Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with pedal

Help me buy an amp pedal

jules1651 — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 08:49:36 -0800

I am trying to buy my boyfriend an amp pedal for Christmas but I am clueless about such things. I am going on two google searches he left open on the browser: "Best Fuzz Pedal for Valco Amp" and "Lovepedal Super 6." He has a Gretch amp and a Fender Princeton Reverb II (tube). He has discussed wanting an sound that sounds "turned up" when it's not. Also, a late sixties sound has been mentioned. He's not expecting me to buy one so he isn't being specific. So, any ideas about pedals I could buy? I know I just need to save the receipt so he can return it for what he wants but I really want to try and nail it. Apologies in advance if the previous paragraph makes no sense, this is all Greek to me.

Name this guitar pedal

metajc — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 10:08:37 -0800

Searching for the name of an old guitar distortion/overdrive pedal. Attributes: * orange * old * distortion or overdrive * had a feature that allowed holding for "sustain" * used by my old hippy guitar teacher in 1992 * I was told it was difficult to find in 1992 I liked this pedal because I could hold my foot on the pedal and it would feedback. You would press once to turn it on, hold to get sustain, press to turn off. Not sure if it was custom or what. I was too young at the time to note the brand.

Why the big price gap in guitar FX pedals?

spiderskull — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 21:08:41 -0800

What is the essential difference between guitar effect pedals in different prices ranges? Also, are the DIY stompbox kits worth it? I'm in the market for a delay pedal, and the gaps between prices are huge (especially for such a simple effect). Is there anything intrinsically wrong with Danelectro's pedals? Why are they so much cheaper than, say, Boss pedals?

I've read this question and its answers (namely, these two), and they were helpful.

I've also got an engineering background and am handy with an iron, so building my own would be no problem. The thing is, the kits aren't any cheaper than just buying a production one. So are they worth the extra effort for sound quality?

Advice for most "authentic" controllers for Microsoft Flight Simulator X

monkeyagent — Sun, 02 Dec 2007 12:51:35 -0800

I want to get my father "Microsoft Flight Simulator X" for Christmas and would like advice for which controllers (wheels, yokes, pedals, etc.) to buy for it. I don't know anything about flight controls or flight sims, but I'd like to get him the most authentic setup possbile. I'd like to hear what is typically considered a good set up for a cost of up to about $200 or so (excluding the cost of the game itself). His aeronautic interests are primarily in prop planes, but other configurations would work as well (jets, etc.)

Donde esta Ed Naylor: Pedal Steel Guitar Refurbisher?

billtron — Sun, 11 Nov 2007 08:54:44 -0800

I want to buy a pedal steel guitar, and preferably I would like to buy one from Ed Naylor. I visited his shop in Portsmouth, Ohio, a few years ago and almost got one for US$500. His shop isn't there any more. Anyone know where I can find him? If not, anyone know where I can get a basic beginner's pedal steel guitar for under $1000?

My metal's wearing away!

pdb — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 21:15:13 -0800

BikeFilter: How long do SPD pedals typically last? I have SPD pedals on my bike. I've noticed, in the last week or so, that it's much easier to unclip my left foot than my right - I use my left foot at stops, so it unclips a lot.

I know that metal-on-metal interaction will cause the metal to wear away over time, and I don't really have a problem with it. I'm just curious - how long typically do cleats and pedals last? I've had these on my bike for about two years, and I commute to work so I ride about 12 miles a day, every day; is that a fairly typical lifespan for a cleat/pedal, or is two years longer or shorter than I should expect?

Also, what wears when this happens - the cleat, the pedal, or both equally?

Help me not screw up.

tmcw — Sun, 21 Oct 2007 12:01:22 -0800

I'm going to embark on a stompbox-building adventure, and I'd like to know how much one can mess things up. I'm aiming to make a Fuzz Face (not sure about the specific plan yet, any suggestions welcome). Also, if I can find an incredibly cheap delay pedal (I guess I'll trawl eBay...), I'd like to modify it to produce some good stutter effects. So, as far as experimenting with this... what is the fact that's preventing 9V from running straight into an amp and blowing it up? I'll probably be testing on a Princeton 112 turned way down, but what are the risks and methods of reducing them with this stuff? Are people using tiny amps to test things?

