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I've just been through the dizzying experience of effects pedals and
learned a lot...and spent a lot...for this knowledge. I started with
Danelectro Pedals - bought the floor display. Cheap, but not so great
sounding. Then, I went to a Zoom 505 effects processor, the Swiss Army
Knife of effects pedals, for use mostly on trips as a
headphone/practice amp. Lots of fun and cheap, great for a practice
headphone setup, but it sucks when you plug it into my Fender
DecoTone/Blues Jr amp.
What I was really after wanted the classic surf sound...finally bought
a '63 Fender Reverb reissue. Glad to have spent the money and wish I'd
have done it first. I did manage to sell the Danelectro Pedals on
eBay. But, I should have listened to dad...always buy the best you can
afford.
If you want to play a few songs in a surf set or just fool around with
sounds, go for a cheap multi-effects processor. Next step up are
individual pedals mounted on a board, i.e. the Boss effects pedals.
Try before you buy or suffer for your haste.
Gavin
--- In SurfGuitar101@y..., "Brian Neal" <bneal@z...> wrote:
> Hi,
> I am not quite sure what you mean about an effects board. So this email
> might be off the mark. But:
>
> My brother gave me a DOD FX-7 multi effect processor / preamp. He
gave it to
> me because he thought it sounded like crap. He is partly right. Its
got all
> kinds of delays, flanger, phaser, tremolo, reverb, distortion, chorus,
> compressor, etc. And you can make and save presets. I don't follow
this kind
> of thing, but I think its probably a 2nd generation type thing. They
may be
> way better now (the Line 6 POD thingy is quite popular, I hear) but
this one
> is just okay. You can get massive amounts of reverb on it, like you
are in
> the bottom of an empty super tanker, but it really doesn't sound
that great.
>
> So I probably wouldn't do any professional recording with it.
However, here
> are the good points:
>
> 1) This thing is quite convenient for late night jamming when the
kids are
> asleep and you can't plug in to your 100 Watt Fender amp. It has an
audio
> in, so just plug in your CD or MP3 player and play along through
headphones.
> Very convenient!! Dial in some reverb and you are good to go.
>
> 2) The effects, while some of them are kind of lame, are kind of fun to
> screw around with (novelty value).
>
> 3) Rough demos. I don't have any microphones worth a crap to record
myself
> with. However, since this thing has a line out, I can plug it right
into my
> sound card on my computer. Using Cool Edit 2000, I made some pretty cool
> demos of myself. I won't win any awards for tone, but for me, at my
level of
> playing, I was quite proud of it (no I won't be uploading them :^)).
I even
> added a bass line to my song by using the Octave divider effect on the
> thing. Crude, but effective. I also used my El-Cheapo drum machine I
got off
> of Ebay to add the classic 2 on the 2 surf drum beat (the only drum
pattern
> I can program :^) )
>
> So if we are indeed talking about the same thing, I'd say if you can
get one
> for $50 go for it. Its a lot of fun and comes in handy for practicing or
> just messing around. Don't expect too much tone out of it and you
will be
> fine.
>
> BN
>
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Richard Hawes [mailto:errant_jedi@y...]
> > Sent: Wednesday, May 15, 2002 11:40 AM
> > To: SurfGuitar101@y...
> > Subject: [SurfGuitar101] Looking for effects board
> >
> >
> >
> > Hey guys, I'm looking around for a decent, inexpensive
> > effects board. I'm mainly a bass player, so I play my
> > Jagmaster through my Ampeg with the bass turned almost
> > all the way down, and I figured that instead of
> > spending money on the kind of guitar amp I'd want I'd
> > just buy an effects board (budget purposes). I want
> > reverb, of course, and distortion, but I imagine any
> > effects board will come with these and more. Two
> > questions:
> > Can a passable (I mean decent, I'm not expecting it to
> > sound like great) surf tone be achieved with a digital
> > effects board?
> > What's a good board for the money? I'm looking at a
> > Korg A4 on eBay right now that's starting at $55.
> > I really have no experience with effects though.
> > ~R
> >
