Why Use Effects Anyway

Walter Hamlin · Post by **Walter Hamlin** » 23 Feb 2005 3:43 pm

We buy what we consider a good sounding guitar, amp, and a good volume pedal.
Why do we add effects to it. Why can't we be satisfied with what the guitar sounds like through what the amp produces? Some of us (ME included) will buy the "best sounding amp" and "best sounding guitar" we ever heard and stick all sorts of other gadgets to it to change the sound.
I'm not knocking this at all, but it is, in a way, a little humorous.
Walter

Steinar Gregertsen · Post by **Steinar Gregertsen** » 23 Feb 2005 3:55 pm

If the effects are used in good taste to enhance an already great sound it can only be a good thing. For me, it's a way of broadening the palette available for my 'musical paintings'..

A teacher over here once said that he wished all guitar players were forced to play without any effects for three years, before they were allowed to apply for an "effects license".

Steinar

Steinar

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www.gregertsen.com

Larry Strawn · Post by **Larry Strawn** » 23 Feb 2005 5:03 pm

I guess the question Walter asked, is the same as, Why do we make HOT tea, then put it in a class of ICE???
Larry

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Emmons S/D-10, 3/4, Sessions 400 Ltd. Home Grown E/F Rack
"ROCKIN COUNTRY"

Roy Ayres · Post by **Roy Ayres** » 23 Feb 2005 6:02 pm

Then put sugar in it to make it sweet, then lemon to make it sour!

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Larry Strawn · Post by **Larry Strawn** » 23 Feb 2005 8:20 pm

Why tune a string, then put a pedal on it to stretch it???? I guess because that's WHO WE ARE!!
Larry S.

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Emmons S/D-10, 3/4, Sessions 400 Ltd. Home Grown E/F Rack
"ROCKIN COUNTRY"

Robert Porri · Post by **Robert Porri** » 23 Feb 2005 8:39 pm

I've been using a POD 2 with my GFI since I bought it a year ago. I finally hooked a good volume pedal (a Hilton) up to this. I do like using some effects for certain styles, but after hearing what a nice sound I can get with just the guitar and Hilton pedal, l'll be playing clean (just a little reverb) a lot more often.

Bob P.[This message was edited by Robert Porri on 24 February 2005 at 05:10 AM.]

Billy Joe Bailey · Post by **Billy Joe Bailey** » 23 Feb 2005 8:50 pm

Yeah, like these post are are short and sweet and to the point.Can anybody mess that up? God Bless Billy Joe

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John Bechtel · Post by **John Bechtel** » 23 Feb 2005 10:09 pm

I just found out yesterday that the little 30-Watt Herald PA Amp. that I have, (about the size of a CB-Radio) has only (1)-Mic. and (1)-Aux. Input and (2)-Volume-Controls (no EQ) running through a DigiTech DigiVerb set on Spring-Reverb and driving (2) old 8” Stereo-System Speaker-Cabinets, brings ot the Natural Good Sounds of my Fender Custom and makes a great little Practice-Amp.! I'm thinking of investing in one 12” speaker, in a closed-ported cabinet! Perhaps with that set-up, 30-Watts might be enough for a public venue! (even if it has to be Mic’d) I also put my old Ibanez AD–9 Analog Delay in-line.

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“Big John” Bechtel
’49-’50 Fender T–8 Custom
’65 Re-Issue Fender Twin–Reverb Custom™ 15” Eminence

David Mason · Post by **David Mason** » 24 Feb 2005 2:44 am

If music can be viewed as a cumulative expression of our emotions and our life and soul, I think it's safe to say some of us old hippies have got fuzz-tone brains.

basilh · Post by **basilh** » 24 Feb 2005 3:19 am

Has anyone listed the "Top Men" and their ancillaries ?
I think you'll find that a lot of people that are searching for their sound will tend to use effects, whilst those who have found it tend to use the minimalistic approach..
Baz

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Steel players do it without fretting

http://www.waikiki-islanders.com

Tony Prior · Post by **Tony Prior** » 24 Feb 2005 4:23 am

I have always viewed effects as just one more thing to carry and put a battery in..which is usually dead anway.

I guess my entire HACK carrer has been with NO EFFECTS..Tele and an amp, Steel and an amp..but I have always admired some of the fine sounds I have heard from the masters..

Today..It's the still Tele and an amp..no effects..but I have given in to the 290 ms delay for the Steel which comes from an old Peavey PROFEX..I refuse to do the battery thing again.

Delay only, everything else comes from the N400 .

I think if you have played for years without effects you probably have a better chance of finding "TONAL CRANIAL PHYSCO-KNOBIA" with them...

but what do I know..the knobs are missing on my PROFEX !

t

Jerry Hayes · Post by **Jerry Hayes** » 24 Feb 2005 4:34 am

I played for many years with no effects on either lead or steel but that was then, this is now! Effects are just the sound of today! No effects are the sound of yesterday. If I want to do a Luther Perkins or a vintage James Burton type thing I just hit the bypass but if I want to do a modern guitar sound I use the delay and some compression. On steel the only things I use are an old Ibanez 2-rack space analog delay and a BBE Sonic Maximizer through the Nashville 400. I carry a distortion pedal in my pack seat in case the band situation comes up where it's needed...JH in Va.

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Livin' in the Past and Future with a 12 string Mooney Universal tuning.

Larry Behm · Post by **Larry Behm** » 24 Feb 2005 4:56 am

For me when the song in my band needs an organ sound, I am there. Chorus, dobro, distortion, harmony, enveloping I am ready. Not every song should sound like 1952, newer songs have a variety of sounds in addition to the steel so I try to capture some of them when I can.

