I sure am glad that David Gilmour, Alex Lifeson, EVH, The Edge, Billy Gibbons...

Re: I sure am glad that David Gilmour, Alex Lifeson, EVH, The Edge, Billy Gibbons...

ErikH said:
One thing I loved and still love about EVH is how he uses the flanger. It's not always used throughout an entire part (like Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love's intro). It's more like an extension of his style. The Unchained intro is a perfect example. It's not always on, but he kicks it on just long enough to add a little flair and excitement to it.

The Phaser is another cool one. His (EVH's) reasoning was it gave a slight volume and treble boost for leads, which it does do. That sound just became part of him and everyone and their brother wanted a Phase 90.

It's not just a matter of using effects or not, it's also a matter of "how" you use them.

There is the joke: Why aren't there any leads on Metallica's St. Anger? A: Somebody stole Kirk's wah pedal. :D
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I've always loved that about EVH- mean street is another great example. He is an artist with effects- not on the whole song, just when it needs to be.
 
Re: I sure am glad that David Gilmour, Alex Lifeson, EVH, The Edge, Billy Gibbons...

I use Chorus and Delay when I play clean, when I play dirty I just use the amp (Bogner or Marshall) when I play dirty in a Fender I use a tubescreamer mainly to increase sustain and a slight boost in volume. Oh and a good Wah and thats all I have ever really needed. There is nothing wrong with using effects as long as you use them to enhance your natural tone from the amp, but you should not be using effects to create to tone, just to enhance it!
 
Re: I sure am glad that David Gilmour, Alex Lifeson, EVH, The Edge, Billy Gibbons...

I think the one ting that was pointed out that struck me is that EVH, etc didnt live off their effects. My problem with the Edge has always been that I would love to unplug his FX and see him survive a show. U2 happened to ride the 80s new wave sound and not get pigeonholed, but with the Edge people fail to credit Daniel Lanois and Brian Eno for really getting the U2 sound together.

I feel that if a guitarist wants a cool sound sooooo badly, they should start working with a keyboard player. The "Effect Guys" tend to be sooo into their boxes they fail to give me a show. Unless you got some big time tech or 3 players (re: Collective Soul) I say use FX like Kurt Cobain did to highlight a song such as "Come as You Are" and spend the rest of the time giving us a show.

The guitar has such a pure magic, I don't like it buried. I'd rather the guitar player bring the energy and power along with the singer, and let Keys, samplers, etc do the fancy junk - hey they have 10 fingers going. JOe Pass even said he preferred to defer to the Piano Player for that reason.

Look at it this way - vocalists can use FX (like Auto Tune, dammit). Layered harmonies and doubling, chorus, delay - well it all matters. However, guys like Freddie Mercury, Lou Gramm, Prince - you name it, they highlighted passages of songs that way. You could take it all away and they had a killer song with gorgeous lead vocal tone.

Guitar players are like singers, often so ashamed of themselves they would rather be drenched in delay and saturation than to have anyone really hear them. Just don't be that self-loathing type. As much as I like Perry Farrell or Sonic Youth, god knows I couldnt handle the whole world embracing that sound.
 
Re: I sure am glad that David Gilmour, Alex Lifeson, EVH, The Edge, Billy Gibbons...

I think thats the way I fell as well- I love the sound of the guitar and amp, occassionally some stuff on top, but pure guitar/amp is what does it for me
 
Re: I sure am glad that David Gilmour, Alex Lifeson, EVH, The Edge, Billy Gibbons...

What is next??
Playing steel and nylon stringers only??
A sound is a sound, to sound good you need to play well, no effects will make you sound better than you are!!
Delays won't help, any dirtbox or flanger/chorus phaser will not help...I never understood this discussion.
Purist are like religious fanatics to me....well fanatic and "always" right;)
I play anything from a nylonstringer to an effectdrenched electric if it it fits the music!!
And if I suck, I suck, no matter the number of pedals or lack of those!
 
