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Sick of the normal pedals

#21
I'm glad that among those you know who buy the various extreme pedals from, say, analoguehaven, they all manage to be unique with the same gear. Those I know personally, and a lot of the YouTube demos of the extreme gear, have a huge sameness. I don't know why that is.

People like Bill Ruppert are few and far between, regardless of whether those people are using run-of-the-mill pedals like those decried by the OP, or are delving into the bitcrusher-as-distortion-flavor.

I agree with you that it's a matter of the player making the primary difference, in terms of what they do with the equipment. I don't know how that squares with the OP's quest, though....
 
#22
falconspatriots said:
+10 For the first year of using pedals, I made a decent sized board out of mostly stuff at GC...very few pedals survived. I am lucky enough to live 5 minutes down the road from a Platinum GC so it isnt terrible. I go into other GCs sometimes and I'm like...smh...
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+100

I mean, the first pedal I ever bought was a DS-1 (from GC no less), so I know it's hard to break outside of what's typical. There definitely are some cool things to play with though, but you'll have to leave traditional ideas behind and you'll have to leave guitar center. Gotta pay the cost to be the boss. :bassist:

Moog's pedals are particularly interesting: they're built to accept control voltage: you can use signals can modify settings on the pedal in real time. You can generate signals with other devices that will change, for example, the Rate setting on the Bass MuRF.

I use Doepfer's A100 line of modular synthesizers to the same end. I run my amp's effects loop to a preamp module, to a filters, I have modules that control those filters in weird ways, the sound gets pre-amplified again and sent back to the amp. It usually sounds weird and awesome. (;

TC Electronic has been working on an interesting way of setting up it's relatively basic line of guitar pedals: each pedal can receive presets through signals you play through your guitar's pickup. Just download the preset using their "Toneprint" app on your phone, pick a preset, and point the phone's speaker at the pickup with pedal in the right mode. It's pretty cool, honestly.

Explorer said:
I agree with you that it's a matter of the player making the primary difference, in terms of what they do with the equipment. I don't know how that squares with the OP's quest, though....
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+1000

Everybody knows that all of the tone is in yo fingers! —Invalid Link Removed. (;
 
#24
Electro Harmonix makes more weird effects than 'normal' traditional effects.

Earthquaker Devices. The rainbow machine puts icing on the cake of strange. A lot of Blackout's other recent releases put a new fun twist on 'standard' effects.

Then there are digital multieffect pedals like Zoom, Line 6, and Digitech. Those pedals come packed with enough bizarre effects to create a circus freak show of audio oddities and wonders. Digital multieffects are probaly the cheapest way to experiment with the strange.
 
#25
Regarding multieffects, they can definitely be used to get unexpected places... but require a bit of thought at times. I think that's why something which is weird out of the box, and which just has to be plugged in and used as is, has so much appeal.

I do love watching vids for things like the Line 6 M series, the Zoom G3/B3, as well as the EHX Effectology series, to see some of the more extreme uses to which they get put. Taking those ideas, and applying them to what I have, has gotten me a lot of places which might at first glance seem impossible with what I have on the board at the moment.
 
#26
One can always create new effects combinations. Start with an LS-2 and in the FX loops, put in your various pedals, turn them all on and see what happens.

Fuzz into Delay into Tremolo = fun stuff
 
#28
I have to agree on the I Love Fuzz shout-out. We host our (super small) forums there, along with Dr. Scientist, Smallsound/Bigsound, Fuzzhugger, etc...

What are you looking for? Do you have an idea of what you want?

I have to agree that the small companies are the ones pushing the envelope right now. Moog and EHX are some notable exceptions.

There are also a few blogs that try to focus on the more innovative stuff out there. Guitar Moderne is pretty good. I will try to think of others...
 
#32
I think the Fishman Fission Bass Powerchord is a great idea...but I don't like the distortion tone at all...and the 4th above (to me) is just worthless)...If is had killer distortion tone, I would be all over it.

Note, I did try it with split outputs (clean to one amp, dirty to another), and that sounded much better to my ears...but it was still not something I could fall in love with...and that configuration is not practical for me.
 
