Pedal Suggestions?

[Cooper Brady]

Hi everyone! I was learning a song tonight and it was from a live video, and one thing I just feel like lacks is sustain or true reverb. I have a Line 6 Spider combo amp. But no matter what guitar I play on, it just seems like the sustain doesn't hold up. You know those sweet, saucy bends that you slowly release like your guitar is crying? Yeah, mine doesn't cry it just whimpers. It's not the guitar either or strings because I've tried on like four different ones. So I don't know if it's my amp or maybe it's time to get a pedal? I also need a tuner pedal. My amp's tuner just sucks. Thank you guys so much!

Hey Jak! I haven't read all the replies so sorry if I repeat what already has been said. I would get a compressor, Syn used to use the CS-2, I prefer my Keeley Electronics Compressor. I also have the TC HoF reverb and Flashback Delay. The sustainiac is an obvious solution, but that's a whole new guitar if you don't already have one. Take care!

Muz corrected me down below on what compressor Syn uses: the CS-3, not the 2. Thanks Muz!

 

[Muz Malek]

We had a katana for awhile and I felt the same way, I didn’t love it. Sure there was a SHIT ton of stuff you could do with it but I could never ever get a tone I liked with it (even with pedals). We sold it and got another tube amp. Something about a tube amp just makes me so happy ! I can feel the little hairs on my arms stand up when I hear it

Yup, the Katana(in my sole opinion) was also a little too digital on the distortion end for my taste.

I'm using the Blackstar ID BEAM and it works like a dream!

Not the best, but it tops the Katana for my taste And the Line 6 Spider series comes between the Blackstar and Katana

 

[Muz Malek]

Hey Muz! It's a Line 6 Spider IV 75W

That's a beast amp, sis. I've ever owned one before too.

I'm not entirely sure what's your full rig like, but with my experience even with the Line 6 Spider IV 30 watt, I've never had issues dealing with sustain or gain loss with it, especially in the Metal & Insane channels! Might wanna try playing around with the Gain and Treble to be specific, because with more Gain, you may wanna tone down the Treble bit

If I'm not wrong, there might be some settings in the amp and you can adjust the Threshold for the noise gate - you might wanna check that out too in the manual.

Good luck!

 

[Muz Malek]

Hey Jak! I haven't read all the replies so sorry if I repeat what already has been said. I would get a compressor, Syn used to use the CS-2, I prefer my Keeley Electronics Compressor. I also have the TC HoF reverb and Flashback Delay. The sustainiac is an obvious solution, but that's a whole new guitar if you don't already have one. Take care!

I believe he used a CS-3. I've seen it in one of the rig rundowns by Dunlop TV here:

 

[[DELETED]]

This user has deleted their account.

 

[Calvin Phillips]

6 different channels. Best 200.dollars I ever spent on a pedal.

 

[Brian Haner Sr.]

I will reiterate what has been said (and add my own opinion). Noise Gate will kill sustain. Most digital amps have that built into the settings. Getting the right setting is a constant battle between noise and sustain.
Compression adds sustain, but a lot of that happens naturally with gain. STILL doesn't hurt to add it with a pedal. Syn does this A LOT.
Reverb (& delay) can help with sustain for obvious reasons. Hint: a little goes a long way.
Lastly (and this is my "go to") for sustain: a good fuzz pedal. I alternate between a Big Muff and a Wampler Velvet Fuzz. The key is to have a good overdrive tone to start with, then add in a tiny bit of the fuzz pedal. You can sustain a single note for minutes or even days, (if that's your idea of fun).
The key here is to dial in just enough to add sustain, but no more. Too much fuzz changes your tone (not in a good way). It will thin your tone out and create an unnatural buzz that makes you sound like you're playing in a junior high school Hendrix cover band.
Good luck!
pg

 

[Calvin Phillips]

I get amazing sustain from my grundge pedal. One of the reasons I still use it over any other distortion pedal for my lead tones.

 

[Kim]

On a serious note, like you and @Kim stated, you like the Katana? I actually played one before and I didn't like it at all. It sounded too processed for me.

I really liked it comparing to my previous amp (Roland cube). I dont think im very good at hearing some detailed stuff, so for me its perfect. I dont like tweaking on the amp and setting up different styles every time, what I like on Katana are all the patches you can download for free and use. Like if I want to play One from Metallica, theres a patch and it most of the time actually sounds like the song. Also I really like the option to set it on 0.5 watt, whats also pretty loud if you put volume up, but my neigbours still like me

 

[Knighthawke]

I know the feeling, have been hunting a higher gain sound...currently using Ibanez TB100 with midshift and boost, also a “big muff pi” driver and a chorus pedal.

 

[tamagotchigraveyard]

Heres my favs for each pedal type! (ill try to roughly do in order of signal chain if I put them all on one board)

1. Volume Pedal- Boss FV-30H (or L? whichever one has the tuner out jack)
1a. Tuner- Boss Chromatic Tuner waza craft
2. Pitch Shift- EHX pitch fork
3. Wah- Ibanez Weeping Demon Tonelok/ Crybaby from Hell
4. Compressor- Boss CP1X
5. Fuzz- Black Arts Toneworks Pharaoh
6. Overdrive- Tubescreamer/Boss SD-1
Overdrive (transparent)- Earthquaker Devices Plumes
7. Distortion- Boss Mt-2w Waza / Boss DS-1X (Love me a RAT pedal too)
8. Noise Gate (all dirt pedals send/return) Boss Ns-2 Noise Suppressor
9. Delay- Ibanez DE-7 Tonelok
10. Reverb- EHX Oceans 11 Reverb
11. EQ- Boss GE-7 Equalizer
(12. Multi effects- Boss MS-3)

 

[John Robinson]

We had a katana for awhile and I felt the same way, I didn’t love it. Sure there was a SHIT ton of stuff you could do with it but I could never ever get a tone I liked with it (even with pedals). We sold it and got another tube amp. Something about a tube amp just makes me so happy ! I can feel the little hairs on my arms stand up when I hear it

I have a small peavy tube amp and love it...now i want a bigger one and cant decide if i want peavy or line 6