I love hearing about your stories from back in the day. As a Gen Z guitarist some stories sound similar to my journey but most of them are way different and they make me realize how lucky I am.
Pedals are an endless rabbit hole. And because so many of them are "cheap," it's way easier to justify their purchase than a guitar or amp. I just bought a Boss Bass Chorus pedal. After taxes and shipping, it was "only" $75. At any given time, I always have $75 I could theoretically spend. So that's why I've ended up with a ton of pedals.
I love the stories of how young Mike discovered his first pedals. Reminds me a bit of discovering rock through the Columbia music club catalogue and the back of album covers. I hope you keep the personal stories going as you go down the upcoming pedal series.
My very first pedal was a boss od2 I got from my local pawn shop. At first I loved it but it really wasn't the distortion that I wanted and I stopped using it for over a decade. I hung onto it for nostalgia though and a few years ago plugged it in again to see if my tastes had changed...lo and behold it sounds awesome to me now! So glad I kept it.
Really looking forward to the pedal series. Already super excited. Hearing the difference between the dry sound and the pedal sound really took me back.
I had the standard DS-1, Plumes, Big Muff, and Phase 90, but it wasn't until I picked up an EQD Astral Destiny that I started to see what weird pedals can do... that really started my journey down the pedal rabbit hole!
My obsession started with looking for that "clean" distortion, and how cool DOD pedals looked in the 80's. lol I started with a $90 Profile guitar (wrong handed so played upside down) and a $90 used Squier SKX 15 amp. The gain was not the best, and I wanted that sound that screamed metal distortion, but still allowed you to hear your notes when playing fast rather than just a wall of sound. So my mother, whom I dearly love, decided to aid me on my quest and bought me my first pedal . . . the DOD Death Metal pedal! lmao. To be fair, she did see me drooling over it in the music store. I think its only ever been used twice. I am happy to say that I still own all that original gear!
I have always been a tone chaser and besides the classic BOSS distortion pedal a must have was a digital delay. The BOSS was too expensive so I bought the Ibanez sound tank delay. I too also had the compressor sustainer and chorus. Great video as always.
My chain is as follows- Kliq tuner- Michael Amott Wah (switchable with Dimebag Wah)- MXR Noise Clamp- (MXR loop)(Joyo Nebulous phaser- DOD Carcosa fuzz- Friedman BE-OD- EXH Hot Tubes- Caitalinbread Sabbra Cadabra- Earthquaker Plumes- Tc Eyemaster Distortion)end loop- Tc Hypergrav Comp- TC Dreamscape multi modulation- Dr J Shadow Echo (tape delay)-Pigtronix Constellator (delay w/chorus)-TC Mimiq Doubler. I just bought a Sub’n’Up Octave Pedal too but I’m not sure where to put it yet.
I had always been a Fender-combo-dimed-out kind of guy to achieve what I thought was the best guitar sound. But then after seeing Frank Marino play live through the most immense pedal board I had ever seen before, he made me realize the otherworldly possibilities of tastefully applied effects.
I never quite understood pedals. I had my ds1 distortion boss and was happy with it, but now that I've heard how beautiful they can make your guitar sound, I think I'll be obsessed with the pedals as well.
My first pedal was the HM2. Got it for Christmas in '86. I had been playing my Cort guitar straight into a 15 watt solid state for months. When I hit a chord with the distortion pedal for the first time, I thought, "Man, I sound just like Jimi Hendrix." I've never forgotten that feeling.
My first pro guitar rig was a 68 SG standard, 68 Fender Bandmaster withJBL’s, an original Big Muff pi, and a Lafayette wah pedal! No need for a chord crunch pedal, just ran the amp 10 on everything!
I'd highly recommend: wah, flange, looper, chorus, distortion, fuzz, delay. If you don't have these textures, many songs you wanna learn won't be doable.
That was my first pedal too. I remember the absolute dread of looking down at your pedal and seeing it STILL plugged in from yesterday! Noooooo....Those 9 volt's were expensive.
I can appreciate being envious of people with a multi-effects pedal when you have to scrimp and save, or trade, to get a new pedal. But I think there's a huge benefit to having less. A lot of benefits, actually. For one thing, you learn to appreciate what you have when it's all you have. Especially when you're first learning about effects. The trouble with multi-effects is that you have SO many options, you rarely spend enough time exploring one effect, and fine-tuning. And you can get so wrapped up in playing with the different sounds that you neglect the music. I often think about a story Slash tells about his first guitar. It was a cheap LP clone with one string that he found in his grandma's closet (or something like that). But instead of saying "I'll start playing when I get some new strings," he fuckin' played that one string until an opportunity came along to upgrade. And people who grew up with him talk about how he always had a guitar in his hands. That's dedication. That's love. Obsession. Devotion.
I started playing in 1985- Boss was king but I couldn't afford them. I had a Harmony Les Paul knock off my self- it was black with white trim. But I didn't have a PA-- I had a 30-dollar solid state amp- a speaker with a volume knob on it. No distortion or anything- literally just a speaker with one volume knob which was also the on/off control. But- my mother felt so bad for me that she went and bought me a Peavey Rage 80- which had a distortion channel on it. I was in heaven man- but my experience with pedals was completely different than yours. I couldn't afford Boss so I got a Rocktek Distortion pedal- with the hot pink battery cover on it- I still have it, it still works. It was bought in 1988- it's made of plastic, costed 30 bucks I think- and it still works. Anyway- because I already had the Peavey rage- the distortion on my amp was light years better than the Rocktek pedal- which sounds like a box of angry bees. So- I just didn't buy anymore pedals- literally, not until I was 50 years old. Which was just a couple years ago. I started watching some pedal shows on UA-cam- decided to give them another shot- and fell in love with them. They keep me from getting bored- which I tend to do now that I no longer play with a band and just play at home. But yeah, the whole time I played in a blues band- on Beale Street- I had no pedals. No one I played with used pedals- occasionally I would see a boost or reverb pedal but- I had a good reverb on my amp and I played either clean or just slightly broken up all the time- never needed anything else. Oh, the board we played through did have compression and delay on it- I used that, but not in pedal format.
