What's your most unusual pedal (for jazz)?

[BigDaddyLoveHandles]

I asked who uses dirt in another thread, but that got me thinking. Some jazz guitarists plug straight into their amps, others use a variety of pedals. For you pedal guys, what's the most unusual pedal on your jazz pedalboard -- for any flavour of jazz.

[henryrobinett]

Ring modulator.

[mr. beaumont]

I got a Q-Tron...haven't plugged it in in a good long while...should get it out and funk it up.

[kenbennett]

I don't own any pedals, but when I had a jazz trio I used the bass player's Line 6 Modulator pedal, the purple one. We did some Scofield tunes, so I had one sound sort of like his, and a couple of other cool sounds, one sort wah, another like a Leslie rotary organ speaker.

[David B]

Rockett Allan Holdsworth overdrive/boost - despite what you may expect from the Holdsworth endorsement, it's actually a VERY low gain overdrive with three flavours of boost available. With an archtop and clean amp, I can use the pedal to "pump" the amp to get those grittier, amp distorting Wes/Hall/Burrell tones without having to raise the overall volume level. With a semi-hollow or solidbody, it will give you smooth fusion overdrive sounds at higher settings.

[mongrel]

I used to have an original Mutron envelope filter that I played fusion through with a Les Paul Custom. Unfortunately, I blew all the caps out of a Silverface Champ and sold the damn Mutron. Wish I still had it.

[hthiew]

Just bought a Boss Harmonist HR-2 and together with my old Foxrox Octron, they are my unusual pedals for jazz. Oh I also have a Rocktron Hynoptic Flange which is the secret ingredient in my tone.

[Spook410]

An octaver. Used for bass lines with the looper mostly but makes for some nice string bass swells with a volume pedal. Need a new one though. I have the old Boss model and it mostly glitches.

[jalapeno]

Most unusual pedal for Jazz has to be Jim Hall using a Whammy pedal (2nd mention in a week - sorry)

[Klatu]

Ring modulator.

How and when do you use it?

[Klatu]

Perhaps the most unusual effect used in a relatively mainstream context is an unusual high octave pedal that Jonathan Kreisberg uses on occasion.

While the sound brings some novelty to Mr. Kreisberg's music, I don't think it's something I'd feel comfortable using during the performance of a standard.

How comfortable are you in using effects designed for rock or pop applications for jazz standards?

[Woody Sound]

My most unusual was my Mutron III. Funky-Unky!

[BigDaddyLoveHandles]

Higher Ground! Higher Ground!

[jazzbow]

How about this 'un



I haven't cracked how to blend it into my sound yet but for Scottish bagpipe airs it's the shiz

[KirkP]

How about this 'un

Yes, the EHX Freeze is a nice sustain pedal. I only wish it had a silent switch - they used a clicking switch with strong spring, so it's noisy and takes some effort to press. People modify them to use external silent switches.

[jazzbow]

Yes, the EHX Freeze is a nice sustain pedal. I only wish it had a silent switch - they used a clicking switch with strong spring, so it's noisy and takes some effort to press. People modify them to use external silent switches.

I've seen FX loop mod for this as well

[BigDaddyLoveHandles]

In the video, that Freeze has a heavy modulation/wobble to the frozen sample. Can you turn that down to be more subtle?

[KirkP]

In the video, that Freeze has a heavy modulation/wobble to the frozen sample. Can you turn that down to be more subtle?

I didn't creat that video, but I have the pedal. It sustains by looping a very short sample recorded just before the button was pressed. Any modulation in the player's tone at that moment will be looped. The loop interval isn't adjustable. To avoid the wobble one must take care to have steady tone each time the button is pushed. That's definitely a limitation.

It sounds best to me if the notes that are sustained are on the low end of the register. Higher notes tend to have a reedy bagpipe tone.

[Little Jay]

I like my EH Small Stone and a good old Wah for comping, even in standards! ;-)
I also often use a 1-knob MXR chorus with the rate turned to maximum to play heads. Kinda organ-like, cool!

[jzucker]

Rockett Allan Holdsworth overdrive/boost - despite what you may expect from the Holdsworth endorsement, it's actually a VERY low gain overdrive with three flavours of boost available. With an archtop and clean amp, I can use the pedal to "pump" the amp to get those grittier, amp distorting Wes/Hall/Burrell tones without having to raise the overall volume level. With a semi-hollow or solidbody, it will give you smooth fusion overdrive sounds at higher settings.

Interesting. I bought one of these without really hearing it just because I love holdsworth so much. I found that I could not get a holdsworth tone out of it, even with a carvin holdsworth guitar. Comparing it to my ethos and wilson lotus pedal it was a distant 3rd by miles so I sold it.

To answer the original poster, my ethos pedal is my favorite unorthodox pedal for jazz.

[D.G.]

For my jazz work these days I don't use any pedals. I don't even like to use the vol/tone controls on the guitar! However, I DO use the tremelo on the amp for some tunes.

In my avant-garde days I used a pretty big pedal board. The weirdest pedal I've used would be a toss up between the Mooger Fooger Ring Mod with expression pedal, Whammy, and Fuzz Factory. My current board is loaded with:

Skreddy Mayo -- fuzz
Skreddy Top Fuel -- fuzz
Skreddy Screwdriver -- fuzz
MI Audio Crunchbox -- distortion
EXH Stereo Electric Mistress -- flanger/chorus
Retro-Sonic Phaser -- phaser
Hardwire Tremelo/Rotary -- tremelo/leslie/rotary
Hardwire DL8 -- delays
Hardwire Supernatural -- reverb
Catalinbread Echorec -- delay
Line 6 DL4 -- looper
EB Volume Pedal -- volume

This board is tweaked within a millimeter of it's life for my Strat/Princeton. Doesn't work that well with my other guitars/amps.

I don't think there is a single type of pedal I haven't owned/used at some point

[cosmic gumbo]

Got a tremolo on my amp, who needs a crazy pedal? Spy/surf jazz.