Advice on effects units

Mike Dexter · Post by **Mike Dexter** » 15 Dec 2007 11:29 am

I'm about to buy some sort of reverb/echo and maybe effect(s)units.Advise wanted on what makes/models work best on lap steel---what have you tried? Pleased with the results? Look forward to your experiences with them.(Before I spend the ££££'s!)

Mike

Richard Sevigny · Post by **Richard Sevigny** » 15 Dec 2007 12:16 pm

The Electro-Harmonix Holy Grail is great for small amps that don't already have reverb.

Live I use a Boss Blues driver when I want to dirty things up a bit.

Mark Lynott · Post by **Mark Lynott** » 15 Dec 2007 2:59 pm

Mike, floor stomp-box or rack mount?

Mike Dexter · Post by **Mike Dexter** » 15 Dec 2007 4:15 pm

Mark---I was thinking of the floor type units. Possibly the Boss ME-20 which contains a number of effects.No reverb though but tremolo---is reverb the same thing as tremolo?

Richard Sevigny · Post by **Richard Sevigny** » 15 Dec 2007 4:47 pm

Reverb is more of a "large room" or "stadium" sound.

Tremolo involves varying the volume of the signal.

Mark Lynott · Post by **Mark Lynott** » 15 Dec 2007 5:20 pm

Boss ME-20 would be worth a try, Zoom and Digitech floor multi units may also be worth a listen. Is there a dealer nearby (maybe in Sheffield) that stock Roland/Boss gear? Nothing like plugging in your instrument and spending some quality time-I'd make sure that you're also plugged into the same model amp, or pretty close.

I've had some experience with the Boss ME-20and ME-50 and I find them easy to use, well built and most of the effects are great (but I'm used to Boss effects pedals and it's a very subjective matter anyway)

Dave Jetson · Post by **Dave Jetson** » 16 Dec 2007 12:31 am

I love my Danelectro Spring King. It combines digital reverb with an actual spring and has a great sound.

They're reasonably cheap - cheaper than anything comparable - and I suspect that makes people suspicious of them. I read a lot of owner/user reviews of them before I bought, and the negative reviews all seemed to come from people who weren't using their ears to make judgements.

No, they're not as cool as an all-analog valve reverb unit, but they cost about 1/20th as much, and most people can't hear a difference anyway. A lot of people couldn't seem to grasp the concept that the signal is repeated digitally and then fed through the spring for colour, so you get idiots saying that the spring doesn't do anything or is a gimmick and that it's actually just a digital reverb.

Try one out in a store, if you can, but buy online, you'll pay about half price that way.

Mike Dexter · Post by **Mike Dexter** » 16 Dec 2007 1:35 am

Would it be good advise to buy a really good Reverb unit as a seperate item?---and then think about effects pedals later. Am i correct in thinking that the Reverb unit would be the No 1 item to get in the effects department?

Steve Norman · Post by **Steve Norman** » 16 Dec 2007 2:13 am

If your talking about the older tube reverb units,Its one more heavy, breakable, stealable thing to drag around. The digi effects are getting good enough that you cant really tell the diff in a band environment. Get a pedal like the holey grail or one of the Boss reverbs and you will be happy. Try a few, there all pretty different. Delay is next after reverb in my book.

Dave Jetson · Post by **Dave Jetson** » 16 Dec 2007 4:20 am

Mike Dexter wrote:Would it be good advice to buy a really good Reverb unit as a seperate item?---and then think about effects pedals later. Am i correct in thinking that the Reverb unit would be the No 1 item to get in the effects department?

The "really good" reverb units tend to be expensive, especially the valve ones ("tube" in Americanese) and some of the digital ones can be quite an investment too.

I'd say your best bet would be to buy one of the medium priced ones such as the Danelectro I suggested or the Electro-Harmonix Holy Grail that others have mentioned. Bought online, through ebay or a retailer website, including shipping from the US to the UK, should cost you approx 60 - 70 pounds. If that seems a reasonable price to pay, there's your answer.

You can spend less than that, but you'll get a less nice sound. If something cheap will do, then Behringer are the best bet in terms of price vs usability - I've found them to be the best of the ultra cheap pedals available, and they have a reverb pedal that has a RRP of 31 pounds.

Anything more expensive than the Dano/EH pedals will be A LOT more expensive, in the several hundred pounds range. If that's affordable to you, great, but you don't really need to spend that much unless money really is no object.

EDIT: I'd say a nice reverb is the most important effect for steel guitar, anything else is fun but not really needed.

Mike Dexter · Post by **Mike Dexter** » 16 Dec 2007 6:51 am

Thanks for the info. Dave--good sound advise (No Pun intended!)

Stephan Miller · Post by **Stephan Miller** » 16 Dec 2007 10:28 am

I like both reverb and delay, at moderate settings. If I had to pick one I'd give the nod to delay. To me, it fattens the tone in a more attractive way and is less likely to muddy up the sound, esp. on the bass strings. I like my amp 'verb so I don't use a pedal for that. For delay, the Rocktron Short-Timer stompbox is a lotta bang for the buck (or pound), even including the cost of an AC adaptor, which you'll want 'cause the pedal is a glutton for 9-volt batts.

Units that combine both effects-- the Boss RV-3 has a lot of fans among steelers, and the Lexicon MPX100 (which I own) and MPX200 are multi-effects rack units that are versatile and sound excellent. Both the RV3 and Lex MPX100 come up for sale, used, on this Forum regularly for $100-125.

--Steve

The Steel Guitar Forum

Advice on effects units

Advice on effects units

Reply to Mark

Effects Pedals