The Best Effects Pedals and Tuners You Ever Had

Michael Lester · From: Illinois, USA

In another part of the Forum there's a discussion about The Best Equipment You Ever Owned - that discussion seems centered on guitars, amps, PAs, etc. - the big stuff.

I wondered what you consider the best accessories / Pedals / Tuners / or? you've had or currently use?

I'm currently using a GFI Ultra with a Fender Deluxe Reverb Re-issue with no other gadgets.

If you were using this setup, what's the next accessory you'd add? (I had a Matchbox from the '80s that I wish I hadn't sold)...

Asa Brosius · Posted 11 Jan 2020 8:39 am

The most consistent and reliable bits for me have been an earth drive (adds life to backline amps/tone control at my hand), a strymon Flint (if you tour your amp reverb will have problems sooner or later) and a voodoo labs power supply (versatile and problem free for years now). I used a gfi/deluxe for a few years too- I liked that amp a lot- I had a hard time 'thickening' the tone without getting too much overdrive- I suspect swapping speakers may have helped..

Jack Stanton · From: Somewhere in the swamps of Jersey

I'll play-
Best delay was an old transistor Maestro Echoplex that sadly self-destructed. After a myriad of delay pedals I keep coming back to the original big box EH Deluxe Memory Man. The input knob kinda works like the preamp on the echoplex.

Best fuzz was an original Foxx Tone Machine, covered in blue fuzzy material. Sadly it was stolen.

Best OD - an original Hermida Zen Drive, which was recently gifted to me by forum bro John McCook. I guess he was still feeling bad that I traded him my first-generation TS-808 Tubescreamer for a DOD Phaser back in "83.

Jack Hanson · From: San Luis Valley, USA

Best pedal -- Van Amps Sole-Mate:

Best tuner -- this combo platter:

ajm · From: Los Angeles

The OP actually asked TWO questions.
I'll answer the main one in the title first.

In no particular order or timeline.........

1) Tascam 788 digital portastudio.
The BEST non-guitar piece of music gear that I ever purchased, bar none.
It still works, it's long out of date/obsolete, but I'll probably need to die the day it quits working.
It (along with a MIDI sync'ed drum machine) enabled me to finally actually piece together and record and hear the songs I had in my head.
If I was stuck trying to get them together with "musicians", it would have never happened.

2) EH Electric Mistress flanger, around 1978 or so.
I had a phase shifter, but this convinced me that I like flange/chorus much better.

3) Scholz Rockman Stereo Chorus.
Bought for cheap in a Mom and Pop music store from a pile of stuff in the back. Got it just before prices went through the roof.
In stereo, panned hard right and left, it sounds like you're playing in the Taj Mahal. Sometimes, it's too good, and you need to force yourself to turn it off.

4) I got tired of batteries and wall warts one day. Several years ago I built two simple home made regulated 9v power supplies. Problem solved.
I still "daisy chain" all of my effects, but outside of a couple that just did not want to play well with all of the others, no issues.

ajm · From: Los Angeles

To answer the second question..........

"I'm currently using a GFI Ultra with a Fender Deluxe Reverb Re-issue with no other gadgets.
If you were using this setup, what's the next accessory you'd add?"

What is your volume pedal?
You might want to upgrade that item, depending.

Do you gig out? Larger places? How is the DRRI working?
If your amp is fine, you might want to add a delay and/or chorus/flanger. Make sure it is stereo. Why? Well.....

If you add another amp, then you can spread them out and go stereo.
And if your DRRI is fine, add another one of those.

Bill C. Buntin · Posted 11 Jan 2020 10:58 am

Conn tube type strobe machine that we used to tune in orchestra. Very very accurate tuning. Essential for strobing correctly as in string lengths. Awesome for tuning horns as well.

Amp rig. An Evans pre amp, power amp and twin cabinets. I called it the arc welder but used it playing rodeo circuit on all those outdoor dances. Too much for average gigs.

Hughes and kettner rotosphere- for Leslie sounds

Original rock man by Tom scholz for overdrive - fantastic rig

Old analog Ibanez delay. Very nice sound for a pedal effect

Bj tone bar absolutely the best imho

Best home studio gear - adcom pre and power amp. Old vintage klipsch Heresy speakers and maudio interface to g5 Mac. Logic Pro software - all purely mac, no intel

Heil mics

Best guitars, three. Original carter built mci, fantastic and I got it and didnâ€™t even realize how special it was. Completely rebuilt emmons legrande skh built by Bobby rains. Fantastic guitar. And an early 70â€™s push pull emmons.

Alas!?

Bill

David Ball · From: North Carolina High Country

I recently acquired one of Ken Fox's excellent reverb units. Absolutely the best reverb I've ever tried. I'm running an old Sho Bud into a Black Box, Sho Bud volume pedal, Fox reverb, Standel hybrid Artist amp, D130 or a pair of 10 inch alnico Webers. Nothing else. I'm finally getting pretty much exactly the sound I want to hear (minus my playing of course...). The Fox reverb is absolutely killer.

Dave

Brett Lanier · From: Madison, TN

Wampler Ego compressor, though I use it as a boost with little to no compression. Really helps with getting a bigger, punchier sound from tube or vintage amps that may need a little help in that department. In fact, I use 2 '65 deluxe reverb reissue amps for fly dates and leave that pedal on all the time. Come to think of it, I haven't turned the pedal off since I got it 4 or 5 years ago.

Michael Lester · From: Illinois, USA

I have an older Goodrich 120 - in fact just got another one while the original is being repaired.

I hadn't thought about a Compressor on the steel. We used it on the vocal mics all the time because we liked the clarity it gave voices in a 'boomy' room.

We played small places with bad acoustics.

