Anyone recommend an fx pedal?

[Guruguru]

Hey,

I´m a big Floyd fan and have been teaching myself guitar for a few months. I want to buy a good pedal (less than $100) that can give me a good palette for playing mostly Pink Floyd music. (some Nirvana wouldnt hurt either). Unfortunately I cant check any of them out at the music stores since Im away from the U.S. (or any modern country) and will have to order it on-line and have it shipped.

I was looking at either Digitech´s X-Series Hot Rod or Metal Master Pedals... mostly cuz I heard Digitech is reputable and the demos on their webpage sound good... Does anyone own these or other pedals that is willing to recommend them?

Thanx...
JMC

[Paranoid Android]

*sigh*. Don't buy any digi-tech pedals. And you sure as hell better not buy any pedal with "Metal" in it!!! The best distortions i've ever used are the Ibanez TS-9 (9! not 7!) Tubescreamer, which is the best classic rock pedal, period, and also the BOSS Ds-1 is a great rock/metal pedal. It sounds great for Nirvana stuff, in fact, Kurt used one of those whilst recording Nevermind. And, the rest just depends on your guitar/amp. But, for the love of God, don't get any Metal pedals. And welcome to the site!

[Ablaze]

Its all a mather of taste, Paranoid, please, you should know as much.

Guruguru, dont go waste your money on a really good pedal like the tubescreamer, you wont probably have any plesure of it. Tho i dont have anything to recommend, i have heard loads of good things about the Big Muff, and that one is the Gilmour pedal, but ask Fulghum or something, he will give you a better answer.

[Paranoid Android]

You just sinned.

[Guruguru]

Nice suggestions guys, thanks.

I was researching these pedals on the internet and I think I´m leaning towards getting the ts-9 (even tho the ibanez website doesnt have sound samples). Remember this is my first pedal. I get the feeling I can get more variation out of it. (I assume this because of the price, though it could be overpriced for being a ¨reissue¨. Hard to tell without being able to hear it). Big Muff sounded nice too, but not sure why theres a Russian and NYC version and what the difference is...

If I get the ts-9 though, I´ll probably shell out an extra $10 to get the ts-9DX. It seems a lot of the ts-9s desirability is based on nostalgia. I dont mind if the Dx is new and hell it has an extra knob so might as well get it instead. Oh well, there went my $100 budget...

Well, I´m gonna give myself another 12 hours or so before I order... any objections? speak now or forever hold your peace...

JMC

[Paranoid Android]

Good choice!!! It's my favorite distortion pedal of all time, ever. You shan't be disappointed.

[Ablaze]

I think that its madness due to the fact that you have been playing for a few months. You probably wont hear the difference, and you have no need for this pedal yet. Maybe you should rather upgrade your guitar or amp or something...

[doctor_how]

hmm...maybe I'll run my keyboard through one of those tubescreamer bad-boys!

[Guruguru]

You´re right Ablaze... I am still a novice... I just want to be able to distort without interrupting the flow of a song, readjusting my amp, etc. For example, the only Pink Floyd song I can play decently all the way through right now is Mother and I wanted to be able to jump into the solo without having to stop and hit a button. It totally kills the moment.

[Paranoid Android]

I'm telling you man, the tubescreamer gives me the perfect sound for that song. Because it's like, a clean distortion, you know?
If you play light, it doesn't sound as distorted. If you get all the right settings, you can get the perfect tone.

[ADO]

For anything floyd, I seriously reccomend a Big Muff.

It is, the David Gilmour sound. Its also amazing at capturing the Jimi Hendrix sound.

I suggest getting the russian made one rather than the american one, but thats just my personal preference, im sure they are pretty much the same.


With this pedal you can achieve sounds from prettty much every album, mainly Dark Side, The Wall, and early stuff.

It is Dave Gilmours favourite pedal. He has three or four in his setup.

[Fulghum]

If you want to sound like BDG, you'll need a Big Muff, no doubt. I reccomend finding your own sound. There are thousands of players out there who try (and fail) to sound like their heros. MAKE YOUR OWN MUSIC. Carve your own niche.

That being said.. I don't know why PA has such a bunch in his shorts over DigiTech. I have sold the collection of individual pedals that I acquired over the years and have replaced all of them with a DigiTech RP200A. I am very happy with it. I have never had a problem and the range of effects is just amazing. I can run 11 of 13 possible effects simultaneously, and adjust each effect independently. It can also emulate other amp and cabinet models.

All that for about $150.00 U.S.

[Shane G.]

Crank the Big Muff up, and you'll get Jack White's gritty, wall-caving guitar sound. Lean the 'sustain' back, and you'll get all these nice, Gilmour-like blues lead tones. It's one hell of a pedal, alright. It's got one shortfall - it sucks nearly all the shimmer and punch out of your clean tone, due to the lack of a true bypass switch. I stopped using it, because I bought a Fender Super Reverb amp to *get* a nice clean tone. And the Big Muff also gets kinda MUFFled through a tube amplifier (pun intended).

I use a Boss DS-1 now, still one of the best distortion pedals I've ever used. It's got a true bypass and very good low-gain. It's an orange box of bliss.

And I think I might get a Tubescreamer next. Or a Pro-Co Rat. Anyone got any opinions on the latter?

[ADO]

The RAT, is an awesome pedal!

But try to get one of the older ones... read up on them..

I have played one just straight into an amp, and also played one with a Boss GE-7 (Equaliser), and the EQ really does give it that little bit more tone.. depending on what you set it too...

Awesome pedal though!

[Shane G.]

Thanks, I'll do a bit more research.