Guitar newbie looking for pedal recommendations

[sun dog]

Hi all, I've been a drummer for 30+ years (and I have v-drums), but I've been venturing into guitar over the last couple of years. It's been great fun trying to reproduce Lerxst, and I'm very happy with the tone that I sort of stumbled into. After a great deal of noodling at the music store, I settled on the DS-1, Tera Echo, Super Chorus and Chorus Ensemble (with stereo output), along with the Noise Suppressor (wonderful, btw) and the tuner. My guitar is a strat. Understanding that I could get closer to his tone with another guitar, along with vintage pedals and/or other brands, I'm cool with just getting somewhere near the vicinity of that tone. My favorite periods are the 80s and VT through CA. I'm just wondering if there are any other Boss pedals that might be worth trying. Maybe compression?

[Maverick]

If you are looking for Exit...Stage Left type sound, consider an Electro Harmonix Electric Mistress Flanger. I'm pretty sure that's what he used.

[Maverick]

I wouldn't worry about a compressor at this point. I've had two, and sold them both in favor of different OD flavors.

 

Speaking of OD's, you can't go wrong with a Boss Super Overdrive. I had one for years and loved it. Put a Flanger or Chorus after it, and you have some great Alex tones available.

 

Alex also used Phasers early on, too. I'm not sure which he used, but any four stage Phaser should do the trick. MXR makes a one knob Phaser that is classic. EHX makes a couple of good Phasers as well. Boss makes a Phase Shifter that does classic Phaser sounds and more.

[sun dog]

I gave the Phase Shifter a try but wasn't crazy about it. So would you say Overdrive in conjunction with the DS-1? A salesman at the music store floated that idea.

[Maverick]

Use the OD as a boost?

[sun dog]

Yes he was saying it would fatten up the sound a bit and that the two work well together.

[Maverick]

Yep. I would experiment with the order of placement in the signal chain. I always ran my OD after my distortion.

[Maverick]

If you put the OD first, and use it to boost the distortion, turn the volume up, and keep the gain lower, probably below 9 o'clock.

[sun dog]

Good to know, thanks!

[Symmetre]

+1 on the Electric Mistress. It's pretty much essential, along with a chorus and a good delay.

[graxxus]

You owe it to yourself to try an Ibanez Tube Screamer. Great OD. Industry standard for a reason. It's not for everybody though, but man does it pair up well with some Distortion pedals.

[graxxus]

+1 on the Electric Mistress. It's pretty much essential, along with a chorus and a good delay.

 

Hartman makes a clone of the old Electric Mistress 18v. I own both and the EHX lives in a box in my closet and the Hartman is on my pedal board. Amazing flanger, not another one on the market that even touches it.

[cooheed2112]

Must they be pedals. I use a digitech gsp1101 and a Behringer vamp pro rack units. They can nail 80s Lifeson. You'll find my post My new hentor Sportscaster with sound clips.

 

[sun dog]

For now I think most likely but that's a great tip, thank you

[cooheed2112]

Well here's the link. Solo section of Red Sector A. Using home built hentor into Behringer vamp pro rack.....nothing else added. The vamp pro cost me £30 GBP!!!!!

[cooheed2112]

Listen to Red Sector A Solo With New Hentor by user661891173 #np on #SoundCloud

http://soundcloud.com/user661891173/red-sector-a-solo-with-new-hentor

[TFEman]

I use a multi effects pedalboard so I don't really use any singular pedals. However, I really like the Boss CH-1 Super Chorus or the Boss CE-3 Chorus, Boss SD-1, and of course, the MXR Phase 90.

[B1gtr]

If early tone what you're after, he just used amp distortion and not much else.

For this I just used a semi-hollow body guitar into a Marshall amp and no overdrive pedals at all. Just a Boss chorus on some parts.

 

"YYNOT" by billyalexander

on #SoundCloud

[CygnusX-1Bk2]

Overdrive is distortion. :)

 

Volume, Wah, Distortion/Amp, Modulation (chorus, phase, flange), Time Domain (delay, reverb). EQ can go anywhere but serve best very early or very late in the signal path. Comps should go before time domain, but really don't act much more than as a boost than as a compressor works in a studio scenario. They work best before the amp, as do preamps.

 

These days I am processing after the fact: guitar, quality cable, amp, mic, outboard processing. But I used to really like the DigiTech stuff. Had a bunch of RP units (still have one that sits unused). I have an old analog Ibanez multi effects that is my primary modulaion FX. Super creamy phase and flange and wide, smooth chorus. That stuff just doesn't work digitally. Good luck finding true analog modulation boxes anymore.

[B1gtr]

Amp overdrive, no pedals if you want early Lifeson.

[sun dog]

+1 on the Electric Mistress. It's pretty much essential, along with a chorus and a good delay.

 

Hartman makes a clone of the old Electric Mistress 18v. I own both and the EHX lives in a box in my closet and the Hartman is on my pedal board. Amazing flanger, not another one on the market that even touches it.

 

So after much research and digging around I got a hold of the ($$$) Hartman flanger, and while I do agree that it's probably the best flanger around (so much better than the Boss), I actually found that I prefer my current lineup. For whatever reason I just love the warm, full tone that I have with the two choruses, the Tera Echo and distortion. It's got some shades of old and some flanginess about it, but it also feels versatile and modern. It's a lot of fun to try and figure out the next pedal but I haven't found a keeper for a while now. I also tried adaptive distortion but the 'ol DS-1 is imo a better match for the others. The quest continues...