Question:
Ok. I need some help. I am the director of my church's worship team. I have been playing my acoustic in worship for years with this small little DOD acoustic effects pedal and I love it. Just recently my band has been urging me to get an electric guitar, so I did. We want to be able to play some real rock songs with more than just my acoustic. As I am mostly a rhtyhm (sp?) player I didn't need anything fancy, so I took someone's advice and got a Mexican Strat (which I love BTW). But now I need to increase my electric's color pallet of effects and having a hard time deciding on whether to get individual pedals (like a boss DS-1, Chorus, etc.) or just getting a multi effects unit like the Boss ME50 or a Digitech GNX1 or something.
I will only use these in worship, so I'm not going to be doing any heavy gigging. But may be using them for recording someday.
Any suggestions??? And sorry if this threads been done before, I didn't see anything listed recently.
Thanks,
Jay
Answer:
you didn't see anything listed recently because you didn't look in the effecst forums
that being said, the ME50 and GNX series are pretty good Multi-effects. Personally I'm not a fan of alot of multis because i don't want to put in the time to figure them out...but that's just me
Answer:
That's me too. I'm a "keep it simple stupid" kind of guy, and so while I've used both multi-effects and single effects, I play better with single effects because I have less to think about. Even with that, I don't play with very many single effects, but that's mainly a budget issue.
Nate
Answer:
the boss me50 isn't hard to learn, cause it's practically all knobs, no menus at all.
Answer:
I've always prefered simgle effects for the same reason Nate said - it's simpler. No having to flip through patches to get the sound you want. Not to mention that high-quality single effects sound better then high-quality multi-effects. A big board of singles looks better then a multi efx pedalboard too.
And with that said, off to effects!
whooooooooosh
Answer:
Multi-effects are well-suited for a worship team setting. A multi-effects box allows you to plan your settings beforehand by preparing a patch and then switch to that patch during worship with a single foot-tap. If you go with single effects and you want to make multiple adjustments for a song, you'd have to do a little dance to get all your settings right.
In other words, multi-effects take more prep time, but they save time during the actual worship, which allows you to focus on other things such as directing the band, watching the worship leader for cues, partake in worship, etc.
There are quite a few multi-effects boxes that sell for the price of a single effects unit. There are also some good bang-for-the-buck units selling for $200 or less such as Zoom GFX-3 and GFX-5, Korg AX1500, Behringer V Amp.
Answer:
Keep it simple... I use 2 effects boxes and switch between my amp's distortion and clean channel.
The effects I use are a tone pedal and a Electro-Harmonix Smallstone (Phaser)... If I were to add anything to that, I'd throw in a delay.
Multi's are nice, but you have to be willing to put in big hours getting them correct. I'll never use them, myself, because I've had too many problems with them forgetting my patches, having silence between patches and poor ability to customize the patches. There are some good ones out there, but I'd rather go straight for the real deal... but that's just me.
Answer:
Honestly, go single. It's the best way to get the best tone (provided they're true bypass, if not you need another gadget). I've been on both ends and personally love single stop box's. I started with a zoom 606 multi because I didn't know what I wanted. Recently, as a much more advanced player I've switched to single box's for simplicity and tone. Unless you want to fork out for a Boss GT-8 I wouldn't waste your time with the multi effects (personal opinion).
Answer:
Ok...so I went to Guitar Center today and got a Boss DS-1, a Boss CE-5, and the Boss GE-7. The chorus when used with the GE-7 is simply great with my electric and AMZING with my acoustic.
The only problem is that I can't get a warm, "church" distortion from my DS-1...I guess i have to work at it a little more. If anybody has this pedal...do you have any recommendations to get my "church" distortion?
Thanks,
Jay
P.S. as you can see I went the individual pedal route. My next purchases will be delay and a tuner..
Answer:
The DS-1 has lots of distortion. I found that even with the gain all the way down(the usual way I ran mine was gain almost off, tone about 1:00, and level set to match the bypass volume), it could be too much sometimes. I'd personally look into a different pedal for a lighter overdrive, like maybe a SD-1 or a BD-2...but that's just me (doesn't GC have some sort of return policy?).
Answer:
what you're looking for is an overdrive pedal, not a distortion. the SD-1 would probably suit you well. i'm really happy with my VS Jekyll and Hyde because i have one side set up like a clean boost (there's a little overdrive, but not very much) and the other side set up to be a very moderate distortion.
oh...and my recommendations for delay and tuner...haha...well you can just look at what i use
Answer:
Yeah, I have 30 days at GC to try it out and if I'm not happy I can return it for a full refund...maybe I'll have to do that...I'll look into the Overdrive pedals.
Wow, there are so many Danelectro pedals on eBay for dirt cheap, but I don't want to get something and not be happy with it...
Thanks,
Jay
Answer:
hmm...yeah...ebay generally has a no-return policy. haha
the pastrami OD was a Guitar Player Pick though...
Answer:
Jmpeter...I really hope you got those pedals used or at a similar price as seen on Ebay. The reason being that these pedals new are NOT worth the money. If you find a used pedal in relatively good condition, it will work just as good as a brand new unit. You rarely need the instruction booklet and the box is a bonus if you ever want to sell the pedal again.
I suggest you return the pedals and get your money back and buy them off of ebay. You can save so much more money and buy more gear!
Answer:
yeah...as far as instructions go you can get most of them off the internet anyway.
the only pedals i've purchased new are the TU-2 tuner (because it sells at nearly $90 on eBay most of the time anyway) and my Dano PB&J Delay (didnt' have the time to shop around. I got my VS J&H for $80 in a local classified.