I'm definitely fascinated with pedals. I find them very useful for recording since I can use (mostly) the same guitar and just swap out pedals in front of the Fractal Fm3. A lot of the most interesting pedals are ones that have a character not captured in a plugin or modeler. If I was gigging only, I probably wouldn't be too concerned with them. But I dunno, pedals are fun ✌️
They story about the pedal book you memorized reminds me of my childhood so much. I was into skateboarding and fishing and i would get bass pro shops catalogs and ccs skateshop catalogs and memorize everything in them. The prices, the specifications for everything, had it all memorized. I think thats just how an addicts brain works.
i remember i was with my friend at school, and one of my friends had bass amp, i plugged my guitar into it and give me this crystal bell sound. it was beautiful
Back in the late 80's I certainly remember looking in awe at all the various pedals in the local music store (Carlsbro, Nottingham) glass cabinet, being a bass player I obviously wanted a DS-1 to get something like Cliff Burtons sound but couldn't afford it. Just had to borrow my guitarist mates one. Stumbled across the Boss BE-5B in a second hand store one day at a good price which started me down the road of effects pedal ownership.
BOSS is boss when it comes to pedals (imo)…no shade to other brands or stomp boxes. All of them bring a different flavor/tweaking of their own to the mix. 🤘🏼
Awesome! I just find it soo fascinating that I can make my guitar have so many different tones. I'm looking for that Alex Lifeson tone right now, I've been listening to Rush since I was 5 and I've always wanted to sound like them. I'm super excited for these pedal lessons! 🎸 ❤️🔥 my next pedal is going to be a blues drive, but I have a long list of ones I 'need' haha 😄 🤘🏻
I’ve never been big on pedals. However. I got a digitech processor that had a harmonizer and tons of other great effects and that was a super cool step up. In pretty much depend on my amp distortion. I have a Marshall Code 100 that I love. And a Roland G212 and a Crate GLX 212
I had a similar experience but with DOD pedals. Surprisingly one of the more impactful pedals was the lowly EQ, man that made a huge difference. I eventually graduated on to a digitech RP-1 which just blew my mind. No way I was ever going back to pedals again.
cool video. my pedal obsession started after I watched a van halen guitar lesson vhs. all the different sounds and techniques he did with the pedals made me want to get a phaser, flanger, delay. my friend played the fade to black intro on his crate amp that had a built in chorus and that got me into chorus pedals.
I have the CS-3 compression sustainer and the CH-1 super chorus. I used to have a decent rack-mount delay that had a foot switch and presets and was programmable but it went “Poof” one day. That was a great sounding effects setup. I miss my delay. Sad face.
I remember jamming bush power chords on my acoustic-electric into a tiny dean markley amp, later a fender champ with the DSP effects in it- but before that I couldn't get that distortion sound and honestly once I found it and at a small practice volume, you can hear the acoustic and feel the acoustic under or along with the distortion sound and that was actually a killer blend.
I enjoy pedals - collecting them and experimenting with them. My first was the Metal Core, and my latest is the Highway 77 (made in Mpls) which arrived today. I'm subscribed to a few youtube pedal demo channels, and buy too many of them. ;D
Yup, I bought that same Heavy Metal pedal in the 90s. 🤔But isn't there an "All-in-One" effects pedal that can be programmed to get whatever sound you want? All of these BOSS pedals are from the 80's. What modern guitar processor do you recommend today?
I love pedals, but hate cables. I went the Spark amp route for practicing and experimenting with all the virtual pedal sounds. For more intricate stuff, I go to the GR-55. Every effect known is built in, as well as amp sims. Not to mention the multitudes of the other instruments you can emulate. It is complex, but with practice, you can really expand your sound beyond belief. It's even possible to change tunings on the fly, or build multiple effects into the sweep of the expression/volume pedal. It's virtually limitless.
Yes, love this! This is gonna be a great series, looking forward to future installments 🤘🏻🔥 I actually got goosebumps when you played that Fade to Black riff. I can almost feel the excitement you had when you first used that pedal. I wish I had some pedals, I just know I'd spend so much time messing around with them haha, would enjoy it immensely. Alas I only have a single Boss tuning pedal. I think I'd need a tube amp to use them with too, I don't actually know how well pedals work with digital amps. I'm pretty certain I've settled on a Boss Ce 2 Chorus pedal being the first one I get. That being said my treasured Blackstar Silverline amp has effects built in like the multi effects unit you mention in the video. I love it so much. Most recently I was having a go at Fleetwood Macs Albatross experimenting with the reverb it features 😊
cool vid i liked this one. Made me reminisce of my time back in the early 2000s of scraping money together to get an Ibanez Tone King to play through my solid state Crate. Good times
I was looking forward to a deep dive into all your pedals, but that might be an hour+ long video! lol. I never cared much about pedals. I've owned a guitar for 24 years and owned 6 pedals. Around 2004 I bought a Digitech GSP 2101 rackmount, fell in love with it, and swore off pedals. Fast forward to May 2022- I wanted some crazy sounds and went the pedal route. One year and another 49 pedals later, I have more GAS than Al Bundy. As someone who is currently struggling with the addiction, I look forward to your series.
