"Must Have" pedals for country stuff?

[reverymike]

Okay, so for modern country, what are some must have pedals? Compresser? What are most of these players using?

 

[Badronald]

Okay, so for modern country, what are some must have pedals? Compresser? What are most of these players using?

Keeley.
Good overdrive and good slap delay. Done.

Oh. And please use a Telecaster and not a Les Paul. They just look and sound stupid for country.

 

[1big1]

believe it or not i've seen quite a few ocd's. a delay pedal for slapback is fairly common as well.

 

[Ventura]

Don't like country one bit, but you'll get the sounds from:
A clean spanking guitar, tele or strat but most certainly the single coil, ashtray shrouded telecaster
A super clean channel amp, not a piano percussive clean, we're talking chimey and crisp
A nice compressor or two, Keeley makes great stuff, studio grade in a small box, EHX makes good for cheap
A true tremolo FX, this is not a whammy bar or a vibrato, but a 'tremolo' pedal in the truest sense of the word

Outside of this, a ripped pair of jeans, the ubiquitous cowboy boots, either a tight fitting black t-shirt or a more ruggedly styled flannel (depends on the image you wanna throw out there); large gallon hat - colour is important here, don't shave - 48 hour shadow is mandatory. Have a pick up truck, older is preferrable, nearby for photo ops.

Good luck,
Mo

 

[reverymike]

I've been using my Kotzen Telecaster lately, and was thinking of trying a compressor. Some people swear by them, and some people say they're completely unnecessary.

 

[suhrimmetal]

Keeley comp pedal is damn nice and very useable in country. a clean boost/od in the same pedal could also suffice.. Doug Aldrich Rocket Fuel! Delays, choruses are personal preference.

 

[kylendm]

People who play well with good dynamics don't really need a compressor as their notes come out pretty clean but some people pick lighter or have a different way of playing so a compressor helps them. A compressor is something you'll either love or hate. Try it out.

 

[Red_Label]

I've been using my Kotzen Telecaster lately, and was thinking of trying a compressor. Some people swear by them, and some people say they're completely unnecessary.

I've been playing on and off in country/classic rock bands (as well as metal bands) since '89. I always tended towards muti-channel amps, since I always needed to be able to cover classic rock and Top 40 in addition to country. I've been pretty happy with the Bogner Shiva that I used to have, as well as the XTC Classic that I currently have for covering this type of ground. I had a Fender Twin Reverb RI during that time, but it never got drug-out to gigs because I wanted to be able to do rock without using pedals for OD. I'd love to try a nice Dr. Z for some of this stuff, but I haven't played any country since last summer so there's no real point. Oh... and the H&K Triamp Mk I that I gigged for a year in that band worked awesome for everything as well. Talk about spanky, jangly cleans, hairy cleans, cranked plexi, and thick molten lead tones. Every bit as versatile as my XTC if not more.

As far as pedals go, I always tried to get that Brad Paisley lead sound. To that end, I was VERY happy with the Visual Sound Route 66 OD/compressor pedal. It's got the ability to get that "maximum" squish with the comp side, and add some fatness and hair with the OD side. Last summer, I was filling-in for my old country band (I'm just playing modern rock/metal now) and borrowed a friend's T-Rex CompNova pedal. That also did the maximum squish very well. I used that in conjunction with my OCD to emulate what I had been doing with my Route 66 before I sold it. For regular clean chording, I never used a compressor. Just a bit of lush chorus here and there and maybe a hint of reverb/delay. The Visual Sound H2O worked great for the chorus/delay thing.

I disagree with the sentiment that you can't use LPs or whatever to do country. Over the past 2+ decades I've used Strats, Teles, LPs, PRSs, pointy-upside-down-headstocked Frankenstrats, Kramers, ESPs, etc to play country and was happy with the results. Obviously, the Tele (and maybe Strats) rule the twangy country world, and I'll usually opt for the G&L ASAT Special in my stable when called-up to do that. But sometimes I don't feel like fighting that beast and I'll grab an ESP Eclipse or something (especially when I have to do rock tunes also).

 

[gibson08]

Zendrive (must have), a 4 knob Keeley Comp(or poss Barber Tone Press) I dunno, Modern Country is really diff it seems anymore, I see more and more PRS guitars and Boogies or drive type amps than I do old Classic Fender clean amps anymore, speaking of that, what amp are you using for Country???

 

[RockStarNick]

People who play well with good dynamics don't really need a compressor as their notes come out pretty clean but some people pick lighter or have a different way of playing so a compressor helps them. A compressor is something you'll either love or hate. Try it out.

While that's true to a certain degree, in country music, a compressor is often used for the tonal impact it has.

I think you'd be hard pressed to find anyone who says that Brad Paisley or Keith Urban don't have good playing dynamics. But they use "compressors" for that squish and sustain effect.

ReveryMike - the problem you may run into with compressors, using your Kotzen, is unity gain output. For some reason, most compressor pedals that I've played seem to love single coils, but not get along with higher output buckers (a la the chopper in the Kotzen). MXR DynaComp, MXR Custom Comp, heck, even my old 2-knob Keeley just couldn't seem to get unity volume well with buckers.

If you want a compressor with enough unity volume, check out the Barber Tonepress, or the Wampler Ego Compressor. Both are phenomenal, and have the ability to blend in the dry signal, which is very, very cool.

 

[Red_Label]

People who play well with good dynamics don't really need a compressor as their notes come out pretty clean but some people pick lighter or have a different way of playing so a compressor helps them. A compressor is something you'll either love or hate. Try it out.

While that's true to a certain degree, in country music, a compressor is often used for the tonal impact it has.

I think you'd be hard pressed to find anyone who says that Brad Paisley or Keith Urban don't have good playing dynamics. But they use "compressors" for that squish and sustain effect.

I was going to say the same thing you did, but I re-read his post and realised that he was probably referring to clean chording work and forgetting about country lead work. I actually spent a lot of years doing country without a compressor and was certainly capable of doing it well enough. But the day I discovered a compressor with the proper amount of squish, I never looked back in terms of lead playing. Obviously, 99% of good country lead players feel the same way.