the saxophone. It's obviously gone somewhat beyond that.

 

So... I guess I'd say that the heavier use of effects to me is functionally to allow a guitar player to have in his/her hands a method of using familiar technique to sound like a different instrument than an acoustic guitar heard up close.

 

Otherwise, yeah, it's all effects, in a sense, the instant that you add any sort of electronic function, even miking an acoustic.

 

That's why this "old guy" doesn't get upset by heavy use of effects by younger guys, even if I think a specific example sounds horrid, because it's a matter of them looking for a way to play what they think they hear or what they think they want to hear. In a sense, that's little different from me and the 175 playing through a favorite amp and amp setting - or using different acoustic guitars for different sounds and styles.

 

m

[swleary]

I love the sound of a good old acoustic.

 

Distortion and overdrive is forsure an effect as is using your treble,mids and bass to get a sound.Like I said,everybody uses different effects to get their sound. I just wanted to hear everyones take on the subject. It is very interesting to get different takes on it all.I'm usually the first ome to point out that less is more when it comes to a riff or sound but again,very subjective again lol

[Enmitygauged]

Actually swleary the number of effects you use would be too many for some guys.

 

I have several pedals the one I use the most is my BBE Sonic Maximizer to ad clarity, reverb on the amp and sometimes delay.

 

I tell you what, I wish I was better playing with effects, it takes skill to use some effects wisely and make them sound good.

 

I was just thinking that exact same thing. Each to their own. The only pedals I am using at the moment are a Polytune and a katana solo boost. which btw Is awesome