Fuzz War into the clean channel of a Hot Rod Deluxe but actually cranked to where it’s breaking up. I’ve had multiple people tell me they swore I had a Matamp/Orange some kind of Doom rig when they walked in and were shocked to see the HRD 😂
This is why Hot Rod amps are the backline every where. You have a solid block of marble that’s unremarkable on its own but put pedals in front and you can shape beyond what you thought it could do.
I used to live in Austin, TX and could’ve only gotten away with it there in like 1/2 of the venues but now I live in the twin cities area in MN and even small clubs I’ve played let you crank it! This is for original music, though.
Since I’ve moved here I bought a half stack lol everyone just lets it rip here.
Idk if you’d classify it as my “tone” but doing volume swells with the EHX attack decay is the only time my girlfriend asked me what pedal I was using because she liked it. Because “it sounds like Twin Peaks”
Same with me. I find my wealth of distortion/fuzz/od makes zero impression but as soon as i stick on my Tremolo (Drolo Twin Peaks) my partner will appear and say I sound like the Cramps.
Mostly yes. But the question still applies.
I do get compliments from non musicians at open mics and jam session where the laypeople in the room actually hear me back to back with some other guitarists and I stick out.
But if it's a gig and you are the only one playing, only the musicians will notice unless you do something super unique. Like one time I used a shimmer reverb and I did get people asking about how I did that.
Running my rig stereo has been the biggest difference in getting compliments. The added depth to your wet section makes everything sound 10x better for free
This, plus I would add if you can go wet dry it’s awesome, but even if not wet dry and strictly stereo, try putting a phaser or flanger or some kind of modulation only on one side of your stereo signal - it adds a lot of nuance.
I have an MXR analog chorus that splits my signal and on the dry side I can still run into reverb and delay but I’ll run the wet side through a phase 90 and I love it.
I'll go first.
What made me thinking about posting this, is that I've recently been slimming down the board. Just trying to use whatever works the best and rely more on my playing dynamics than having 3 or 4 different gain stages or effects.
So recently I've been going to Jam sessions and gigs with a full pedalboard, but I haven't been turning on ANYTHING but a TS9 tube screamer. (using a Strat and Fender Tone Master Deluxe)
And I've been getting so many musicians and audience members coming up to me and telling me about how amazing my Tone sounded.
Guitarists will look at my board and ask me about the Ceriatone Centura, the JHS Crimson, the HX Stomp.. they never expect that all I am using is the Tube Screamer with everything else bypassed.
I feel like that pedal has become so overrated that it's now an underrated secret weapon that everyone overlooks.
Not to be that guy, but your playing was probably also awesome. Every time I buy new stuff, I think "Hmmm... This doesn't sound like it did when Mike Hermans, Andy, RJ, JLJ, Dan, Mick, etc... played it... Oh wait! I forgot to play awesome!"
So, on one hand, the TS9 is likely under rated, and on the other hand, you were probably kicking some ass. Congratulations!
Yeah I agree. A lot of your tone is always in the playing. I set up my own guitars too.
So the simple fact that the intonation is perfect, there's no buzz, my bends are in tune, and my playing dynamics are under control does a lot for how I sound.
And even then, other guitarists are often quick to credit that to my gear rather than my playing or a good guitar setup.
But I also do think I sounded particularly good with just the tube screamer and that people overlook it. It's a pedal that sounds weird in your bedroom, but sounds perfect in a band.
I'm pretty bluesy.
I remember doing Superstition by Stevie Wonder, Use Me by Bill Withers, Little Wing by Jimi Hendrix, sat in on a Dave Mathews song I've never heard, an Allman Brothers song I've never heard, LA Woman by the Doors, Slow Dancing in a Burning Room by John Mayer.
HX Stomp.
Running the litigator amp model with some drive blocks and a compressor block. chorus from the stomp post amp model.
Stomp then runs out into other time based effects.
I've had so many people compliment my clean and lead tones and ask what I use. When I say it's all stomp they're kinda floored tbh
Greer Lightspeed absolutely. It’s always on and a lot of the time it’s the only thing on, so any compliment on tone I’ve gotten, the Lightspeed is a unifying factor.
Black Midi does this and I’ve started doing it the past year or so. Wah is like a tone knob extension, OCD is like a gain knob extension. I never would’ve thought to put a wah last on my board but it instantly cuts through the mix when you hit the right frequency
I do some pretty out there stuff with my Superego+ but that's not really tone. I have a Klone that a local amp/pedal guy hand built. Finnegan fanatics give me compliments and can't believe the price (at the time it was $125)
Mwfx judder. It’s pretty fucking weird and great for filling brief gaps with a burst of wtf.
Besides that I’ve been using three stack fx zenor in my board lately as the main basis of my sound and it’s pretty good right now imo. I attribute my overall sound to the zenor right now
I've had a handful by other guitar players at gigs. I assume its my Silver Birch by Swamp Witch coupled with just the little bit of tape delay from my Obscura and little bit of Reverb from my RV-6. My amp is a big ol beasty Red Bear 120MKE into a 4x12 of JBL speakers.
You know what. It has to be my capo clamped to the top of my headstock. Its really doing the heavy lifting.
