could you please recommend a online store like mercenary which is focused on slutty guitar effects/pedals ? What brands should I look into for high end pedals, rack efx etc.. thanks!

You need a Crowther hot cake fuzz pedal. It is the best pedal I have ever heard. Fulltone also makes some great pedals. As far as amps, check out penn amps or for the cream of the crop, a Carr amp. Check out 30th street guitars in NYC. They have lots of cool boutique guitar gear. http://www.30thstreetguitars.com/

check out www.fatsoundguitars.com

www.analogman.com

www.pedalgeek.com

wow thanks guys! this is overwhelming, so many brands i never heard of. Is there a 1 brand where everything rocks ? like the cranesong of guitar efx ? because this is to much!! thanks for the responses!

is black market music in CA still around? that place rocked for vintage gear

nope. Black market is history! Gone.

ZVex

Barber

NicK Greer




but its all about your chain ... guitar pedals are WAY more personal than recording gear!

Thanks Lucey, yeah.. I guess these are the type of things you need to definetly try before you buy. Hope to be in the US in october, so I want to be at least somewhat informed before. Thanks again.

Check out...

www.lovepedal.com
www.proanalog.com
www.musictoyz.com
www.toneczareffects.com

lot's of cool stuff!

I have yet to use a Robert Keeley pedal that I didn't like.

And the Austin-made Sex Drive is the best clean boost I've heard. Made by Durham Electronics.

Musictoyz is pretty nuts...tons of pedals.

Analog Man is a good site too.

The only two rack FX I would recommend for guitar are the Kurzweil Mangler and the Eventide Eclipse. Together they are killer.

Use them in the FX loop of your amp (ideal) or in between your pre and power amps (second best)! I'm only saying it once!

A lot of guitar players hate rack FX and you can't blame them, they ALL blow monkey chunks except for those two, that means you TC Electronic, Rocktron, ART, Digitech, Line666, die, die, all of you die!!!!

For pedals, I love Zvex, Electro Harmonix, Foxrox, Studio Electronics, Teese (wah), the Boss OC2, the evil Echo Park, and, of course, the Stephenson Stage Hog, the only distortion pedal that I ever used that actually did not blow monkeys.

For guitars, I play Brian Moore and Music Man.

Amps (I'm a ampslut) I use, VHT, Mesa, 60s Marshall Plexi, 60s Fender Deluxe and Champ, Matchless Clubman, a Matamp, and some Soldano rack stuff. Yup, I need help, and thats after I sold a lot off!!!

Have fun man, rock out witcha sock out LOL.

pssst, shhhhh don't tell anyone else OK

(whispering), www.retroman-music.com

Andy

Another vote for musictoyz.com

Teddy is the best, awesome service and customer care. I just got a PedalTrain Pro board from them and like always, the shipping to Switzerland was fast and trouble-free.

My last purchase before that was the Z.Vex Fuzz Factory. A killer! Sonic bliss!

Analogman is also great. Life as a guitar player is good these days!

Andi

www.doorknocker.ch

When did that happen? I was there in October of last year.

For guitar effects, you should check out Robert Keeley who mods pedals with higher quality parts. You can buy a modded pedal from him or he'll do yours. www.robertkeeley.com

Got my Tubescreamer done after hearing how he modded the Boss DS-1 for Vai and Lynch. It's like having dual Weber carbureators for sound -- all the tone comes through. He also makes a great compressor.

Also, the www.IndyGuitarist.com mods pedals as well. There's Bogner/Diezel mod for a Boss pedal that I have that's also great.

Used to have Fulltone -- these are much better.

Like other said, musictoyz, analogman, keeley
On harmony central you can read what millions of others thought of guitar pedals, but I often disagree.
Also check out
-- http://www.ultimateguitargear.com/reviews.htm
-- http://www.legendarytones.com/
-- http://www.amptone.com/

They all have a good return policy, with Musictoyz you can shoot out many brands (though truthfully with musictoyz I've had to call Ted a few times to remind him to refund to my credit card). Order five fuzz pedals and shoot them out.

I've tried out a million boutique effects - you REALLY must try them yourself, and ESPECIALLY try them in a mix or with a live band.
For instance, I got a fulltone distortion pro, sounded cool at home, when I got to band rehearsal it sounded like complete ****.
The fulltone 69 sounded cool by itself, but in a live band or mix situation, my analogman sunfuzz blew it away.

For what it's worth
my recommendations in
1. Clean boost - klon centaur, BJF baby pink
2. Overdrives - hotcake, keeley bd2 & ts808 (heard good things about landgraff)
3. Vintage Univibe (I got a nice one!)
4. Lovetone - especially the Doppelganger (not making anymore, find used)
5. Fuzz - analogman sunfuzz, vintage fuzzface (if you can find a good one, a lot suck, early ones are germanium nkt275 transistors, then silicon (bc108, etc etc, **** can't remember it's been awhile, all sound different)
6. Delays - maxon ad900, ehx deluxe memory man, vintage tube maestro echoplex
7. Wah pedals - Teese (new), vintage vox clyde (made in italy)
8. TONS of cool vintage stuff - get the analogman book he just put out to research

Other great stuff - zvex, way huge (used), boomerang looper, analogman, keeley, foxrox, even digital has its uses
Fulltone might be popular but the only one I thought kind of useable was the fulldrive 2

btw, I'm a guitarist first, spent years trying this stuff out

ALMOST FORGOT - get great cables, and even great speaker cable from amp to cabinet, makes a difference. I use George l's, though there's some other great stuff.