Best distortion pedal I ever heard is the Hyper Distortion by Tone Woks/Korg. Best Chorus pedal I ever heard is the Rocktron Tsunami. Found a new chorus pedal though that is different than the Tsunami but I liked way more than every other pedal including the MXR and the $200 pedals - it was the purple NUX analog chorus - for $59. I'm one of the guys that turns all the pedals on at the same time. The last time I did it about a month and a half ago, a UFO crashed in Vegas and there were 8 foot aliens walking around some guy's yard. Sorry about that - it 's the signal, it can be really disruptive. Lew Zealand Lives - He's the Muppet that always says 'Here's the paper towels!' You could send your grandmother a video of him if you think she would have a sense of humor about it.
I think I have that CE2. It's definitely that color. I have the Line 6 metal pedal. It's decent. If I was good enough to upgrade I'd get a line 6 POD or something.
The Line 6 metal pedal was probably my first distortion pedal I bought. I still have the original Spider 2x10 combo that has the built in effects and I used those for years. I've bought a few distortion pedals recently, and my favorite has become the LPD Eighty7. It doesn't have the extra effects the POD has, but it has an awesome Marshall sound thru the red channel! If you're looking for a distortion pedal only- check those out.
ahh the good ole days when you had to save up for a year to buy a Boss pedal :) (my first and only Boss pedal as a youngster was the DS-1 ... I switched to DOD because they were cheaper)
I build my own tube amplifiers and constantly experiencing with different tone controls you can have the best amplifier and speakers but you have to know how to play ,I personally don’t play but I have had friends test mine and are blown away from some of the tones they can get compared to there amps Small amps are great for recording and getting clean and good break up with full control
I switched to bass to join a band before I had a chance to collect much gear. Years later I found amp sims and all that, I’ve still never really owned much hardware gear for guitar. I would have pissed that money away in other ways lol
I remember going into a local music store near Atlanta when I was about Fourteen and asking how can I get that liquid sound and the guy at the music store knew exactly what I was talking about, that's when I learned it was called chorus, up until that day I always referred to it as that liquid or watery sound,, I've never been able to afford many effects petals but I still have my old Cry Baby Wah from about 25 years ago, I can't really use it anymore because it makes a horrible buzzing sound when it's in the off position, and I also have an old DigiTech RP 6 from the mid-90s itstillworks but it definitely sounds dated, but I play through my Fender Mustang V2, it works well for bedroom purposes when I'm in my bedroom playing with myself😁
I did start with a multi fx but not one that's anything like the newer ones that have everything it was a boss me-5 that had compression, overdrive, distortion, EQ, chorus,flanger,reverb and delay and a noise gate I had just that for awhile until I got a crybaby wah then the delay and reverb stopped working on it so I got a Digitech two second delay then found a ehx small stone phaser for five bucks and a boss hyper metal for five bucks and around this time my boss me-5 was in bad shape so I was stuck with just the pedals for awhile
My guitar teacher turned me on to a mustard color mxr distortion plus.. My first song on it was a Santana song.. I had a pro co ratt, a boss distortion feedbacker, a ross, most of my pedals got lost, traded, stolen them all except the old ross which is like the mxr I liked the mxr the best (no noticeble change in eq.. when you switch to distortion ... I recently bought a clone OCD.. And Man the variations of kind of distortions that you can get with that thing are phenomenal. But I still like the old mxr mustard color distortion for its simplicity and over all even volume/EQ.. Some distortions pedals I just step on and know i cant deal with having to adjust to lower the changes in the punch or bring up or down the volume while playing... because the effect changed those levels.. Try a y box after any effects pedal and an AB before the whole string of pedals and go through try each one out and youll see what I mean about volume and eq level changes which could. Affect the overall performance of a song... You could also use this volume/eq check for when using 2 or more pedals in your string of pedals.. Cause 1 might affect the other..
I had the HM-2 way back when as well and I loved that pedal. To get the Metallica MoP tone, a friend of mine suggested putting the two middle color mix buttons buttons at 1-2 o'clock and 10-11 o'clock respectively so that it looked kinda like (/) (\) on them... and I thought it was a pretty good approximation of the tone given the gear I had ... and of course level and distortion were always maxed out! LoL!
I'll take em, I've got 3 behringers sitting indoors I'm broke😂 not bad but they are definitely not boss pedals. I'd say they are rather tester gear. Thanks for introducing us to testament,can't believe I'd never heard of em b4
So I think your story with pedals is kinda how it was-for me with video-games in the early 90s. My family didn’t have a ton of money so what you got was what you had to play regardless of if it was good or not. I feel that caused us to get the most out it cause you were so limited in options. But then you find a friend that has all the good stuff and you hang out with them and build up your preferences that way and buy what you like later. Now I thin the options and accessibility kinda cause it to be harder to focus on just one particular thing. As far as if having all these pedals is a bad thibg,if you got the money and space for them and having all of them isn’t spreading you too thin with your sounds ,then I think it’s ok.
Ahh yes my guitar pedal journey began with me wanting to sound like Metallica but not being able to afford a mesa boogie. I really wanted the metal zone when it first came out but I ended up getting the zoom 505 because it had a bunch of other effects. Eventually I did get the metal zone and I just used the zoom for my clean sounds for the longest time lol
I have a slight obsession with grit pedals. I have 4 levels of grit and I might get one more, a Rat clone. I don't mind the clean sound, especially for intros or mellow songs. I honestly have several cheap pedals like a Joyo Tube Screamer clone, Sonicake fuzz pedal and a Mooer Groove looper. I also have a Dunlop mini-wah, and the Boss DS-2 (same as yours in the video and Gawd I love that pedal). As a Weezer and Nirvana fan this pedal is must have. I think a more compact and limited pedal board is preferable, that way I don't become paralyzed by choice. As long as the pedal sounds good with my rig the brand means nothing.
Mine started with having GFX4 pedal unit and not getting Pink Floyd sound. All sounded 'plastic' to me, and to this day digital stuff does. I'll always be sucker to old dark warm analog (and tube) sound. I'm a tone chaser.