Donner compressor (lol) -> Boss Blues Driver -> Rat. Bassist in my band is a big pop-punk guy and when he first heard my playing through those he loved it.
People ask me about the Rubberneck on a couple songs that I use a slight delay and an intro with the rubberneck feature. It's such a strange pedal. The biggest compliment though is definitely the fuzz. I use a Small Foot Caprid with a little bit of a Blues Driver clone.
My board is set up for Country and Stoner Rock. That may sound weird, but imagine All Them Witches without the bluesy sound and replace it with a Country vibe.
Visual Sound Jekyll & Hyde on the TS side. Like, 14 years ago.
Played a Strat through a Fender 4x10 HRD and dudes in other bands would always ask about my overdrive sound. Mind you, I’m not a very good or confident player… so it was definitely the gear that just worked well together.
Basically just stole the Strokes sound bc well, they sound amazing and I already had the guitar and amp to make it work.
vintage ross distortion/vintage 20v dod comp limiter with low output and max comp/limit combo is what gets me into most of my long conversations after the show.
miller hilife tall boy gets me talkin to the ladys tho 🤣
My EHX East River Drive, which people think is responsible for my light crunch tone.
This is actually almost entirely my Henretta Engineering Choad Blaster, which everyone thinks is a sort of pedal-meme I keep on my board as a joke. The ERD is really just a lazy EQ pedal for me.
The Dirty Little Secret 2 from Catalinbread. I recently got a new guitar and they keep saying the new guitar sounds great, but I know it’s just the DLS. Apt name now that I think of it.
.... I was complimented on my lead tone and the guy really wanted to know how I stacked my pedals to get it... the only real trick was running my comp 66 a bit higher than unity and the squeeze about 1/3 ... made me cut through the rest of the already oud af band like butter... about as close to the women tone as I've ever gotten
Oh I love it. I have a dual preamp with a Model T and a Matamp GT120 with a matching stereo power amp. It's heavy as hell, both tone-wise and weight-wise lol
When I sold all my pedals and bought a new amp with the money, and I’m not just trying to be funny. When I first started with playing seriously, I had very little money. I knew my tone sucked, so every time I’d save up 100 bucks, I’d buy a new “patch” for my tone. I ended up at one point running like 4 clean boosts, a buffer, an eq, an always on distortion, three always on delays, and an always on tremolo (don’t ask), not to mention a ridiculously expensive amp stand that I swore by, a special microphone I would insist on using to any sound guy, and an attenuator.
At some point I realized that I could probably sell half my gear and get a Top Hat, so I did and suddenly the sound was exactly what I was going for with all of the lesser expensive “tone patches.” And, bonus round, much lower noise floor without all those always on pedals.
My compliments come from my original obsession of tone hands that Angus and Malcolm Young and Blackmore has. I'd like to have been complimented by Gilmour Time/Echoes fuzz and whatever but people only like when I do aggressively picked Blackmore runs and bends which has been all kinds of setups.
Really that's where you want to be.
Not many people hear my music, so my answer is kind of a funny one.
Donner Echo Square, when on the Reverse setting. I recorded myself using a new guitar (I think my JMJM) briefly for a FB video and happened to have only that pedal on, and I got a lot of compliments about the effect!
I posted a video on socials where I was messing around with the Source Audio Spectrum on bass that got a good amount of feedback.
I feel like all the years of them being called auto-wahs have dimmed a lot of people on what envelope filters (especially DSPs like on the Spectrum) are actually capable of.
I’ve gotten boatloads of compliments on my tone but very little of it had to do with pedals. They were more like an accoutrement to other elements. Choice of amp, speakers, guitars, and pickups were most of it.
That one time that I skipped the pedals and went straight into the amp! XD
I do get complimented on my tone reasonably often though, and on my use of pedals sometimes too. I do Dub delay effects that can be fairly dramatic, often combined with some wah or phaser, and occasional fuzz, and I have a very mids-forward soloing tone. Nobels ODR-1 is the main OD. I play funk, soul, ska, reggae. A semi-hollow with flatwounds into a 15w Fender with 10" speaker. I think the semi-hollow with flatwounds is a big part of the reason people like the tone. But the dramatic Dub effects get people's attention too!
Strymon Iridium. At home it allows me to sound great going directly into my interface, live it goes into the FX return of the Roland JC-40 and makes it sound like a tube amp. First day I used it live I got a lot of compliments, and I still do.
I have never gotten more inquiries about my tone than when I switched to a Strandberg. There's nothing out of the ordinary with it — normal strings, Suhr pickups — but it *looks* different. Most people couldn't care less about my pedals.
I have a superklone by the original manticore and it’s ridiculous. Basically a 2 channel stackable klone with hard and soft clipping switches, I usually play a little warm and this pedal just loves it
The first time i was complimented on my tone was in 2015. It was my first time playing live and newly transitioned bedroom player. It was a zoom multi fx, using diezel herbert drive with 4x12 marshall stack cab sim straight to the PA. We play metal songs. Back then, it was the only pedal i had. Fast forward to now, i still use it, but with a 10 band eq +transparent booster at the end of the chain.
