Dumbest Effect

Michael Holland · Post by **Michael Holland** » 10 Jul 2003 6:11 pm

AHEM!! Back to topic.

Steve, Chorusing and time-based effects are very prominent in guitar parts. I particularly love the Option 5 Destination Rotation. It's a rotating speaker effect that sounds killer with electric guitar. Lots of guys use the H&K Rotosphere with good results. I really would like to try the AdrenaLinn, too.

The octave pedal may come in handy if you're not carrying a baritone guitar. I think the 'kick me' reverb is something I could do without, though!

Bob Hoffnar · Post by **Bob Hoffnar** » 10 Jul 2003 8:43 pm

Electro Harmonix once made a stomp box called the RTG that did not have an input. Just an output.

Then there was the Domino Theory which didn't make any sound at all. It would flash some red lights in different patterns along to your playing.

I love the EH stuff.

Bob

David Mason · Post by **David Mason** » 12 Jul 2003 1:29 am

I agree about the auto-wah. I have a Behringer guitar amp with a bunch of built in effects, and occasionally I get in a mood to see just how awful I can make it sound. If you play a steel with a piece of PVC pipe through the auto-wah, you can get a sound alarmingly like Jimi Hendrix on bad acid playing a whammy bar-equipped b@njo. Right after I discovered this, all the aphids on my houseplant died, so maybe it does have some utility.

Stephen Gambrell · Post by **Stephen Gambrell** » 12 Jul 2003 12:57 pm

Hey Joey, I've got a Fishman on my Larrivee acoustic. Do they make that pedal for acoustics, with maybe a "Doc" or "Dan" output?

Bob Smith · Post by **Bob Smith** » 13 Jul 2003 9:49 am

Some of those harmonizers sound pretty dumb. Bob

Bobby Lee · Post by **Bobby Lee** » 13 Jul 2003 4:34 pm

Auto-wah: sounds Canadian!

Seriously, ring modulator sounds useless to me. Flange is really annoying. Chorus is on my list, too.

The "pitch" section of my Lexicon MPX-100 has one called "ascending intervals". This is probably the dumbest one ever. It produces echos, each one an interval above the previous one. Maybe it would work musically if you stayed on a diminished or augmented chord, but that's not a musical idea to begin with.

Yeah, "ascending intervals" is the dumbest effect I know of.

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Michael Brebes · Post by **Michael Brebes** » 14 Jul 2003 6:18 am

Ring modulator is pretty useless, except I did actually use it once for a voice effect.
At one time in the late 60's I owned a wah wah pedal that had a switch that turned on either a police siren or ocean waves. The wah wah was horrible, the ocean waves would put everyone to sleep, and the police siren was good if you wanted to clear the place out quick. Probably the most dumbest/useless effect I ever owned.

Stephen Gambrell · Post by **Stephen Gambrell** » 14 Jul 2003 10:51 am

Hey, b0b, I like that one

! I've got an MPX100, and that's the only setting I use???

Bobby Lee · Post by **Bobby Lee** » 15 Jul 2003 1:32 pm

You gotta be kidding!!!

Dan Tyack · Post by **Dan Tyack** » 15 Jul 2003 5:18 pm

Reverb!!! Who needs to make the steel sound more difuse????

(just kidding)

Seriously, I don't know of an effect that doesn't have a place, in the right context. I have a setting with some really ugly ring modulator on my Adrennalinn box that I just used when I played with a trance/electronica group. It sounded perfect.....

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Brett Cookingham · Post by **Brett Cookingham** » 20 Jul 2003 2:23 pm

Anything that say's "Line 6" on it

B.C.

Larry Clark · Post by **Larry Clark** » 20 Jul 2003 7:47 pm

Frequency Analyzer....like playing an out of tune guitar with a Coke bottle!

Gino Iorfida · Post by **Gino Iorfida** » 21 Jul 2003 2:56 am

.. about 90% of the 'pitch shifter' effects out there in consumer grade effect units. About the only 'useful' setting is either up or down an octave. All the other settings (up/down a 3rd, 4th or 5th etc all sound out of tune on half the notes you play, since the scales are not even spaced etc)... now the better units out there, that allow you to program in what key you are playing in, and what scale type you are using are MUCH more useful in creating a nice harmony effect... but those annoying pitch shifters that Digitech etc put in their $300 processors just simply are NOT a $3000 Eventide unit etc.

David L. Donald · Post by **David L. Donald** » 21 Jul 2003 7:54 am

Ring modulators get my vote.
As nearly use less a thing for anyth8ing but a synth that I casn think of.

Many effects if used with discretion can have a home in a rack, BUT and a BIG but,
Most new effects get over used, because they have a short term novelty. But after awhile they get back burnered, eventually they get a relatively useful position in the shceme of actually making good music.

Eddie Malray · Post by **Eddie Malray** » 26 Jul 2003 1:24 pm

I wish they did'nt make effects. Nothing beats the natural sound of a good instrument thriugh a good amp in the hands of a good musician.