Top 5 Pedals for Playing in a Covers Band
These are my top 5 pedals that I would choose for playing in a covers band.
What are your favourites pedals for covers band work?
My website: https://www.michaelbanfieldguitar.com
00:00 – Intro
00:14 – Chorus Pedals
01:12 – Drop Tuning Pedal
02:29 – Essential Delay Sounds
04:49 – Integrating Multi FX
06:30 – Emulating Different Amp Sounds
08:56 – Using Multiple Guitars, Noise, Backup Rigs and Acoustic Sounds
#Top #Pedals #Playing #Covers #Band
Originally posted by UCsdzt1tun0Gbe51Qm8SsBQQ at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Foc3b4TVMEk
Im in my 50's. After owning tons of amps guitars and pedals.
I absolutely agree with using a high head room clean tube amp as a pedal platform. Nothing beats a 40 watt Fender blackface/silverface amp.
I like a clean tube amp of 30-50w with a good spring reverb and tremelo, a tuner of course, a couple of gain stages(low gain/boost plus higher gain OD), and a short/long delay option with a bit of character. If Im playing a Strat, then Id substitute a Fuzz Face for one of the gain stages. Otherwise I can get all the distortion I ever need form a couple of OD pedals. If I have to have modulation other than the amp tremelo then I prefer phase, and some things might require a env filter or wah. Ive never cared for chorus, and octave and downtuned pedals always sound like crap IMO.
What!
This channel has cured my autism
Excellent video….Been playing since the 60s myself…have found the EP Booster brilliant for first in pedal train…always on…enhances guitar sound everywhere..switch it off and you KNOW it's gone…!!!!!!!!..Multi FX seldom measure up against dedicated pedals in my experience..!!
drop pedal is great for playing in different “chew nings”
Thanks. Insightful!
Obviously depends on the genre of cover band but a overdrivedistortion, chorus, delay, wah, and leave the 5th pedal for player taste. Most amps have a solid reverb built in so that eliminates the need for that in pedal form.
A Boss ME90 can do all of that an a lot more for $300, and if you want you can ditch your amp. Sure, it may not sound quite as good as individual pedals, but c'mon – we're talking about a cover band here.
I love my zoom g2x four, for pretty much everything. ????
I use a multi-effects instead of standard pedals for the reason of being much faster in changing sounds in between songs. You can for instance instantly switch from a massive distorted sound with just some reverb to a clean chorus sound with delay specifically tuned to a certain song. Tuning all the jobs on pedals will take you ages????
Thanks mate! Very helpful guide, and I appreciate you not pushing particular brands. ????
Drop the zoom and add an eq
The first thing I liked was, you got right to the subject matter without any unnecessary chatter. It drives me crazy when I click on a a vid and the poster drones on and on for three or four minutes before getting to the actual point of the vid. Bravo on that point alone. Nice concise overview of the pedals you chose.
If I could have only five: EQ; MXR Phaser (80s); MXR Envelope Filter (80s); distortion; fuzz.
You just covered everything a guitar player "should" know, when it comes to playing covers in a live situation.! Excellent video.????????
One of the worst guitar videos………
Great video and advice and I love that Tele ????
What’s the difference between the short delay and reverb?
great summary and lots of great tips, i would also add a Boss graphic eq as essential for changing sounds up and tailoring sound to a room and solo boos
Quite similar to mine. Digitech Drop – Vol/Wah Pedal – Boss SD1 – Suhr Riot – Zoom MS70CDR+ – Boss DD8. This is my setting for a small gig.
Being cheeky, we haven't mentioned the most important pedal of all ….. a tuner!
I would add in an EQ pedal. An eq pedal can your rig so much more versatile. You can make a Strat pickup sound thicker like a humbucker or the other way around, you can complete revoice the sound of all your drive pedals, you can use it as a clean boost for your solos.
No no no do not listen to this clown.
All that shit is not needed.
Your tone is in your hands.
Keep practicing.
Great playing dude!
Those Digitech Drop pedals are cool…..
Some great advice here from Michael. My preference is as few pedals as possible, but all analogue and no multi-fx. My board has a Boss tuner pedal, a crappy chorus (must get a better one), an excellent Fender Waylon Jennings phaser, a Guyatone PS-015 overdrive, a DOD FX-90 delay, and for magic, a Boss Blues Driver. This last pedal is always on, and set clean, but very loud. It brings the sound to life. For wah, I use the guitar's tone control. I refuse to use noisy pedals (so no noise gate is needed), and in the one venue I know where the electrical supply causes noise, I use a guitar with humbuckers. All of this generally using the clean channel of a decent amp, and occasionally the overdrive channel.
