Odd. My Favorites Are Still My Favorites.

inmyhands

It's a strange world I'm living in. I haven't purchased so much as a guitar pick since acquiring my Furch G24CC Acoustic almost four months ago. Four months may not seem like a long time between purchases but four months with no desire and no upgrades over current gear seemingly available is a first moment in time for me. In truth, in spite of my promise of no more gear purchases, I continue to look at current offerings of guitar gear. The Results? Nothing. Absolutely nothing comes close to what I already own. I'm putting this thread in the Effects section of the forum because effect pedals for electric guitar, (and speakers for electric guitar amplifiers), have always been my Achilles' heel. If something was going to come along and grab me by the nuts and demand purchase this would be my danger zone. I got nothing. Not the slightest stir of interest. No pedals of any effect type that come close to what's already on my board or on my backup selection on the shelves in the studio.

On my board ...........

Three gain pedals for different usages. A "Free The Tone" Heat Blaster HB-2 for standard Overdrive. A "Mad Professor" Fire Red Fuzz for High Gain. A "Mad Professor" Amber Overdrive" for that very smooth lead gain tone as used by Eric Johnson.

An A/DA Flanger.

A "Mad Professor" Tiny Orange Phaser.

An "Analogman" Mini-Chorus with locked "deep switch" setting. This pedal has been on my board for near forever. I'll never use a different chorus pedal. In my opinion it's the best of the best of the best.

An "Empress" Superdelay "Vintage Modified" for multiple Echo and Delay choices.

A Korg SDD-3000 for multiple Stereo Echos and Delays including ping pong and controllable "sweep" between left and right amplifiers / speakers / channels, (Think Jimi Hendrix's Axis: Bold As Love).

Currently I don't have any Wah Wah, Compressor, Volume or Tremolo pedals on the board although there are multiple examples on the shelf. In my opinion none of them, (RMC, Dunlop, Keely, Ernie Ball, Empress), seem to have any current competition.

The fact that new technology is taking effect builds in a new direction just helps me stay the course with what I've got. I can't find a damn thing that equals or beats what I already own.

I might truly be done with new effect purchases. 

eduardoritos

I'm on the same situation. Always searching for something new and excinting, but nope.

I have the guitars I dreamed for and my old pedalboard sounds the way I like. 

bourbonsamurai

i've been through enough to know what i like, and that's a wrap.

1) Boss TU2
2) Dunlop CryBaby Mini
3) Maxon CP101
4) Maxon OD808
5) EH Soul Food
6) Boss DD3

the OD808 and Soul Food are never on my board at the same time.  it's just i can't make up my mind, so i love 'em both.  usually, on louder gigs, it's the Soul Food.

the only change i've made in years is the Cry Baby Mini.  i replaced my Fulltone Clyde Std with it, at Dave's recommendation.  it's great.

i'm still using the same Pedaltrain Jr+ board, too.  i only use batteries in my pedals, nothing to plug in, no weird ground loop issues or neon interference.  simple is best for me.

Duojett71

Been using these two pedals for about 9 and 7 years respectively. My two favorite pedals
MXR Carbon Copy
Teese RMC4 Wah

Mr. Black Gilamondo Phaser. Just got this one...been wanting it for several years. Mr. Black just reissued it on a very limited basis and I jumped on it. This is a new favorite. Best phaser I have ever had.

Dinosaur David B

These days, I'm finding I care less and less about these details, and I'm way more interested in my actual playing. My big board is in storage. On it, I had all of the things I found that I liked best via trial and error. But when I put my new, compact, city board together there was very little similarity. In fact the only same pedal that I have on both boards is a Phase 90. And even that, one is a script logo reissue, and one is a standard. The subtle sonic difference between the two of them is there, but it doesn't really matter to me to the point where I'd have to have one over the other.  

Further, those boards were designed for totally different rigs. The big one for a stereo rig with two tube amps, the small one running through the Blug Amp1 in mono. 

