Re-cycle of cause and fx (part 2)

What I decided to replace three rack FX units with…

I wrote previously that I was trying to decide whether to ‘recycle’ (i.e. sell off) some Line 6 rack FX units and look to replace them with something more portable / practical – and I thought I’d let you know what I decided to replace them with.

I was very tempted to buy individual FX pedals again – which really ‘would’ have been a recycle – since way-back-when I sold off most of my single FX pedals to help fund the rack units purchase. There is something of an appeal to having a shiny new selection of individually selected FX pedals (and, to be honest, I can’t rule that out at some point in the future) but it’s hard to know for sure how much of this is just ‘analog / true bypass’ snobbery and marketing hype.

On the other hand, though multi-FX units of any kind inevitably involve a compromise (unless you have a serious budget to throw at it – which has never been my experience) it is great to be able to program multiple effect sounds under a limited number of pedals.

I suspect at some point in the not-too-distant future we’ll all be running some sort of tablet computer with a wireless foot-pedal controlling FX software (and lots of folk are moving in that direction already).

In the end (or at least the end for now) I decided to stick with Line 6 gear (which, though I know not everyone likes) I’ve only ever had good experiences with.

I’ve ordered one of these – which seems to have great reviews and be small enough that, with a couple of expression pedals (left-over from use with the aforementioned rack units), it could be used on it’s own for gigs that need a really light set-up. It’s sort of a half-way house between a multi-fx unit (where you program a patch that contains a selection of effects) and individual pedals – you program a ‘scene’ with six sounds (any three of which can be ‘on’ at the same time) that are then available under a separate footswitch.

I’ll let you know how I get on with it!