I like the Fender amp - it works well and mics well.

I've been playing Western Swing for the past 10 years or so using a '59 Stringmaster D8. Never used anything but a bit of reverb with that guitar.

The steel guitar electronics of the 70s and 80s (when last I played pedals) were really primitive compared to the stuff I see you all using now. I had lost track of the pedal steel world until recently when I stumbled onto a ShoBud Maverick under a towel in a friends bedroom. Sitting at it for a few minutes brought back enough memories that I decided to 're-enlist' and have started to study what modern players are using.

Thanks!

Georg Sørtun · From: Mandal, Agder, Norway

The only accessory I rather not be without – especially when playing my GFI Ultra – is the BOSS LMB-3 Bass Limiter/Enhancer (compressor), which I use as buffer with very low compression for natural sound. It has replaced all the regular buffer-units I have and have tested (put favorite name here), as it does a better job than any of them in my setup(s)…
PSG - LMB-3 as buffer - VP - NV112.

Have tested many other compressors for instruments but none of them worked that well with steel – made them sound "compressed" which I don't want.
Only drawback is that the battery doesn't last all that many hours in an LMB-3, so giving it a supply is recommended.

Karen Sarkisian · From: Boston, MA, USA

I think that favorite accessories really depend on what big gear a person is using. For me, if I am playing thru a solid state amp then my Sarno Black Box is my #1 accessory but it is really not needed when I bring a tube amp...
As far as GFI thru Deluxe Reverb, you have a pretty pure tone of your guitar, I would add a nice delay pedal and maybe some overdrive. I love the wampler faux analog echo for its simplicity. The Sarno Earth Drive is a great overdrive pedal. It was designed for pedal steel. The Sarno Freeloader is a great accessory for your set-up as well. I use mine for most of my tube amp gigs. Its like a black box without the tube...
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Emmons PP, Mullen G2 and Discovery

Dave Hopping · From: Aurora, Colorado

A DD-6 in my NV112/Session500's effects loop works very nicely.If I want to go uptown,a rackmounted Nineties Alesis Quadraverb and 3630 limiter gets there in style.Works fine with the Peaveys, the Twin-Reverb 15 and Milkman Half & Half.

Michael Lester · From: Illinois, USA

So far one of the takeaways I get from all your comments is that you are genuinely unique when creating/constructing the sound you like from your gear.

Truthfully, when I asked this question at the beginning I expected there would be a lot of similarity - that there would be dominant pedals that almost everyone uses. And I thought that rebuilding my tool kit would be easy. That's certainly not the case.

Decades ago, almost everyone used a Goodrich volume pedal, a Goodrich Matchbox or a Little Izzy and a Peavey Nashville or Vegas with spring reverb. (I'll forever remember the noise of moving one of those amps when it was lit and set to Cool

Thanks everyone for your responses. I'm enjoying researching the gear you use.

Steve Lipsey · From: Portland, Oregon, USA

Just went from a couple of years all-acoustic (tricone and Weissenborn) back to electric rock band, got an Oahu Diana and Clinesmith Frypan, the best lap steels I've found (love those magnet-all-around-the-string pickups).

After decades of trying out all kinds of pedals in past lives, I had a chance to completely re-evaluate pedals and check out a bunch of the new mini-pedals...a lot of them are crap, but some are just fine...they sure do compress the space and weight and cost of the rig...

for the rock band a full board, for the jazz band a fancy DI and some reverb and chorus...for the country band a Moyo volume pedal and I'm good to go...

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www.facebook.com/swingaliband & a few more....
Williams S10s, Milkman Pedal Steel Mini & "The Amp"
Ben Bonham Resos, 1954 Oahu Diana, 1936 Oahu Parlor

Tony Prior · From: Charlotte NC

Tony Glassman · From: The Great Northwest

Little Izzy, Benado Steel Dream thru Telonics 500

Mike Bacciarini · From: Arizona

Best part of my FX rack would be the Strymon power supplies. Absolutely no noise, hum, or compatibility issues.... rock solid. Built a cooling fan into the rack for shows out in the hot sun.

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MCI Arlington S-10 3+5, George L E-66, BJS & Emmons bars, Fender Princeton 65W, Fender Satellite SFX, custom FX rack, 1983 Dobro 60D, SX-8 lap steel, Martin D16GT, Ibanez AS73, 1978 Rickenbacker 4000 custom.

Fred Treece · From: California, USA

Boss GT-10 multi-fx (built-in tuner)
Tech 21 Power Engine 60 powered speaker with eq.

This setup does everything I need it to do, including going direct out of the GT-10 with speaker sims to a PA if necessary, while still having my own stage monitor in the PE 60.

I also have various multi-track analog and digital recording devices and agree with ajm on the significance of their acquisition, for similar reasons.

Someday maybe I would like to do a shootout with all analog/tube stuff and compare it to my all-digital/all-solid state live gear and see if the difference is enough to make want to turn the clock back. The search for Grail Tone never ends.

Len Amaral · From: Rehoboth,MA 02769

Georg turned me on to the Boss LMB bass compressor. I use it a bit differently as I put it after my VP to the LMB, then DD-7 then Catalinbread Talisman Reverb to amp input. I also have a wire into the tap tempo input on the DD-7 to a switch clamped on the leg of the steel. This basic setup works well and and havenâ€™t thought about changing anything.
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I survived the sixties!

Michael Hartz · From: Decorah, Iowa, USA

Best pedal I ever had was an overdrive pedal that I made myself. It was a clone of an Analogman King of Tone pedal. It had the best overdrive sound Iâ€™ve ever heard, now I know why they sell for around $400 with a 3+ year waiting list. Best tunerâ€” hands down the Peterson Strobostomp HD.

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