[Glice]

Originally Posted by SpectralJulianIsNotDead

Very true Glice, about having to learn to play. I really hate it when people come on effects message boards and ask how to get a certain sound. Or people who ask what sitar effects are good. Why don't you learn how to get your guitar to sound like a sitar as much as you can by your fretting style, pick attack, as well as use of drones before you run off and buy some piece of crap flanger that says "sitar" on it.

I began learning on an acoustic than got an electric a few months later. My amp didn't have channel switching and I hated the way its overdrive sounded, so I got a blues driver.

Then awhile later when reading I came across the term ring modulation. So I decided I wanted a ring modulator just because it was so wierd. So I got one.

Then my reverb on my amp stopped working, and I needed a quick replacement, because now my sound was different. The guitar shop only had a delay, and it was impressive. So I bought it.

Then I found that screwing with the knobs made crazy noises, so I bought a broken wah to make into an expression pedal for it. But the wah worked, so I kept it a wah, and got a keyboard volume pedal instead.

And everything is history from there. I have really bad luck with delays, when I modded that one, I put it in a crappy enclosure so that a year later, I accidentally broke it getting out of bed and stepping on with full force. So I got another analog delay that just crapped out on me a few days ago, and a digital delay that was DOA.

Then I got a tremolo and an octaver because they were really good deals. My friend gave me a chorus pedal because he didn't want it anymore.

But I've gone back and forth between using pedals and not using pedals, and I think doing both things has improved my playing.

You really have to learn not just to turn your pedals on and get a sound, but how to play them and how to get your own personal sound out of them.

Hehe. It's probably a lot easier to get a sitar-type sound without any pedals, just use an open C tuning and learn some of the scales and play them on the treble strings, close to the bridge, preferably with fingerpicking but you'd get a good sound from a heavy pick.

Whoops, trade secrets out there.

What mystefies me most is how people want to get effects to sound like someone else. Fair enough for a covers band, or someone who only wants to play one bands songs, but for anyone who has even the slightest inkling that they might want to do their own stuff, it's just ridiculous.

I've had pedals, they both broke, so I play without them now, if I play electric at all. I find if I borrow a mate's pedals I can't play half of the things I like to play... I have a fuck-off amp, and that's enough for me, thanks.