bnm_lord wrote:

When you EQ, it's better to cut rather than boosting. Instead of saying ''There's not enough of that frequency'', you have to say ''There's too much of that frequency''. It takes some practice as we normally think about boosting first, but it pays. If you've got 3 instruments with a boost at 150Hz, it just doesn't work...

Oh yes, absolutely. That's THE golden rule in equalizing and mixing.
Professional sound engineers rarely boost frequencies, and when they do, it is in very small increments. But they do cut off a whole lot of them, sometime very radically!

Got some new gear, so I though I'd share it with you.


Fender Hot Rod Deluxe 40 watts tube amp

- effect loop
- 3 channels : clean, drive (overdrive), more drive (distortion)
- only one EQ for all the channels (bass, mid, high, presence)
- reverb (duh...)
- 2 inputs
- ''bright'' boost on the clean channel
- One 12” 8-ohm speaker
- Made in USA

All right, this is one of Fender's best seller...

- Clean sound is a good, warm and quite neutral sound. Perfect for gearsluts such as me who like to plug three million pedals in-line between their guitar and their amp. It handles stompboxes really well and also sounds good alone. ''Bright'' switch is very useful. Overall, it's a very good clean sound.

- Overdrive is good. That's all...

- Distortion... is terrible for rhythm playing, but very good for solos. God, that speaker is terrible ! You have to put this amp to a ridiculously high level to get a decent distortion. So I still use my distortion pedals on the clean sound and it sounds really good.

- EQ is not very effective on the drive channel. You have to go for extreme settings if you really want to hear the difference. The presence knob is useless under 10 (maximum is 12).

- Reverb is all you'd expect from a Fender amp.


This amp really fits my need as a guy having a lot of stompboxes. Although, I'd be happier if I had a good amp distortion and a better speaker. It can go very loud (and I mean LOUD), so it's perfect for shows and practice.

Last edited by bnm_lord (February 20, 2008 1:47 am)

Electro-Harmonix Big Muff Pi (American Reissue)

- Analog disortion/sustain pedal
- Volume, Tone, Sustain
- Input, Output
- True bypass

Legendary pedal = legendary tone. This has been one of the most sought-after pedal for more than 30 years.

First, this is more of a fuzz pedal. A bit cleaner than most fuzz pedals, but still really dirty and with endless sustain. The sond is very compressed, it gives a really dark and dirty distortion for rhythm, think early-Seattle (ex : the distorted guitar in Lithium by Nirvana). And the lead sound... gorgeous, for a minute, you sound like Jimmy Hendrix (ex : the opening lead in Backwater by the Meat Puppets).

Really simple pedal, not much to cover. It's just a great tone.

suggestion to anyone considering buying a fender jaguar/jazzmaster- get some fender mustang saddles installed in the bridge to replace the crappy ones that come fitted. i got mine (jap fender jaguar) changed for just £23, more than worth being able to play the guitar with any kind of force without the low e popping out of its groove and going out of tune. i love that guitar now. i honestly can't understand why on earth fender haven't seen sense and scrapped the original saddle design other than to be vintage accurate because i dont know anyone who doesn't think they suck and who would buy a crappy vintage accurate guitar over a half decent and very slightly updated one?

so yeah, cheap and simple mod for all none of you (probably) who want/have a jaguar or jazzmaster, which will make the guitar play almost as awesome as it looks.

(yeah this one is everywhere... but it really does work)

When I was looking for distortion my first stop was the DS-1 because well its legendary but I found it to be to farty that 70's black sabbath fuzz box sound ya know and now matter how I tinkered with it it just had that unbridled fart like tone so I switched to the metal zone and I suggest it despite its name it is the most versatile pedal I have seen...you can get anything from the lightest overdrive tone to thick tight metal distortion...and its only like $70 so its a great buy all hte distortion youll ever need.

