Does anyone ever get annoyed with guitar pedals?

[Shimmi]

So this is just a basic question, I do not like playing with pedals on my bass and only a few times I found the use of a pedal necessary for a song. (Song 2 by the blur and I used a delay/bluesy pedal for one of our slower songs

My ex guitar player uses pretty much every godamn sound effect in the world, has a digitech 3000xl something or another with 5 channels and billions of microsound managing options I would never have the patience to learn.

In retrospect I am glad I'm not going to have to listen to him playing the old power chords on 6 different pedals and changing the distortion every other practice. Not going to miss it one bit.

Anyone else ever jam with a guitard that it seems the whole practice/jam session was a 2 hour long sound check?

I remember one day he let me play his guitar(I don't play guitar but I can fool most people that don't know music) And I play some random bass riff I made only with a pic and I teased him "geez, you can suck as bad as me and this pedal just cleans everything up huh?" I was mostly kidding but he gave me a really dirty look... last time I ever touched his things lol

 

[mpdd]

our previous guitarist couldn't control his volume with all the effects he was using and he was glaring at me to turn up or down, i think i said something diplomatic like "since your parents own half of santa monica don't you think they could buy you a volume pedal"

 

[Gaolee]

I play regularly with a guitarist who plays a Line 6 guitar though a Line 6 amp. That's got to be the ultimate knob twiddling, button pushing setup. But wait! There's more! He also has a couple separate shiny metal boxes that do other stuff. It makes me glad I'm a bass player. I decide whether to use a 20' cord or if 15' is enough.

 

[Tomorrow]

I'm a bass player and I use pedals pretty regularly.

I can't figure out why so many people are spending so much time fiddling with them, though - I put them on my board, connected them, dialed them in, and that's that - I never have to adjust them, and I don't have issues with volume, or feedback, or whatever when I use them. No muss, no fuss.

 

[Ritchie_Darling]

I gave them all up years ago. Last ones I had were a chorus and envelope filter.

Now I go from bass to amp to speaker.

 

[Joedog]

It ain't the tools.... it's the guy using them.

 

[Jughead6]

I'm a bass player and I use pedals pretty regularly.

I can't figure out why so many people are spending so much time fiddling with them, though - I put them on my board, connected them, dialed them in, and that's that - I never have to adjust them, and I don't have issues with volume, or feedback, or whatever when I use them. No muss, no fuss.

I'm with you. I like subtle effects and only dial in as much as I need. My pedals rarely get tweaked. Some guitarists, however, seem to use pedals to go to sonic extremes, and end up with a mess.

 

[BBox Bass]

It ain't the tools.... it's the guy using them.

Exactly. My band's guitarist has an enormous pedal board that he runs with a MIDI controller. I have yet to see him waste practice or gig time playing with the knobs. His tone is good, so I assume he does all the twiddling when I'm not around.

A former band mate used a Line 6 amp with the big foot controller. He too set up patches on his own time, had good tone, and didn't waste anyone else's time fiddling around.

 

[Shimmi]

I feel the biggest issue was his constantly trying to change the sound... seriously every time he made an "boo boo" he would say "Yeah I'm still trying to figure a good distortion for this song, these pedals got a lot of options" then he would start adjusting it and I feel it as a copp out, like rather than admitting he shaged up he acted like it was the wrong pedal... yeah that did it... Either way good riddance on to better things.

 

[tfer]

I feel the biggest issue was his constantly trying to change the sound... seriously every time he made an "boo boo" he would say "Yeah I'm still trying to figure a good distortion for this song, these pedals got a lot of options" then he would start adjusting it and I feel it as a copp out, like rather than admitting he ****ed up he acted like it was the wrong pedal... yeah that did it... Either way good riddance on to better things.

He's a bad guitarist. Blaming his note choices on his tone means he hasn't got a grasp on either.

He should still be practicing in his bedroom.

 

[jive1]

I play guitar as well, and I hate fiddling with knobs. My goal is to play a show, not mess around with my tone.

On my pedal board, I have multiple overdrives and distortions. I could probably get most of my overdrive sounds with one pedal, but since I don't want to have to tweak knobs, I have a pedal with each sound set so I can get the sound with just one tap of the footswitch. I could probably get all my modulation sounds out of one multi-effect pedal, but again, I don't want to tweak knobs, so I have a phaser and a chorus, even though I don't use them simultaneously. Since I do cover bands, I need to have a wider palette of tones. But, I also want to keep the dance floor packed, so I make sure I can get my sounds quick and painlessly.

 

[Shimmi]

He's a bad guitarist. Blaming his note choices on his tone means he hasn't got a grasp on either.

He should still be practicing in his bedroom.

