Guitar Effects

Though it's still not the same as having a few tons of amp gear to mix and match, you'll never run into impedance matching problems or blown speakers with the amp modeling options on the Line 6. You have the Dr. Frankenstein-like power to create whatever monstrous rigs you'd like.  

Boasting several types of delay effects that sound very nice, delay is one of the areas in which the Line 6 POD X3 Live excels. Take a listen to some of the various delay types contained within this multi-effects unit.  

Dobro fans and players have a reason to be delighted as the Fishman Jerry Douglas Aura Imaging pedal is set to officially debut at Summer NAMM 2008. The pedal, created in conjunction with dobro master Jerry Douglas, brings Aura Imaging specifically to resophonic guitars.  

When most guitarists get their first, or any, multieffects pedal, usually compression and EQ aren't the first parameters they check out. Although they may not be as flashy as phasers and flangers, they're far more important in achieving good tone.  

Every keyboard I've ever played has a synth FX bank with a bunch of both literal and figurative bells and whistles that you play through once, enjoy the neat sounds and never touch for practical use. The Line 6 POD X3 brings that feature to a guitar pedal.  

If you want to play the synth, but the layout of a keyboard is too logical for your guitar playing fingers, the Line 6 POD X3 has you covered. Check out our guitar signal as it gets mangled.  

Last time on Gearwire, Bill Holland and J. Irving-Giles joined forces to test out some of the modulation effects on the Line 6 POD X3 Live -- some choruses, flangers, nothing too crazy. But this time, they forgot to take their sanity pills and things get all out of whack with crazy vibes and square wave effects.  

The Line 6 POD X3 comes stocked with several mod effects gone overboard. Bill Holland tweaks up the mix on choruses and flangers as J. Irving-Giles provides the noise.  

At first glance, before getting into the menu-based editing system on the POD X3 Live, it looks like the expression pedal can work as a volume pedal or a wah pedal. Once you start twisting knobs, however, the LCD screen unlocks its full potential.  

We take a look at what the volume pedal can do beyond simply turning the volume from 0-10 at the turn of an ankle. Bill Holland is joined by the over-caffeinated string mashings of coffee-house icon and energy-drink-touting-muscle-car-drag-racer J. Irving-Giles.  

The Black Angels' Kyle Hunt shows us his pedal board and apologizes to Voodoo Labs for painting over their purple logo. Of course, The Purple Angels is nowhere near as good of a band name, so I think Voodoo Labs might be to blame for a lack of foresight.  

Bill Holland enlists the aid of J. Irving-Giles to demonstrate the wah capabilities of the Line 6 POD X3. Mr. Giles, who was installing some nitrous boosters on his sweet ride (to make it even sweeter) at the time, was happy to oblige.  

One frequent resident on "Top 10 Coolest Things Of All Time" lists everywhere is harmonized guitar leads. In fact, anyone who claims not to like them is probably a witch and should be drowned just to be safe. Nevertheless, DigiTech stands to make a lot of money with the HarmonyMan.  

What happens when you take an average delay pedal and soak it in a mixture of radioactive material and U2 guitarist The Edge's blood? It'd probably get ruined. Now that you have to buy a new delay pedal, check out the Empress Effects Superdelay -- coming to a planet near you.  

Guitarist for Baltimore's Thrushes, Casey Harvey discusses pedals, guitars and stuff he wants.  

Psychedelic rockers Kyle Hunt and Christian Bland show us their effects rigs, which blend some heavy hitting vintage models with some more obscure current gems. Put down whatever paraphernalia you're holding and watch this video!  

Bill Webb of Fulton-Webb Amplification shows us one of the pedals they produce -- the Textosterone. It produces tones from creamy drive to fuzz and was also the only pedal that Fulton-Webb hadn't completely sold out of at the time of this interview. Sounds like a nice problem to have.  

We forced Bill Holland to relinquish the Electro-Harmonix Q-Tron from the clutches of his Korg R3 so that we could demonstrate what it sounds like on a guitar. Owen O'Malley was up to the challenge to bend some strings nasty-style while Bill narrates.  

Behringer's Acoustic Modeler AM400 turns your electric guitar into an acoustic guitar. That's nothing. Criss Angel can turn a doll into a real girl. He can also act like a major goon in a toy store.  

With the Korg PX5D's USB connectivity, you can do more than just edit effects presets from your PC. To that end, the PX5D ships with Ableton Live Lite, just to give you an idea of how much you can actually do with this little, evil thing.  

Entering Gearwire Studio to mythical riffery, Paul Kramer gives us a look inside Pandora's Box with the Korg PX5D. The new version of the Pandora has a wide range of features that make the term "multi-effects box" somewhat insulting.  

Crosstalk has dealt with amp modeling to an almost ludicrous extent, but that didn't stop the Crosstalk gang from diving into it again. The difference is, this time they're responding to Devo's Bob Mothersbaugh.  

When Bill Holland hooks a Korg R3 up to a Q-Tron envelope filter and finds his arpeggiated groove, I'm not sure whether to whip out my glow sticks and pacifier or my Boosty star-glasses and rainbow-dread wig. Please, won't somebody tell me how to properly enjoy this electrofunkadelia?  

Armed with the renowned reverb powers of the Electro-Harmonix Holy Grail guitar effects pedal, Bill Holland aims to create some sound effects from space. The only twist is, we're on Earth, just like in Planet of the Apes.  

If you've ever listened to a single episode of Crosstalk, you've undoubtedly heard panelist Britton Wetherald express his disdain for amp modeling. Bob Mothersbaugh of Devo provides an excellent counterpoint against Britton's anti-modeling agenda.  

The austere arpeggios on the Korg R3 just weren't dirty enough for GW's Bill Holland. His solution? Run that signal through a Q-Tron envelope filter. George Clinton would be proud.  

If you're playing cello outside of its normal element, there are obviously going to be some obstacles to overcome. Alison Chesley identifies some of these and how she overcame them for her solo project, Helen Money.  

In previous looks at the Electro-Harmonix POG, Henry Bianco has explained the polyphonic octave generator and given you a little taste. Now prepare for the full flavor of the POG, poured down your throat with a psychedelic funnel from outer space.  

Currently, Alison Chesley is performing live as Helen Money, a solo cello act like you've never heard before. The BOSS RC-20XL Loop Station makes this possible, but it's not without its pros and cons.  

Vintage organ? Just like that.
Bass guitar? Just like that.
18 strings? Just like that.

Henry Bianco shows how to quickly emulate some trans-instrumental tones with the Electro-Harmonix POG.