JB and Jazz: Analog or Digital Effects?

[jajones480]

I recently upgraded the pickups in guitar to a JB / Jazz combination. To put it in perspective, I was using a set of EMG HZ4s (same pickup in both the neck and bridge). I moved those to my Jackson Randy Rhodes PS-3T (Performer Series) so I could sell it. To sum up in one word... WOW! I believe Tone4Days said, "No, Seymour... No Tone. Know Seymour? Know Tone." How true that is! I never realized what I was missing. Granted, I don't have some spectacular axe. I got a Samick UM4 (pretty much a PRS knockoff) but it has a good alder body, maple top, and rosewood set neck. In addition to the new p/ups, I added another push/pull knob so now I can split each p/up independently. The distinctly different tones of each p/up add so much more versatility to my guitar. Of course I'm preaching to the choir...

My question is this: Do you guys use analog of digital effects with your guitars? I currently have a nice Zoom multi-fx pedal board (GFX-3) and it has more than enough options for me - lots of different distortion patches, reverb, chorus, amp models. They sound great. Do you think that the digital signal processing degrades the individual qualities of the SD p/ups enough that you would go with analog pedals? I was blown away by playing the guitar through my Peavey Bandit 112 (w/Scorpion speaker) on both the clean and distortion channels. Using a combination of the push/pulls and different tone and volume settings, I was able to get a whole slew of sounds out of my guitar that I couldn't get before.

I really only need a distortion, chrous, reverb/delay, and a wah. I have some other gear to sell and don't know if I should throw in my Zoom FX board and get some really nice analog pedals.

[Benjy_26]

Digital sound shaping shouldn't degrade the sound quality of your pickups. I use both tube amps and digital preamps with my Duncans and they sound fantastic through both.

[tone4days]

hey there

glad you're happy with the swap ... great choices you made there

i think that you can get good and bad in both analog and digital effects ... i've heard crappy examples in both camps and absolutely stellar examples in both camps ... my rocktron intellifex (digital) is still quiet as the day i bought it and amazing for time/pitch based effects ...

once you have a solid foundation in your origin (pickups) and output (amp), then make sure you only are improving from there ... if the effects (either kind) are low noise, properly powered, well cabled, and optimized for gain staging (not hitting hem too hard or too soft), you'll get your best possible tone with that gear

that said, i've not had good luck with zoom gear (but i havent played the one you own) ... the ones i've owned and played wre a bit 'fizzy' to my ears and noisey .... i dont own any of their gear any more ... i was very cool for headphones jamming and a bit of low quality 'sketchbook' recording ...

rock on!

t4d

[Jocelyn]

I was just going to Say nice punch line ' NO SEYMOUR? NO TONE... KNOW SEYMOUR KNOW TONE".... LOL ok well you can get gret tones from both digital and analog effects... and get crapy tones from both...Zoom is ok ... nothing all that great when it comes to digital..Again if u go for low end Analog it would be anything from poor to OK. It realy depends what kind of tone you are looking for.I have a Zoom it sounds Ok not bad...But yes I have tried Better Digital products and they sounded great with my JB equiped AXE.. I also have a digitech BAD MONKEY whihc sounds COOL.. So its realy your call... Its like asking what sounds better .. Tube amps Or Solid State.. What sounds better Humbukers or Single coils... Each have their advantages..