The TC Plethora stuff is great, such a cool idea and saves loads of space!
For what it's worth – The Digitech Drop is the only drop tuning pedal that is with consideration. The rest have either too much latency, too much artifacting, or change your tone too much.
Imo all you need is a fuzz, blues driver, chorus, wah, delay,
Great demo and tips. At the moment I have the following pedalboard setup: Caline Hot Spice VOL/WAH, TC Electronic Brainwaves Pitch Shifter, Fender Pugilist Distortion, Rowin Vibrock Chorus/Tremolo, Belcat Delay & Joyo Atmosphere Reverb. I have a Belcat Flanger & TC Electronic Blood Moon Phaser too as I play a lot of rock & metal.
When you mentioned the drop pedal, I said “oh hell yea! For metal!”
Then you mentioned the opposite of what I thought????
There are definitely different types of cover bands. For example, I prefer metal, death metal, and power metal instead of doing Hendrix or AC/DC covers.
Great video!
I always start with sorting out gain stages – do I have enough, have I covered all I need to cover etc. Hopefully, the right 2 pedals can cover 4 useful sounds including clean. I use guitar volume to shade/provide extra colour to gain stages and boost e.g. for a solo when needed. I’m typically going into a clean Deluxe or Tonex pedal.
I always have a dedicated short delay pedal. Then I think multi FX of some kind is what you want tbh. I have Eventide H90 which is a ‘no compromises’ option but there are so many great cheaper options. One vital thing this gives you is a TUNER! That would also cover other delay types, pitch, modulations and reverbs (possibly stuff like filter if I need). Then a fifth pedal would be a bit of a luxury/vibe pick. Either another gain stage for added flexibility (I love fuzz so might sneak one in) or another dedicated modulation pedal – univibe, tremolo etc.
Interesting take; lots of ways to skin this gerbil. I wouldn't take a drop tuner; I play guitar, not pedals so I'd rather grab a tuner on the fly or if I need to drop a whole or a half step, I'll tune there and capo accordingly. In fact, I'd swap that for a tuner I can actually see on a brightly sunlit stage. I'd dispense with the chorus, too, in favor of what's in the multi-effector, which is absolutely essential, especially if it has a switchable/programmable effects loop, a boost and a treadle that can do wah or volume. Even better with banks, presets and emulated direct outs on XLR. If I have that, why do I need other pedals? (or an amp, even) But then too, how specific do I need to get with my sounds in a bar band cover situation? The drunks don't care all that much; they're there to drink dance and chase tail, so not having the right fuzz pedal ain't gonna queer your deal. A tribute situation? Different animal.
What's your preferred monitoring method for gigs?
Also reason #4 (7:30), you can easily put a boost pedal after the AmpInABox for volume jump for solos. If you're already using your amp's gain channel, a boost into the front will mostly just give more saturation, not volume.
I've been playing in cover bands my whole life, great advice. The only thing I don't use is the Drop D pedal, I'd never seen one before and I don't have have a multi FX. I do have an overdrive and distortion and wah that get used also.
BB preamp the best and versatile pedal
Nonsense.
that tele have vintage cunife pickups?
Correction: don’t play in a cover band to begin with and focus on original material.
I noticed you said put the noise gate after drive pedals or in the fx loop. I have rarely ever used one myself, but that is exactly how I always figured you should use one. I’ve noticed lately though, that every single person I’ve seen using an amp modeller like AxeFX or whatever nowadays, is always using a noise gate first in their signal chain. That makes no sense to me at all. The only thing that would be suppressing would be 60 cycle hum from the guitar, and all the really noisy gain effects and such would not be being muted at all. ????????
A solo boost can be handy to make your guitar pop out of the mix when you want it to.
This is a great and original angle on pedals. Thank you Michael. Covers bands don't get the credit they deserve. It can be see as unglamorous but they're often the hardest working artists out there, and have quite specific needs in terms of versatility, not to mention budget. Good video.
AWESOME AWESOME AWESOME VID
I’m really surprised with the pitch pedal that’s really innovative!