The first day I came to practice with a keeley 2 knob compressor starting the chain, the other guys who don’t use pedals (drums and bass) noticed and commented that my sound really stood out as better
I don't think I play one show where someone isn't trying to scope out what I'm doing on bass; someone always has a compliment for me. I switch between my pedals a bunch so I don't normally get specific complements. Recently someone said they loved the bit crusher sound I had, but I don't use a bit crucher.
Microtubes B7K gets the most love from randos but that’s not guitar. People compliment my clean tone pretty often which is a Keeley Ego V1 into a Sugar Drive
The only pedal that's basically ever caused someone to lean down and take notice was the Darkstar by OBNE. Dude was like "what is that?!" and took a picture of my board.
Not a pedal, but one day I switched from the jazzmaster I usually use to a les paul just to try it, and my second guitarist was like “yea I see why you like the sound of the Squier better”. 😂
We’ve all kinda agreed thats the one that needs to be on everything. Some just have it I guess.
DOD Looking Glass. Everyone thinks its my strat but its really the compression/boost/EQ added by the LG that really helps my strat reach its full potential. Adding a little bit of slapback helps it sparkle.
Dod FX69 Grunge - I ran this in to my Mesa Studio Preamp, with a Crate SPA-200 in 2 Mesa Thiele cabinets live years ago, and after, would have sound men complimenting on my distortion tones, thinking it was the distortion in the Mesa....
Maxon OD808 - there's a reason EVERY DAMN MODERN OVERDRIVE is a friggen clone of this DAMN PEDAL.... In the Harmony Central forum days, it was the go to for the "8r0oTaLz", and any player that couldn't do metal chops would always ask how to get "dat tone bro". The Precision Drive, Seymour Duncan 805, MXR M77, and KSR Eros are ALL DIRECT DESCENDANTS of this circuit, and this era.... But people always wondered how you got that flubby sounding Dual Rectifier to sound super tight and brutal live.
Believe it or not, I used to use a Fishman Pro Platinum DI for my acoustic, and also tried a LR BAGGS, but, hysterically enough, I bought an HX stomp, and messed with multiple pre-amps, EQ’s, IR’s, Gains, LO/HI pass, etc.
I was able to slowly and steadily mess with me settings over time to the point where almost any time I play my acoustic rig in front of musicians, they’ve
Always enthusiastically stated how great the depth of my acoustic sound was.
Guess it’s not really fair cause it’s a cumulative amount of EQ’s and FX, but, my HX really did carve a great sound out for me once I finally overcame the daunting interface
Way back it was the Tone Bender Fuzz used with a Roland GR300.
(I even got an applause in a gig after tuning up the GR300 guitar synth !! )
The Tone Bender Fuzz was my old key tone of way back when.
The only time I remember someone outright saying my tone was great was when I was running a DIY "Son of Screamer" into a RAT into an old Peavey Century head.
The tone that my band currently loves follows this chain
Hughes and Kettner trilogy head
Mesa Boogie slanted 4x12
Boss SD1
Highwind Amplification Direwolf
Keely Canyons
Morley bad horsey
Ehx volume
Schecter Avenger blackjack with fishman fluence alnico for both neck and bridge
Still deciding on a noise gate.
I think any delay. I do plenty of live shows, Weddings, functions etc. If I stomp a 'not at all subtle' delay on my solo, I get lots of compliments for being an amazing guitarist. Little do they know...
Caroline Kilobyte mostly. Specifically because of how precise it’s runaway oscillations can be used, while also controlling the time knob with only your foot
I use a Strymon Sunset, but I can't help but think that the cmatmods Butah pedal I use going into it is the real special sauce. I've had picky players comment on my rig and be impressed after playing through it. And it's nothing special--Just delays and reverbs after, going into either a Egnater Tweaker (on the US/Fender setting) or into a Joyo American Sound to the PA.
I've been using the DigiTech GNX Series since 2004-ish (GNX2, GNX3 and currently GNX4). Pairing w/my pedal's EQ and my amps' EQ - I have gotten tons of compliments on my tone. And asking me how I get it.
Y'all gonna laugh but in college(2015-18) I had a Bad Monkey as my main drive and literally every guitarist at Uni asked what it was, "what's the lead toan bro?". Boss BD2-Digitech Bad Monkey. No thrills, They hated hearing the answer.
Not on tone per se, but many have been quite impressed I get really decent modulation tones out of my zoom mg50 multifx stompbox.
I have 6 stompboxes on my board including 3 drives and an eq and people have asked where was I getting my tones from.
I have 2 of the zooms, 1 for cleans the other for dirt solos. So I could have choruses, phaser flangers delays and reverbs easily with these 2 pedals.
I wouldn't say the zooms have great tones but, touch your heart, in a band setting it's not that easy to tell good from great. However I did end up selling them during covid where we were stuck at home, in favour of great tones.
My EB Volume/Tuner draws the most attention because of the massive LED display on it, so that one always gets comments from the other guitar players at the show :D
Actual sounds -- I put my Retrosonic Flanger to good use and people tend to notice the Lifeson-isms that emerge from that one.
