What is the least needed/most useless effect?

Re: What is the least needed/most useless effect?

Ring mod is getting a bad rap here

I have a moogerfooger one and it's not really a live gigging tool it's great fun to dial into a pitch and use in the studio. Sounds great on a drum part too

To me most useless is probably chorus. Don't care for it
 
Re: What is the least needed/most useless effect?

But that's the trick - using it well.

Most people stick it in the chain and get it making an evenly-matched-with-the-dry sound, or Full Wet (Chorus, Flange, Phase) and don't take the time to think about using it as a more subtle effect.

That simply does not work for every effect for every player on every song.

Obviously you don't get ideal results from an OD or Distortion with that method, but for most time-based and coloring effects, Full-On is not needed unless the song revolves around that specific tone.


That said, I don't have one patch in my rack FX unit that uses the Flanger, because I prefer the smoother, less metallic sweep of the Phaser.

I also don't use the Gated Reverb.
 
Re: What is the least needed/most useless effect?

Wah, Flanging, Octave, Chorus, Vibrato, Pitch Shifting, Delay, Reverb, Tremolo, and various types of dirt boxes all have their place . . . but it's really hard to get a ring mod to work for a song.
 
Re: What is the least needed/most useless effect?

I have never been a big fan of chorus or flanger pedals. That said I was not much of a phaser guy either but since I got me Empress I have really enjoyed using it.
 
Re: What is the least needed/most useless effect?

Andrew Lamprecht said:
Cool pedal.. but useless.

Click to expand...

haha...the first pedal I thought of!


.....still want one, tho....

...mostly to annoy my wife...

....more than I already do:naughty:
 
Re: What is the least needed/most useless effect?

talent_simulator_106.jpg
 
Re: What is the least needed/most useless effect?

Ring mod for sure. Cool sounds to have fun with, but not useful for gigging. Biggest problem with it is that it sounds like you're playing in a tin can. Even when you find a cool lush "usable" tone, it still sounds like a tin can.

I bought tube amps to get me away from that sound.
 
Re: What is the least needed/most useless effect?

The other problem folks have with some effects (i.e. Ring Mod) is they try to use it for the main guitar sound. Don't. Use it on a secondary guitar for "effect", or background texture. Yes, you can use it live that way. It takes the whole band working together, though.

Unless you're someone like Adrian Belew and your whole vibe is about strange noises, but even then, you've got to have other instruments (horns, synth, or other non-effected guitars) to keep the focus off of the primary guitar's "noise" effect.


I once saw an import Wah-type pedal in a local store that had 2 or 3 modes - Wah, Reverse Wah (IIRC) and some sort of "Police Siren" setting. Other than doing "Fireman Blues", I could see no point to this last one because the sweep wasn't slow enough to do the Air Raid Siren in the intro to War Pigs.
May have been good for Dream Police.
 
Re: What is the least needed/most useless effect?

Who's to say what's useless? I guess most are saying that the Ring Mod is useless. I think Jeff Beck uses one, so there's gotta be some use for it. All effects are toys we use to make noise sound cool. Anyone saying any effect pedal is useless is like an Amish dude saying a car is useless, or when old people say cell phones are useless.
 
Re: What is the least needed/most useless effect?

No care for flangers or chorus, or hand clappers, but whatever floats yer boat.
 
Re: What is the least needed/most useless effect?

Talk Box. No real time action since the 70's with Frampton "Do you feel like I do"..now THATs useless!.
 
Re: What is the least needed/most useless effect?

cream123 said:


really cool to me but I like noisy things...
Click to expand...

That settled it for me..... (I actually watched the whole video) ...... completely useless.
I mean really, IF, I were going to sit in the garage and make silly "noises" all day then yeah, that may be the cats meow.... but I've got some BrooTalZ SLAYING TO DO! .... so in the real world.... that pedal just plain SUCKS!


.... and now here's something we hope you really like......




BTW how can people claim that a distortion pedal is worthless.... I mean really..... 900 million guitar players use one.....: private:
 
Re: What is the least needed/most useless effect?

idsnowdog said:
Acoustic Simulator
Click to expand...

I've never tried one that I liked. The ones I've tried usually sound like a heavily processed acoustic-electric on a 90's pop record.
 
Re: What is the least needed/most useless effect?

80's_Metal said:
That settled it for me..... (I actually watched the whole video) ...... completely useless.
I mean really, IF, I were going to sit in the garage and make silly "noises" all day then yeah, that may be the cats meow.... but I've got some BrooTalZ SLAYING TO DO! .... so in the real world.... that pedal just plain SUCKS!

.... and now here's something we hope you really like......

BTW how can people claim that a distortion pedal is worthless.... I mean really..... 900 million guitar players use one.....: private:
Click to expand...

If all you're gonna do is Metal, it's a useless pedal.
But I think the Pitch Shift mode on that pedal could actually be very useful for clean arpeggios and certain parts of songs, for other styles.
It adds a cool texture, unlike the usual ring modulator sounds which are very unmusical and just don't make any sense.
 
Re: What is the least needed/most useless effect?

idsnowdog said:
Acoustic Simulator
Click to expand...

That's actually a pretty useful idea for a pedal . . . it's just that they tend to suck so much that they're useless. Dunno if that qualifies as the most useless effect . . .
 
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