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Post by Russell B on Jun 24, 2013 15:40:05 GMT -7
I've been effect free for almost 2 years with my current band. I didn't think that I could go without at least one effect, but I've been proved wrong. I used to think that I had to have a little analog delay, but not any more. I didn't think I do get by without a wah, I was wrong. I thought I needed a chorus, a compressor, tremolo, and a booster (I still love my Flying Dragon), but I don't need them!
I really got tired of all of my overdrives pedals not sounding as good as my Zs cranked up. Every time I would put something inline, it would mess up the tone of my Zs. Now, the only effect I have is a cable and an Air-brake (Maz Jrs only). No more endless pursuit of the best overdrive or delay or chorus or wah. Just good guitars, good amps, and good cables (Thanks Todd).
What say ye?
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Post by helmi on Jun 24, 2013 16:21:50 GMT -7
I think if you have the right amp, you dont need any pedals. plus, the kind of music your playing makes a differance.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 24, 2013 18:00:27 GMT -7
I gotta give you credit Russell...I don't think I could do it...I should try it some night at practice now that I have the brake lite..I could possibly push It a little harder to get some good amp drive....hmmmm.
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Post by Rik on Jun 24, 2013 18:07:26 GMT -7
If I played live I would use none or maybe my flying dragon. Home is when I need the pedals at the low volume.
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Post by LT on Jun 24, 2013 18:21:40 GMT -7
I played live for several years with no pedals. It really depends on the gig. The zero-pedals era for me was a roadhouse blues/rock thing where I only needed a great clean to overdriven sound.....which I could get with the volume knobbie on the gtr.
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Post by zpilot on Jun 24, 2013 18:34:01 GMT -7
When I started there were no effects except the reverb and tremolo in the amp. Then I occasionally used a wah or fuzz but it wasn't until the late '70's that I started using effects very much. Now that I only play in a blues band and a '50's/'60's show I have very little use for them. I only use my reverb with the blues band. In the show I use reverb on almost everything and tremolo on 2 or 3 songs. I take my pedalboard but that's only because it has my vocal doubler on it and my tuner. I hardly ever even use the tuner because I play a Tele.
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Post by BritInvasion on Jun 24, 2013 18:44:11 GMT -7
I played without effects for years , then I started hanging around this part of the forum. I guess it depends on what music you're playing and what sound your aiming for. I don't have a ton of effects and don't use any one of them all the time , just when the tune or sometimes the gig situation calls for it.
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Post by southmusic70 on Jun 24, 2013 19:34:43 GMT -7
The majority of my calls are for jazz groups or "society" bands, and these jobs can generally be played without effects, or with maybe just a clean boost, and at relatively low volumes; the result of this means my Z28 gets a good bit of use, although I'll take the Rati and a 1x12 cabinet sometimes, particularly for small jazz groups. When a leader calls me, I always ask him what kind of tunes he'll be calling on the job, and that will determine the rig I take, effects or not, etc.
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Post by mtlrecords on Jun 24, 2013 19:42:59 GMT -7
Effects in a guitar rig are like seasoning with cooking. A little can go a long way. Also, just because you have 25 types of spices in the rack, doesn't mean you would use them all, all the time. That would be a rough meal! The same reasoning holds true for effects. I enjoy having lots of tonal options via pedals, particularly delay and reverb, but rarely are many pedals on at the same time or for very long. I still feel that even used sparingly, the added space, dimension and color that effects add makes it worth it for me to lug around a bunch of "effects."
I do love the tone of guitar- cable- amp though. Plus it's easy to not have to make decisions sometimes, so I see the value in that too.
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Post by Jefferson on Jun 24, 2013 20:53:17 GMT -7
I'm playing mostly church gigs now, so delay is a must. Also, I need to go from clean to fuzz, sometimes in the same song. All at a volume that is reasonable. Don't think I could do it...
