Friday, November 29, 2024
GuitarGuitar Effects

The ESSENTIAL Five Guitar Pedals For Great Alternative/Shoegaze Sounds…


How many guitar pedals do you need to get great sounds? The age old question! *Spoiler alert, it doesn’t include The Bad Monkey!!

I think there are only 5 categories of guitar pedal – Overdrive, distortion, fuzz, reverb and delay, that you really need to play alt-rock/shoegazy guitar and anything else is just a pure luxury.

In this video we’re going to take a look at which pedals I have to do those jobs (they’re not necessarily the best, just the ones I have). I hope you enjoy this, let me know if you agree or if you think I’m full of rubbish!

Take a listen to this stuff in action (my band) : https://www.youtube.com/octoberdrift

Watch another vid: https://youtu.be/3maPm8xzbHo

Buy these awesome pedals (I get a little bit of money if you buy through these links):

Strymon Blue-sky: https://clk.tradedoubler.com/click?p=189673&a=3312578&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.gear4music.com%2FGuitar-and-Bass%2FStrymon-Blue-Sky-v2-Reverberator-Pedal%2F50L5

Boss DS-1: https://clk.tradedoubler.com/click?p=189673&a=3312578&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.gear4music.com%2FGuitar-and-Bass%2FBoss-DS-1-Distortion-Pedal%2F7OT

Electro Harmonix Big Muff-Pi: https://clk.tradedoubler.com/click?p=189673&a=3312578&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.gear4music.com%2FGuitar-and-Bass%2FElectro-Harmonix-Op-Amp-Big-Muff-Pi%2F2AND

Earthquaker Plumes: https://www.gear4music.com/Guitar-and-Bass/EarthQuaker-Devices-Plumes-Small-Signal-Shredder-Overdrive/31JE

#ESSENTIAL #Guitar #Pedals #Great #AlternativeShoegaze #Sounds..

Originally posted by UCwyK-0o3xhqZdDTlJqUWQzw at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hDcKQNwzkAA

35 thoughts on “The ESSENTIAL Five Guitar Pedals For Great Alternative/Shoegaze Sounds…

  • Finally an honest down to earth take on pedals. You don’t need to spend a complete fortune on boutique pedals such as JHS, chase bliss and the other usual suspects/marketing machines. P.s if you like the ds1, try the ds2 it’s even better and costs essentially nothing!

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  • Kurt used the ds1 from 1987-1991 when he replaced it with a ds2. However Kurt used the ds1 to record all studio albums and recordings

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  • Very much similar choices too. Also like the third setting on Plumes most too. I think that's the Asymmetric saturation, and it adds more complex overtones. It's the first that's the more the classic straightahead mid-hump TS drive. I like the TC Magus Pro RAT, because it has three settings like Plumes, a Standard, Turbo and Fat RAT. Both do great Kim Gordon Bass tones too. I like the DS-1, but I (slightly) prefer the DOD 250, it's a bit more neutral and full. Earthquaker's Acapulco is a great Sunn Model T power amp distortion that's great for full bore distortion too. Fuzzes, also similar, I like the EHX Green Russian Muff, and the Way Huge Swollen Pickle. The UAFX Del-Verb is my goto for a high quality all-in-one stereo delay and reverb. The DMM digital delay emulation and tape delay, and all three reverb algos are great. Spring is my usual, but the plate and Lexicon-style hall is great too. And I love the fact it's a stereoiser for the end-of-chain.

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  • With such a minimal signal chain I would make sure each pedal is capable of doing double time. A Rat2, or HM-2 could do both the distortion, and Muff tones. A multi mod pedal like the Oceans 11 can tackle any modulation. Add a Delay that has Reverb, and now with the Plumes, you have still have a 5th spot for something like an Octave, Looper, Wah…

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  • sick board. kurdt did use a DS-2. i've found the behringer um300 to be a faithful companion to my alt-board if you back off the gain and eq it right! (:

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  • Blasting these pedals right at the camera unfocused wrecks my eyeballs , are you trying to beat me up with that effect ? ????

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  • If you have a good delay already id reccomend the ehx memory boy for really weird ambient silly noises, very goofy pedal.

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  • Kurt used the ds-1 on nevermind and bleach, the ds-2 didn’t come into play until 92’ I believe, even then Kurt just used the DS-2 on the original ds-1 mode.

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  • And here I thought I was basic, but we have extremely similar pedal boards! My drive is the Ibanez TS9DX, same circuit as your Plume. It has additional modes that increase the lows, mids, gain and output level. It lacks the clean boost mode that the EQD Plume has. I also have the DS-1. I sold the first one I got but ended up buying another because it's pretty much mandatory to own one. I've never owned a Rat but I have had that same love/hate relationship with the EHX Big Muff, i.e. one breaks so you immediately by another. I've gone a time without a DS-1 but I've always had a Big Muff. My currrent one is a Nano I bought used, but not the orange Op-Amp version. The modulation and ambience section of my signal chain is a little bit sparse and less bourgie. For now, I have an Ibanez phaser for slow, dreamy sounds and a chinese micro-pedal with 11 modulation types I found for about $30 on Bezos-mart. My reverb is like a third of the Strymon in price, size and features but we only ever use a handful of settings with those types of devices after all, don't we? It has "wet only" output capability despite being mono and has a couple of delay settings. I have a modulated delay pedal on order, kind of an EHX Memory Man circuit clone and another distortion which houses 3 versions of the Rat circuit and a switch to change between them. Both were Ali deals. Less common shoegaze things I added were a compression pedal for clean boost and a cheap but decent sounding multi effects unit that I run through the effects loop of a solid state Fender Prinston.

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  • Love all of your videos, mate. Truly all of them. Had a quick question, how do you feel the Plumes compares to a Blues Driver (if you've tested one)? Do you get a noticeably different tone out the gate?

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  • Don't sleep on the Boss BD-2 Blues Driver. That thing is severely mis-named. Sure you can play blues with it, but it has crazy horsepower, way more gain than any overdrive, and it sounds great at many points on the way up, including all the way up. Its a no-brainer for Nirvana/shoegaze type sounds. Turn the gain up until it turns into a distortion; keep going and it almost turns into a fuzz. Wish I'd know what it was sooner. Waza version is alright as well, but there's a subtle difference in the EQ (less upper mids I think) and I like the original a lot better and its cheaper. Its always on my practice board, and always on when I'm playing; it even improves clean sounds with the gain turned down (tighter, clearer, with a little chime added). If it broke, I'd immediately buy another.

    It also has a really mellow hi-pass filter in it, so it cuts out the rumble, but not a ton. I run the BD-2 before the Op-Amp Big Muff with the gain on the BD-2 at minimum without dropping out. Really tightens up the Big Muff by getting rid of that low rumble (its EQ before compression, so the quiet rumble doesn't come out as mud when the Muff compresses it, got that trick from J. Mascis). Something with a more aggressive hi-pass like the Boss SD-1 will tighten and brighten it even more.

    Also, Boss DS-2 Turbo Distortion is awesome. Sounds like In Utero (because that's what he used on In Utero).

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