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  • November 23, 2009 at 9:05 pm #79373
    dren68
    Member

    Hi,

    I’m somewhat of a novice guitar player (my main instrument is the drums) and was wondering what pedals would be best to create guitar sounds similar to some of the early 90’s shoegaze bands (My Bloody Valentine, Slowdive, Ride, etc). And would it be possible to do so with, say, two or three pedals? I’m assuming I’ll need a distortion pedal, which I’ve got (Big Muff and a Graphic Fuzz), and probably a delay or reverb pedal, but I’m not exactly sure which one(s) would be best suited for that type of sound. I like the Cathedral and it seems like if I was going to have one other pedal, that would probably be the best one to have. Any thoughts or suggestions? Thanks.

    November 23, 2009 at 9:09 pm #104127
    Dreamhunter
    Member

    Yes, a reverb like the Cathedral and a delay should do the trick. For delay you could get either Stereo Memory Man with Hazaray, or any of their analogue delays (deluxe memory man, memory boy, memory toy or the upcoming deluxe memory boy). If i were you i would get the deluxe memory toy, it seems it will be awesome.

    November 23, 2009 at 10:00 pm #104129
    DarkAxel
    Participant

    Well i’d keep those Muff and GF pedals and just buy the cathedral and stereo memory man with hazarai… and i’d be done :)

    November 23, 2009 at 10:18 pm #104131
    dren68
    Member

    Hey guys, thanks for the info. It sounds like I was on the right track. Don’t worry, I’m definitely keeping the fuzz pedals. I just wanted to know what else to add to those. I’ll most likely go ahead and get the Cathedral. I’m still a little undecided on a delay pedal, though. The Memory Man does some pretty cool things, so I’m leaning towards that one, but I may have a to wait a little while on it. I don’t think I can afford both pedals at the moment. And it seems like the Cathedral would be good to start out with. It will probably take a while to figure that thing out. Thanks again!

    November 24, 2009 at 3:21 am #104134
    devnulljp
    Participant

    For My Bloody Valentine, you’ll need a pitch shift vibrato like the old VB2 as well as your fuzz/distortion. If you really like that stuff, have a look at devi ever. In fact…

    FXSG.jpg

    November 24, 2009 at 8:22 am #104144
    electro-melx
    Moderator

    I wouldn’t get too hung up on what dirt pedals you ‘need’ for a certain type of music, Adam Franklin of Swervedriver got all his main dirt sounds from a Boss HM-2 …. and he was still using it a couple of years ago when I saw them. Just find something that you like the sound of more importantly.

    Reverb is a very good idea though and I always think tremolo fits in well with the MBV kind of sound.

    November 24, 2009 at 10:19 am #104148
    vulturepiano
    Member

    i’m pretty sure kevin shields of mbv has 20+ pedals on his board these days. he also used two tremolo pedals at once to achieve some of his sounds. actually, i’m pretty sure his board is on the famous musician’s boards thread in here. i believe he used the yamaha spx900 too, which is a a rack mounted effect, throughout my bloody valentine’s earlier albums. if you’re looking to get similar sounds to those bands with stomp boxes, i’d invest in a great reverb pedal such as the cathedral. the cathedral seems to have an amazing reverse reverb, which i believe kevin shields made much use as well. i definitely recommend checking out devi ever due to she’s got a pedal named after the label associated with these bands. i’d definitely try getting your hands on a russian muff too. you’ll get some similar sounds, but a lot of it probably had to do with recording techniques. try kevin shields, slowdive, or whatever through google. google is magic. have fun man.

    November 24, 2009 at 2:32 pm #104153
    dren68
    Member

    To clarify, I’m not trying to replicate the exact sound of MBV or any other particular band. I realize they all use different effects and I don’t really have the money to buy an endless amount of pedals. I was just wondering how I can get a general shoegaze sound with 2 or 3 pedals, if that’s possible. Some of these pedals are pretty pricey, so I wanted to be sure I got the essentials to creating a similar sound. Like I mentioned, I have plenty of fuzz pedals, but there are so many reverb and delay pedals out there, and I wasn’t sure which one(s) would work best. Based on most of your comments, it sounds like the Cathedral is a good start, though. I guess I should mention that I ‘m also looking for something that will also work with playing clean, open chords, so that might change things a bit.

    Oh, and thanks for the tip on the Devi Evi pedals. I haven’t heard of those. They look awesome. Which one is named after the label?

    November 24, 2009 at 3:04 pm #104154
    nightraven
    Member

    ehx cathedral set to reverse and a russian big muff and your guitar’s tremolo arm

    November 24, 2009 at 4:28 pm #104165
    DarkAxel
    Participant
    Quote:
    ive never head of shoe gaze. thats pretty wierd

    dude a few weeks ago you asked what is Oceania ;)

    with the delay i stand for the SMMH… but let’s think about your recommendations

    do you need alot of different sounds for a reasonable price? or do you want for example good analog and good digital delays?

    because if you need alot of different sounds for a reasonable price and you want to keep the space taken at minimum, you can grab a Boss DD-20 :) it’s good for that

    if you don’t need that many sounds and you need a good digital and analog sound, i’d go for EH stereo memory man with hazarai plus for example a Malekko 616

    November 24, 2009 at 4:53 pm #104170
    electro-melx
    Moderator
    Quote:
    ive never head of shoe gaze. thats pretty wierd

    it was a term coined by british press to describe a handful of bands from the very late 80’s early 90’s who used lots of effects ….. they called them shoegazers because they were always looking down at their feet. It was meant as a derogatory name and not something the bands called themselves or the fans called them at the time. we called everything ‘indie’ back then.. as in ‘independent music’ …and it’s not really a musical style either although it seems that in the US especially lots of these UK indie bands are called ‘shoegaze’ just to differentiate them from other types of indie music.

    November 24, 2009 at 7:28 pm #104182
    fantomenos
    Member

    I tend to think of Jesus and Mary Chain as the originators of the genre, but maybe that’s because I’m old. They seemed to look at their feet a lot. I would think a big fuzz into trem into delay into an overdriven tube amp (JMC used orange iirc).

    November 24, 2009 at 8:08 pm #104185
    dren68
    Member

    Yes, you’re totally right about that. They don’t always get included with those other bands, but they were sort of the originators of that sound and they’ve been around since the early – mid 80’s. I guess they don’t always get the credit they deserve.

    November 24, 2009 at 8:20 pm #104187
    julian
    Moderator

    fuzzes, delays, pitch shifters, envelope filters, reverbs, trem, ring mods

    Kevin Shields isn’t big into any LFO driven effects like phasers or chorus, though trem is OK

    I get my favorite shoegaze sounds with my HOG + Fuzz + verb (plus trem, ring mod, and envelope filter sometimes as well)

    November 26, 2009 at 6:38 am #104266
    inmemoryofthom
    Member
    Quote:
    ehx cathedral set to reverse and a russian big muff and your guitar’s tremolo arm

    what he said.

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