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Post by bryan0418 on Jun 24, 2013 21:00:24 GMT -7
Effects in a guitar rig are like seasoning with cooking. A little can go a long way. Also, just because you have 25 types of spices in the rack, doesn't mean you would use them all, all the time. That would be a rough meal! The same reasoning holds true for effects. I enjoy having lots of tonal options via pedals, particularly delay and reverb, but rarely are many pedals on at the same time or for very long. I still feel that even used sparingly, the added space, dimension and color that effects add makes it worth it for me to lug around a bunch of "effects." I do love the tone of guitar- cable- amp though. Plus it's easy to not have to make decisions sometimes, so I see the value in that too. Exactly how I approach effects. Less is more.
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Post by muZician on Jun 24, 2013 22:20:35 GMT -7
I used several effects years ago until I started being attracted by pure tone. I found out that if you have a great guitar and a great amp any effect will get in your way. So it really depends on what you want. If you own a Z...I guess you are looking for tone and nothing else...But I agree with Rik, at home you might need something to play at low volume.
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Post by Pete aka shouldb on Jun 24, 2013 22:42:07 GMT -7
It's that old dilemma of NEED vs DESIRE. I desire to play straight in, but I need more tonal variety which I just can't get without a minimum of a few pedals. I will say that I have pared my board down to the bare minimum I know I need, and for probably half our set, I have no pedals on, but Bryan's comment about seasoning is spot on! A little goes a LONG way, if carefully selected. I envy those who play a certain style of music which allows them to play this way. Our function band covers too wide a range to allow me to do this, even though I keep trying!
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Post by brayks on Jun 24, 2013 22:51:39 GMT -7
It's that old dilemma of NEED vs DESIRE. I desire to play straight in, but I need more tonal variety which I just can't get without a minimum of a few pedals. I will say that I have pared my board down to the bare minimum I know I need, and for probably half our set, I have no pedals on, but Bryan's comment about seasoning is spot on! A little goes a LONG way, if carefully selected. I envy those who play a certain style of music which allows them to play this way. Our function band covers too wide a range to allow me to do this, even though I keep trying! Yep!
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Post by Russell B on Jun 25, 2013 4:17:27 GMT -7
It is probably the nature of the band that I'm in. Crank the amp to play "power blues/some rock" and turn the guitar down to "clean up". I'm sure I would have to change my position if I were in a band that played a bigger variety of music. The "minimum rig" is sure easy to carry in and out of the gig! A guitar, an amp, and a bag with cables and spare tubes and fuses. Easy easy easy!
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Post by Deleted on Jun 25, 2013 4:40:49 GMT -7
I use a lot of OD tones...I have a Rock Box Boiling Point and a BB...either one of those pedals or both are on for 95% of the tunes we play. I love the tones I get from those two. I use them because I am really not able to turn the amp up enough to get what I would say is nice amp OD...even when it gets there, I am not 100% sold on that particular sound/tone. I am just addicted to dirt pedals. In years past, I would use the built in "drive" channel of the amps that I had and never owned an OD pedal for years and years.
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Post by zpilot on Jun 25, 2013 7:15:57 GMT -7
During the '80's and '90's when I played in "variety" bands I HAD to have effects. One song might be by The Police and the next might be Waylon and Willie. I just don't do that much anymore and I like being able to play with a simple set-up. It makes me be a better player. I think about what notes to play instead of what box to step on.
However, the guitarists in the praise teams I run sound for could not play without lots of effects. It's just part of the genre.
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Post by markT on Jun 25, 2013 7:17:17 GMT -7
I could def do it if a boost doesn't count. The Antidote, EQ bypass & boost AND guitar volume, gives any type clean or drive tone I need. That said....I've always used at least a couple of effects. Back when I used my Boogie MkIII, I didn't have any dirt pedals, but always had my rack mount ADA digital delay with a couple of presets.
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Post by uncleebeneezer on Jun 25, 2013 12:07:24 GMT -7
I did a brief spell with a funk/R&b/blues band without any pedals. It was fun, but in the end I didn't like my volume rolled-off clean, as much as actual headspace-clean. And we sometimes played loud enough that I needed some kinda boost for my solos. Also playing a bunch of funk with no wah pedal is no fun
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Post by nmz on Jun 25, 2013 15:33:46 GMT -7
Once I got my Z-28 I quickly realized that I did not need many of the pedals I had. My board size has reduced quite a bit. But I do need a Wah, Reverb/Delay, and right now I have two OD's. I have been on a dual drive quest but have not really been all that happy. So I jumped on the KOT waiting list and hopefully that will replace my two OD's.