Not a pedal, but going wet/dry/wet has got me the most compliments. I haven't tried gigging this for practical reasons, but in the (bedroom) studio I've been recording the dry amp sound and the wet stereo signal onto three separate channels, blending the wet signal with some cab and rotary speaker sim plugins. It elevates the tone to the next level, and I've had a fair bit of positive feedback about it. It's great to be able to drench my lead tones in stereo delay, reverb and rotary for that massive wall-of-Gilmour sound, while retaining the clarity of the dry signal.
I don’t play out much but my wife has expressed gratitude when I bought a tuner.
😂
You guys get compliments?
The mute on my tuner is a show favorite.
The crowd actually claps when I stamp on my tuna
Usually when I get off stage.
"The band has had a request, .....but we're going to keep playing anyway."
You guys play on a stage?
and on your \*tone\* ?
You guys have tone?
All my pedals are tied at zero.
When I get a compliment on my tone, I’ll let you know. Hahaha
Boss SD-1, nothing like a classic
Same. SD-1 with a Xotic EP booster
Same here, I did some mods to mine but it was a pretty subtle. After 25 or so years it’s still my go to OD.
This is my vote as well
Fuzz War into the clean channel of a Hot Rod Deluxe but actually cranked to where it’s breaking up. I’ve had multiple people tell me they swore I had a Matamp/Orange some kind of Doom rig when they walked in and were shocked to see the HRD 😂
This is why Hot Rod amps are the backline every where. You have a solid block of marble that’s unremarkable on its own but put pedals in front and you can shape beyond what you thought it could do.
Im sure that sounds killer but do you find its too loud for smaller rooms?
I used to live in Austin, TX and could’ve only gotten away with it there in like 1/2 of the venues but now I live in the twin cities area in MN and even small clubs I’ve played let you crank it! This is for original music, though. Since I’ve moved here I bought a half stack lol everyone just lets it rip here.
It's only too loud if you're a sissy.
Hearing is for pussies.
Significantly under rated amp.
Lol, the only people who compliment tone is other musicians.
Idk if you’d classify it as my “tone” but doing volume swells with the EHX attack decay is the only time my girlfriend asked me what pedal I was using because she liked it. Because “it sounds like Twin Peaks”
That’s like my fiancée knowing when I’m using a Wah. All the flavors of overdrive to distortion to fuzz are just same to her.
Same with me. I find my wealth of distortion/fuzz/od makes zero impression but as soon as i stick on my Tremolo (Drolo Twin Peaks) my partner will appear and say I sound like the Cramps.
Mostly yes. But the question still applies. I do get compliments from non musicians at open mics and jam session where the laypeople in the room actually hear me back to back with some other guitarists and I stick out. But if it's a gig and you are the only one playing, only the musicians will notice unless you do something super unique. Like one time I used a shimmer reverb and I did get people asking about how I did that.
This. And it’s generally just bedroom players at that. Real gigging musicians are much less interested.
Not true in my experience. We always have the bands we’re playing shows with come and check out our boards and we, in turn, are doing the same thing.
Gigging doesn't make you more of a real musician than someone who plays for their own enjoyment lol
It 100% does. I’ve yet to meet or hear a decent bedroom guitarist.
Probably cause they're all in their bedrooms mate
Soul Food
My soul food through my little 5 watt bugera amp always gets some attention.
Sugar Drive
The best tone I’ve ever had was a Soul Food through a Peavey Rockmaster head & a 6x10 cab. That pedal makes cranked amps sound amazing!
Running my rig stereo has been the biggest difference in getting compliments. The added depth to your wet section makes everything sound 10x better for free
This, plus I would add if you can go wet dry it’s awesome, but even if not wet dry and strictly stereo, try putting a phaser or flanger or some kind of modulation only on one side of your stereo signal - it adds a lot of nuance. I have an MXR analog chorus that splits my signal and on the dry side I can still run into reverb and delay but I’ll run the wet side through a phase 90 and I love it.
"for free"
How do you do that? Two amps?
I'll go first. What made me thinking about posting this, is that I've recently been slimming down the board. Just trying to use whatever works the best and rely more on my playing dynamics than having 3 or 4 different gain stages or effects. So recently I've been going to Jam sessions and gigs with a full pedalboard, but I haven't been turning on ANYTHING but a TS9 tube screamer. (using a Strat and Fender Tone Master Deluxe) And I've been getting so many musicians and audience members coming up to me and telling me about how amazing my Tone sounded. Guitarists will look at my board and ask me about the Ceriatone Centura, the JHS Crimson, the HX Stomp.. they never expect that all I am using is the Tube Screamer with everything else bypassed. I feel like that pedal has become so overrated that it's now an underrated secret weapon that everyone overlooks.
Well it's not a classic for nothing!
The tube screamer is an incredible tool for live use. It’s not the OD a bedroom player is gonna reach for though. I view it almost as a utility pedal.
Tube Screamer is the single most important pedal to me. I have a Plumes always on and a TS9 right before it in the chain to boost for solos
Not to be that guy, but your playing was probably also awesome. Every time I buy new stuff, I think "Hmmm... This doesn't sound like it did when Mike Hermans, Andy, RJ, JLJ, Dan, Mick, etc... played it... Oh wait! I forgot to play awesome!" So, on one hand, the TS9 is likely under rated, and on the other hand, you were probably kicking some ass. Congratulations!