Overuse is more of the situation I think people object to. Some use, no problem.

Larry Behm

Al Terhune · Post by **Al Terhune** » 24 Feb 2005 11:53 pm

Not to slam it, but I'm very traditionalist -- no effects (well, see below). It's like adding reverb to a vocal...if you've got a good voice, you don't need it. That said, reverb is the only effect I'll occassionally use with the steel. Uh, I guess I do use one effect...

Jim Peters · Post by **Jim Peters** » 25 Feb 2005 12:27 am

It is just a matter of taste. Everything about an elctric instrument is an effect, from the pickup to the speaker, including the volume knob,tone knobs,and reverb. JP[This message was edited by Jim Peters on 25 February 2005 at 10:16 PM.]

Larry Bell · Post by **Larry Bell** » 25 Feb 2005 6:59 am

I always have a multi-fx unit in line. I rarely use anything other than reverb and delay, but my grandaddy used to say

It's better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it.

That pretty much sums it up for me. If I want a wah-wah for 'Bottle Baby Boogie', a strange flange or octave effect just to crack up the guys in the band, IT'S THERE AT MY FINGERTIPS.

Works for me. Doesn't get in the way if I don't need it. I guess I don't understand what the big deal is whether somebody uses effects or not. It's a personal choice like your choice of guitar, amp, vol pedal. Just because somebody sounds great with no fx is no reason for everybody else to follow suit.

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Larry Bell - email: larry@larrybell.org - gigs - Home Page
2003 Fessenden S/D-12 8x8, 1969 Emmons S-12 6x6, 1971 Dobro, Standel and Peavey Amps

David Mullis · Post by **David Mullis** » 25 Feb 2005 7:18 am

I'm with Larry, depending on the gig, I'll run through my 2112, with just reverb and delay, any other effects, except for maybe fuzz on some rock tunesare used just for fun. It's the humor factor and getting a laugh out of the other band memebers because the audience damn sure doesn't notice!

That being said, if you're using fx to cover up bad playing, then you should have your "effects license" pulled.

Steinars teacher makes a good point there. Hell all I had when I started playing was reverb. Even when I went up to a Profex II, some of the reverbs that were preprogrammed were just too much for me, so I backed them waaaaaaaaaaaaay off. Lately I just tote my guitar, seat, and my Evans FET 500 LV and that's it! Tonight I'm going to try my rack rig out, but the Evans will be there as backup.

L8R
David

David Mason · Post by **David Mason** » 25 Feb 2005 8:25 am

I actually think that fooling around with long delays on my Lexicon MPX 110 has helped me with picking certain passages consistently, and long delays and the pitch functions have helped me get a better idea of what harmonies work and don't work. It's kind of a shortcut teaching aid to get an idea of what layered parts will sound like; I wouldn't want to actually record those twinky chime tones. It sometimes keeps me practicing longer, chasing ghosts and goblins around too. Rock guitarists often use all this stuff onstage for their solo-moment guitar-hero chick-magnet bit, where the band shuts off, the spotlight zooms in, the smokebombs go off, they make the Pagan God Guitar noise and all the groupies swoon, but that's probably not going to happen at your next country/western bar gig.

Kevin Post · Post by **Kevin Post** » 25 Feb 2005 8:59 am

FX gooood... but practice w/o 'em[This message was edited by Kevin Post on 25 February 2005 at 08:59 AM.]

Kevin Post · Post by **Kevin Post** » 25 Feb 2005 9:01 am

FX goood... but practice w/o 'em.

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Dan Tyack · Post by **Dan Tyack** » 25 Feb 2005 4:55 pm

For many years I was completely hooked on effects. I'd usually have a couple on at a time (reverb plus something else). One issue for me was that I just didn't like the sound of my solid state amps without reverb, I felt I needed it there to sweeten the dry sound of a Session or a Web.

These days, for many gigs I play the majority of songs with no efx at all. The efx I use are echo and wah (a pedal, not an auto wah), and those are used for specific sounds. For me the biggest thing is I *love* the sound of my steels through my THD tube amps completely dry. They have a dimensionality and fatness that I was striving for through the use of effects like reverb and chorusing/doubling. I don't even use reverb anymore (even for a country gig) because I just don't care for the way that reverb takes away some of the presence of the dry amp tone.

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Ray Minich · Post by **Ray Minich** » 25 Feb 2005 6:20 pm

a lot of people that are searching for their sound will tend to use effects, whilst those who have found it tend to use the minimalistic approach..

Basilh, you must have been to the mountain and met with the wise ones...

I'm still "grasshopper" the student.

J Hill · Post by **J Hill** » 25 Feb 2005 7:32 pm

Don't ya just love raw talent with minimal electronics! Yea.

Dave Ristrim · Post by **Dave Ristrim** » 26 Feb 2005 4:47 am

Tools, just tools of the trade.
Dave

Larry Bell · Post by **Larry Bell** » 26 Feb 2005 7:27 am

I agree with Dave

If you call a plumber, he might be able to finish the entire job with just a crescent wrench. But do you think he'd really limit himself?

Funny thing, there's kinda a macho thing with some steel players about no fx. I never really understood it. I can sound fine playing dry as a popcorn fart, but I prefer a little verb and delay. I don't like amp verb because the stage sometimes shakes enough to perturb the spring and I HATE that sound. So I always have outboard verb. Why not just bring one box that has whatever effect (delay, chorus, etc.) that you might need?

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Larry Bell - email: larry@larrybell.org - gigs - Home Page
2003 Fessenden S/D-12 8x8, 1969 Emmons S-12 6x6, 1971 Dobro, Standel and Peavey Amps