Guitar pedal suggestions

Hello nice people.

I heve a muti effects guitar pedal. But i want to improve the sound quality somehowe. Now i'm thinking mabey there is a pedal i can run between my guitar and this muli effects unit that would improve the sound as much as possible. Im not talking about distortion or any type of effect but something to clean it up. If you need more information please ask.

Any suggestions would be great.

Thank you.

well if you want to get rid of noise or buzz i would suggest a boss ns2 noise suppressor,or an isp decimator pedal,it helps reduce the noise of sloopy playing,is this what you meant,also a noisegate would work,cheers

gs2112

Pickup booster, Equalizer, Volume?
What exactaly do you want to adjust? Tone? Sustain? Attack?

a nice noise gate would probably do the trick for cleaning it up,but domigans suggestion of an EQ might help.
also a wave form alingning phazer might help too

(I will probably be banned for this) Get ride of the multi-effects.

...on the risk that I too may be banned, I agree with nater

Whats a pickup booster do. And what exacta;;y does an equalyser do. Please dont say it equalyses it. Thanks

Pickup booster = Adds a boost to your guitar signal, usually cleans up lower power pickups; but if you have really powerful pickups (ie: Active pickups, EMGs) it will add a volume/gain boost.

Equalizer = Adjust the highs, Lows, Midrange, (and depending on how many bands) just about anything in between, of the tone of your guitars signal.

They do more that I can't think of right now

but honestly, the best way to clean up your sound is to get rid of multi-fx.

If i get rid of the multi. There goes my effects and then i have to buy pedal after pedal.

So mabey an equaliser is a good idea?

well think of it this way; how often to do you use certain things off the multi effects pedal?

Distortion, overdrive, flanger, chorus, phaser, reverb, tremolo, etc. etc.

whatever ones you use the most you could start to look into nice pedals for, which honestly sound better if they are not solely digital and use analog processing.

After you start to use a really nice distortion or overdrive pedal(like the OCD by Fulltone) you will never go back to using a digital multi effects for that particular effect, though they are nice for using chorus, flange, phaser, delay, and some equalization.

I agree with Nater and Case on one point, but its more the matter of need. Multieffect pedals are great in composing (you can try many different sound with many different effects) and they ARE good sounds depending what multieffect you have.

For the gigging... get rid of it. First, cool pedal board with cool set of pedals make you look like a pro :D, second, they sound lot better when did right (disadvantage AND advantage is that) It IS your sound. Dot. With few switches you can vary a bit but... you know what I mean...also... You have to know, what kind of sound you want.

If you decide to get pedals, spend time on asking EMB :D for recommendations, Spend time on local store to test the pedals and epecially pedal combos to exact amp model and guitar you have.

Its not wise to buy 3 200$ pedals that not work on you.

for the chain I could recommend

EQ, Compressor, (Distortion Or Overdrive) Wah, Noise Gate, delay. (As addon you might consider phaser, flanger and reverb.

Gl m8
Emp

Yup, ask around at the local guitar shop to demo some pedals and sort of give them an idea of what sound you want. I'm sure they will be more than happy to accommodate to your needs(LOCAL guitar shop, not guitar center).

The ONLY purpose is for composing. Never gigging. Actually it's just to record with.

equalizer is good to mold your sound by changing frequencies to your likeing,noise gate is good for buzz,and at everyone else,nullnaught never said he wanted to get rid of his multi fx pedal,he just wanted to clean it up a bit,so for better tone an eq,for to much noise with the pefal a noisegate.

Yes but i appreciate all the advice i can get. I actually was thinking of an eq. I found a boss 7 band for 99.00 and a mxr 10 band for 119.00. Is anyone familiar with either of thes 2 products. And are the more bands it has means its better?

Boss is by Roland.
MXR is owned by Harman, who makes DigiTech.

More bands means more to detail. I think.

well randy rhoades used the mxr 10 band eq....nuff said

*Rhoads

well more bands isn't necessarily better, if you're really picky, then yes it's better, but i imagine it would be a bit trickier to find that perfect sound, i'm not sure though

I just picked up a rack EQ that has 10 bands on each channel.