Re: I sure am glad that David Gilmour, Alex Lifeson, EVH, The Edge, Billy Gibbons...

Rid said:
Delays won't help, any dirtbox or flanger/chorus phaser will not help...I never understood this discussion.
Purist are like religious fanatics to me....well fanatic and "always" right;)
I play anything from a nylonstringer to an effectdrenched electric if it it fits the music!!
And if I suck, I suck, no matter the number of pedals or lack of those!
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So true, so true. :(
 
Re: I sure am glad that David Gilmour, Alex Lifeson, EVH, The Edge, Billy Gibbons...

OlinMusic said:
The guitar has such a pure magic, I don't like it buried. I'd rather the guitar player bring the energy and power along with the singer, and let Keys, samplers, etc do the fancy junk - hey they have 10 fingers going. JOe Pass even said he preferred to defer to the Piano Player for that reason.

Guitar players are like singers, often so ashamed of themselves they would rather be drenched in delay and saturation than to have anyone really hear them.
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The guitar has such magic...YES it does. The Pied Piper has become a guitar player. The very reason we are all on this forum...pure fascination with the guitar. Wet or dry the guitar sound is powerful.
 
Re: I sure am glad that David Gilmour, Alex Lifeson, EVH, The Edge, Billy Gibbons...

Sometimes I use my pedals, sometimes I go straight into the amp. Sometimes I drink tea, and sometimes I drink a beer or 2. My choice, my sound, my tastebuds.
 
Re: I sure am glad that David Gilmour, Alex Lifeson, EVH, The Edge, Billy Gibbons...

lol Rid, I don't think having some sort of standard makes one a "purist". God knows some of the bad FX tones of the 80s need to be swept under the rug and fast forgotten. I fear with the 80s resurgence I will have to relive the worst parts of my childhood...lol.

Now I agree with you when you meet a REAL PURIST, they remind me of religious fanatics as well.
 
Re: I sure am glad that David Gilmour, Alex Lifeson, EVH, The Edge, Billy Gibbons...

Yeah , y'all are right- the sound of guitars, wet or dry, really is the most beautiful sound on earth. Well, most of the time.
 
Re: I sure am glad that David Gilmour, Alex Lifeson, EVH, The Edge, Billy Gibbons...

I am sick of all this nonsense.

The only important thing is that what you imagine in your brain and what you hear with your ear are the same. What happens between those two points is trivial.
 
Re: I sure am glad that David Gilmour, Alex Lifeson, EVH, The Edge, Billy Gibbons...

Bludave said:
There is nothing wrong with using effects as long as you use them to enhance your natural tone from the amp, but you should not be using effects to create to tone, just to enhance it!
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I disagree. Why should we ignore the possibilities that come with using pedals to create a sound?
 
Re: I sure am glad that David Gilmour, Alex Lifeson, EVH, The Edge, Billy Gibbons...

Rid said:
What is next??
Playing steel and nylon stringers only??
A sound is a sound, to sound good you need to play well, no effects will make you sound better than you are!!
Delays won't help, any dirtbox or flanger/chorus phaser will not help...I never understood this discussion.
Purist are like religious fanatics to me....well fanatic and "always" right;)
I play anything from a nylonstringer to an effectdrenched electric if it it fits the music!!
And if I suck, I suck, no matter the number of pedals or lack of those!
Click to expand...

ratherdashing said:
I am sick of all this nonsense.

The only important thing is that what you imagine in your brain and what you hear with your ear are the same. What happens between those two points is trivial.
Click to expand...

I agree with both of the above.

I also think this multi quote thing works pretty well too!
 
Re: I sure am glad that David Gilmour, Alex Lifeson, EVH, The Edge, Billy Gibbons...

I'm getting a killer tone with any guitar--->Dunlop Crybaby Classic--->Ibanez Tubescreamer TS-9DX---> Marshall JCM800 4211, with sometimes the BBE Sonic Maximizer in the loop.

