MY THREE SOUNDS

[guapo]

If you’ve been to my Web site before, you may have read my 13 Questions feature, where I ask an array of professional guitarists the same set of thirteen questions. The big idea is to compare and contrast their answers, and maybe find some unexpected overlap. The feature is still alive and growing, and now I’ve got a new feature in mind: My Three Sounds. The concept here is simple—I’ll be asking guitar players to pick their three favorite stompboxes, the ideal down-sized pedalboard. Let’s say tuners don’t count, but volume pedals do. I’d also say EBow counts as an effect, even though it's not stompbox.

Unlike my 13 Q’s feature, I’m not only going to poll the pros. I’m also asking you, dear readers: What boxes can you simply not gig without?

Now, I’ve really been digging the straight-into-the-amp approach for my own gigs lately. But I’m about to go on tour with Lisa Loeb, and I’ve had to put a board together to cop some of those “sounds like a record” tones. (I hope!) My LL touring board has five pedals. In signal-chain order: Diamond Compressor, Fulltone OCD overdrive, Ernie Ball VP JR. volume pedal, MXR M-159 Tremolo, and Electro-Harmonix #1 Echo delay. If I had to pick just three of those for this tour, I’d pick the Compressor, OCD, and volume pedal—I could get through her set with those. But for gigs in general, my ultimate board would be Boss OD-3 overdrive (natural-sounding grit, with warm lows and low-mids—some other pedals scoop all that good stuff out), volume pedal (for subtle dynamic control, not for swells), and #1 Echo (digital, yes, but still has a lo-fi vibe and seems to breathe a bit).

So—what’s on your board? What’s not on your board? And why?

Step on it!