I find it to be much better with being able to take out a more specific band and not affect the others around it too much-- like the low mids at around 250. I pull those out a tad to get rid of the muddiness, and that allows me to make full on barre chords with distortion. Plus I can boost the mids to more exact frequencies...

The human ear can hear a range of sounds from the low frequencies to the high frequencies and everything in between. The more bands on the EQ the more control you have when adjusting specific frequencies withing that range. It's always a balance between money, control and needs.
Phip

bbt,,exactly more bands more ore creative control but more xmcomplicated,less bands less complicated.

@phip i think we all suffer from bmc

BMC= BROKE MUSICIANS CURSE

I would say that 10 bands is better than 7 at this point. more control and you would be happier later one with that when you start to really get to tweaking your tone. Not complicated really any more than a 7 band, just more precise.

Plus who needs 30 band EQ control for home playing? XD I DO! haha jk

Do you think the 10 band will come with instructions or do i jsut set everything at zero and experiment for myself?

well well expierimenting is good,but i could give you eq advice if you need it

i think most pedals come with instructions, if not you can probably look up a tutorial online

for a good lead tone put the midrange all the way up and the highs and lows at50%,for a good rhythm no mds at all high and lows uo all the way,for jazz mids and bass allthe way upand highs 30%

DO NOT DO THIS.

You will literally be invisible in any mix.

@case thats what metal players and mettalica do.

you've never listened to them live have you?

If you do that you will be buried under the bass and drums. Literally gone from the mix.

how about very clean tones?

Really???
I always have my mids at 0 (1 on my 100 watt. 0 is non-existant) and I have yet to run into this. Then again I usually don't play with too much drums.
I do lose my lead if I loop a rhythm track sometimes. I usually blame the Multi-FX for that.

it depends for jazz clean alot of bass and mids with a tad bit of highs,for country,high highs,middle mids and 25 bass

@Dom

Play live once with a bass, and drums. And I mean an actual bass amp too, something actually big.

You will be gone from the mix. You would need to turn your amp up waaaay more than it should need to be at just be heard, and that will not be good for the audience or your amp.

Plus the scooped mids tone has no real character to it :P

@case i dnt think scooping the mids removes character,its just a mattervof person prefrrence

The guitar lies in the midrange, so when you scoop that out completely you are in a sense pulling out anything that would make that particular guitar(wood, pickups) different. Scooped mids is fun to play around with but for a practical use it really doesn't go too many places outside the studio.

Dipping out the mids is a different story; I boost my mids post distortion(I use pedals) and then dip them out a little bit for rhythm. Not scooped, but dipped at around 750 hz for that Marshall-y sort of crunch sound.

but in a post by nullnaughtand i quote"this is for recording and composing not gigging so my advice has a purpose.

@ Null: back to your topic,yes,you can get a pedal that will magically make your sound better,even from a multi FX,its called the BBE Sonic Stomp,is a sonic Harmonic Maximizer that corrects your signal,it basically makes it better sounding,their first version was a Rack for studios,but guitars were so cool sounding running over it that BBE ade a pedal version of it,there is also A VST Bundle with the BBE stuff

http://www.bbesound.com/products/stomp-boxes/sonic-stomp.aspx

"for a good lead tone put the midrange all the way up and the highs and lows at50%,for a good rhythm no mds at all high and lows uo all the way,for jazz mids and bass allthe way upand highs 30%"

Im sorry bro,but thats some of the suckiest reccomendations i've ever heard for a tone,tone is a balance between the good sounding stuff and the effective stuff,your suggestions dont fit in any those lines.

Guitar with no mids = Fail

it sounds "good" in garage death metalcore bands tho...

ok,alexb maybe your right,but they sound good on my equipment so they might be appaling to you,but locatio,as in room matters to,equipment,and personal preference also plays a factor too.

i'll totaly check that out AlexB. Thank you so very mcuh.