Pedals

I would like to understand please what exactly pedals does for the guitar that amplifier doesn't and are they really necessary in order to have the guitar sound like most of the rock songs and metal, hope its not silly question haha

Originally Posted by: darickmendes

I would like to understand please what exactly pedals does for the guitar that amplifier doesn't and are they really necessary in order to have the guitar sound like most of the rock songs and metal, hope its not silly question haha

The short answer is that it depends on what amp you have & what kind of sound (how much gain) you want to have to play with.

Now for the long answer!

Effects pedals were original created & used to alter the sound in ways that amp could not. Especially with gain, overdrive, distortion type effects. Early tube amps did not have much gain built in without turning them up very loud & even then it was not the same thing as the clipping resulting from an overdrive unit.

Eventually, amp designers & producers added a pre-amp stage built into the amp that could produce more saturated gain. But even then some players wanted more gain! So, they added gain pedals in the signal chain between the guitar & amp!

Nowdays modern amps typically have all the gain (overdrive or distortion) built into the amp so there's no need for any effects pedal to achieve that sound. But there are still some new, modern amp made that are modelled on old style amps. So you might need a gain pedal of some kind. And some players like to set thir amp to a lower level of gain, then add a pedal just to get more gain by stepping on a pedal. Some amps have separate channels, one with more gain, one with less & there is a pedal made for the amp that just has a stomp button to switch between channels as desired.

What kind of amp do you have?

Anders covers gain pedals & all kinds of other effects starting in this lesson of the Rock course.

https://www.guitartricks.com/lesson.php?input=20422&s_id=1616

And there are plenty of YouTube videos that cover the topic as well.

Hope that helps!

I have Spider V20 MXII

Originally Posted by: darickmendes

I have Spider V20 MXII

Those are modelling amps. They have a great deal of effects built into the unit.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v5e-cm3VkHQ

Learn to play well before thinking of spending on pedals, that way you'll probably know what sounds you need and whether you can get them with the gear you already have.

YouTube videos are good for seeing and hearing what different pedals can do, but you also need to be aware that different guitars, pickups and amps also change the tone, so a pedal bought could sound quite different with your guitar and amp from how it sounded in the video.

I also have a theory that pedals are addictive, as my collection currently stands at 30+, I think (I've stopped counting).

Originally Posted by: darickmendes

I have Spider V20 MXII

That's a small digital modelling practice amp. Assuming you're a neophyte when it comes to playing guitar, you won't [u]need[/u] pedals. You should be able to achieve most effects & tones you need for quite some time from the options within that amp which has 16 selectable voicing presets. Pretty sure it will have will be a solid selection of clean & distortion voicings from Crunch through Supercrunch and ODs.

Christopher has already explained pedals are a hangover from the tube/valve amp past when amps weren't capable of anything much else than clean in accord with their design and valve type tone other than some distortion through gain. Pedals were applied to achieve effects. In modern contemporary and very affordable digital modelling practice amps like yours and e.g. Blackstar's ID:Core series and Boss' Katana series, they have lots of selectable effects and pre-configured voicings built in.

You'll best benefit yourself learning to [u]understand and use[/u] the capabilities within your amp first.

However I understand your curiosity about pedals. If you want to try some out, these are what I'd recommend starting with which will be useful. Looper, Tuner, and if your amp doesn't have the feature, a Chorus pedal. Others prioritise depending upon upon what effect it is you want to achieve.

Here's a beginners' guide.

Originally Posted by: darickmendes

Since mine is a practice, it can't be used for lets say gigs and concerts ?

Short answer. No.

20W solid state digital is nowhere near powerful enough to play over a live band instrument mix, and definitely not over acoustic drums.

What the Spider V20 MXII is is a (relatively) low powered versatile practice amp. Adequate for home practice and the learning guitar task.

That said, I note the Spider V20 MXII has an acoustic voicing or mode, so at a guess it'd probably do that just OK for a very small coffee shop type venue or school class room/family room at home single acoustic guitar 'gig'.