The basics of what I want remains pretty constant. A clean tone, and two or three levels of gain stage in crunch mode. A fast and a slow delay. A wah (though I'm not using it much anymore), a phaser, and a tuner. Everything else is fluff.  As to which pedals get me there? There's too many ways to skin that cat. The old stuff I'm familiar with and a thousand newer boutique options that may or may not be better. I wouldn't live long enough to try them all even if I wanted to.  On the small board, I prioritized mini pedals over known sonics, so that meant new (to me) alternatives. 

And when I record, I don't use any pedals unless it's wah. Everything else goes on later.

Seven Moons

I haven't changed my basic formula.   

In front of the amp : Guitar ---> Dunlop Crybaby From Hell (used sparsely) ---> Korg Pitchblack tuner ---> Mooer Orange 90 phaser ---> Voodoo Lab Microvibe (seldom used) ---> amp. 

In the loop, I have my beloved MXR Carbon Copy. I recently added a TC Electronic "Hall of Fame" reverb which is a bit more flexible than the Marshall's spring reverb.

Tatosh Guitar

I suppose we all go for what we are familiar with, to a certain degree. We might use different tools here and there, but in the end, we have a certan sound in our head and we go for it. Once you find the stuff that works for you, anything else is just a minor change here and there.

I would just use a guitar and an amp if I could. I find that stepping on pedals and all that distracts me. Marty Friedman had it right when he was playing with Megadeth: "The tech does all the switching. Clean, rhythm and lead sounds). I just play." On the other hand, all those options are fun to play with every now and then, in theory.. In the 90's I thought a multieffects with hundreds of different presets was the way to go. That can't be further apart from how I see things these days.

In the end, a Fat Strat or a Gibby in front of a Marshall type amp with a decent clean, along with a delay, a phaser and a boost will give me most of what I need. Anything else I can add I suppose, but it's not a must. I have a Crybaby in there all the time and I find it I am using it less and less.

Dinosaur David B

Yeah, Joe Perry has a tech making all his changes for him, too.  That's great, but most of us won't ever have that.

cvansickle

I've been pedal happy in the past, but these days I use very little of my pedalboard. If I get a good OD sound from the amp, then all I need is a wah to spice things up from time to time. A phaser is nice to have too. I should probably use more delay, but I can't figure 'em out!

Obviously, certain songs require certain effects. I like to Play "Nobody's Fault but Mine" and I need the octave and swirly effects to pull it off. But there's a recording of Jimmy Page and the Black Crowes playing it, and Jimmy just uses a wah.

inmyhands

Maybe I've reached a level of satisfaction that I just don't care to look any further. The build of both the A/DA Flanger and Analogman Mini-Chorus are both well over 20 years old. Each one is just so well matched to my expectations of perfection for that type of effect that I don't bother to look further. Sometimes you just strike, what to your ears, is gold and you just stop looking.

The only three effects that have modern versions that have bettered my favorite vintage versions are Digital Delay, Phaser and Tube Driver. Mad Professors Hand Wired Tiny Orange Phaser is the most perfect pedal on my board. It's the best Phaser ever made, (in my opinion). Yet ........ it seems unfairly high priced. Many will never enjoy the phasing qualities of this pedal because the cost of purchase makes it prohibitive to most players and, even those that could afford it, (and would love it and never look back),  probably pass it by because of the price. The Korg SDD-3000 Digital Delay pedal is another example of a modern "state of the art" pedal that, (although in this case it was worth what it cost), was priced at a point where the average player looking for a digital Delay pedal would write it off without even checking it out. And now it's out of production. And I pray mine never breaks down. Absolute Digital Delay perfection. I own an original build B. K. Butler Tube Driver with bias control that ran me $425.00 and I love it. In spite of that it's off my board because Mad Professors Amber Drive is so freakin' close and is much easier to use that I've chosen the Mad Professor as my day in day out pedal for this effect. I'll never sell my Tube Driver but times change.

I'd love it if an effects company could beat the original tube or first generation solid-state versions of the Echoplex. It hasn't happened yet and I've pretty much quit looking. Fulltone ..... a good try but no. I actually think the El Capistan, (no tape), sounds better than the Fulltone.