Howdy,

Yeah I’m a synth newb or really pre-newb. I’ve been investigating MIDI and non-MIDI synths the last few months and I’m not thrilled with either the cost, the guitar mods or proprietary mindset of guitar MIDI in general (hello, may I give Roland my whole paycheck?). I have priced ghost saddles, 13 pin converters, you name it and I’m seeing $1000 before I’m done and honestly I really struggled to use the Roland they had setup at GC (not that they were any help).

I’ve been watching the Youtube vids for Electro Harmonix gear and I am so impressed. Polyphonics and tracking monsters. Really great stuff.

So, here is a question which I haveheard asked different ways on this board but not quite the way I would have asked it, exactly, nor have the answers lead me to the answer I’m looking for. If I were to get only one pedal, which one would give me most of what I’m looking for.

Here’s what I have – several electric and acoustic electric guitars, a Carvin awesome beast of a guitar as my most “professional” grade machine but my others are excellent too (no crappy guitars on my wall LOL). I play through a VOX VT30 which has a nice suite of bundled effects and does a nice job of amp modelling (used to lug the big tube amp and the difference wasn’t worth the back ache). I also have an H&K ATS Sixty that I can’t seem to sell and perhaps don’t really want to (great tone, just not as flexible as my Vox). I also have a Crybaby Wah and I am borrowing a Boss pitchshifter, which I think I could buy from the owner if I really needed it for a very reasonable price (he doesn’t use it).

So what I am looking to be able to do is a) make a reasonable Hammond b) a reasonable church/pipe organ c) do an electric piano -no quarterish, but doesn’t need to be a ringer d) synth strings (they don’t need to be too believable, melotrone effect is fine or even “in through the outdoor-esque” is fine and e) Rush-like synth sounds from Signals/Moving Pictures. f) 12 string would be nice but the other features above are a higher pri for me (so if this were the diff between a HOG and POG2 I’d still go HOG.

I don’t need perfect emulation of any of these, just decent. To give you a for instance I am pretty excited with the tone I got from a boss pitch shifter I’m borrowing and the rotary speaker effect on my amp as sort of organ. To be able to hold a chord and play over it in bypass mode would be the “holy grail” of functionality, but I could get that later if not integrated into the pedal. I do a lot of original music so a copy of someone else’s sound isn’t required, as a matter of fact I like to explore some of my own sounds where possible. However, I’ll never get away from doing covers so coming close to other people’s stuff doesn’t suck.

Does the HOG or POG2 (I’ve played with the micro pog, but I don’t think it can do all that much, dunno really) have the ability to do much of this in one package? Once again perfection isn’t the goal but teamed up with my other gear I can augment this one pedal a lot. Am I missing another pedal you would suggest instead of these two?

Thanks for your help. Excuse the long post I didn’t realize how long winded I have been. I’m trying not to break the bank but a single shot won’t kill me so cost is a factor but not the only one.