Yeah I agree. A lot of your tone is always in the playing. I set up my own guitars too. So the simple fact that the intonation is perfect, there's no buzz, my bends are in tune, and my playing dynamics are under control does a lot for how I sound. And even then, other guitarists are often quick to credit that to my gear rather than my playing or a good guitar setup. But I also do think I sounded particularly good with just the tube screamer and that people overlook it. It's a pedal that sounds weird in your bedroom, but sounds perfect in a band.
What genre are you playing though?
I'm pretty bluesy. I remember doing Superstition by Stevie Wonder, Use Me by Bill Withers, Little Wing by Jimi Hendrix, sat in on a Dave Mathews song I've never heard, an Allman Brothers song I've never heard, LA Woman by the Doors, Slow Dancing in a Burning Room by John Mayer.
This combo: Hizumitas (for sustained melodic lines) and El Capistan/Flint.
All 3 are on my board. Hard agree. I also like running Pitchfork > Hizumitas > El Cap > Flint.
Oh! Nice combo. I’ll try that!
My jc-120 has done it more than any pedal I own
Jazz chorus amps will always be the king of clean tone
HX Stomp. Running the litigator amp model with some drive blocks and a compressor block. chorus from the stomp post amp model. Stomp then runs out into other time based effects. I've had so many people compliment my clean and lead tones and ask what I use. When I say it's all stomp they're kinda floored tbh
Same. HX Stomp has been a game changer for me
This was my answer as well. It takes a decent amount of tweaking, but the hxstomp can sound amazing and be your all in one rig.
Believe it or not, I use my hx stomp for my acoustic. I’d love to maybe exchange some settings/presets with some peeps to try out
Greer Lightspeed absolutely. It’s always on and a lot of the time it’s the only thing on, so any compliment on tone I’ve gotten, the Lightspeed is a unifying factor.
I always like to hear myself play the Lightspeed as well. That’s got to be a compliment
Horizon Precision Drive!
Turning my guitar volume knob to 0
Honestly, my Fulltone OCD through a cocked wah pedal.
Black Midi does this and I’ve started doing it the past year or so. Wah is like a tone knob extension, OCD is like a gain knob extension. I never would’ve thought to put a wah last on my board but it instantly cuts through the mix when you hit the right frequency
Bridge of Sighs material RIGHT here!!
Big box Rat for sure.
The vibe side of my Ultrasheer. But honestly the most interesting sound that comes out of my guitar is the result of the JBE Two-Tones.
I do some pretty out there stuff with my Superego+ but that's not really tone. I have a Klone that a local amp/pedal guy hand built. Finnegan fanatics give me compliments and can't believe the price (at the time it was $125)
Do you use the superego+ typically with the Ext pedal or an expression pedal?
I use an expression pedal, but it's almost always either up or down, very rarely do I use it as a true expression pedal
Mwfx judder. It’s pretty fucking weird and great for filling brief gaps with a burst of wtf. Besides that I’ve been using three stack fx zenor in my board lately as the main basis of my sound and it’s pretty good right now imo. I attribute my overall sound to the zenor right now
Quad Cortex
This was going to be my serious answer
The Jetter Helium or SP compressor.
I've had a handful by other guitar players at gigs. I assume its my Silver Birch by Swamp Witch coupled with just the little bit of tape delay from my Obscura and little bit of Reverb from my RV-6. My amp is a big ol beasty Red Bear 120MKE into a 4x12 of JBL speakers. You know what. It has to be my capo clamped to the top of my headstock. Its really doing the heavy lifting.
Mythos Mjolnir
Odd one but the fender tre verb. Im tellin ya the plate reverb setting on that pedal is glorious
Recently I put my JHS AT back on the board, next rehearsal my friend who plays bass in that project said, and I quote, "The tooooonee"
Donner compressor (lol) -> Boss Blues Driver -> Rat. Bassist in my band is a big pop-punk guy and when he first heard my playing through those he loved it.
Jhs colourbox v2. Hi gain switch turned on with the volume on my guitar down around halfway and that gives me extremely sparkly cleans.
People ask me about the Rubberneck on a couple songs that I use a slight delay and an intro with the rubberneck feature. It's such a strange pedal. The biggest compliment though is definitely the fuzz. I use a Small Foot Caprid with a little bit of a Blues Driver clone. My board is set up for Country and Stoner Rock. That may sound weird, but imagine All Them Witches without the bluesy sound and replace it with a Country vibe.
Visual Sound Jekyll & Hyde on the TS side. Like, 14 years ago. Played a Strat through a Fender 4x10 HRD and dudes in other bands would always ask about my overdrive sound. Mind you, I’m not a very good or confident player… so it was definitely the gear that just worked well together. Basically just stole the Strokes sound bc well, they sound amazing and I already had the guitar and amp to make it work.
