We're living in the golden age of stomp boxes. Pedal reviews, instructional videos and comparisons proliferate on YouTube. Newbie players acquire gargantuan pedal boards. And top selling pedals are sold out everywhere. There’s no question, effects pedals are massively popular right now.
What follows here isn’t an exhaustive look at all things pedal but notes from my recent and older adventures in the land of stomp boxes, and a few tips that I’ve absorbed along the way. Plus, there are links to pedal videos and a couple of live performances, too.
Distortion Pedals
Years ago, I needed a new overdrive/distortion pedal. I used my ears and decided to buy a Boss OD-3. It’s worked out great for me and I played it at tons of shows and on recordings. I play a lot of slide guitar and the OD-3 sounds great for that.
It has a bit of a midrange bump, which makes it sweeter than a Blues Driver, a pedal that I had been looking for recently. (Check out Michael Banfield’s comparison of three Boss overdrives) The OD-3 is also very transparent and lets the sound of your guitar shine through. The sound is what I would describe as “splattery” or “bristly” as opposed to “granular.” I just got a brand new one to replace my almost 25-year-old original, which started to exhibit intermittent weirdness, some weak connections, etc.
During the pandemic, I couldn’t find the OD-3, so I finally broke down and bought a DS-1. Yes, it’s a totally different sound. I always thought the sound was too fizzy and harsh. I didn’t really understand how to use it. But I saw a guy using one at The Shrine in Harlem, where I play a lot, and it reminded me a little of the sound I heard when I saw the New York Dolls play at the South Street Seaport in Manhattan – big Marshalls in the open air. Also, it was one of the only Boss pedals I could find. A student of mine loves it – he’s mostly into punk. It’s a fun pedal to experiment with, and great for an extra sound playing live, the Heavy Sound.
I eventually found the Blues Driver, again influenced by another player, a friend who had a modded version. Researching it got me to understand the somewhat non-linear quality of the knobs, ie there’s a spot around one or two o’clock where the distortion really kicks in. I don’t like it much for slide. One of my friends remarked that I sounded “too crunchy” on a gig I played. It definitely has that saturated, modern overdrive sound that many people look for. I don’t exactly understand the name. Blues? Depends on what style of blues you play. Maybe more in the low/cleaner settings with the volume cranked. The upper range is more of a smooth, British sound.
In the fuzz category, I picked up a brand-new Electro Harmonix Triangle Big Muff for my birthday this year. I had wanted a new Big Muff for years (my first pedal was a Ram’s Head Big Muff), and I saw this one in the display case and it was over. Take a look at the way the camera is shaking at the end of this video of my band doing Purple Haze (actually the whole band and especially the snare hitting the quarters). But I heard a demo on YouTube where many more sounds came out of an original one. Maybe I need to try an amp with more mids like they used. But it does have some wonderful sounds, like a smooth, round, Fripp and Eno, violin-like tone. Definitely $100 worth of pedal.
Phase Shifters
I’m absolutely crazy about phase shifters, and when MXR came out with their reissue of the MXR Phase 90 Script Logo, I had to have one. I never liked the block logo reissue version, finding it too harsh and hot sounding. But it might work better live. I want one!
The lack of an AC adaptor and led on the CS Script is inconvenient for onstage use. Plus, it’s a little intense for some applications. So, on that same recent birthday that I got the Triangle Muff, my girlfriend bought me an MXR Phase 95 Mini, and I love it (and her). The Phase 95 has more variability, and no batteries! It offers the sounds of the old Phase 45 and the Phase 90, with both Script and Block logo options through small push buttons. And it has more lights than a Christmas tree! The sound is less magical than the CS Script, but there are many highly useable settings. It has a noticeable boost in volume when engaged, which I much prefer to a drop. And it plays nice with the Blues Driver.
Probably my coolest pedal is a Mu-tron Phasor II. It’s one of the coolest looking pedals I’ve ever seen, but the sound is where it excels, a rich, complex, analog sound that can fill up a room. It has tons of range on the highly interactive knobs. Check out my article on the Mu-tron Phasor II here.
Tremolo
Tremolo is the main modulation effect for the blues or the real rootsy stuff. If you trot out a chorus in a blues band, the blues mafia will immediately order a hit on you. For Americana, it’s almost as rigorous. I saw Robert Plant and his band recently, and they played a distinctly American style of swampy, bluesy rock, with many a sexy, moody, tremolo plus overdrive texture.
A huge article could be dedicated to the ins and outs of tremolo, but we don’t have the space to do that here. Just be forewarned, although you’ve seen tremolo on amps that were made many moons ago, it’s far from a simple effect. In short, there are three types of tremolo: Optical, Bias Shifting, and Harmonic. Optical is the most common and is found on a Fender Deluxe and Twin. The Boss TR-2 is an optical tremolo (check out the video below for the basic sound). “Power tube bias shifting” tremolo (different from the pre-amp tube variety), can be found in a Silverface Princeton Reverb. It sounds beautiful – the minute I heard the 68 Custom version of the amp, I knew I was going to buy one. Harmonic Tremolo sounds fantastic as well but is rare. It has a milky, phasey character, which is very attractive. A nice overview of Tremolo types is here. So, the pedals?
A guy I was playing with once tried to unload a Boss TR-2 on me. He let me take it home, but I didn’t hear its soul or buy it from him. I didn’t really know how to use it. Later, I needed a tremolo pedal to play a song I had written live. I bought a fancier tremolo, the Source Audio Vertigo, quite literally because of the amazing demo by the owner of 30th Street Guitars in NYC. Source Audio is always trying to get you to go online and download all of these other sounds and magic potions, which I’m sure are great, but it’s the opposite of a stomp box mentality.
Main point – the pedal can emulate all three of the tremolo types mentioned above, and it does them well. The downside is that there’s no battery power and it doesn’t seem to work with a powerall adaptor or the like. Not entirely stage worthy.
With this in mind, I broke down and bought a TR-2. I found that it really has something to say. A key point is the use of the waveform knob. It doesn’t go from low to high, but rather toggles between two different types of waves, with infinite gradations in between (The Vertigo has a similar knob). Using this knob correctly (do not just leave it in the middle!), you can get some highly useful sounds.
Oddball
Just for shits and giggles, I’m including this crazy pedal, the DOD FX 25B Envelope Filter. The great Aaron Chesler gave it to me and it’s actually for bass, a bass auto-wah, basically 😉. When I first tried it years ago, it didn’t seem to be making much noise. A weak battery? Maybe it was just cranky at being uprooted. But recently, I took all my pedals out and played them, and the DOD perked up considerably with a fresh battery. It’s not exactly a Mutron III, but I imagine Jerry could use it for “Estimated Prophet” and some Deadheads wouldn’t know the difference. I brought the DOD to a gig and you can hear a bit at the beginning and end of this truncated “Cissy Strut” performance at my home away from home, Silvana. Also in use is the aforementioned, too crunchy Blues Driver. I’m playing the Silver SG, and I think the lead sound is notable (Orange amp). But that guitar kind of plays itself.
Effects pedal fever shows no signs of abating. At times, it seems that talking or writing about pedals, reading about them, watching videos about them, obsessing about them and even telling them bedtime stories like they’re your children is actually more fun than playing the guitar. What are the stomp boxes of your dreams?
Look for another installment of Stomp Box Serenade, where we’ll discuss some Fulltone pedals, analog delay, and much more. -Christian Botta