P.S. Edit: Looking out of curiosity, I found this for you. Played on an entry level Cort CR-100 Les Paul clone and direct recorded into the (included Steinberg Cubase LE?) DAW, it gives you a fairly good idea of the amp's versatility.

Technically speaking, you could get away with gigging using just a 5W amp if it was mic'ed up to a PA system. The size of the amp means very little (just take a look at the setup used in arena sized concerts, where relatively small amps can be seen on stage, but each has one or more microphones attached to the speaker grill).

The one setback with a smaller amp is lack of "rumble" - no feel of the air movement from a bigger amp (although your ears would benefit, or at least you wouldn't need earplugs to prevent developing tinnitus)

Originally Posted by: DraconusJLM

Technically speaking, you could get away with gigging using just a 5W amp if it was mic'ed up to a PA system. The size of the amp means very little (just take a look at the setup used in arena sized concerts, where relatively small amps can be seen on stage, but each has one or more microphones attached to the speaker grill).

Pragmatically speaking, the OP is a beginner and has bought a low power relatively inexpensive practice amp unknowing even of its raison d'etre. I don't think rigging it with a PA is quite what he had in mind with his question. Perhaps [u]not helpful[/u] to confuse him with hypotheticals contrary to purpose or imminent execution of potential?

Again touching on the pragmatic taking your 5W amp analogy hypothetical extreme, whilst it might be possible technically speaking, audially I'm fairly sure I'd not want to gig with my 6W Blackstar Fly 3 stereo combo (or BOSS' Katana 7W alternative) miked up to a PA. : ) By the time it came to that, even street busking one would have preferred alternatives. [br][br]Even a modest venue STAGEPAS PA is expensive additional kit for personal performance use by the time one outlays on it and the PA stands, & mic stands, mics and cables, carry bags to transport all that hardware etc. Then one has to develop sufficient personal sound engineering expertise to consistently configure and operate it all so it sounds like it does in the promos and you'd want it to. I have my own PA, so I know from the personal experience of that learning curve. [br][br]So unless the venue is providing the PA, unlikely outside an effectively subsidised provided equipment church/school/college 'gig' or the open mic night, pro pub/club/ circuit, even a modest PA setup will cost around the same as a very capable standalone pro level performance amp combo usable at the kind of putting in the slog venue one might expect to perform in prior to achieving star billing status. A combo or header+cabinet can still be routed or miked through a pro PA setup if necessary and the venue insists upon it as has become more common in pubs and open mic events today, but has standalone capability where said venue doesn't have one. Just sayin'.

Reads more like taking it personally but IDC. One thing I never object to is a person's right to disagree or contradict.

Originally Posted by: DraconusJLM

Reads more like taking it personally but IDC. One thing I never object to is a person's right to disagree or contradict.

Comprehension has failed you on this occasion in emotionally misinterpreting my response, which certainly [u]wasn't its purpose nor intent[/u] -to make that point unmistakably clear. Unapologetically, I tend to the left brained factual and pragmatic, and can't be bothered with kind of emotional offended infantile ego nonsense you would like to infer an agenda behind my post. Psychological projection?

[br]As I pointed out of your previous response about as diplomatically as I am ever going to be, although "technically" correct, tacitly acknowledged in said post, cherry picking that technicality in the circumstances was more about illustrating to us all your knowledge rather than taking into consideration the OPs original question, level of expertise, need, need to know or purpose. [br][br]There was no "contradiction", nor disagreement of [u]technical[/u] fact, just an alternative perspective of its merit to and pragmatic purpose to the OP. It's a [u]discussion[/u] forum, not Facebook looking for likes spewing forth pointless flattering superficiality.

I'm fairly new to this site but have just realised the forum has the same problems as all others on the internet.

I still stand by my statement that you can gig with 5W, although the lowest I've personally used was 8W. A lil ol' band from Texas did a studio set through 5W because their amps were too big - they were impressed with the 'dirty' sound it gave.

As for anything else in this post, I've added my thoughts to the original subject of pedals, and amps. I'm not inclined to be drawn into further 'discussion' on practicality Vs technical possibility.

Music is creativity, and I'll thank God for making me right-brained.

Its a good forum Chris. Sounds like you have experience as a musician.