My Guitar Effects Processing History

Early Years

My first guitar pedal was a Boss CE-1 Chorus. My only memory was that it sounded smooth and airy, and didn't take over the whole sound of your guitar. Following that I added more Boss pedals until I basically had the setup I wanted:

Dunlop Cry Baby Wah
Boss HM-2 Heavy Metal Distortion
Boss NS-1 Noise Gate
Boss GE-7 Graphic EQ
Boss DD-3 Digital Delay

This was my setup for my high school years. Then I got a Fender M-80 Rack amp, and out went the pedals. IT was time for rack-mounted processors starting with a Digitech GSP-7 with a MIDI foot controller.
At some point I came across a Roland SDE-1000 Digital Delay, which I ended up keeping for 15 years. I really didn't like the GSP-7 very much and ended up selling it. Inspired by Vernon Reid of Living Color, I bought a Roland GP-8. Then I dropped out of guitar, and rock completely - and sold everything except the SDE-1000 in 1993. I finally sold the SDE-1000 to a friend in 2005, after many years of good service in my studio.

Getting back to Basics

A couple years ago, I got back into playing guitar. And now it's not about stage performance, or fitting into the sound of my band. Now it's about experimentation, and finding sonic euphoria. I remember the pain it was to program rack gear, but it was awesome when performing live. After years of analog synthesizers - I love knobs. I love analog interfaces. Pedals are also better when you want to spend smaller amounts more often. Instead of spending up to $2000 on a TC Electronic G-System, I could spend $100-$200 at a time and get something new to experiment with. So pedals it was. Unlike years past, when Boss, DOD and Digitech had the pedal market cornered, the boutique pedal market is flourishing - which has made this even more exciting. I started collecting pedals (aka addiction) a couple years ago, and now I've got a really cool setup. Here is what I have owned and/or kept to date, along with an overall rating out of 10.

Vox V847 Wah (currently own, 6)

I had a wah pedal before, so I got another one. Not something I use that much, but still fun. I'm not sure I like the Vox as much as a Cry Baby. I'll probably replace this someday.

Electroharmonix Soul Preacher Compressor (currently own, 7)

This is a really good compressor for the money. It can do anything from a subtle clean-up of your sound to full-out spongy, pumping mush - which can be fun. Great for blues. The 3-way switch for the attack setting is great. I sold it to a friend in Brazil, after getting the Diamond.

Diamond CPR-1 Compressor (currently own, 9)

Amazing. This pedal is so quiet, you can't tell if it's on or off, except for the wonderful smooth effect it has on your playing. It can't do the crazy pumping effects of the Soul Preacher, but it is a superior tool. You can also use this as a booster, which really helps when playing my Gretsch. I would have preferred an attack knob over the EQ they included, but it doesn't make the overall performance of the pedal any less that what it was intended for. If I were to get something else, I'd probably get a Strymon OB-1.

Wampler Pinnacle Distortion (currently own, 10)

Hands down, this is the best Van Halen brown sound imitation I have ever heard. The Tone and Contour controls make for a different way of dialing in sounds, but I can't get this pedal to sound bad. Thank you Brian Wampler.

Earthquaker Devices White Light Overdrive (currently own, 10)

For anything that the Wampler Pinnacle can't do for me, the White Light does. Everything from Stevie Ray Vaughn Tube Screamer tones to Jimmy Page, this is a very versatile overdrive. Very quiet too. The compression switch and weight knob give you a great palette to work with.

Danelectro Pastrami Overdrive (currently own, 3)

What can you say about an overdrive pedal you buy for $20? It makes dirt. It really doesn't clean up very well, it's almost like the drive knob only goes from 5 to 10. There is no 1 or 2. Not that great, but allows me to do something different. Still need to try it on my bass into effects loop on the SWR Redhead.

Electroharmonix Small Stone (Currently own, 8)

This phaser sounds amazing. I bought it to get a sound like the band Tame Impala. It's quite a simple pedal, but does a great job. I would say this phaser sounds better that the TC Electronic NM-1 phaser.

Boss CE-5 Chorus Ensemble (5)

Better than my old CE-1. You can really make this chorus just a subtle effect on your sound. Same old Boss quality of construction. I think if I were to get a serious chorus pedal, I'd prefer a WayHuge AquaPuss, or a Strymon Olá.

TC Electronic NM-1 Nova Modulator (currently own, 7)

I am so into pure tone and drive, that I can't be bothered to buy a flanger, a phaser, a chorus and a tremolo. So this answered all of my problems. It is pretty awesome for creating any two of these effects at a time, and the Tri-chorus is awesome - but I do find it a bit too much effect for my liking. I wish it had some master mix knob, so I could mix about 70% of my dry signal with 30% of the effected signal. The tap-tempo switch would be better of you could change it to a program select button - changing between the 9 presets needs you to press Tap-Tempo, and then the bypass button really fast, and I would think it would drive me nuts if I were performing live. But other than those small complaints, it's a good pedal.

Earthquaker Devices Disaster Transport Echo (currently own, 7)

Basically this is a digitally-controlled analog echo with modulation. I bought this looking for something that sounded analog or tape-like. It does this quite well. Using this to make dubby reggae or messing around with the time while the feedback is set to infinite is fun, but not my regular cup of tea. I have two complaints - put any amount of overdriven guitar into this and you lose what sounds like anything over 4kHz of your dry sound; and the modulation would be better if it only modulated the wet signal (ie. the echoes), not the dry signal. I am giving this to a friend in Brazil.

Eventide TimeFactor Delay (currently own, 9)

I always dreamt of owning a H3000SE Harmonizer. Other than drive and compression pedals - I use delay on just about everything. This is only the delay bits from the H3000, and it does delay better than anything else I've ever tried. The problems, it costs the same as the Strymon Timeline and does a lot less; and it's also a bit of a pain to program. If I had never seen the Strymon, I'd say this is the best delay pedal you can get. The band delay is awesome. I have yet to use this in stereo, and I'm considering my amp options just to cope with that. Based on what I hear in the Timeline, I get the feeling that many of the effects that could, or should, have been included in the TimeFactor were omitted so Eventide could get you to buy a PitchFactor.

TC Electronic Hall of Fame Reverb (currently own, 7)

This is a really great pedal. The reverb options are what you would expect - Hall, Room, Spring, Plate - and then there are some more unique sounds - Church, and a modulated hall-type effect where the reverb trails are slightly modulated - very nice for big dramatic effects. It's not overly programmable, but for me, this reverb is for effect when jamming - not production. If I am recording guitar, I am going to use the more elaborate reverbs in my production software. This pedal is very clean and does a good job. If I were to replace it.... yes.... Strymon BlueSky.

A Home for Pedals

Even though I don't play in a band or perform live, I wanted my pedals organized, powered well and laid out like I was on stage. So I bought a Pedaltrain 1 pedal board and a Voodoo Labs Pedal Power Digital power supply.

Studio Utopia

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