The Guitar Effects Craze.
February 20th, 2008Other than enjoy doing what I do for a living, I have do enjoy playing the guitar. And I do love a great guitar setup with all sorts of effects to create a really sweet & nice guitar tone. Like how Tom Morella making his guitar sound like a harmonica out of his setup or Steve Vai’s crazy laughing guitar stunts via his setup.
Over the years, the following is my setup:
Things come and go but I have added the following since:
- Boss DS1
- Artec Soloist Distortion
- Morley Classic Wah
- Danelectro FAB Echo
- Boss DD6 (Getting my reserved unit weekend!)
In looking for pedals, I always consider the following:
- Tone – Blunt or sharp, overtones or has less tonal output?
- Sound – Warm, round, fat, thin, loud, femine, rough, harsh, dirty, etc?
- Durability – Can it stand abuse?
- Looks – It has to be cool..
- Necessity – Do you really need a Fuzz unit to play like Eddie Van Halen?
- Value – If I were to sell it to someone else, will it be appreciated as much as a new unit?
- Benifits – Can this little pedal help me tap better?
To get the stuff you want, you got to know the trick of the trade. Some stores will give a better price, some through blogs, some forums, contacts, junk shops, etc. For starters, here are some cool sites to check:
- Awakening KL’s Stompbox Classifieds Blog (A friends recording studio & pratice studio)
- Rockok Music Website (Trust me this one is really cool)
- Gapnap’s Gear Sale (He’s got really cool stuff sometimes)
- Guitarist’s Wishlist (Prestigious Boutique Pedals)
- ToneZone Studio (Passionate people doing their part)
- LowYat’s Garage Sales page (Updates on post almost ever hour)
- Jamtank.com Classifieds ( The place where local musicians trade)
- Jamtank.net Classifieds (The newer place where local musicians trade)
Some really cool boutique pedals can be seen as below:
The all new Steve Vai signature series pedal, The Jemini!
The value of these things not only depend on their tone but also the country of origin, the year of which it was made, the brand and finally looks. You can check out some setups on guitargeek.com. Plus plenty other support forums for guitar effects pedals.