#33
fishtx said:
I think the Fishman Fission Bass Powerchord is a great idea...but I don't like the distortion tone at all...and the 4th above (to me) is just worthless)...If is had killer distortion tone, I would be all over it.

Note, I did try it with split outputs (clean to one amp, dirty to another), and that sounded much better to my ears...but it was still not something I could fall in love with...and that configuration is not practical for me.
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This is what i mean by strange pedals, I love things that are different then the norm with instruments.

Explorer said:
People like Bill Ruppert are few and far between, regardless of whether those people are using run-of-the-mill pedals like those decried by the OP, or are delving into the bitcrusher-as-distortion-flavor.

I agree with you that it's a matter of the player making the primary difference, in terms of what they do with the equipment. I don't know how that squares with the OP's quest, though....
Click to expand...

Yeah i know that the player makes all the difference but i really wanted a list of weird effects so i can experement instead of using a semi overdriven bass with my metal band.

I really started looking the first time the EBS temlo came up i started thinking of the possibilites with strange effects, it's not a 'quest' but more of a fixication with new sounds, different possibilies.:bassist:
 
#35
In response to the original question, from a certain perspective, there are only so many different audio effects out there. I'm not talking about pedals even, but the entire gamut of audio signal processing as a whole.

Different pedal manufacturers make different versions of different effects, yes, but when everything is grouped into a generic category, there are not very many different ways to manipulate audio: (incomplete list, but you get the idea)
Distortion (fuzz, etc)
Modulation (chorus, phaser)
Delay(s) (reverb, delay, flanger)
Attenuation/Gain
Compression/Expansion
Digital manipulation (bitcrusher, FFT manipulation, )
Pitch
Filters (lpf/hpf/notch/bpf/etc)

The point is that lots of effects are combinations of these simple subclasses. For instance, LPF + HPF + a couple variable delays = two-band flanger.

Anyway, I have no idea what I'm talking about, carry on..
 
#36
Check out Iron Ether pedals- his designs are all capable of more straight-forward tones (fuzz, distortion, low pass filtering, tremelo, chorus), but the way he implements all of them are pretty ingenious and offer extremes of sound that are way outside of the norm if you want them. For example- I have a Polytope on the way that is capable of fairly standard chorus sounds, but in reality it is a pretty full featured detuner with a built-in LFO, so it is capable of insanely chaotic noises and dissonance and everything in between that and chorus. His Xerograph filter too is capable of wonderful extremes with the Q cranked, or any number of more subtle filter sounds.

I love really crazy pedals to a point- many of the things that EHX and many smaller builders have made can make sounds I'd never imagined could be created from a bass/guitar signal- but I have a special appreciation for pedals that are capable of both more standard sounds AND the extremes, which is what I see as the beauty of the Iron Ether pedals I have had the priviledge of owning or playing.
 
#37
i think fairfield circiutry offers some super nice and unique pedals. their 'barbershop' is a very conventional OD pedal, but at the opposite end of the spectrum, their [Invalid or Expired Link Removed] and especially their [Invalid or Expired Link Removed] are unlike any other pedals that i've heard.
 
#38
Sometimes just changing your signal chain order around can yield unexpected results. I have one tone I use that involves putting a flanger before an autowah. And if you've never put a delay before an autowah, you really need to try it!

On another note: I was going to suggest the Rainbow Machine, but many others have already beat me to it. I first heard of that pedal just two nights ago, when the guitarist from the opening band used one for some seriously trippy effects!
 
#39
johnk_10 said:
i think fairfield circiutry offers some super nice and unique pedals. their 'barbershop' is a very conventional OD pedal, but at the opposite end of the spectrum, their [Invalid or Expired Link Removed] and especially their [Invalid or Expired Link Removed] are unlike any other pedals that i've heard.
Click to expand...

Man the Unpleasant Surprise is crazy, my guitarist got one recently. The most gated thing ever. In a feedback looper the noise is savage. Awesome box.
 

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