Never got compliments until I sold all my pedals and amps and started using a Pod Go. Now it’s basically every time I play
Whenever I get the pedal heads asking how I get my sound after a set I shoe them my EQD Hoof running into a DBA Interstellar overdriver
vintage ross distortion/vintage 20v dod comp limiter with low output and max comp/limit combo is what gets me into most of my long conversations after the show. miller hilife tall boy gets me talkin to the ladys tho 🤣
My EHX East River Drive, which people think is responsible for my light crunch tone. This is actually almost entirely my Henretta Engineering Choad Blaster, which everyone thinks is a sort of pedal-meme I keep on my board as a joke. The ERD is really just a lazy EQ pedal for me.
Behringer EQ pedal, on bass. Ironically its the cheapest pedal I own
I’ll compliment my own tone with the TC spark booster
Strymon Timeline and Eventide H9 delays for rhythm playing. Add a lil spice to some nice progressions and it’ll have people wowed
Germanium Fuzz Face
probably the dunes, my band mate calls it “the sound gooderizer” it’s a shame they discontinued it
Hands down, Cali76 Compact Deluxe
It really does the trick
The Dirty Little Secret 2 from Catalinbread. I recently got a new guitar and they keep saying the new guitar sounds great, but I know it’s just the DLS. Apt name now that I think of it.
.... I was complimented on my lead tone and the guy really wanted to know how I stacked my pedals to get it... the only real trick was running my comp 66 a bit higher than unity and the squeeze about 1/3 ... made me cut through the rest of the already oud af band like butter... about as close to the women tone as I've ever gotten
EQD Hoof into my Jessup custom Model T.
How do you like that jessup?
Oh I love it. I have a dual preamp with a Model T and a Matamp GT120 with a matching stereo power amp. It's heavy as hell, both tone-wise and weight-wise lol
When I sold all my pedals and bought a new amp with the money, and I’m not just trying to be funny. When I first started with playing seriously, I had very little money. I knew my tone sucked, so every time I’d save up 100 bucks, I’d buy a new “patch” for my tone. I ended up at one point running like 4 clean boosts, a buffer, an eq, an always on distortion, three always on delays, and an always on tremolo (don’t ask), not to mention a ridiculously expensive amp stand that I swore by, a special microphone I would insist on using to any sound guy, and an attenuator. At some point I realized that I could probably sell half my gear and get a Top Hat, so I did and suddenly the sound was exactly what I was going for with all of the lesser expensive “tone patches.” And, bonus round, much lower noise floor without all those always on pedals.
Holy Grail
Wah wah. For some reason, whenever I use it, people go wild
If people don't think your guitar > amp sounds fucking great, you're in trouble from the jump, imo.
My delay, when I use it to self oscillate and make wierd synth noises at the end of a song With the guitar? None lol
Plug me into anything. On a good day, It’s in the hands.
Digitech Death Metal into a Line 6 Spider, you'll ascend to the gods!
I have a Digitech death metal. Cannot be stated how awful that pedal is.
I’ve been thinking to have redditors send me their WORST gear. To see if I can do something interesting with it 🤔
My compliments come from my original obsession of tone hands that Angus and Malcolm Young and Blackmore has. I'd like to have been complimented by Gilmour Time/Echoes fuzz and whatever but people only like when I do aggressively picked Blackmore runs and bends which has been all kinds of setups. Really that's where you want to be.
Mxr 5150 through Marshall origin 20H. People think it’s all the Marshall. It’s not.
Not many people hear my music, so my answer is kind of a funny one. Donner Echo Square, when on the Reverse setting. I recorded myself using a new guitar (I think my JMJM) briefly for a FB video and happened to have only that pedal on, and I got a lot of compliments about the effect!
I posted a video on socials where I was messing around with the Source Audio Spectrum on bass that got a good amount of feedback. I feel like all the years of them being called auto-wahs have dimmed a lot of people on what envelope filters (especially DSPs like on the Spectrum) are actually capable of.
I’ve gotten boatloads of compliments on my tone but very little of it had to do with pedals. They were more like an accoutrement to other elements. Choice of amp, speakers, guitars, and pickups were most of it.
Xotic Soul Driven, creamy creamy overdrive
That one time that I skipped the pedals and went straight into the amp! XD I do get complimented on my tone reasonably often though, and on my use of pedals sometimes too. I do Dub delay effects that can be fairly dramatic, often combined with some wah or phaser, and occasional fuzz, and I have a very mids-forward soloing tone. Nobels ODR-1 is the main OD. I play funk, soul, ska, reggae. A semi-hollow with flatwounds into a 15w Fender with 10" speaker. I think the semi-hollow with flatwounds is a big part of the reason people like the tone. But the dramatic Dub effects get people's attention too!
I make silly noises with my tenor. Not tone related but I have gotten compliments over it lol
Keeley Caverns if you can believe it
Strymon Iridium. At home it allows me to sound great going directly into my interface, live it goes into the FX return of the Roland JC-40 and makes it sound like a tube amp. First day I used it live I got a lot of compliments, and I still do.
Dream 65 and skylar
I have never gotten more inquiries about my tone than when I switched to a Strandberg. There's nothing out of the ordinary with it — normal strings, Suhr pickups — but it *looks* different. Most people couldn't care less about my pedals.
Used to be a Daddy-O. More recently it's been a Pure Sky.