My first pedal was a cheap-ass Super Overdrive clone and a DS-1 Distortion clone, that cost like a third of the real ones. That has escalated to me now having about 20 different pedals, most of them more expensive while still cheap-ish. My favorite is easily the real SD-1 Super Overdrive and my SD-2 Dual Overdrive (which I'm actually working on creating a hybrid of where the Dual Overdrive's Crunch channel is replaced with a Super Overdrive, just so I can have both circuits in one box, because I find the SD-2 Crunch channel a bit thin-sounding).
Zomg, my first pedal was also a Boss Heavy Metal... from the Pied Piper in Huntington, WVa. I was extremely disappointed in how it sounded through my tiny Peavey amp and traded it in towards a Crybaby. Honestly, I don't miss it. 😂
For the longest time, I was pretty much obsessed with delay loops. Then I realized I was too obsessed and now I don't do them nearly often enough and have basically the opposite problem. Still, it's amazing to me how so rarely people seem to rely on delay loops. Fripp obviously does it, and I won't say no one else does, but it's just a bit odd how underused the general technique is. I guess guitarists feel it's cheating, but they shouldn't care about that.
If you love delay tones you should check out the band Circa Survive if you haven’t. Their two guitars players have used extensive delay their entire career. Incredibly unique tones
Pedals are definitely an unhealth addiction for me. I'm pretty sure I have adult A.D.D., so it's hard to stick to a routine like practicing, but I keep my eye out on places like craigslist and facebook marketplace for good deals and buy anything that might be fun. I noodle for a bit, figure out some riffs that work with the effect, then put it on the shelf. I probably have >$1k worth of pedals now. The good news is that I paid 50-60% of that by being a cheap bastard. I tried doing the multi-effects pedal thing in the beginning, but just had difficulty making the mental connections of what effect each effect sounded like and what adjustments to those effects would get me somewhere fun. I just want to fiddle with knobs that do (mostly) one thing!
Amazing video. Sorry for asking you this question for probably the sixteenth time, but can you please do two artist series style videos. One on Trivium’s Matt Heafy and Corey Beaulieu, the second on Linkin Park’s Brad Delson. I know that you’re probably sick and tired of seeing my comments on your incredible videos constantly asking for these specific videos. Any, keep up the great work Mike.
Mike just didn't say the HM-2 is "not the best sounding pedal" ... Well beside my obsession for the HM-2 chainsaw sound I might have a mild GAS towards pedals. But I most be honest with you guys: a pedal most sound good but well I also like the graphics on them (looking at you Walrus and KMA). Of course I check out demos online and often times I'm reasonable not wanting to buy everything because I don't really need it or already have a similar pedal. Still I bought a Slö mostly because I liked the art. Not saying it's a bad pedal, but I'm not to big of an ambient guy and a Hall of Fame probably would have done it for me. Anyway, exited for the series, maybe my modulation collection will grow a bit :D
I suffer from the same addiction I just love guitar pedals I switched from heroin to guitar effects pedals now I go in debt just to get pedals I might not even necessarily need I just want to make sure I have every effect out there then it was different flavors of the same effect and now I'm getting hard to find expensive stuff built and I get a lot of good stuff but some lemons and every time I think I'm done something else pops up
My first pedal was the awesome Metal Zone in '98 or so. I wouldn't buy another pedal for 20 more years. Most of the pedals I have now are under 40 bucks. My pedal board is on a slide out keyboard tray so they are at arms reach. I only play sitting down and my back doesn't enjoy me bending over to reach the ground. I also only play into my computer where I have many other "pedals" in my DAW.
Well, if nothing, there are really affordable pedals these days that can sound really good.. 7:11 never liked chorus (at least one pedal to not obsess about:P) and that Custom rings beautifully by it's own
I never had an issue with pedal hoarding until the advent of great sounding, super affordable pedals coming out of china. It's so much easier to justify indulging the desire to experiment with loads of different pedals when they only cost maybe $30 each. 😅
It's definitely a healthy obsession! I slaved away with my DS-1 while I drooled over our lead players RAT. After a while I had my own RAT but then he showed up with a Turbo RAT! My RAT still sounded better 😁😁
You can donate pedals here ....😅
Right? I can't even afford one 🙆
I second that.
I'm poor 🙋♂️
I love hearing about your stories from back in the day. As a Gen Z guitarist some stories sound similar to my journey but most of them are way different and they make me realize how lucky I am.
It is so weird all the common threads so many of us guitar players from the 90s share. Love it.
Pedals are an endless rabbit hole. And because so many of them are "cheap," it's way easier to justify their purchase than a guitar or amp. I just bought a Boss Bass Chorus pedal. After taxes and shipping, it was "only" $75. At any given time, I always have $75 I could theoretically spend. So that's why I've ended up with a ton of pedals.
I love this video! I have the same memories with my first pedal "Metal Charger MS10" I still have it 27 years later.
I love the stories of how young Mike discovered his first pedals. Reminds me a bit of discovering rock through the Columbia music club catalogue and the back of album covers. I hope you keep the personal stories going as you go down the upcoming pedal series.
My very first pedal was a boss od2 I got from my local pawn shop. At first I loved it but it really wasn't the distortion that I wanted and I stopped using it for over a decade. I hung onto it for nostalgia though and a few years ago plugged it in again to see if my tastes had changed...lo and behold it sounds awesome to me now! So glad I kept it.
Nice work Mike. This is bringing me back to getting my first distortion sounds. Horns up mate. Cheers.
Really looking forward to the pedal series.
Already super excited. Hearing the difference between the dry sound and the pedal sound really took me back.
HM-2 is one of the best distortion pedals, when you use it with tons of effects. Also good with bass if you mix it with some clean sound
I had the standard DS-1, Plumes, Big Muff, and Phase 90, but it wasn't until I picked up an EQD Astral Destiny that I started to see what weird pedals can do... that really started my journey down the pedal rabbit hole!
