What are your four ‘must-have’ pedals? That is what we ask our guests to share with you in our Four On the Floor podcast segment.
JJ has one of the most informative and approachable gear demo channels on YouTube especially if you love pedals, which we all do! If you are not familiar with JJ Tanis’Channel do yourself a favor and check it out. He gave us a fantastic interview too! You can hear the episode for yourself right here. Check out JJ’s choices for his Four On The Floor.
1. EarthQuaker Devices – Speaker Cranker V2
“This single knob overdrive has no separate tone or gain controls. It is different from Version one this has top mount jacks which makes it more convenient for smaller pedalboards. The cool thing about this pedal, in my opinion, is that in a live situation it always sounds good no matter how you set it because it does not have great volume fluctuation. If you set it all the way counter clockwise its just going to give you a little bit more hair, a bit more gain, and seems to adjust the tone accordingly. It does not have a lot of headroom so this does not increase your total volume as soon as you start increasing that dial; it pretty much stays at unity gain all the way through, so it sounds good in every setting and its great to tweak on the fly. It sounds good with a number of different rigs which is pretty important because pedals themselves don’t produce a “sound” it just a matter what of what signal you are putting into them and then what amp you are going into.” Check out the EarthQuaker Devices – Speaker Cranker V2
2. Eventide – H9 Max Harmonizer/Effect Processor
“The old Eventide “Factor” pedals were very complicated but the H9 is pretty easy to operate and has all of the algorithms of the factor series pedals as well as a number of new ones all its own. So this pedals has really brilliant time-based effects such as reverbs, delays, and modulations. It even has a drive section and there is a really cool Casio kind of fuzz that I use on my album. This pedal comes loaded with ninety-nine presets which explore some of the crazier sounds of the unit, but you can lose all of those and only store your own if you want which can be more useful in live situations so you don’t accidentally end up on a patch you did not intend to ever use.” Check out the Eventide – H9 Max Harmonizer/Effect Processor
3. Neunaber Audio Effects – Iconoclast Speaker Emulator
“This is a cabinet emulator in which you run line level signal from your amp’s effects loop or even from an “amp-in-a-box” type pedal through and then go right into the front of the house (direct input), or directly into your recording equipment. Essentially eliminating the need for an actual amplifier and microphone, but still providing any number of speaker sounds. It is a really interesting piece of gear and it sounds amazing. I use it often on my youtube channel and also recording my band. it has a three-band parametric EQ and when you start shelving the high end it actually sounds like you are moving the mic around the speaker like from the center position to on or off axis and stuff like that. the bass control acts like going from a 1×12 cab to a 4×12 cab and everything in between. This is just such a cool unit that is easy to use and that sounds phenomenal.” Check out the Neunaber Audio Effects – Iconoclast Speaker Emulator
4.Keeley – Java Boost
“Most of us feel no need whatsoever to boost the highs in our signal. But if you boost the high-mids, it can have a dramatic effect on the gain structure of the amp you are going into, and that is one of the things the java boost does really well. It also has a three-way toggle switch that goes between treble, mid, and flat which is just a non-EQ’d boost. It is a great little pedal that has been around forever but I really fell in love with it.” Check out the Keeley – Java Boost
Huge thanks to JJ for being a guest on our show and please check out JJ Tanis’ YouTube Channel. We wish him continued success!