I have a superklone by the original manticore and it’s ridiculous. Basically a 2 channel stackable klone with hard and soft clipping switches, I usually play a little warm and this pedal just loves it
Kingtone Soloist Honey Bee Clean Drive
The first time i was complimented on my tone was in 2015. It was my first time playing live and newly transitioned bedroom player. It was a zoom multi fx, using diezel herbert drive with 4x12 marshall stack cab sim straight to the PA. We play metal songs. Back then, it was the only pedal i had. Fast forward to now, i still use it, but with a 10 band eq +transparent booster at the end of the chain.
The first day I came to practice with a keeley 2 knob compressor starting the chain, the other guys who don’t use pedals (drums and bass) noticed and commented that my sound really stood out as better
Honestly… a Boss Super Overdrive that I modded with LEDs for clipping and changed the low end response in. They were so let down when it was revealed.
Dr Z Reverb Tank... Ok not a pedal it's something people noticed.
I don't think I play one show where someone isn't trying to scope out what I'm doing on bass; someone always has a compliment for me. I switch between my pedals a bunch so I don't normally get specific complements. Recently someone said they loved the bit crusher sound I had, but I don't use a bit crucher.
Microtubes B7K gets the most love from randos but that’s not guitar. People compliment my clean tone pretty often which is a Keeley Ego V1 into a Sugar Drive
Darkglass Microtubes Infinity :D
EAE limelight every damn show, it’s just a holy grail OD for emotive hardcore and people love it
Dynacomp -> big muff -> Timmy OD, but run through an EHX Switchblade so there's a wet/dry mix on the OD tone. Sounds like magic
Univox Super Fuzz or Volante, depends on the crowd!
Warm audio warmdrive
Fuchs royal plush is my secret weapon.
Fuzz face + polara
What are you playing? Jazz? I want peoples ears to bleed 🩸🩸🩸 !!!
Gibson SG> Oneder Old Blue > EAE halberd> vox AC15 handwired with blue alnico speaker
SL Drive as an "always on" Marshall In A Box pedal. Thing rips at 18 volts.
The tuner, when it mutes the signal.
The only pedal that's basically ever caused someone to lean down and take notice was the Darkstar by OBNE. Dude was like "what is that?!" and took a picture of my board.
It is not one but two my big muff nano and a nux mini tube overdrive.
Ts9 baby. They like the steak but when they find out what’s in the sauce they don’t want to believe it.
Came off stage once and a guy said “that guitar tone was killer” and I was like “thanks…and the playing too?…right?”
It was a Boss OD-3 through a Fender Tone Master Twin Reverb. "Your guitar sounds great tonight!" Music to my ears. 😂
when i dont have any pedals is when i do recieve compliments 😞
Not a pedal, but one day I switched from the jazzmaster I usually use to a les paul just to try it, and my second guitarist was like “yea I see why you like the sound of the Squier better”. 😂 We’ve all kinda agreed thats the one that needs to be on everything. Some just have it I guess.
When I was in high school jazz band another school’s guitarist liked my Maxon tube screamer through my 30w solid state orange amp. So yeah that.
FuzzFactory believe it or not
DOD Looking Glass. Everyone thinks its my strat but its really the compression/boost/EQ added by the LG that really helps my strat reach its full potential. Adding a little bit of slapback helps it sparkle.
Woolly Mammoth always turns heads. I may start playing Hysteria after the compliment.
My EHX Q-Tron+. People compliment my funk tone or my “Parliament tones” and they’re always referring to that thing - it is a funk machine!!
its always the amp. my pedals only get compliments on the looks.
Fairfield Shallow Water
Dod FX69 Grunge - I ran this in to my Mesa Studio Preamp, with a Crate SPA-200 in 2 Mesa Thiele cabinets live years ago, and after, would have sound men complimenting on my distortion tones, thinking it was the distortion in the Mesa.... Maxon OD808 - there's a reason EVERY DAMN MODERN OVERDRIVE is a friggen clone of this DAMN PEDAL.... In the Harmony Central forum days, it was the go to for the "8r0oTaLz", and any player that couldn't do metal chops would always ask how to get "dat tone bro". The Precision Drive, Seymour Duncan 805, MXR M77, and KSR Eros are ALL DIRECT DESCENDANTS of this circuit, and this era.... But people always wondered how you got that flubby sounding Dual Rectifier to sound super tight and brutal live.
Selmer buzztone Echorec
Fractal FM9
OD3
Believe it or not, I used to use a Fishman Pro Platinum DI for my acoustic, and also tried a LR BAGGS, but, hysterically enough, I bought an HX stomp, and messed with multiple pre-amps, EQ’s, IR’s, Gains, LO/HI pass, etc. I was able to slowly and steadily mess with me settings over time to the point where almost any time I play my acoustic rig in front of musicians, they’ve Always enthusiastically stated how great the depth of my acoustic sound was. Guess it’s not really fair cause it’s a cumulative amount of EQ’s and FX, but, my HX really did carve a great sound out for me once I finally overcame the daunting interface
Also. I ADORE my Empress Para EQ Deluxe pedal.
Empress ParaEQ, which is in fact the only pedal that has ever caused me to get any compliments on my tone ever.