My obsession started with looking for that "clean" distortion, and how cool DOD pedals looked in the 80's. lol I started with a $90 Profile guitar (wrong handed so played upside down) and a $90 used Squier SKX 15 amp. The gain was not the best, and I wanted that sound that screamed metal distortion, but still allowed you to hear your notes when playing fast rather than just a wall of sound. So my mother, whom I dearly love, decided to aid me on my quest and bought me my first pedal . . . the DOD Death Metal pedal! lmao. To be fair, she did see me drooling over it in the music store. I think its only ever been used twice. I am happy to say that I still own all that original gear!
I have always been a tone chaser and besides the classic BOSS distortion pedal a must have was a digital delay. The BOSS was too expensive so I bought the Ibanez sound tank delay. I too also had the compressor sustainer and chorus.
Great video as always.
My chain is as follows-
Kliq tuner- Michael Amott Wah (switchable with Dimebag Wah)- MXR Noise Clamp- (MXR loop)(Joyo Nebulous phaser- DOD Carcosa fuzz- Friedman BE-OD- EXH Hot Tubes- Caitalinbread Sabbra Cadabra- Earthquaker Plumes- Tc Eyemaster Distortion)end loop- Tc Hypergrav Comp- TC Dreamscape multi modulation- Dr J Shadow Echo (tape delay)-Pigtronix Constellator (delay w/chorus)-TC Mimiq Doubler. I just bought a Sub’n’Up Octave Pedal too but I’m not sure where to put it yet.
The HM-2 was my first pedal in the early 90s, then the CE-2. I remember playing all those riffs and trading in pedals, thanks for the memories lol!
I had always been a Fender-combo-dimed-out kind of guy to achieve what I thought was the best guitar sound. But then after seeing Frank Marino play live through the most immense pedal board I had ever seen before, he made me realize the otherworldly possibilities of tastefully applied effects.
great story, thanks for share
I never quite understood pedals. I had my ds1 distortion boss and was happy with it, but now that I've heard how beautiful they can make your guitar sound, I think I'll be obsessed with the pedals as well.
Jump in, the water's fine! 🙂
My first pedal was the HM2. Got it for Christmas in '86. I had been playing my Cort guitar straight into a 15 watt solid state for months. When I hit a chord with the distortion pedal for the first time, I thought, "Man, I sound just like Jimi Hendrix." I've never forgotten that feeling.
My first pro guitar rig was a 68 SG standard, 68 Fender Bandmaster withJBL’s, an original Big Muff pi, and a Lafayette wah pedal! No need for a chord crunch pedal, just ran the amp 10 on everything!
I am SO stoked for this! Confession: I own one pedal and don't use it - I think you made me an addict!
I'd highly recommend: wah, flange, looper, chorus, distortion, fuzz, delay.
If you don't have these textures, many songs you wanna learn won't be doable.
That was my first pedal too. I remember the absolute dread of looking down at your pedal and seeing it STILL plugged in from yesterday! Noooooo....Those 9 volt's were expensive.
I can appreciate being envious of people with a multi-effects pedal when you have to scrimp and save, or trade, to get a new pedal. But I think there's a huge benefit to having less. A lot of benefits, actually. For one thing, you learn to appreciate what you have when it's all you have. Especially when you're first learning about effects. The trouble with multi-effects is that you have SO many options, you rarely spend enough time exploring one effect, and fine-tuning. And you can get so wrapped up in playing with the different sounds that you neglect the music.
I often think about a story Slash tells about his first guitar. It was a cheap LP clone with one string that he found in his grandma's closet (or something like that). But instead of saying "I'll start playing when I get some new strings," he fuckin' played that one string until an opportunity came along to upgrade. And people who grew up with him talk about how he always had a guitar in his hands. That's dedication. That's love. Obsession. Devotion.
I started playing in 1985- Boss was king but I couldn't afford them. I had a Harmony Les Paul knock off my self- it was black with white trim. But I didn't have a PA-- I had a 30-dollar solid state amp- a speaker with a volume knob on it. No distortion or anything- literally just a speaker with one volume knob which was also the on/off control. But- my mother felt so bad for me that she went and bought me a Peavey Rage 80- which had a distortion channel on it. I was in heaven man- but my experience with pedals was completely different than yours.
I couldn't afford Boss so I got a Rocktek Distortion pedal- with the hot pink battery cover on it- I still have it, it still works. It was bought in 1988- it's made of plastic, costed 30 bucks I think- and it still works. Anyway- because I already had the Peavey rage- the distortion on my amp was light years better than the Rocktek pedal- which sounds like a box of angry bees. So- I just didn't buy anymore pedals- literally, not until I was 50 years old. Which was just a couple years ago. I started watching some pedal shows on UA-cam- decided to give them another shot- and fell in love with them. They keep me from getting bored- which I tend to do now that I no longer play with a band and just play at home. But yeah, the whole time I played in a blues band- on Beale Street- I had no pedals. No one I played with used pedals- occasionally I would see a boost or reverb pedal but- I had a good reverb on my amp and I played either clean or just slightly broken up all the time- never needed anything else. Oh, the board we played through did have compression and delay on it- I used that, but not in pedal format.
I'm definitely fascinated with pedals. I find them very useful for recording since I can use (mostly) the same guitar and just swap out pedals in front of the Fractal Fm3. A lot of the most interesting pedals are ones that have a character not captured in a plugin or modeler.
If I was gigging only, I probably wouldn't be too concerned with them. But I dunno, pedals are fun ✌️
They story about the pedal book you memorized reminds me of my childhood so much. I was into skateboarding and fishing and i would get bass pro shops catalogs and ccs skateshop catalogs and memorize everything in them. The prices, the specifications for everything, had it all memorized. I think thats just how an addicts brain works.
i remember i was with my friend at school, and one of my friends had bass amp, i plugged my guitar into it and give me this crystal bell sound. it was beautiful
Oh man the old GC in Roseville. When they were next to Hollywood video. I miss that gc. It was never the same after they moved.