Now on the subject of wah...most people again go for the legendary Cry Baby...which is great for good rock and roll wah...that Kirk Hammet, zakk wylde wah sound...but for a wah that has graet tone anywhere on the pedal: open,closed, anywhere in the middle go for the vox clyde mccoy...it has the nicest tone range of any wah i have tried....


anyway these are my essential pedals...there are more but those i the ones I would recommend....cause delay and such is all a matter of tase and use....but go with the boss dd-6 only cause they dont make the dd-3 anymore

Line 6 Podfarm

all in all it is GREAT for recording

allthough, if you want to have great sound very simply it is not for you.

advantages: a wide variety of sounds, the DUAL tone is very handy to, to have to different tones like running your guitar through to different amps, gets you a very full, wide sound.

drawbacks, your gonna have to shell out some money for the premium package and get the wide array of amps and cabs.

all in all its fantastic for clean tones, but the dist. tones your gonna have to REALLY tweak to get them how you want them, its taken me days to get some sound I've wanted but it is possible to get just about any tone you want, if you have the correct guitar for it of course, like getting the twangy country sound with a jackson or a les paul isn't going to happen, your going to need a telecaster. but you can get such a huge array of tones and sounds, and the effects are of course Top Notch line 6 quality. I've never tried hooking up dist. pedals or other effect pedals, I've only had experience with my cry baby i hooked up and the sound wasn't very good. although if you get a MIDI control you can use the WAH included with POD farm which are EXTREMELY good IMO.

but to get all the sound you want your going to have to shell out some serious money (about $400-500 american for the premium package i think?) but you get access to something like 70-ish amps over 100 cabs and 20 bass models i think, along with 5 or 6 pre-amps for vocals or microphone uses.

Also you get a TONEPORT (ux1, ux2, or ux8) which are AWESOME for small recording purposes. I would recommend a UX8, which gives you a MIDI keyboard, 8 microphone imputs, 2 guitar inputs, and lots of outputs to speakers, mixers and whatnot. I only have a UX2 but have thought about moving up to the UX8 to record drums without having to buy a seperate pricy mixer. Also UX2 and up have phantom power, very handy as you know.

All in all i love this product, use it for recording my guitar and vocals, but would use it for bass if I owned a bass, I'm on a tight 17 yr old budget spending all my money on gas to get to work lol. (among other things haha)

but don't exept to get the sound that they have up on the websites unless you have a degree in musical engineering becuase they have top quality pro mixers doctor it up to a professional level.  I'm sure you all know that but for the home recording or for demo, small band CD's it defenitly does the trick. I use it to this day I have some stuff on my myspace but the quality isn't that great ( i was still learning how to use it)


So i'd give it a 4.5 out of 5, bit of a learning/mixing curve, but a fantastic tool once you know how to use it, a POD right on your computer.

I'm happier than a clam in sand with my Digitech GNX4 DAW .



Besides the great stomp pedals ( 10 including a Ibanez Tube Screamer - DOD -Big Muff - and other must haves ) I have a mp3 player .

Also a complete FXs engine for both my guitar and my vocals ( yep it's got a XLRw/phantom power mic input  ) a tight midi drum machine .

8 track digital recorder . It's got a USB out which enables up to 4 tracks at once  to record , the unit alone records only 1or 2 tracks at once .

Midi ins and outs

R & L line inputs that can be modified sound wise with the FXs engine

XLR stereo out to P . A . or to a instrument input on a guitar amp(s)
1/4 stereo out to P . A . or to a instrument input on a guitar amp(s)

Use it to do live one man shows with it's looping capability .

Built like a tank  when it finally dies ( had it now 4 years ) it will make a great boat anchor  . Good tech service too from Digitech when I needed answers on it's operation .

And nope I am not a paid endorser for Digitech , I just love my GNX4 that's all .

Good luck

Hurricane Ramon

I am new on guitar pro but not with all things related to guitar and playing it ;) 
To OP, nice OD and distortion pedals that blend with an amps natural overdrive at any stage, and or sound great on a clean channel, sound great on Marshall or Fender types and are pedal friendly as well work well with singles or humbucker equipped guitars and finally sound professional?:

OD pedals:  TIM, timmy, Little Green Wonder, Eternity, Abunai2, Maxon OD-9 and other nine series overdrives and the hotcake.

distortion pedals:  Reezafratziz, Pisdiyauwot, Dynamic red distortion, vintage script MXR Distortion +, StageHog mini tube and pedal, Vintage TC electronic Distortion, line driver.

I have tried almost everything out there, and these above shined and I have most of them, too.

Last edited by cary chilton (August 25, 2010 8:52 pm)