As a kid I started with a little tube amp (got my first electric guitar & amp in 1976). It was fine for clean tones (Beatles, Monkees, etc.). But when I heard Deep Purple, Montrose & eventually Van Halen, I wanted it to sound like that! The older guitar guys in town told me I needed an overdrive or distortion pedal box. That was the beginning of me trying to get tones from pedals.
My next amp was a Peavey 212 Classic. This was a great little amp because it had an overdrive pre-gain stage built in! And I never liked to use too many pedals anyway. I prefered (and still do) to use just guitar & amp for most of the tone. For most of the playing I do, most of the original music gigs & jazz & blues gigs I've ever done all I ever used was a Strat, an amp (Marshall or Fender) & a modded MXR Distortion+. Guitar straight into amp for clean tones, step on the box for gain.
In the 80s guitar tones started to change. From 1984 on EVH & Steve Vai had that new sound. I remember thinking it sounded like flanger, but without any sweep to it. I learned it was often a rack-mounted Eventide harmonizer that was creating this tone. It was a sophisticated version of a chorus, since it split the signal and altered one part of the signal a few cents off of pitch from the original signal. But, it was blended with the original signal so it really "popped" off of the speaker, or the recording. I played around with several rack units (the legendary Alesis Quadraverb, several Boss & Roland units).
I never was entirely pleased with the tone of these things. I think they sound really artificial and forced when put in front of an amp; like they are "on top of" the tone but never "inside" it or "part of the tone". Conversely, they sound really washed out when put behind the amp (through the FX loop, like they are typically designed to run).
So, on most gigs I still used pedals (wah, modded MXR Distortion+, occasional chorus, rarely an Electroharmonix Memory Man) in front of a Marshall, Fender or Crate. But, occasionally, I needed something for a gig that a rack had, but my pedals didn't (a certain multi-tap delay, harmonizer, thicker chorus, etc.). Eventually, I settled on a Digitech S100 (no longer manufactured), which I rarely, but still use for various FX in my studio. I sold everything else!
After I got my first digital modelling amp (Crate DXB112) I never wanted to use a rack again! The Line6 stuff is similiar. It's great for dialing up whatever you need, whenever you need it & it's all in one box that is designed to work together.
But, after all these years I think the best option of all is to plug a guitar directly into an amp and play. The trick, of course, is to find an amp that will let you do this to your satisfaction. For me, it's the Bambino I use in my lesson vids. :)
That's today's Dinosaur gear report. :p
Christopher Schlegel
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