Multi Effects or Old School!

Is it a case of the pedal board two step risking falling on your back side just about when your face melting solo about to blow the crowd away.....or a pre programmed multi effects pedal to take away the stress!

However there are a number of ways of looking at this. With individual pedals you can select individual favorites and mix them on your board, with a multi effects unit you are stuck with the preset and its parameters! OK you have effects loops in some units, I'm sure some are good but everyone I've tried colours the tone of your looped effect! There are many high quality multi effects such as TC, Carl Martin and Trimode but is it a compromise?

Look at it another way, when you are playing in a band how much of what you recognize as the tone you want in fact hear cuts through to your audience........and more importantly do they notice! We've all listened to bands and thought that sounds good and had a look at the guitarist rig and thought Oh dear why's he using that crap!!! and the opposite. OK I'm playing devils advocate but maybe we get a bit carried away sometimes? 

I talked to singers who say guitarist play them a riff and change the settings a few times and say which is better? Many say, yeah OK……..but they all sound the same to me! 

So maybe what you are comfortable with and within a reasonably wide range of acceptance is they way to go. Multi or single I guess is personal preference. I use single but in two banks with a loop pedal wah with tuner, OD and Distortion on one side and OD, Distortion, Fuzz, delay and Phaser on the other. Allows me to play the wah on OD then switch loops to play Distortion only hitting one switch…..A quick re-set is required after that song, but that’s the compromise!

My problem is when I play a board set up one day the next time I play it other pedals I think others sound better…..my current either or is a TC Distortion or a modified RAT!!!.....well that’s my problem!

BIG KNOB the new pedal pusher in town

If like me you like to mess around with the odd guitar effects or two you may have noticed a new supplier!

They came to my attention on Ebay as a maker of clones! They are basically high quality hand wired replicas of iconic stomp boxes.....with a few twists along the way! The company BIG KNOB you can find them at http://www.bigknobpedals.com/

I succumbed to the TUBE 808 a clone of the best version of the Ibanez TS808 using the same JRC4558D opamp chip with a true bypass switch as they all do so as not to colour the signal when it's turned off. This is a great pedal that goes from a full clean boost to a creamy overdrive yet still has transparency, dynamics, tone and low noise.  The first one I bought which I notice isn't on the web site at present is the Fullclone, this is a Fulltone OCD clone. This again excels particularly between third to full gain. It's full with rich harmonics without harshness and maintain low noise and transparency. 

Some of the others including the RATPAK, which unashamedly is a Proco RAT clone is on my list! It's an exacting replica of a vintage 1985 'Whiteface' Rat distortion. This LM308-based classic is still massively popular and is the specific one most enthusiasts will point to as representing the very best this legendary line of distortions had to offer. The only addition to the original 1985 circuit was the inclusion of a switch which allows you to switch over to the newer turbo-type sound. Noted users of this vintage pedal have included Jeff Beck, Joe Walsh, Joe Perry, Thom Yorke, Dave Grohl and Thurston Moore. 

There are Big Muff and other type fuzz pedals and more, check them out you will not be disappointed....I understand if you have a pedal you would like them to make they will endeavor to do so.....what ever it's worth contacting them....tell them where you heard about Big Knob!