Yup. Not a crutch, just another thing you can do.

Louis

There's nothing better than a friend voicing his opinion on something he has zero experience with lol. Some players over use chorus but just look at Lindsey buckingham. Brilliant player and he has a good deal of delay, reverb and sometimes chorus going on.

Ive got a few delay settings in my G3 effects unit, but never use it on the material I play, which is quite diverse. Just light reverb which is on the whole time to provide some more fullness to the tone, and sparing use of chorus when i want a 12 string type tone and also if Im playing lead sometimes to get a bit more cut through.

Thanks all for the input!

I took the plunge and bought the MXR Carbon Copy......very nice! With the DELAY and MIX at about 9 o'clock it gets a subtle doubling effect that serves to fatten the tone just enough. I was looking for just this kind of thing to leave on all the time.........perfect. After a days' worth of fiddling around with the rig it seemed the compressor was not adding anything substantial, so the rig shakes out as RED EYE PREAMP, with the TC POLYTUNE and MXR DELAY in the Red Eye loop, into the SCHERTLER DAVID DELUXE. Still want to try sticking the delay output into the second channel of the amp while the Red Eye is in the first......might get an interesting blend that way.

Thanks again!

congratz....the Carbon Copy is the one I also decided to get (next month)

I have no problem with processing the acoustic guitar sound, although many seem to. The key is not to overdo anything.

When I play with my acoustic group, I am the only guitarist and consequently have to cover a lot of ground and strive for a full sound. I accomplish this with fingerpicking, judicious EQ and effects. I use slight reverb, occasional chorus, very occasional delay, and looping on one song. For this I use a multi-processor with patches that I preset for what I want. The quality of the effect is simply not that critical to me in the kind of gigs I play; consequently I cannot justify the expense, or more importantly, the carrying weight and setup time involved with the use of a $300 box that does one thing.

No one has mentioned the Boss DD20 which is a really solid pedal. 4 savable slots and a looper built in. Also allows you to tap your own tempos in with it's own pedal or by remote. I really like the modulation and tape settings for some subtle repeats. Used they're going around $130.

I currently use the Strymon dig. For the right song or part of , man does it sound sweet:)

I am in a similar situation. My duo plays instrumental fingerstyle and cover a lot of styles, sometimes a few in one song; effects and shaping are critical. Even still, my rig is fairly simple, Fishman Tonedeq and TC Delay ( I also use a TC Ditto). The Tonedeq reverb is always on. That unit has a great eq, compression, and boost. Prior to this setup, like you I used a multi-processor, the Digitech 360XP. It is a great unit but I found the Tonedeg provided just what I needed with better tone.

The argument against effects, IMHO, is like the argument between external mic'ing and using internal pickups. Once the sound of an instrument is played through a speaker, the resulting tonal representation/reproduction is arguable and subjective. Everything in those signal chains influences and injects their specific characteristics to the perceived tone.

I agree completely , but would like to add this further comment . Because in reality as you say, there is no amplified acoustic tone that sounds like unamplified acoustic tone . There is only more closely and less closely . So in reality as you say playing through any amplified system is going to have an effect on the tone period.

Even though I played solo acoustic gigs with the only "effects" being the mic pre combo and PA itself, and minimal amount of pretty high quality reverb.
The "argument" against "effects" is a fallacy, there is no argument against effects, there is only totally subjective preference as to amount.

Comments like your friend made are founded in ignorance not reality.

I like the sound of acoustic guitar. I've heard some great acoustic guitar sounds from guitar pick up set ups. I always wondered why someone would use an acoustic guitar if they are going to process the crap out of it with reverb and chorus. Use an electric guitar and save yourself the hassle. Use a pedal to make it sound acoustic. At some point using an acoustic guitar becomes an image thing.

It's not just an image thing, although it can be that, and that's a perfectly legitimate part of performance. The thing is, a processed acoustic guitar sounds different than an electric, just as different electric guitars sound different. So that's the main reason people use pedals with them (those, that is, who use more than just a little reverb or delay to enhance a basic acoustic sound). It sounds different and some people like the sound, so that's why it's worth the hassle (when it is a hassle). I don't see why that's so hard to understand.

Louis

Ischwart beat me to it but, Mr Kelly, you provided your own answer. ;)

I agree that effects can be and are sometimes overdone. Tone is the foundation the player starts with in the signal chain. IMHO, to a point, Delay and Chorus don't change the tone as much as they manipulate it. Kind of like Photoshop to an photo image.

This makes me think about a problem I've found, and experienced myself. The problem, starting with bad dry plugged in tone. This is can originate either from the P/U and/or guitar, amplification, player, sound man, or all of these. Trying to add effects to improve tone, or a lot of something, that is absent usually doesn't sound well. The missing or problem component has to be improved.

Is it just me that the Boss DD3 won't sound any good on my acoustics? the wet signal is just too loud and made of plastic, not musical at all, has anybody here managed to make it sound good on acoustic rigs?

I don't like the DD3 much for acoustic either. I prefer the cheap Behringer VD400 Vintage Delay pedal. For what I do, it's also as good as my Line 6 DL4