Yep, I remember the old GC store. I was in the south metro, so I went to a music store called Knut Koupee in Apple Valley.
Amen!
I almost forgot about good ol' Nut Cup! hehe
I loved my Super Distortion/feedbacker. It was my favorite.
Back in the late 80's I certainly remember looking in awe at all the various pedals in the local music store (Carlsbro, Nottingham) glass cabinet, being a bass player I obviously wanted a DS-1 to get something like Cliff Burtons sound but couldn't afford it. Just had to borrow my guitarist mates one.
Stumbled across the Boss BE-5B in a second hand store one day at a good price which started me down the road of effects pedal ownership.
BOSS is boss when it comes to pedals (imo)…no shade to other brands or stomp boxes. All of them bring a different flavor/tweaking of their own to the mix. 🤘🏼
My first pedal was the dod grunge pedal, loved it so much
I remember that Roseville store. Weird shaped building. My 1st pedal was a DOD supra distortion through a fender bandmaster.
Awesome! I just find it soo fascinating that I can make my guitar have so many different tones. I'm looking for that Alex Lifeson tone right now, I've been listening to Rush since I was 5 and I've always wanted to sound like them. I'm super excited for these pedal lessons! 🎸 ❤️🔥 my next pedal is going to be a blues drive, but I have a long list of ones I 'need' haha 😄 🤘🏻
I’ve never been big on pedals. However. I got a digitech processor that had a harmonizer and tons of other great effects and that was a super cool step up. In pretty much depend on my amp distortion. I have a Marshall Code 100 that I love. And a Roland G212
and a Crate GLX 212
Nice!! Had a Rockman distortion generator through a Crate G-20 when i was a teen...Greatest sound ever through a cheap amp!!
I had a similar experience but with DOD pedals. Surprisingly one of the more impactful pedals was the lowly EQ, man that made a huge difference.
I eventually graduated on to a digitech RP-1 which just blew my mind. No way I was ever going back to pedals again.
Well, I also have a pedal obsession, I just don't have the money to get them now. Good video, man. It represents a whole bunch of us.
cool video. my pedal obsession started after I watched a van halen guitar lesson vhs. all the different sounds and techniques he did with the pedals made me want to get a phaser, flanger, delay. my friend played the fade to black intro on his crate amp that had a built in chorus and that got me into chorus pedals.
Love that call of ktulu riff in the intro of the video.
You are so cool Mike! I love your videos! 🎸🎸
I have the CS-3 compression sustainer and the CH-1 super chorus. I used to have a decent rack-mount delay that had a foot switch and presets and was programmable but it went “Poof” one day. That was a great sounding effects setup. I miss my delay. Sad face.
I remember jamming bush power chords on my acoustic-electric into a tiny dean markley amp, later a fender champ with the DSP effects in it- but before that I couldn't get that distortion sound and honestly once I found it and at a small practice volume, you can hear the acoustic and feel the acoustic under or along with the distortion sound and that was actually a killer blend.
I enjoy pedals - collecting them and experimenting with them. My first was the Metal Core, and my latest is the Highway 77 (made in Mpls) which arrived today. I'm subscribed to a few youtube pedal demo channels, and buy too many of them. ;D
Yup, I bought that same Heavy Metal pedal in the 90s. 🤔But isn't there an "All-in-One" effects pedal that can be programmed to get whatever sound you want? All of these BOSS pedals are from the 80's. What modern guitar processor do you recommend today?
I love pedals, but hate cables. I went the Spark amp route for practicing and experimenting with all the virtual pedal sounds. For more intricate stuff, I go to the GR-55. Every effect known is built in, as well as amp sims. Not to mention the multitudes of the other instruments you can emulate. It is complex, but with practice, you can really expand your sound beyond belief. It's even possible to change tunings on the fly, or build multiple effects into the sweep of the expression/volume pedal. It's virtually limitless.
Yes, love this! This is gonna be a great series, looking forward to future installments 🤘🏻🔥
I actually got goosebumps when you played that Fade to Black riff. I can almost feel the excitement you had when you first used that pedal.
I wish I had some pedals, I just know I'd spend so much time messing around with them haha, would enjoy it immensely. Alas I only have a single Boss tuning pedal. I think I'd need a tube amp to use them with too, I don't actually know how well pedals work with digital amps.
I'm pretty certain I've settled on a Boss Ce 2 Chorus pedal being the first one I get.
That being said my treasured Blackstar Silverline amp has effects built in like the multi effects unit you mention in the video. I love it so much. Most recently I was having a go at Fleetwood Macs Albatross experimenting with the reverb it features 😊
cool vid i liked this one. Made me reminisce of my time back in the early 2000s of scraping money together to get an Ibanez Tone King to play through my solid state Crate. Good times
I was looking forward to a deep dive into all your pedals, but that might be an hour+ long video! lol. I never cared much about pedals. I've owned a guitar for 24 years and owned 6 pedals. Around 2004 I bought a Digitech GSP 2101 rackmount, fell in love with it, and swore off pedals. Fast forward to May 2022- I wanted some crazy sounds and went the pedal route. One year and another 49 pedals later, I have more GAS than Al Bundy.
As someone who is currently struggling with the addiction, I look forward to your series.
