Best Jazz Pedals?

[garybaldy]

Anyone got the (nearly) 30 year old Boss ME8? Great multifx.

[unknownguitarplayer]

Attachment 74704

They ruined it when they went digital. Once you burned it in for a few thousand hours, the old analog model had a warmth you could feel.

[StuartF]

Since I have no amp I use pedals exclusively and plug them into a studio mixer and monitors.
I use a Boss CS-2 Compressor ----> Boss GE-7, 7 band graphic equalizer --- > Boss CE-2B Bass Chorus. (the CE-2B works great with an archtop)

The nice thing about Boss pedals is that even in bypass mode they warm up the sound, somewhat like a slightly saturating analog tape recorder but in a very nice way while still retaining a lot of clarity.

The Chorus I use very sparingly just enough to get a tad of movement in the sound. Makes the sound more natural. The same with the Compressor. I use it very sparingly, just a touch of compression. With the GE-7 I use a fair bit of boost (about 10dB) in the 400 to 800 Hz region to get a very fat horn-like lead sound.

I am using an Epiphone archtop with a Gibson pickup.

One problem with pedals is that you can trip over them very easily. Crashing face first into cymbal and microphone stands with a guitar strapped to your chest is rather frightening. Especially the high-hat stand with its spike pointing straight up as your face and your eyes approach it rather quickly. Fortunately I knew Judo and how to fall and managed to spin my body while falling so I ended up on the floor on my back.

To prevent further re-occurances, I removed the circuit boards, jacks, knobs, and potentiometers from the pedals and with some drilling, small screws and some wire and soldering re-mounted them into a blank 1U rack case from an electronics shop, making a rather nice pre-amp. The pedal part of the pedals were replaced with bat-handle momentary on/off switches, so to turn an effect on and off I have to press the switch by hand instead of by foot. It's no problem though, I usually just set the controls once, and leave them on forever. So probably even the bat handle on/off switches were really not all that necessary.

Cheers and hope this helps - Avery Roberts

All of my current playing out is in church, where we have in-ear monitors and no on-stage amps. In order to avoid that dry, direct-into-the-board sound, I’ve been using a Helix with various amp modeling.

When you’re plugged into the board, do you add any kind of amp modeler? I’d love to pare down to a couple of pedals and quit carrying that Helix around.

[docmoore]

HX Stomp XL ....

[David B]

I'm fortunate to have a couple of vintage Gibson amplifiers, but when I'm not using them, I use a preamp pedal by Nocturne Brain to give that Gibson flavour into another amp.
I have the El Pescadoro (preamp + a reverb inspired by Chess recordings), but they also offer the Junior Barnyard (just the preamp).
It's proven to be useful for giving an amp some flavour and life, especially if the amp is something relatively neutral like a Henriksen or Polytone.

I've also used a J Rockett Allan Holdsworth signature pedal for years. Despite the Holdworth association, it's actually a very low gain overdrive and additional boost. I'm barely touching its overdrive capabilities, but its EQ options make it a very useful tone sculpting tool, especially if you find yourself playing into some unfamiliar backline.

[st.bede]

I also have the Allan Holdsworth pedal. It really has nice eq-ing and I have used a lot as a boost and eq. If

I need a rich sustain type dirt, it can do that exceptionally well, but not with all amps. It has been a long time since I have done that. I can not remember which amps and guitars it worked best with. I am thinking about the time period, the band, and the gigs… a guess would be: Jazzmaster, into a JC40 and/or a JC70.

I think of pedals as modular, and have a collection. I change them out often for fun. I know that the AHOD was on a number of my “rock”type boards, in the “more dirt needed” category. However that spot on the pedal tends to rotate fuzz.

However it has been on my “jazz” board as a warm up or cut pedal. It then becomes a always on pedal. That always seems like a waste because it really is useful to click on and off the boost. I have often wished the boost was independent of the OD.