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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
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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:]
> Sent: Wednesday, May 15, 2002 11:40 AM
> To:
> 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
>
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
> >