Best distortion pedal I ever heard is the Hyper Distortion by Tone Woks/Korg. Best Chorus pedal I ever heard is the Rocktron Tsunami. Found a new chorus pedal though that is different than the Tsunami but I liked way more than every other pedal including the MXR and the $200 pedals - it was the purple NUX analog chorus - for $59. I'm one of the guys that turns all the pedals on at the same time. The last time I did it about a month and a half ago, a UFO crashed in Vegas and there were 8 foot aliens walking around some guy's yard. Sorry about that - it 's the signal, it can be really disruptive. Lew Zealand Lives - He's the Muppet that always says 'Here's the paper towels!' You could send your grandmother a video of him if you think she would have a sense of humor about it.
I think I have that CE2. It's definitely that color.
I have the Line 6 metal pedal. It's decent.
If I was good enough to upgrade I'd get a line 6 POD or something.
The Line 6 metal pedal was probably my first distortion pedal I bought. I still have the original Spider 2x10 combo that has the built in effects and I used those for years. I've bought a few distortion pedals recently, and my favorite has become the LPD Eighty7. It doesn't have the extra effects the POD has, but it has an awesome Marshall sound thru the red channel! If you're looking for a distortion pedal only- check those out.
ahh the good ole days when you had to save up for a year to buy a Boss pedal :) (my first and only Boss pedal as a youngster was the DS-1 ... I switched to DOD because they were cheaper)
I build my own tube amplifiers and constantly experiencing with different tone controls you can have the best amplifier and speakers but you have to know how to play ,I personally don’t play but I have had friends test mine and are blown away from some of the tones they can get compared to there amps
Small amps are great for recording and getting clean and good break up with full control
These types of videos are your best…
I switched to bass to join a band before I had a chance to collect much gear. Years later I found amp sims and all that, I’ve still never really owned much hardware gear for guitar. I would have pissed that money away in other ways lol
I have that same HM pedal, got in mid 80's.
I remember going into a local music store near Atlanta when I was about Fourteen and asking how can I get that liquid sound and the guy at the music store knew exactly what I was talking about, that's when I learned it was called chorus, up until that day I always referred to it as that liquid or watery sound,, I've never been able to afford many effects petals but I still have my old Cry Baby Wah from about 25 years ago, I can't really use it anymore because it makes a horrible buzzing sound when it's in the off position, and I also have an old DigiTech RP 6 from the mid-90s itstillworks but it definitely sounds dated, but I play through my Fender Mustang V2, it works well for bedroom purposes when I'm in my bedroom playing with myself😁
My first pedal was the DOD FX56 American Metal. I traded what was probably a $500 Yamaha trumpet I played in school band for it.
Sick Sabbath shirt! 🤘
I did start with a multi fx but not one that's anything like the newer ones that have everything it was a boss me-5 that had compression, overdrive, distortion, EQ, chorus,flanger,reverb and delay and a noise gate I had just that for awhile until I got a crybaby wah then the delay and reverb stopped working on it so I got a Digitech two second delay then found a ehx small stone phaser for five bucks and a boss hyper metal for five bucks and around this time my boss me-5 was in bad shape so I was stuck with just the pedals for awhile
Nice work. Thought the HM-2 sounded better than the Turbo.
It's inspired me to break out my HM-3 today and discover what it can do.
My guitar teacher turned me on to a mustard color mxr distortion plus..
My first song on it was a Santana song..
I had a pro co ratt, a boss distortion feedbacker, a ross, most of my pedals got lost, traded, stolen them all except the old ross which is like the mxr I liked the mxr the best (no noticeble change in eq.. when you switch to distortion ...
I recently bought a clone OCD..
And Man the variations of kind of distortions that you can get with that thing are phenomenal.
But I still like the old mxr mustard color distortion for its simplicity and over all even volume/EQ..
Some distortions pedals I just step on and know i cant deal with having to adjust to lower the changes in the punch or bring up or down the volume while playing... because the effect changed those levels..
Try a y box after any effects pedal and an AB before the whole string of pedals and go through try each one out and youll see what I mean about volume and eq level changes which could. Affect the overall performance of a song...
You could also use this volume/eq check for when using 2 or more pedals in your string of pedals..
Cause 1 might affect the other..
I had the HM-2 way back when as well and I loved that pedal. To get the Metallica MoP tone, a friend of mine suggested putting the two middle color mix buttons buttons at 1-2 o'clock and 10-11 o'clock respectively so that it looked kinda like (/) (\) on them... and I thought it was a pretty good approximation of the tone given the gear I had ... and of course level and distortion were always maxed out! LoL!
Phenomenal story telling
That's why I have a multi-fx, and a wah. The only other pedals I want is a DigiTech whammy and a talkbox.
I'll take em, I've got 3 behringers sitting indoors I'm broke😂 not bad but they are definitely not boss pedals. I'd say they are rather tester gear. Thanks for introducing us to testament,can't believe I'd never heard of em b4
My first pedal was an mxr Distortion +. Two knobs. I wish I still had it.
So I think your story with pedals is kinda how it was-for me with video-games in the early 90s. My family didn’t have a ton of money so what you got was what you had to play regardless of if it was good or not. I feel that caused us to get the most out it cause you were so limited in options. But then you find a friend that has all the good stuff and you hang out with them and build up your preferences that way and buy what you like later. Now I thin the options and accessibility kinda cause it to be harder to focus on just one particular thing. As far as if having all these pedals is a bad thibg,if you got the money and space for them and having all of them isn’t spreading you too thin with your sounds ,then I think it’s ok.
Sry for the ramble
Agree! Option paralysis is a real thing haha. Sometimes less is more.
Also... I love your profile pic LOL. Very cultured 😅
@@ReizokoRyu 👉👌👉👌👉👌👉👌
Ahh yes my guitar pedal journey began with me wanting to sound like Metallica but not being able to afford a mesa boogie. I really wanted the metal zone when it first came out but I ended up getting the zoom 505 because it had a bunch of other effects. Eventually I did get the metal zone and I just used the zoom for my clean sounds for the longest time lol
Damn, 505 was my 3rd pedal!
