Guitar Effects - Pedals vs Multi Effects Unit

[lschofield]

ME70 demo is great - thanks for posting. Nice playing too.

Picked up a Line 6 MM4 for less than $200 from "Hello Music". Very impressed with the chorus emulation - it holds up well with the JC120. Leslie emulation, Phase 90, and flanging is very lush with my amp.

Now looking for something similar for delay so I don't need the complexity of the QuadraVerb in the chain.

[Spook410]

The Mustang floor has the benefit of also having a volume/expression pedal and you could plug it into your favorite tube amp (or just an active speaker if you choose to do so) which then sounds even better.

So.. I really only care about some clean tube amp sounds and everything else being serviceable. I was about to get a Line 6 HD. However, these Mustang Floor's are cheap ($230 every day) and have pretty good Internet reviews. The XLR pair for an output is just the thing for computer based recording. Kind of wondering what the catch is.

[feet]

i went with stom pboxes because i didn't go to college and multi-fx sound like butt. they are better now, though; the tc nova stuff looks good and that soloway fellow seems pleased with his line 6 pod. if you have a lot of money, you can go axe fx, kemper or eleven.

but i'm preferring the single stomp box approach. i can add and subtract at my own pace, have exactly what i want, and the knob approach helps to to understand the effects better. so when i do recordings and use plugins and stuff, they make more sense to me. i just bought a whole bunch because i haven't in years and i needed to update my board.

ironically, i'm not even an effects guy and play clean most of the time.

[lpdeluxe]

I play eclectic material, from Top 40 Country to Classic Rock to '20s-'30s pop standards to original songs, on electric guitar, bass guitar, harmonica and Dobro, so I needed something versatile. I bought a Line 6 Floor Pod Plus: wah pedal, lots of effects (one song ends with a behind-the-beat strum on Cmaj7 chord through a phaser; another depends [in my mind, anyhow] on a funky wah through the changes). This device is super-clean (I record a lot, too) and its limitations are such that I can tolerate them. I stay away from the amp samplers -- I've got several nice sounding Fender amps.

Uber-tone? l guess not. But remember, the highest compliment I ever got on live playing was when I had Sheraton II plugged into a Blues Jr NOS with no effects.

[greenlowstreeng]

Im getting into fusion too and as far as fuzz goes at the moment I am really enjoying the dwarfcraft eau claire thunder. With the gain and trim turned down and the volume rolled off of my bridge pick up (which is relatively hot) I can get a very nice round jazz sound. It can also do heavy distortion and has a boost feature that will do low gain fuzz overdrive when the trim and gain are low. When I want to do something more experimental I turn up the gain and trim a little and add an octave pedal, giving me what I think of as a moog like sound which doesnt handle chords particularly well but for single note melodies I think its great. I think the octave pedal is also a cool addition to a round jazz like sound if you want a little bit of extra texture. I am a noob so take what I say with a grain of salt.

[Flyin' Brian]

I play a pretty eclectic collection of music in two different bands.

One is a trio+vocalist in which we play older swing, jazz, r&b, blues, and New Orleans second line stuff. I'm the only harmony instrument other than the vocalist playing harp on some tunes....good because I can play substitutions at will...bad because I get tired of hearing myself play solos. So I bought a Roland GR-55. I have a great B-3 sound, stellar Wurlitzer and Rhodes electric piano sounds and some serviceable horn sections as well as effects, amp and guitar models etc. The one important thing is that you can't play these other instruments like a guitar player. But it gives us a lot of sonic variety and keeps me on my toes.

The second band plays a large percentage of original r&b. In addition to me and the rhythm section, there's a keyboard player and a sax player. That gives me a chance to use a few different guitar sounds and models.

I use a Heritage Prospect all the time with both groups. My Fenders and Heritage Sweet 16 stay home. The Roland has a very good Strat model and there are enough effects to make it interesting.

[feet]

yay, old thread!

as a guy with three pedal boards, i guess i'm going to lean toward pedals. rationale: i understand it, nothing i don't need, does what i want, no compromise on effect quality, ease of use and operation, no latency, downloads or patches, you can have as few or as many as you need, and it can be assembled, changed and upgraded over time.

the short answer is that it makes the sounds i want and i understand knobs more than menus.

[hthiew]

Avid's Eleven Rack.

I tried pedals. Found that I only use amps, volume pedal, a rat, a delay and a looper so wanted to streamline with a multieffects rack. Wanted a Axe FX, but too expensive. Also bank nor talent cannot justify one.

Discovered the Eleven Rack. Sold all my pedals and amps to get it.

Really so happy with it!