For me, if I had a EQ by-pass amp it would be quite a bit easier to ditch the drives pedals all together. When play open mic type stuff I usually just bring my Tele, WET, and my 61' GA-5.
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Post by Jericho on Jun 26, 2013 10:03:35 GMT -7
I envy you Guitar > Amp Hard Core players. I can't do it. I so can't do it that I wouldn't even entertain the idea of it.
I am just over the top addicted to the little boxes, shiney LED's, and all the knobs to turn and tweak. Loud, simple, clean Headroom amp and a crazy pedal board for me. They are like musician crack. The thrill of a new box hitting my doorstep to try in my rig with all my Z heads and guitars...you can do that more frequently than you can switch new heads in and out. Plus the used market is so stable on the well known ones. You can pick up so many things used and flip em for the cost of shipping most of the time (I don't ever try to make $$ on them, just break even).
I went through my "slim down phase" last year. I got down to 10 pedals (plus tuner/volume/boost/buffers). That's as low as I think I can get on any of my board projects. 4-5 dirt, 4-5 effect, 1-2 misc
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Post by Brian on Jun 26, 2013 14:43:38 GMT -7
I couldn't do it either. We go from Willie, to Johnny Cash, to CCR, to Wild Cherry, to Clapton, to George Strait...all in the same set. Wish I could...that would be awesome....maybe I don't have the "right" Z amp that will do all of those.
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Post by zed on Jun 27, 2013 3:51:11 GMT -7
Give me a good clean amp and a pile of pedals and I'm a happy camper.
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Post by Baconator on Jun 27, 2013 3:58:53 GMT -7
Although I really only bought it to see what the fanfare was about I picked up a Klon KTR when they were released thinking I could flip it once I'd tried it out. I now find that it's really great for thickening up my tone and giving me just a bit of dirt that I can clean up with my guitar's volume. I use a volume pedal for slow swells because I'm not that coordinated with my pinky and use reverb for ambience in a few tunes, but I could really get by with just the amp if I had to assuming I could set my Ghia's volume somewhere around 10:00.
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Post by wraparound (Steve) on Jun 27, 2013 10:20:28 GMT -7
Les with less baggage = tones you will never hear with the pedals no matter how good they are.
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Post by Norrin Radd on Jun 27, 2013 18:42:09 GMT -7
Well, I'm in this U2 cover band see....... Seriously, I HAVE to have a hair of delay going on in my sound - I just can't do completely dry. If you heard me play, you might not know I had even a delay on, unless you listened carefully when I was pausing. THATs the way I like my base tone. I often cheat and play my Orange RV50 (2 channels) with that delay in the loop and the channel switch. So, technically, the only thing between my guitar and the amp IS a cable, but I've got a lot of ground I can cover between those two channels and my guitars volume - from pristine clean to chugga chugga and everything in between. I like Z's for their clean and mild to medium OD tones. But I DO like my Ray with a Shiba. Mmmmmmmm........
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Post by Sdan on Jun 28, 2013 21:51:38 GMT -7
I wish I could....
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Post by ldamico63 on Jul 2, 2013 19:22:44 GMT -7
I too admire the no effects players. I also agree that it depends on what type of music you play. My gig rig is a Dr.Z MAZ18 NR head and I use different cabs to match the venue. I run the amp (mostly) clean and shape tone with select pedals ---- this is primarily due to the wide variety of music I play. Admittedly, my favorite tone is a Tele straight into the MAZ18 with guitar volume/tone knobs creating tone/volume.
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Post by Mark and his Maz on Jul 3, 2013 1:59:39 GMT -7
I would love the simplicity of plugging a guitar straight into the Maz. It would certainly save me from having a pedalboard case to carry around!
I have found that there are some set where loads of effects have been appropriate / needed. Every so often though, there has been a set where I have been able to leave all the effects off and just rock out using the guitar volume and pick attack to vary the sound. It's those times where my guitar in my opinion has stood out in the mix the best. Since realising that I try to not have more than 2 effects on at any time when the full band is 'going for it'.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 3, 2013 2:24:23 GMT -7
If "no effects" is your thing I say go for it.
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