Effects
I bought this pedal when I joined The Carl Palmer Band. When I heard Keith Emerson’s parts on the original ELP tunes I figured that a whammy pedal would be the best way to emulate his portamento keyboard effects and, moreover, help to make my guitar sound less guitary! There are also a few places where melodies go beyond the range of the guitar; I use the whammy pedal to easily play these otherwise impossible lines.
In addition to the simple octave up / octave down settings, the whammy pedal also offers chorus-type effects and harmonisation in 4ths, 5ths, etc… I use a number of these other settings throughout the set.
Simple and reliable. Has two modes – standard and knight rider (strobe).
Acts as a simple boss delay pedal with the added advantage of being able to store 4 preset patches. If you feel so inclined, the pedal is also crammed with different delay effects, meaning that you can; get all the weird sounds of an old analogue delay unit, hold various notes, warp delays (a very Emerson-esque effect) and even get the thing to act like a chorus pedal (as I discovered on my last outing with Neal Morse, when I was in desperate need of a chorus pedal, but was unable to get my hands on one).
This is Line 6’s answer to all things modulation. They’ve modelled classic flangers, choruses, phasers, rotary pedals, etc, etc, to give you a massive pallet of sounds to choose from. Again, I bought this pedal when I joined The Carl Palmer Band, but have since taken it out of my pedal-board (when I lost it’s power supply at a Neal Morse gig in London) as I found I could get the sounds I needed from my delay and whammy pedals.
A very cool vintage Boss pedal. Rarely used as a distortion pedal (although Neal Morse borrowed it from me for just that, for the duration of our last tour) instead, I use the pedal simply for its ‘Feedbacker’ function. The Feedbacker allows you to play a note, hold down the pedal (which causes its light to flash) and whatever note you were playing is then sustained until you release the pedal… ideal for sections in the set when very long sustained notes are required, meaning that I can hold the note on the pedal, take my hands off the guitar and wave them around whilst the note magically continues! I put this pedal in front of my volume pedal, enabling me to fade ‘feedback’ in and out, whilst always being sure of the specific pitch that will sound.
People often ask me about what distortion pedal I use… the answer is ‘I don’t’. I prefer to get all of my distortion from the amp, but if I ever need to squeeze a little bit more out of the amp, I use this pedal to push it harder (a compressor is basically a pedal which you can use to boost the signal from your guitar). The result is more of the amp’s natural distortion without having its sound coloured by a distortion pedal.
This is based on the classic ‘Cry Baby’ pedal, with the added feature of being able to adjust a few parameters, making the pedal more versatile.
The magical electronic bow – no prog guitarist should be without one. Used with lashings of delay to create synth-type lines and textures… ambient heaven!
After I got sick of spending too much time on the floor changing the patch of my whammy pedal by hand, I bought this midi controller pedal to do the job for me.
Although not part of my pedal board, I use this pedal for gigs with the Jazz duo I have with my wife – she sings and I play guitar. As I accompany her I use this pedal to record what I’m playing and then, when it’s time for me to take a solo, I play over the top of what I’ve just played
… and this is where I keep all of my toys!
