Yeah, but what about the GUITAR PLAYER!!

Chiba · #1 07-27-2005, 12:37 PM

The drummer thread is cracking me up, and made me think of a guy that I used to play with.

I'm mostly a guitar player, and at the time was the 2nd guitarist in a pretty serious & regionally semi-big 'math metal' band (i.e. seriously progressive...lots of time & tempo shifts). As the 2nd guitarist, I was primarily rhythm & texture, so I used a minimum of effects and always had everything set up on my pedalboard. Tuner, chorus, delay, wah, and amp channel switcher. This was back in the days before good pedalboard power supplies, so I did have to plug/unplug all the little patch cables, but since it was all strapped to a board, it took 2 minutes & I was up & running.

The lead guitarist, however, was ... different. We rehearsed 3x a week for 6 weeks before my first gig with them, and the whole time he never had so much as a tuner on the floor. Plugged straight into his amp every time. We show up at the gig and he's got this bulky bag with him. The opening band finishes & clears out. I'm set up, bass player is set up, then the drummer's set up. Everything's mic'd up.

Guitarist is STILL arranging, plugging, and otherwise setting up about - no lie - 16 or 18 pedals on the floor. It ended up taking him almost 40 minutes, and the club cut our set accordingly. We ended up playing about 30 minutes instead of the 55 we were supposed to play.

After a string of gigs like this, I eventually convinced the guy to get a pedalboard, and he told me about it when he did.

Guess what happened at the very next gig? He showed up with his brand-new pedalboard...

...and all of his pedals still in the bag.

Sigh.

I like being a bass player for the setup speed - cable into tuner, cable into amp, cable into speaker, throw down the low down. It's nice.

--chiba

PS When I gig on guitar, I run a 2-amp switching rig and since I keep everything on a pedalboard, I can set up my rig before the drummer's ready to go

invader3k · #2 07-27-2005, 01:10 PM

Why would anyone need 16 or 18 pedals? I think even a serious lead guitarist should need at maximum _maybe_ 7 or 8 tops.

Scottie Johnson · #3 07-27-2005, 01:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by invader3k

Why would anyone need 16 or 18 pedals? I think even a serious lead guitarist should need at maximum _maybe_ 7 or 8 tops.

You should go ask that at guitargeek.com. It would be great. Those guys are nuts in the "stompboxes" forum. That site is not nearly as friendly as this place.

18 pedals is overkill, and when you don't rehearse with all that with your band, it is just stupid.

MAWBassist · #4 07-27-2005, 02:09 PM

Wow thats a lot. The guitarist in my band got a pedalboard but he only uses the distortion but his amp is so bad that it buzzes alot. It sounds like a dying cat sometimes its nuts.

jive1 · #5 07-27-2005, 02:42 PM

How about a guitar player who has a nice Boss TU-12 but never puts it in his effects chain? He loves to bend like the great Bluesmen, so he goes out of tune quite a bit. He tunes by ear between songs or within one, with mixed results. Luckily the guy can bend strings into tune, but for chords

Or a guy that has three guitars on stage, and it still takes him a few minutes to switch? 2-3 or three minutes isn't much, but in between songs, it feels like an eternity.

Or how about a guy who revels in owning guitars that costs thousands, but can't spend the time nor money to get them intonated properly?

invader3k · #6 07-27-2005, 08:23 PM

What's worse is the guy who has a couple nice guitars and a nice amp, plus a bass (not because he plays it seriously, but he thinks it's "cool"), a keyboard, and a lot of other equipment (including a computer with recording software, etc). Except he lives with his mom and can't afford a car that runs....

Mike Shevlin · #7 07-27-2005, 08:30 PM

I've noticed the trend of 'I have ten thousand dollard worth of bass stuff (heavy on the amps), but I live with mom thing. Nothing against mom of course.......& the dudes are usually 25+.

ole Jason · #8 07-28-2005, 12:48 AM

All kinds of basses and amps.... having all my meals cooked for me... not paying rent... where do I sign up for this?

WalterBush · #9 07-28-2005, 01:05 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by invader3k

Why would anyone need 16 or 18 pedals? I think even a serious lead guitarist should need at maximum _maybe_ 7 or 8 tops.

Ask Bootsy Collins about how many pedals a guy needs

. I'd say it depends on what he's doing with them, does he have multiples, i.e. no presets, so you buy more than one pedal and set it rather than reaching over to turn a knob in between songs. Eric Johnson does pretty well tone-wise with so many pedals it looks like he's tap-dancing on stage. The Edge used to have tons of delay pedals, as well, though I think he simplified his rig since then.

Sounds like this guy's not that sharp, though, and I don't get how you use that many pedals without rehearsing. I only have 5, and I get confused easily if I haven't rehearsed what order to stomp on what during what part of which song.

geoffkhan · #10 07-28-2005, 02:31 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Scottie Johnson

You should go ask that at guitargeek.com. It would be great. Those guys are nuts in the "stompboxes" forum. That site is not nearly as friendly as this place.

18 pedals is overkill, and when you don't rehearse with all that with your band, it is just stupid.

If you think 18 pedals is overkill, I know a guitarist who must have over 100 of them. He doesn't use them all at the same time, of course, but he has a very heavy crate that is full of them. He does own a pedal board. Every time I see him he has a bunch of new pedals that he's more than glad to show me.

He's a brilliant guitarist, so it makes up for it. I guess.

Chiba · #11 07-29-2005, 09:09 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by invader3k

Why would anyone need 16 or 18 pedals? I think even a serious lead guitarist should need at maximum _maybe_ 7 or 8 tops.

Well, this was back in the days before Line 6 and multi-programmable effects or even quality multi-effects boards, so no presets. He had 3 delays, 2 chorus pedals, a wah, several different distortion boxes, a couple of compressors, etc. To his credit, he was obviously practicing with them at home, he never missed a beat and looked like he was tap-dancing for the entire time we played our shows. It helped that our drummer was ROCK solid tempo-wise - I actually think that guy was part metronome or that Korg programmed his DNA.

Quote:

Originally Posted by jive1

Or how about a guy who revels in owning guitars that costs thousands, but can't spend the time nor money to get them intonated properly?

No kidding! I love buying guitars from these kinds of guys, "Yeah, it sounded great when I got it, but now not so much, so I'm getting a new one. I guess if you really want it..."

--chiba

Matt Till · #12 07-29-2005, 01:05 PM

You think 18 is overkill?! Have you cruised the "Show your pedalboard" thread?

Plus, with math metal, there is often some really out there spacey guitar.

invader3k · #13 07-29-2005, 02:23 PM

Well, I've seen a Howie Day concert video where he does some amazing loop and delay effects (this is from before he turned into a corporate rock type singing love ballads), all the while playing solo with no one else on stage, and I don't think he had more than a dozen pedals, if that.

I guess if you collect pedals or feel the need to own lots of them, that's one thing, but you need to practice using them before just hooking them up on stage, without previously using them in a rehearsal setting.