When it comes to effects, I typically use them to enhance the sound of my amp. I think of them as extra colours to add to my tonal palette! Like most guitarists though, I’m forever tweaking my pedalboard, either through boredom or because I keep buying new stompboxes. This, however, is my current setup. It covers all of the sounds I need for my various musical projects… that is until the next pedal comes along!
I’m massively into ‘80s hair metal, so I tend to rely on a good valve amp for most of my distorted tones. I currently use an EVH 5150III EL34, which is a killer amp and has more gain than I’ll ever need! With that in mind, I guess you could say that the 5150 footswitch is the command centre of my board.
My signal chain starts with the MXR Talk Box because, well, why wouldn’t you want a talk box? It’s difficult to use and impossible to look cool when using it, but it’s one of the most uniquely fun pedals out there! From there, I go into the ever-reliable Boss TU-2 and then the Strymon Compadre compressor/boost, which is useful as it’s essentially two pedals in one! I use the compressor to even out my clean tone and kick in the boost for solos. The Maxon OD808 Overdrive is the original tube screamer pedal and works really well for tightening up the crunch channel on my 5150. The last pedal is the iconic MXR EVH Phase 90. Eddie Van Halen is by far my biggest influence, and the Phase 90 just makes solos pop — not to mention it has a cool striped paint job!
I run my reverb, delay and modulation effects through the 5150’s FX loop. The Strymon Mobius has just about every mod sound you’ll ever need, but I mostly use it for chorus and tremolo — though it’s fun to play with the more unusual effects like ‘Destroyer’ and ‘Quadrature’. I then go into the Eventide MicroPitch delay which I absolutely love, for no other reason than the fact it nails the ‘80s “Van Hagar” detune effect. It makes my signal sound huge and instantly puts a smile on my face! The last pedal in my chain is the TC Electronic Hall of Fame Reverb. It usually just lives on the Plate setting for that iconic ‘70s “Sunset Sound” Reverb Chamber effect, but the TonePrint feature makes it incredibly useful for other applications too.
Ben Greener
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