As I was dropping off my 6 string to have some work done on it and I happened into a conversation about guitar effects. One particular gentleman was completely against the use of any effects on the guitar to the point of discounting player that use them. I find that odd. I can understand the dislike of overuse or the choice not to use, but to discount someone else's talent because they use them. . . . .

I realize that lots of people use effects to cover up incompetent playing, but I don't think all is the case.

What’s the consensus of the RM community?

In addition to the initial query what are some of your favorite effects. I personally love some me Phaser. A nice crunchy distortion, a little further past just high gain. On my bass though I rarely use anything more than cranking the gain a little. Occasionally I'll use some Flanger or Reverb, but usually only when I'm noodling at home.

Discounting someone's talent because they use effects is like saying 'if their eyes are of a certain colour they are not as competant'.

Complete ignorance, arrogance, and completely without merit.

Anything can be over-used or used to extremes but to say that any use at all indicates less ability is ridiculous.

Delay really has it for me with guitar...not always of course but a little delay can do a lot.
For bass...some Flange does wonders...turn it up until you can notice it and then drop it back just a bit.

A lot of the times I don't like using effects on my bass because I lose some of the articulation. The sound just becomes to muddy, especially when there are other 6 strings playing along. I can totally see that being a settings issue but I haven't taken the time to sit down and mess with them to get them right.

Another favorite is a heavy distortion on my fretless bass. Talk about a killer slide sound!!!!

with the guitar the two pedals i can't live without are my volume and delay. the way i used the volume it almost sounds like a controllable tremolo and the delay is basically there to echo the sound a little longer so the faux-tremolo picks it up. i used to be really big on the wah but mine is pretty close to shot at the moment. i do enjoy playing with fuzzed out distortion at times but i can't do it all night. all of the above goes for my bass as well.

That sounds like a cool approach to the volume/delay...rather original I think.

thanks, it wears out my left foot and the back of my right leg (support) though. i also need to get a new volume pedal, my old bass fell out of its strap once and smashed onto the pedal. bass was fine, the rocker on the pedal broke one of its housings, it still works with a washer but it's kind of loose and wiggly.

please pardon a non-guitar player infiltrating this thread.

when i think of heavily effected guitars, i think of one of my favorite rock groups: My Bloody Valentine. i couldn't describe why i feel the sounds of an instrument run through all sorts of effects to be blissful, i'd just be using a bunch of synonyms for the words "lush" and "dense". personally, i'm quite fond of reverb, but my exploits with it have been limited to the computer. i couldn't say what the physical devices are capable of.

this gentleman should listen to what bob mould has to say.

I saw bob mould recently, he sounded (and looked like) phil collins. One guy, one guitar ... nice idea, if billy bragg hadn't done it earlier. Although to be fair i haven't heard it on record, but it wasn't a patch on the bragg live.

Personally I'm a bit of an acoustic purist. I've been playing guitar for a year or two now and I simply can't get the hang of electric. I prefer the sound of acoustic and i'm more impressed with acoustic over electric. Having said that hendrix and led zep are my favourite artists.

basically i see it boiling down like this. there are great guitar players who like to use effects to colour their sound (like hendrix and gilmour), then there are mediocre players who cover up their lack in musicianship with pedals (like tom morello and michael angelo).

purists of any form annoy the crap out of me. get a fucking beret and long cigarette and start calling yourself a goddamned artiste when in reality, most are just art fags hoping no one will notice their shortcomings.