Does anyone know what happened to Black Market? I got a lot of my sluttiness from that place. A small spinoff is in Burbank, is that the only one?

Wow. I didn't know black market was in LA. They were in San Francisco for a few years in the 90s and then vanished. Must be the same guy--Chris something??

Wow, really cool links! I have bookmarked them all.

Yes, that's my impression too about Fulltone, haven't tried them all though. My FullDrive2 was good (especially for lap steel) but I missed the bottom end of the spectrum. It's been sold since and so was my Fulltone Soul Bender. That one was a real disappointement, the Prescription Electronics Yardbox is WAY better and much closer to the elusive Tone Bender mojo.

I also agree about cables, George Ls rule. How do you like the thicker ones? I just got a premade one a while ago, and it sees to work good. I've been sticking to George Ls between pedals and Planet Waves for guitar to pedalboard to amp for a while now.

Never tried the thicker Ls for live work so far so I wonder how that will work out.

Another device that I couldn't live without anymore is the E-Bow. I use it a lot for 'barely audible' parts in recordings, great for adding dimension to most any song.

I also use it live, Velcro-ed to my Tele and sometimes only for a short part of a song. Just be sure to turn down the volume and tone on your guitar. The E-Bow gives a TREMENDOUS boost, especially to a clean guitar sound.
I also use a Ernie Ball volume pedal, although it will slightly lower the volume of the signal, I don't think it changes the sound in a bad way.

Any pedal, true bypass or not, will have an effect on the sound even when not in use. The question is not IF there's a coloration, there absolutely will be, but rather: Do I like the change?

Andi

www.doorknocker.ch

nice to see so many " stringed maniacs " ...

would be cool to know , how you switch your stuff , amps , stomp boxes , etc ...

i mean the " complicated & wired " setups

Guitar forums will reveal more than this one.
Although many good pedals and effects are on the market (my favorites are old Boss analogue Flangers and Choruses) keep on mind not to put too much of them in chain. It will kill the sound no matter how good are guitar and amp.
After many years of use I am happiest with right choice of guitar and amp plus sometimes a little of spring reverb + analogue chorus (could be found on some older amps) and maximum one pedal.
For recording forget pedals with digital effects, as well as, distortions.

GYang

The Edge? Adrian Belew? It's an ELECTRIC guitar after all, and while I dig simple setups for blues/country/etc, I think there's great beauty in 'painting' with guitar effects, personally I play both with minimal and elaborate setups depending on the gig. I like dedicated effecs that do one thing well and try to avoid multi-effect boxes (although I do use the Line6 DL4 for convenience along with my MemoryMan)
A simple buffer amp will help you retain the sound of your guitar. Something like a MXR Micro Amp or (better) a Z.Vex Super Hard-On works great as first box in the chain.

Andi

www.doorknocker.ch

The first anwer is no, all pedals suck. That's why there are so many of them. It allows us to keep cycling around looking for ones that do the job.

Next answer is to carefully analyze your needs. The current Boss pedals aren't at all bad, and if they screw up on the road, you're likely to be able to get an exact replacement at the local music store. It's also possible to get lost forever in controversies over true bypass and the like.

If you ony need a couple of things to have around the studio for possible needs, then you may want to go one way. If you're using a bunch of stuff regularly, the answer may be different. I go through cycles, where I start with just a volume pedal and a compressor, and build up to rigs that resemble jet cockpits, because if I like an effect on one song, I'll add it to the aresenal. Then one day I just plug the guitar into the amp, and fall in love with that again.

Finally, the link below will get you into a world of people endlessly debating this stuff, along with booteek amps. Have fun, and keep your sense of humor.

http://www.thegearpage.net/board/

I'm running a rather large set up and using a Switchblade GL to do all my switching. It's a 16 channel matrix mixer that is fully midi controllable.

www.soundsculpture.com

Ken is a GREAT guy too.

Craig

thanks craig , i alrdy discovered their page & products ...
if you dont mind drop me a mail what your exactly doing with it ...

reading product infos & talking to the real users is " just " differnt

www.musictoyz.com carries most everything.

Menatone and BJF are my favorite "high end" pedal makers. MJM makes some great fuzzes I have a Foxey Fuzz and London Fuzz from him (improved Big Muff and Ge Fuzzface clones, respectively). They sound incredible into a hot (or cold) Fender or AC30.

I do use the thicker george l's from guitar to pedalboard, and pedalboard to amp. I originally used thin ones but they looked ridiculous and also didn't lie nicely because they weren't heavy enough. Anyway, the thick ones are great.
All pedals suck? I will say that often I just like to hear the pure tone of the amp, I just crank my 68 plexi or 65 deluxe, close my eyes, dig in, and really enjoy the pure overdrive without pedals.
I had a BJF pink purple fuzz which was cool. Heard great things about the menatone red snapper.

BTW, slightly annoying about the musictoyz website is how everything is advertised as if it's the greatest thing to ever happen.