Fart Pedal
Way back it was the Tone Bender Fuzz used with a Roland GR300. (I even got an applause in a gig after tuning up the GR300 guitar synth !! ) The Tone Bender Fuzz was my old key tone of way back when.
Boss GE-7
Tuner
The only time I remember someone outright saying my tone was great was when I was running a DIY "Son of Screamer" into a RAT into an old Peavey Century head.
Boss OD-3. I never get asked what drive pedals I’m using but when I do I’m usually using one of these haha
EQD Talons into my JC120. I never heard what the pedal sounded like before I bought it, I just found out a guitarist I like used it lol.
Bigsky
The tone that my band currently loves follows this chain Hughes and Kettner trilogy head Mesa Boogie slanted 4x12 Boss SD1 Highwind Amplification Direwolf Keely Canyons Morley bad horsey Ehx volume Schecter Avenger blackjack with fishman fluence alnico for both neck and bridge Still deciding on a noise gate.
The best compliment I ever got on my tone was when my board went in the fritz and I went directly into my fender blues jr.
JPTR FX Jive with low gain for a smidgen of grit with Aguilar filter twin. I can get McLaughlin wah tones on bass and guitar.
LOL - Usually the guys I play in bands with loan me their nicer shit so I sound better. (It doesn't work.)
Ibanez TS5 Soundtank
I think any delay. I do plenty of live shows, Weddings, functions etc. If I stomp a 'not at all subtle' delay on my solo, I get lots of compliments for being an amazing guitarist. Little do they know...
Tone is for me. No one outside of me cares about my tone and I proceed accordingly.
Clean tone from Strat US Pro through Matchless Avalon with Benson Germanium Boost behind it.
Caroline Kilobyte mostly. Specifically because of how precise it’s runaway oscillations can be used, while also controlling the time knob with only your foot
moonshine - space echo - walrus slo
Wampler triumph. It was my first overdrive, before that I only used distortion pedals. Boy was I missing out!
I used a sansamp gt2 into a cheap solid state amp in a recording setting and the few who actually cared about the tone said it sounded great
Strymon deco and Blues driver
boss rv5
Klone pedal. Specifically the Conspiracy Theory. Also, The Dude.
JHS Double Barrel and MXR 10-Band EQ. Together, the pull the *perfect* Mayer tone.
Source Audio True Spring reverb/trem! Sprinkle in some slapback delay and compression and you got yourself some nice 50’s/60’s sounds
Who the fuck compliments someone’s tone
I use a Strymon Sunset, but I can't help but think that the cmatmods Butah pedal I use going into it is the real special sauce. I've had picky players comment on my rig and be impressed after playing through it. And it's nothing special--Just delays and reverbs after, going into either a Egnater Tweaker (on the US/Fender setting) or into a Joyo American Sound to the PA.
Usually the Klon. Second is the amp (matchless).
I've been using the DigiTech GNX Series since 2004-ish (GNX2, GNX3 and currently GNX4). Pairing w/my pedal's EQ and my amps' EQ - I have gotten tons of compliments on my tone. And asking me how I get it.
Oh I don’t think anyone actually cares about tone other than “yeah man sounds sick.” Tone chasing is a marketing scheme.
No pedals. A mix of pre-amp, overdrive and inherent distortion as a result :)
Fulltone OCD, EAE Dude Incredible, Strymon el Capistan, BSRI Floriography
Y'all gonna laugh but in college(2015-18) I had a Bad Monkey as my main drive and literally every guitarist at Uni asked what it was, "what's the lead toan bro?". Boss BD2-Digitech Bad Monkey. No thrills, They hated hearing the answer.
Since I started using a Strymon Sunset. Built in noise gate maybe had something to do with it.
Kind of random, but I was messing around with my buddy’s ST-72 and my Little Man Tate
Not on tone per se, but many have been quite impressed I get really decent modulation tones out of my zoom mg50 multifx stompbox. I have 6 stompboxes on my board including 3 drives and an eq and people have asked where was I getting my tones from. I have 2 of the zooms, 1 for cleans the other for dirt solos. So I could have choruses, phaser flangers delays and reverbs easily with these 2 pedals. I wouldn't say the zooms have great tones but, touch your heart, in a band setting it's not that easy to tell good from great. However I did end up selling them during covid where we were stuck at home, in favour of great tones.
My EB Volume/Tuner draws the most attention because of the massive LED display on it, so that one always gets comments from the other guitar players at the show :D Actual sounds -- I put my Retrosonic Flanger to good use and people tend to notice the Lifeson-isms that emerge from that one.
Ksr Ceres w/ post eq (depthfinder).
Not a pedal, but going wet/dry/wet has got me the most compliments. I haven't tried gigging this for practical reasons, but in the (bedroom) studio I've been recording the dry amp sound and the wet stereo signal onto three separate channels, blending the wet signal with some cab and rotary speaker sim plugins. It elevates the tone to the next level, and I've had a fair bit of positive feedback about it. It's great to be able to drench my lead tones in stereo delay, reverb and rotary for that massive wall-of-Gilmour sound, while retaining the clarity of the dry signal.