I have a Dunlop Phase 90, Boss Chorus, Boss Flanger, Boss Octave, Boss GE-7, Boss Delay, and each of them make the tone thinner, so I haven't been using them.
 
Re: I sure am glad that David Gilmour, Alex Lifeson, EVH, The Edge, Billy Gibbons...

ratherdashing said:
I am sick of all this nonsense.

The only important thing is that what you imagine in your brain and what you hear with your ear are the same. What happens between those two points is trivial.
Click to expand...
Really? Which part? I think it's kinda fun to see the various perspectives. We're just having a friendly and civil conversation in here, ain't we?
 
Re: I sure am glad that David Gilmour, Alex Lifeson, EVH, The Edge, Billy Gibbons...

I think Keef once said something to the effect of " they can be tools, or they can be toys, if it helps you get the sound thats in your head- it's a tool"
 
Re: I sure am glad that David Gilmour, Alex Lifeson, EVH, The Edge, Billy Gibbons...

Guitar Toad said:
Really? Which part? I think it's kinda fun to see the various perspectives. We're just having a friendly and civil conversation in here, ain't we?
Click to expand...

I'm just tired of people who say such and such ways to change your sound are wrong. We're not building nuclear weapons here, people. There isn't a right or wrong way to do it. The result is all that matters.
 
Re: I sure am glad that David Gilmour, Alex Lifeson, EVH, The Edge, Billy Gibbons...

Haha, some of the comments on this thread are ridiculous. Effects have been in use by almost every major ROCK guitar player. Matter of fact, I'd say effects are part of more well-known players than not.

From SRV to EVH, David Gilmour to Steve Stevens, Hendrix to Rhoads, they all have signature tones developed with the help of pedals. Now, where are all the players that go straight into the amp and have signature tones? EVH even used stompboxes in the early days. And in his days in VanHagar, he had major effects going all the time.

Plugging straight into an amp is cool, but it's not the only way.
 
Re: I sure am glad that David Gilmour, Alex Lifeson, EVH, The Edge, Billy Gibbons...

There are only two kinds of sounds in the guitar universe, those that work, and those that don't work.

The problem a lot of players have with other players using effects is the very same problem they have with other players using guitars -- not everybody knows how to get good sounds out of them.

The problem with the effects themselves is they CAN become something to hide behind, but no matter how many or few you use, they can also become something that will make your playing stand out even more, properly used. Because so many players don't use them properly, a myth that pedals = bad was born around 1990 and has become conventional wisdom. Yet it makes about as much sense as not using guitars because so many players don't really know how to use them either.

I love the Andy Summers sound and the Lifeson sound (esp. Moving Pictures) to this day and I make no apologies for it, ditto for the often processed sound of guys like Holdsworth and Kurt Rosenwinkel. I also love Page and VH and old ZZ and old Aerosmith and Pat Metheny and Wes Montgomery straight into the amp.

My philosophy about guitar playing -- having always been in bands where the only polyphonic instrument was just me and my guitar -- is to make the guitar sound as big as possible, and to have as many tones and textures as possible so the same tone isn't pounding heavy on the audience's ear -- or mine -- for 4 hours. That obviously means developing a variety of playing techniques that get various textures out of the guitar without effects. But it also means pedals and a stereo rig and the use of volume swells with heavy delay or pushing the pickups against a TV set or computer monitor or flicking boogers at the strings or whatever else I have to do to get a wide variety of tasty tones out of my guitar, from simple and subtle to orchestral and majestic to face-melting screams.

I have sonic visions in my head and I will use whatever I have to to make them come out of my amp(s), totally guilt-free. So I don't have the time or the inclination to run around trying to find out what the latest secret gear handshake is.
 
Re: I sure am glad that David Gilmour, Alex Lifeson, EVH, The Edge, Billy Gibbons...

MY end-all statement:

Do what YOU want to do...isn't an amp an effect too?
 
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