Multi fx pedal suggestions

[Christyy]

Hi!
I am looking to purchase a multi fx pedal to add to my gigging set up. I will be running it through a boss rc 500 looper and directly to mixing desk/PA system. I currently own a boss gt-6 but find the sound quality is very poor from my acoustic, especially when I add any kind of distortion. I am looking at the hotone ampero but I am just wondering if anyone has any experience with it or has any better suggestions within a similar price range? I am looking for some tones similar to those in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r23d...ByZXNpc3RhbmNl

TIA

Sorry I am totally new to tech side of things and am a bit bewildered by it all, any advice at all is greatly appreciated!

[Rudy4]

Originally Posted by Christyy

Hi!
I am looking to purchase a multi fx pedal to add to my gigging set up. I will be running it through a boss rc 500 looper and directly to mixing desk/PA system. I currently own a boss gt-6 but find the sound quality is very poor from my acoustic, especially when I add any kind of distortion. I am looking at the hotone ampero but I am just wondering if anyone has any experience with it or has any better suggestions within a similar price range? I am looking for some tones similar to those in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r23d...ByZXNpc3RhbmNl

TIA

Sorry I am totally new to tech side of things and am a bit bewildered by it all, any advice at all is greatly appreciated!

If I were going for that type of setup I'd get one of the acoustic guitar preamps like the Zoom AC-3 (or one of the others available...) and shop for a separate overdrive / distortion pedal. Overdrive / distortion has such a wide variety of flavors I would not try to find a multi-effect with it built in.

[BlueStarfish]

TIA,

Well, you tempted me to fall into your rabbit hole with you. Shoot.

I looked at the video. The player in the video has what looks to be some sort of after-market magnetic bridge pickup system on his acoustic guitar. I’ve never seen anything like that before. I’m assuming it’s a big part of how he gets those electric guitar tones, yes? Does anybody know what the pickup system is that he is using?

Anyways, you aren’t going to get the tones on that video using just a standard piezo pickup. You might consider a so-called “hybrid” guitar like a Godin Multiac Steel or similar, which has both magnetic (“electric”) and piezo (“acoustic”) pickups.

[SalFromChatham]

I have a Fishman ToneDeq pedal. I love it. Chorus, delay, reverb, boost… a simple (will, not simple) really good pedal. I wish it had a more robust housing… like a FireEye… but an acceptable trade off.

By the way, battery life is not great, but I mostly use a 9v adapter anyway. And I always carry batteries

[mjh42]

Had a Zoom AC3 lot of good qualities but did not need the guitar emulations and I thought the unit colored the sound too much.
Had the Fishman ToneDEQ, again lots of good qualities, effects adequate, no tuner, and could not run reverb and delay at the same time. Liked the output sound.
Currently using a Fishman Platinum Pro and several pedals.
Currently use a Fender Smolder Acoustic overdrive. I've also had success with a Wampler Tumnus Deluxe, a Klon clone.

Could try one of the more sophisticated multi effect units where you can add and subtract patches, make some effects chains, and save presets. Many of them have a looper some even add percussion.

[Rudy4]

Originally Posted by BlueStarfish

TIA,

Well, you tempted me to fall into your rabbit hole with you. Shoot.

I looked at the video. The player in the video has what looks to be some sort of after-market magnetic bridge pickup system on his acoustic guitar. I’ve never seen anything like that before. I’m assuming it’s a big part of how he gets those electric guitar tones, yes? Does anybody know what the pickup system is that he is using?

Anyways, you aren’t going to get the tones on that video using just a standard piezo pickup. You might consider a so-called “hybrid” guitar like a Godin Multiac Steel or similar, which has both magnetic (“electric”) and piezo (“acoustic”) pickups.

It's the pickup that is part of the Roland GR-55 guitar synthesizer. It is actually 6 individual magnetic pickups and can be used as a simple magnetic pickup for an acoustic or electric guitar, but is more normally used to feed the Roland synth module.

Tons of demos for the GR-55 or GK-3 on Youtube.

[jricc]

The Fishman Tonedeq is a good pedal. I like the Tech21Acoustic FlyRig a little more. It does everything the Tonedeq does, adds a tuner, and is more compact.

[LAPlayer]

I value simplicity over most things. After years of checking out different equipment I settled on the Zoom G3Xn Multi-Effects Processor. It has several different distortion selections, a built-in looper and a volume/Wah pedal. More importantly it sounds great.

[lkingston]

The Helix Stomp is an amazing acoustic guitar pedal. The difference between the Stomp and the regular Helix is how many effects you can do simultaneously. The Stomp will do as many as an acoustic guitarist will ever need. I have the Stomp XL. The extra buttons are handy as you can also use it as a three button looper.

[idimata]

Cheap pedals are seldom good, and good pedals are seldom cheap. The lower the price of these multi-effects unit, the more trade-offs and compromises you will need to make. With the higher-priced ones, the trade-off is usually just going to be the price. It's not a rule of thumb, it's just an observation I have made in this area.

With that said, you are not going to get any better than a high-quality analog preamp into a multi-effects pedal. You can't go wrong with the Grace Design line of preamps. The most powerful multi-effects unit on the market at the moment is going to be Neural DSP's Quad Cortex. This is followed by Line6's Helix and Fractal's FM9(pedal)/Axe-Fx III (rack). After these is an HX Stomp.

If you are looking for top of the line with few compromises, go with a Grace Design Felix 2 into a Neural DSP Quad Cortex.

If you are looking for middle of the line but functional, go with a Red Eye Preamp into an HX Stomp.