I’ll admit it, I’m a pedal junkie. There I said it. I’ve been on the search for that perfect stomp box since day one. I’ve had lapses in my affliction, but it always seems I come back to stomp boxes.
Starting at the obvious beginning, I had a cheap “rig”: a black Hondo Strat copy with Van Halen-ish stripes (came from the factory this way!) and a white pickguard. My amp was a Gorilla solid state 1x10, and a DOD American Metal Pedal. The amp’s “overdrive” was sad; “block-y” and harsh, and the DOD gave a much smoother, compressed sound. I had that pedal for years.
I’m not going to list EVERY pedal I ever had, that would make “war and peace” look like a leaflet. But I’ve had people say, why not just get a good amp that has great overdrive/distortion, or get a modeling amp/multi effects unit?
Good question.
Let’s address the first one: Why not get an amp with a great distortion or overdrive?
I’ve had some great amp rigs in my tenure, here are my faves: A Fender Prosonic 2x10 Combo, Hughes & Kettner Triamp head and matching 4x12 cabinet, Mesa Boogie MKIII head (with every option) paired with a 2x12 Avatar cabinet with Celestion Neodymium speakers (that cab weighed almost nothing!). I didn’t use any overdrive pedals with those, each of those amps had their own thing going on, with great overdriven distorted tones, as well as really nice cleans.
What brought me to my current amp was an interesting turn of events. I was doing a lot of playing with a variety of musicians at a practice space called Jamspot. It's a practice facility that can let musicians rent fully equipped practice spaces with amplifiers, PA systems, and drum kits by the hour. The guitar amps they have there are Fender Hot Rod Deluxes. I went there a few times, and it was great to bring a couple of pedals, plug into an HRD, and get a great tone easily. Since I was going there a lot, I decided to make my pedalboard my “command center”, with the ability to plug it into any decent clean amp. Eventually I scored my own HRD on craigslist for $400. It’s a tube amp with 3 preamp tubes, and 2 power amp tubes, meaning re-tubing is relatively cheap. My H&K triamp had 10 preamp tubes, and 4 power amp tubes! Re-tubing that beast cost (back then) $250! So maintence wise, the Fender has a +1 there. It’s also LOUD, meaning it can keep up with most volume situations, even at 40 watts! But in most cases it’s still too loud, I’ve had to get a JHS lil black box, to reign it in. The distortion sound isn’t my bag either, it is too blocky and clanky for my tastes. But the clean is amazing. Pedals react to it very well though, and using it as a tube driven powered speaker with my pedalboard, blends the warmth of tubes, with the clarity of whatever pedals I have on my pedalboard.
This approach came in handy, as at one gig my HRD had a bad preamp tube that decided to misbehave. Thankfully one of the other bands there had a guitarist with a HRD, and let me borrow his for the gig. Within minutes, I was back up and running, with no tonal adjustment to deal with. If I relied on an amp for my distortion sound I’d be screwed if it failed. I’m sure it could change in the future, but right now this method works for me, the ability to change overdriven tones by swapping out a pedal or two, is a lot cheaper than having multiple amps.
Why not a modeling amp/rig?
Well I’ve been down this road before, with a line 6 pod Pro rack, connected to a Tubeworks power amp. I even had the short 4 button controller, and the larger “command center” one that had the expression pedal. You can get amazing sounds out of them, but after tweaking parameters, and settings, it just kind of sits there. Making any small change can be a pain, dealing with menus and editing. Plus, whenever something new comes out effects wise, it seems like trying to intergrate it with a rig like that always has some compromise: either tonally, or requires extra special cabling, or adapters.
How about a multi effects floor unit?
These types of units have come a long way, and some are truly amazing, but again, if something new comes out, it’s not easy to bring that into the fold. Failure is also an issue. I had a friend with a really nice floor based multi-effects unit. He had it properly configured into his rig too. The particular unit had the ability to route the time based effects like, reverbs, delays and modulations running through his effects loop in his amp, while running the distortions, wah, and EQ’s in the front of his amp. It sounded really great, plenty of clarity and depth. It also could control the channel switching on his amp as well.
One night at a gig, a very drunk woman was dancing near the stage, right in front of him. She put her beer down next his multi effects unit, and when she went back to reach for it she knocked it over. It spilled all over his board, and it promptly died. The drunk woman just walked away. He finished the gig with just his amp. After finding a place that could actually repair his multi effects pedal, he was told it would be about a month until he would get it back. With a few gigs coming up he found a few pedals and got by with those. Eventually he got his multi effects pedal back, about 2 months later. The beer seemed to just short out the power supply thankfully. The fear of having everything in one box, and that box failing, leaving me high and dry is too much.
With pedals, I can change my tone quickly, just swap out whatever isn't working. As I change as a player, I can change my sound easily. If something fails, I can easily bypass it. If I feel I need more or less, it’s hands on, no hunting through menus to adjust paramaters. A lot of professional musicians that aren’t playing big venues, are just bringing pedalboards and guitars to gigs, and renting or using amps provided by the venue.
I don’t discount or get snobbish against what other people use. I know there are gearheads out there that look down upon guitarists that don’t follow their lead. Whatever works for others is great, but in my experience, for what I’m doing and how I want to make music this is my method.
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