Personally, I try to use guitar pedals for more than just tone shaping. I try to seek out ways I can use them for extended technique. EHX guitar pedals are often very awesome for this. Especially via some of the modes on the SMMH, the expression modes on the HOG, and just about any of their pedals by momentarily turning them on for a single note and turning them off, or just riding the switch and turning them on and off repeatedly while strumming the right chords (I love doing this with the frequency analyzer!)

Some examples from my band myspace (excuse the recording quality and the looseness of the takes, we did it in a rush):

http://www.myspace.com/recinerated

all tracks use the Little Big Muff

Though you may not like my music, I think maybe the way in which I use some things and the thought process behind them might be inspiring to you anyways.

-Outta Control uses the frequency analyzer at the beginning of each part quickly and then is turned off and followed by the prettier strumming. Then on the middle part I turn it back on and tweak the pitch with my foot for this background lead part over the gentle note picking.

-The Advent of Synthetic Intelligence and 1K kinds of Kung Fu use the SMMH (I set it fully wet and plug it followed by a volume pedal into my 2nd channel) with a volume pedal afterwards to make quick bursts of noise.

:On the Advent, with the volume down on the volume pedal, I start a loop. Then I gently tap the preset button which I have set to the 1/2 speed octave down setting, and then I do an overdub. I tap tempo, which brings it back to full speed, original octave (and the overdub double speed and up an octave) so at the very end of the song I can have these sporadic bursts of sort of computery sounding noise.

:On Kung Fu I turn on a sample and hold filter pedal with my big muff, hold a chord, loop it, then rock back on the volume pedal until I need it for the verses.

-On Bomb Your Face, I use the step bend on the HOG just to make those trem-picked neck slides sound a bit wonkier from time to time

Ok, now for some non-new band stuff:

http://www.soundclick.com/pedaldemos

on the polyphase + SMMH + LBM demos on that page, with the square mode and the expression pedal, plus tap tempo echoes, you can get sort of a dub beat going, and using the expression pedal changes where it tops out, while still keeping that bottom thud. (the cool pseudo S+H abilities of the polyphase in square mode using an expression pedal are better shown here though http://www.soundclick.com/bands/page_songInfo.cfm?bandID=651215&songID=5722010 in the 2nd half of the clip)

also on http://www.soundclick.com/pedaldemos the Spooky Organ clip demonstrates a cool sound I got by using the expression mode on the polyphase to accentuate and create controlled feedback over guitar notes, with a shallow fast vibrato on the clone theory to give that rotary sound

also, “cosmic brook” uses the SMMH for modulated delay and looping, while I play the frequency analyzer with my hand and an unplugged cord. For some reason under the right circumstances (I believe socked but un-shoed foot on the pedal controlling the frequency) you can put your guitar cable to your tongue, and it will make those cool sounds. So I made a whole loop with those sounds

lastly- another “on/off” use of the frequency analyzer- with chorus and OD on, this one chord when played at the right frequency analyzer setting sounds like a gong, so I used it in the end of this old song for my old band (excuse it for its deficiencies and just listen to the end) http://www.soundclick.com/bands/page_songInfo.cfm?bandID=691427&songID=5891583

I’ve got a bunch more cool tricks up my sleave, like using the SMMH in reverse mode to give you a sample and hold filter type sound, but I’ll post that later when I can remember the setting. I don’t believe I have any clips using it.

I’m Julian, known as spectraljulian on harmony-central. I love EHX because they make effects that are quirky and allow for lots of creativity. I like that spirit and I use my EHX pedals in that way. I’m something of a noise-rocker/shoegazer/punk rock kid with a pretty eclectic music taste. My favorite bands/artists are Sonic Youth, Mission of Burma, Polvo, Fugazi, Deerhoof, Iggy Pop, and David Bowie.

My first EHX pedal was the EHX frequency analyzer. For a long time I pretty much used just that, a cheapo delay, a cheapo OD, and a wah to bring the noise. Over the past few years though I’ve got more into effects and it has now snowballed. I now own that plus a Little Big Muff, a Stereo Clone Theory, a HOG, a POG, a Stereo Memory Man with Hazarai, a Stereo Pulsar, and a Stereo Polyphase. I’m going to be getting the Bass Big Muff and the Tone Wicker Big Muff pretty soon. I’m excited about that.

Other gear I’m into: I’ve got a Korg tuner, a DOD overdrive, a DOD volume pedal, a Subdecay Prometheus filter, a Fender Bassman 135, 2 hondo guitars, 2 kay guitars, a Sequential Circuits synth, and some other weird overseas guitars.

I’m starting my nephew off on EHX pedals bright and early too, I’m having a custom 1/2 scale 2 string guitar made for him from krappyguitars.com (he actually makes quality stuff, despite the name) and I’m going to let him use whatever EHX pedals aren’t on my gigging board (mainly the little big muff, since I won’t be using that once I get the other 2 muffs.)

other than that, you can add me on myspace- I don’t really use my personal myspace much anymore, so add my band

http://www.myspace.com/recinerated