What Does the Effect Do?

[Crowhead]

I've been playing accoustic for a number of years but I'm just now getting into electric.
I saw a list of the effects peddels that Jerry used but I don't know what each on does.
I know what the envelope(I have a q-tron), delay and the distortion do. But what does the Octave do? The phase-100?

Are there Dead songs that are good examples?

Such as...

Envelope: Estimated Prophet
Distortion: Truck'n (other examples???)

Where does Jerry use delay?... Phase-100?... Octave?

Thanks for your help. You guys rock!

[BlobWeird]

hmm Im not the best person to ask on this but lets see. Jerry uses octave in Fire on the mountain Dicks picks 29. Phaser he uses in Slipknot and Delay he uses alot in the late 80s and 90s on say And it stoned me.

[shakedown_04092]

I'll take a shot at this to start you off, though there are others here that can answer much better than I can, I'm sure of that:

Well, I know delay is often used, with the amount of delay varying depending on the song. It could be a slight hint of delay that you might not even notice, to a serious 1 second delay or more that he used often during a Space or spacey jam. I use delay a lot, usually not a lot of delay though. It just gives a nice sound to it.

As for the Octave pedal, it's self explanatory. It shifts the notes you are playing either up an octave (or two) or down an octave (or two), whichever you have it set for at the time. So, if you have it set on "octave up", then if you play an open E note on the 6th string, it's going to sound like you played the E note on the 12th string, and so on. A Digitech Whammy pedal is a good example of this, which I actually have, and don't even use that much. Thinking of trading it in, actually.

Will somebody tell me if I described that improperly?[/i]

[myoung6923]

Well Jerry used the delay plenty especially in the 80's & on. He often kicked in the delay during a lot of solos - just gave a lot of depth to the notes - a bit of echo. You can especially notice it on some of the softer songs when he played a real sweet lead - like on Simple Twist Of Fate from the JGB live CD.

Octave is exactly like described above. It splits the original note into 2 more notes - each one octave lower than the other. So the resulting note is 3 notes an octave apart from each other played at once. It gives a real thick kinda dark dirty tone. You can control how much of the 3 notes that you want in the mix. Jerry used it a lot in conjuction with other effects - so it's maybe not as overt an effect as the mutron was - but it was used often. He used it together with the mutron during feel like a stranger, used it alone or with distortion during the end jam of looks like rain and lots more.

The phase 100 is a phase effect - it gives a controlled sweep of EQ - makes a gentle swoosh when set to high - Jerry usually used it very suble during a lot of clean sounds - made the sound a bit spacier. He also would speed it up and use it heavier on a lot of songs like crazy fingers, candyman, waiting for a miracle...

[tigerstrat]

Octave is exactly like described above. It splits the original note into 2 more notes - each one octave lower than the other. So the resulting note is 3 notes an octave apart from each other played at once. It gives a real thick kinda dark dirty tone. You can control how much of the 3 notes that you want in the mix. Jerry used it a lot in conjuction with other effects - so it's maybe not as overt an effect as the mutron was - but it was used often. He used it together with the mutron during feel like a stranger, used it alone or with distortion during the end jam of looks like rain and lots more.

Not all octave devices generate two additional notes, but you did a good description of the Boss OC-2. You have a seperate level control for the original note, OCT1 and OCT2 (I believe OCT2 was turned all the way down in JG's setup, with OCT1 around 3oclock)

The Mu-Tron Octave Divider, which he used from about 77 to 89 does a single Oct down with a single blend or balance control between the two notes. And they are ultra-rare and uber-expensive when you find one... but imho they sound wayyy better than the OC-2. Wish I owned one! I recently took my OC-2 out of my chain because it sucks so much tone in bypass mode... it really throws a wet blanket over the Envelope!! I plan on modding it for true bypass before reintroducing it...