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Hey I've WON some Boss Pedals !! I need some advice though!

Posted: Sat May 26, 2007 12:13 am
by Colin F
Hi all
Some Time I entered a Competition in Guitarist Magazine to win 5 BOSS Pedals (Compact Range),I have just had an Email telling me I'm one of the 10 lucky winners! I can't believe it! I've been doing Competitions for 20 odd years, I'm addicted to 'em, yet I have Never won anything! not even a runner up prize. I am however having a hard time choosing my 5 pedals, naturally I'm not going to Leave 'Our' Liam out so the first one is easy, a much better Digi Delay unit for him which uses a 'Foot' control pedal. The rest in the range are for use on Electric guitar's really, Distortion, Flanger, etc,, (one is even a 'Loop Station' ! I'm sure someone mentioned one of them) One of the Sounds I am looking is the one David Gilmore Uses for 'Marooned',,All The TAB I have for this track (and a few others ) has notes such as Fret 36, 30 and 26 and on the 1st and 2nd and 3rd strings etc, and since he's only using a standard Strat with 21 frets on the Strat Pack DVD he must be using some sort of effect Pedal to get those Much higher 'piercing' notes, you can see he is pressing something with his foot without moving his finger , But What ? that is the question, at first I thought it was an Octave Pedal, but I've just watched a Video demo of one and it isn't, nor is it a Phase Shifter, I'm a loss really, does anyone else know what it is ? and any help choosing the other 3 would be great !

Posted: Sat May 26, 2007 3:32 pm
by Bob Wilson
Hi Colin
I think the pedal you are after is an Expression Pedal. These pedals all have octaves up, octaves down and wah-wah plus many other extras. I think Gilmour uses a Digitech Whammy or one of the Digitech XP range (probably XP100). If you are able to choose any Boss pedals the ME-50 multi effects pedal that Gordon uses or the Boss GT-6 have Expression Pedals built into them. Add to that the Boss RC-20, RC-20XL or RC50 (Loop Stations) and you have Gordons setup :lol: . Another pedal that is worth a look is the Boss CE20 Chorus Ensemble, this gives some stunning effects that you don't get from a normal chorus. As you now have your Variax as well as acoustic guitars maybe an acoustic multi effects pedal like the Boss AD3 would be worth looking at. As the prize is for the compact range I don't think you would get multi effects pedals, but to be honest you only need the ME-50 and Loop Station for pretty much everything and it saves patching together loads of pedals :shock: . I hope this helps you a little. Have a great time choosing, I'm sure whatever you choose will add to your playing pleasure.
Best wishes
Bob

Boss Pedals

Posted: Mon May 28, 2007 12:05 am
by Russ Gannicott
Well Colin.....for my money I'd go for the following;
RC2 Loop Station - for obvious reasons.
OS2 Overdrive - a nice OD/Distortion pedal.
DD6 Delay - Works well with the Loop Station.....if a little short.
GE7 Equalizer - for all those times you can't get a decent sound out of the 'house' PA!
CE5 Chorus - nice classic 'Boss' chorus sound.
As far as Gilmore's high notes are concerned...do what he often does and use a steel or slide!
Cheers,
Russ

Posted: Fri Jun 08, 2007 11:09 pm
by Colin F
Well, in the end, after looking at the Promo Vids for each pedal I went for, 1/ RC-2 Loop Station 2/ AW-3 Dynamic Wah (ooo, must dig out me platforms a get a perm again) 3/ DD-6 Digital Delay 4/ OC-3 Super Octave 5/ AC-3 Acoustic Simulator, now THIS is something special, it makes the Variax sound Just like an acoustic! and you can do things like make it a 12 string, or 'Move' the sound hole, there are several choices of Acoustic also...all according to the Video Demo's,,I've not tried them out yet. They all arrived this week, not only that, they also threw in a BCB 60 Pedal Board that doubles as a carry case! wasn't expecting that! Perhaps my epitaph wont read "Sorry-Not a winner this time" as planned after all
Thanks for the advice guys
Colin
'You gorra be in it to win it" !

PS. I take it I can hook them up in the board in any order...can't I ?

Posted: Sun Jun 10, 2007 10:30 pm
by Russ Gannicott
"PS. I take it I can hook them up in the board in any order...can't I ?"

Well Colin, strictly speaking yes, but in reality...no. Each pedal will interact with another if you intend to run more than one at a time. Some combinations will generate more noise than others and certain others can cause the signal to modulate. The only answer is to experiment and see what works best for you. Nice you got the board as well..they're pretty pricey normally!
Cheers,
Russ

Posted: Sun Jun 10, 2007 11:21 pm
by Bob Wilson
Hi Colin
By having a pedal board that was specifically built for Boss you should not have the power problems you would have had were they different makes. Before pedal boards were popular most guitarists made their own and most had problems with the power supplies causing interference with the different voltages of the different makes of pedals. We always used to put things like wah wah last in the chain as the variable pots being moved to create the effects in these would sometimes cause crackling in the chain and also sometimes cause weird effects that you did not want. I would put the Acoustic pedal before the Octaver as any overdriven pedal could affect sounds further down the line (not that you are likely to use both together). All you can do is experiment and find what works best, then keep that arrangement. You have some great pedals there, so most of all - Enjoy! :lol:
Best wishes
Bob

Posted: Mon Jun 11, 2007 5:58 pm
by Colin F
HI Bob/Russ
Thanks for the help guys, done like you both said and there seems to be no probs, except I can't turn off the loop station :lol: so I just set that to zero, The Acoustic pedal is just great! it means I can plug the variax into the Spider amp without the need for a PA or an acoustic amp, I can go from a touch of 'Hank' to 'Gordon' at the flick of a switch ! To be honest, all the other pedals scare the heck out of me at the moment!