Thanks

Surely Word's Embedded Audio Can't Too Crippled To Export or Control

icebourg — Mon, 16 Jul 2007 15:48:22 -0800

How to change the program Word opens embedded audio with? Alternatively, suggestions for foot-pedal software that plays well with audio embedded in Word or RTF documents. When you have an embedded audio file in Word, the only program Word will open it with is Sound Recorder. (doesn't matter what wav files are associated with in Explorer) Is there a way to change this behavior?

If not, is there a way to extract the audio as a wav and save it somewhere? (I am aware that you can open it, copy and paste it into a new Sound Recorder window, then save it wherever you want, but I'm hoping for something simpler for our transcriptionists)

I'm also open to some script or program that will parse the RTF and export the wav file. (I could modify it to make it easy for our users)

And if neither is possible, does anyone have recommendations for foot-pedal software the plays nice with embedded RTF/Word audio? We have WAVPedal now, but it has the limitation that it needs to be able to get its hand on an actual wav file, it won't control Sound Recorder or Word's internal sound player.

We are using Word 2003 on XP.

Cycle fitness

ajp — Sun, 24 Jun 2007 12:24:14 -0800

How can my push-bike stay healthy if stored outdoors? About 6 months ago I spent UK£400 on a new city bike (mountain hybrid type pedal cycle). It's pretty spiffy, but already I've noticed some of the alan-key bolt heads have started rusting. I've also moved to a smaller flat, and will have to store the poor thing outdoors. Here in the UK that means rain and cold (with approximately 3 weeks of scorching sun toward the end of August, if we're lucky). I did recently buy one of those big plastic tarpaulin bags for it (called "bike pyjamas" I was delighted to find), but it's surprisingly ungainly and time-consuming to bag a bike. Plus it then makes locking the thing tricky, and anyway although it will keep off the worst of the rain the damp and cold will still get to the precious exposed metals.

So what to do? Are there greases or oils specifically for this task? I'll get it cleaned and greased, but that's only the moving parts. Is there a way of better weather-proofing the whole thing? It's a fairly standard beastie, with hub-brakes and triggre gear-shifts.

One solution for exercise and powering the home?

vanoakenfold — Mon, 21 Nov 2005 11:11:44 -0800

I'd like to help power the house and exercise, both solved with one solution, and need some suggestions. For example: if I set up a massive and ultra-heavy flywheel (half-ton-plus, maybe 8-ft-plus diameter) in my garage, that I could start rotating by pedaling (albeit very slowly at first), could I conceivably get it spinning so fast, perhaps by gear changes on a 10-speed or similar, that I could walk away for hours at a time and it still generate elecricity to power a home-capacity battery from which to draw power?

Playing a Bicycle Through Guitar Effects Pedals

geekhorde — Sun, 28 Aug 2005 17:47:46 -0800

Yesterday, a friend called from L.A. and made me listen to this guy 'playing' his bicycle through guitar effects. Anyone know who this was? It was incredibly wierd but cool. And I want to listen to more of this guys stuff. I have some pictures on my blog, if you want to see them. Just go to my profile.

How do you learn a new musical instrument?

catesbie — Mon, 11 Jul 2005 18:48:17 -0800

How does one go about learning the pedal steel, or any musical instrument for that matter? I have become infatuated with the pedal steel in a way that is completely unreasonable, and have begun to think about learning how to play it. I've heard it's impossibly difficult, and the fact that the last instrument I played was the piano, when I was 10, makes me concerned that I'm in for a bout of serious frustration.

Are my concerns founded? Does anyone have any experience taking up a completely foreign instrument as a grownup? How would you go about pursuing this?

Best songs with steel guitar

rxrfrx — Mon, 28 Feb 2005 18:19:34 -0800

What are your favorite songs featuring steel guitar (lap/pedal steel)? I've always really enjoyed country, alt-country, and related musics for their use of this instrument. Lately I've been listening to The KLF's "Chill Out" album, especially digging on tracks like "Madrugada Eterna." Beck's "Rowboat" is another good one. Basically, anything that relies heavily on this instrument, or samples it, would be good.