I have a slight obsession with grit pedals. I have 4 levels of grit and I might get one more, a Rat clone. I don't mind the clean sound, especially for intros or mellow songs. I honestly have several cheap pedals like a Joyo Tube Screamer clone, Sonicake fuzz pedal and a Mooer Groove looper. I also have a Dunlop mini-wah, and the Boss DS-2 (same as yours in the video and Gawd I love that pedal). As a Weezer and Nirvana fan this pedal is must have. I think a more compact and limited pedal board is preferable, that way I don't become paralyzed by choice. As long as the pedal sounds good with my rig the brand means nothing.
Loved this!
Mine started with having GFX4 pedal unit and not getting Pink Floyd sound. All sounded 'plastic' to me, and to this day digital stuff does. I'll always be sucker to old dark warm analog (and tube) sound. I'm a tone chaser.
Since covid I started building a pedal board and It's hard to stop buying and redoing my board.
Please Mike please, make more videos talking about this kind of stuff
I just got a Tube Screamer. Can't wait to get it from Sweetwater.
DS-2 my first, I still have it 😎
My first pedal was a cheap-ass Super Overdrive clone and a DS-1 Distortion clone, that cost like a third of the real ones. That has escalated to me now having about 20 different pedals, most of them more expensive while still cheap-ish. My favorite is easily the real SD-1 Super Overdrive and my SD-2 Dual Overdrive (which I'm actually working on creating a hybrid of where the Dual Overdrive's Crunch channel is replaced with a Super Overdrive, just so I can have both circuits in one box, because I find the SD-2 Crunch channel a bit thin-sounding).
Really enjoyed the back story
I got so absorbed in watching this video that I almost missed the delivery of my newest pedal 🤣
Zomg, my first pedal was also a Boss Heavy Metal... from the Pied Piper in Huntington, WVa. I was extremely disappointed in how it sounded through my tiny Peavey amp and traded it in towards a Crybaby. Honestly, I don't miss it. 😂
For the longest time, I was pretty much obsessed with delay loops. Then I realized I was too obsessed and now I don't do them nearly often enough and have basically the opposite problem. Still, it's amazing to me how so rarely people seem to rely on delay loops. Fripp obviously does it, and I won't say no one else does, but it's just a bit odd how underused the general technique is. I guess guitarists feel it's cheating, but they shouldn't care about that.
If you love delay tones you should check out the band Circa Survive if you haven’t. Their two guitars players have used extensive delay their entire career. Incredibly unique tones
You're a great storyteller
For me back in the late 80s it was the MXR Phase90 and the Crybaby
The HM-2 sounds best when all the settings are maxed. Swedes made great use of that "chainsaw" sound back in the 90s.
Very nice.
Pedals are definitely an unhealth addiction for me. I'm pretty sure I have adult A.D.D., so it's hard to stick to a routine like practicing, but I keep my eye out on places like craigslist and facebook marketplace for good deals and buy anything that might be fun. I noodle for a bit, figure out some riffs that work with the effect, then put it on the shelf. I probably have >$1k worth of pedals now. The good news is that I paid 50-60% of that by being a cheap bastard.
I tried doing the multi-effects pedal thing in the beginning, but just had difficulty making the mental connections of what effect each effect sounded like and what adjustments to those effects would get me somewhere fun. I just want to fiddle with knobs that do (mostly) one thing!
Amazing video. Sorry for asking you this question for probably the sixteenth time, but can you please do two artist series style videos. One on Trivium’s Matt Heafy and Corey Beaulieu, the second on Linkin Park’s Brad Delson. I know that you’re probably sick and tired of seeing my comments on your incredible videos constantly asking for these specific videos. Any, keep up the great work Mike.
Mike just didn't say the HM-2 is "not the best sounding pedal" ... Well beside my obsession for the HM-2 chainsaw sound I might have a mild GAS towards pedals. But I most be honest with you guys: a pedal most sound good but well I also like the graphics on them (looking at you Walrus and KMA). Of course I check out demos online and often times I'm reasonable not wanting to buy everything because I don't really need it or already have a similar pedal. Still I bought a Slö mostly because I liked the art. Not saying it's a bad pedal, but I'm not to big of an ambient guy and a Hall of Fame probably would have done it for me. Anyway, exited for the series, maybe my modulation collection will grow a bit :D
I suffer from the same addiction I just love guitar pedals I switched from heroin to guitar effects pedals now I go in debt just to get pedals I might not even necessarily need I just want to make sure I have every effect out there then it was different flavors of the same effect and now I'm getting hard to find expensive stuff built and I get a lot of good stuff but some lemons and every time I think I'm done something else pops up
The first two pedals I got were the same as the ones you got!
love u art of guitar
My first pedal was the awesome Metal Zone in '98 or so. I wouldn't buy another pedal for 20 more years. Most of the pedals I have now are under 40 bucks. My pedal board is on a slide out keyboard tray so they are at arms reach. I only play sitting down and my back doesn't enjoy me bending over to reach the ground. I also only play into my computer where I have many other "pedals" in my DAW.
Well, if nothing, there are really affordable pedals these days that can sound really good..
7:11 never liked chorus (at least one pedal to not obsess about:P) and that Custom rings beautifully by it's own
The original HM-2 had a midrange parametric sweep.
now i want to get into peddles MIKE!!!
I never had an issue with pedal hoarding until the advent of great sounding, super affordable pedals coming out of china. It's so much easier to justify indulging the desire to experiment with loads of different pedals when they only cost maybe $30 each. 😅
It's definitely a healthy obsession! I slaved away with my DS-1 while I drooled over our lead players RAT. After a while I had my own RAT but then he showed up with a Turbo RAT! My RAT still sounded better 😁😁
That Les Paul is gorgeous
Some bad ass toys you got there my friend