| a day without my effects
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I am rehearsing with a couple of bands right now, hoping for gigs soon. I'm also just returning to music after some years away. In addition to all this, I'm new to pedal effects. Totally new.
I did my homework, did my research. Had a lot of discussions here. Did a lot of listening on youtube with good headphones. And in the end I got a Pedal Train Mini and populated it with a pretty neat-o introductory package of pedals: A tuner, a compressor, envelope filter and an overdrive/DI unit.
I've been having a good time learning how to get just the sounds I want from them and how to get them to make nice with each other.
This morning, however, I showed up for rehearsal having left the AC adapter for my power supply at last Tuesday night's rehearsal. Oops!
Oh, well. I'd just go without my pedal board. I used to do it all the time, right? No big deal.
WRONG.
I sounded a lot like the brown stuff that extrudes out of the rear end of a dog.
I wasn't surprised to hear the tonal differences sans my SansAmp. I'm well aware that using it scoops my tone a bit and shelves off some of the really low tones. I was prepared to have my sound be a little boomy and a little rubbery-sounding.
What I wasn't prepared for was discovering exactly how much my compressor was more-bettering my overall sound. Today, some notes vibrated the entire room around me while other notes just disappeared into nothing. My first foray into some plucksicato slappitude was terrible. It just sounded...raw and spiky.
It's true that in the past I'd looked down at my MXR M87 and wondered if I hadn't sunk $180 into a pedal-shapped boondoggle. But no more. That sucker is worth its weight in gold.
So let that be a lesson to me. A good pedal board is a blessing on your house. Mine sure is. | 