I wouldn't say he was bad... he was really pretty good and had some unique playing styles. I just wish he owned up to making a mistake rather than passing it off on the pedal choice. It's basically wasting 20 minutes pretending to adjust a pedal, or he could have said "Damnit I shaged up" and we can just pick up right after and get through practice without listening to 10 different pedals and wasting time. The only thing more pathetic than not owning up to a mistake is getting into the act and wasting time to hide it... its like no dude the tone didnt shag us up it was you playing the wrong thing... Again I don't think he's poopy for missing a note or playing the wrong thing its just own up to it like the rest of us and quit acting like you dont make mistakes.

If I ever mess up I'll play through and admit I'm not perfect(who is?) the drummer makes mistakes too but we just play though and go over it again not adjust my strings and say "oh my bad it keeps getting outta tune" (I spend so much time tuning I can never use it as an excuse)

That and unless its in with the show or ending a show I hate listening to drawn out distortions and getting my ears pierced with high shrieks... just annoying in every pedal tone...

 

[tfer]

There are no wrong notes when soloing, just bad resolutions.

 

[klokker]

I don't mind a huge pedal board, as long as the player doesn't waste my time fiddling with it all the time. Fortunately, that's never been a problem for me. i normally use a tuner, sometimes a VT deluxe, that's it.

Pedals a are a huge part of the electric guitar world, so if you want to play in a band with electric guitars get used to it.

 

[jive1]

Pedals a are a huge part of the electric guitar world, so if you want to play in a band with electric guitars get used to it.

+1

My theory is that bass sounds awesome, and electric guitar like crap. A bass usually sounds good clean, even with a flat EQ you can get an acceptable tone. An electric guitar, even when 'clean' isn't actually clean. There's a little breakup there too to make it more pleasing. If you heard an electric guitar with a clean flat EQ like a bass, most people wouldn't like it or associate it with an electric guitar sound. Bass clean sounds big and full, but guitars may need reverb, delay, chorus, etc to get that same effect.

For most of my cover gigs, I can get by with one sound on my bass. I can play a single bass with flats or roundwounds, dial in a good tone and have it sound good for many songs in different genres. But, I can't say the same for guitar. Metal with a clean guitar would be pointless as would saturated distortion for Bluegrass, but I could use a clean bass sound for both and make it work. I rarely use pedals on bass, but have to have them when I play guitar. Neither you nor I want me to crank the amp to a point to get natural distortion.

 

[mambo4]

It ain't the tools.... it's the guy using them.

absolutely. Some people invest the time to know their gear, some don't.

My previous band's guitarist was awash in stompboxes.
but for each song we played, he was sound was basically dialed in.
He knew what each pedal did and went straight for the sound he wanted.
Never seemed like he was wasting anyone's time.

 

[Joedog]

Unfortunately, too many players overdo it. I have no answers....other than slap them upside the head.....LOL

 

[Nephilymbass]

So this is just a basic question, I do not like playing with pedals on my bass and only a few times I found the use of a pedal necessary for a song. (Song 2 by the blur and I used a delay/bluesy pedal for one of our slower songs

My ex guitar player uses pretty much every godamn sound effect in the world, has a digitech 3000xl something or another with 5 channels and billions of microsound managing options I would never have the patience to learn.

In retrospect I am glad I'm not going to have to listen to him playing the old power chords on 6 different pedals and changing the distortion every other practice. Not going to miss it one bit.

Anyone else ever jam with a guitard that it seems the whole practice/jam session was a 2 hour long sound check?

I remember one day he let me play his guitar(I don't play guitar but I can fool most people that don't know music) And I play some random bass riff I made only with a pic and I teased him "geez, you can suck as bad as me and this pedal just cleans everything up huh?" I was mostly kidding but he gave me a really dirty look... last time I ever touched his things lol

We don't have that issue anymore. I don't adjust my own pedals unless something gets accidentally moved around. I always use the same settings.

Our guitar player doesn't use a ton of effects. The main one being delay on some clean parts. But for the last few years he's used programable delays so he can set up like a patch for each song at home or before everyone else gets to practice instead of taking up practice time. I do have a boss dd3 delay on my board. But outside of goofing around with the hold function it's always set the same. I never bend down between songs and mess with it and only mess with the hold function at the end of the last song if at all.

Even tone wise we don't get into all the "I gotta set up my tone for each venue" type of thing. We really only mess with tone in the studio and stick to what we did in the studio until the next time we go to the studio

 

[aggrokragg]

I was in a band with a guitarist who played with a ludicrous amount of effects.

My problem wasn't with his sound or effects adjustment (it was prog rock so the effects were generally appropriate to the music)

The issues stemmed from him twiddling around with knobs and playing over us when the rest of the band was trying to have discussions, and not hearing one another over the sound of effects. Also, constant experimentation with new sounds and textures meant songs were never really "done".

 

[DirtDog]

I never get annoyed with pedals. In fact, the more pedals the better!

Guitarists who futz around with pedals, however, wears thin quickly.