Pedal suggestion, please

[mc437]

My wife and I have a 2-piece rock/pop band. She plays rhodes and sings, and I play drums and sing. I am wanting to buy a pedal for the rhodes that will make it sound bigger/fuller on certain parts. Hard to explain what I mean, but something that will give it more thickness and drive. Any suggestions?

[Sean Sullivan]

Sounds a lot like Quasi. I know Rhodes love the Boss CE-1. if you don't want to spend the money for a real one, the Voodoo Labs Analog Chorus is a very convincing clone.

The Mutron Bi-Phase is a classic pairing, but again very expensive. Maybe one of those Nord Rack Units would be the best option?

[RefD]

My wife and I have a 2-piece rock/pop band. She plays rhodes and sings, and I play drums and sing. I am wanting to buy a pedal for the rhodes that will make it sound bigger/fuller on certain parts. Hard to explain what I mean, but something that will give it more thickness and drive. Any suggestions?

can you expand on the "thickness and drive" thing?

cos there's a few ways that can be understood all leading down somewhat different paths.

lucky you, i often wish my wife was also a musician.

[mc437]

My wife and I have a 2-piece rock/pop band. She plays rhodes and sings, and I play drums and sing. I am wanting to buy a pedal for the rhodes that will make it sound bigger/fuller on certain parts. Hard to explain what I mean, but something that will give it more thickness and drive. Any suggestions?

can you expand on the "thickness and drive" thing?

cos there's a few ways that can be understood all leading down somewhat different paths.

lucky you, i often wish my wife was also a musician.

I guess what I mean is that I want the notes to sound fuller-for each individual note to cover more ground. The sound of a rhodes really chimey, which is great. But, I just want the rhodes to sound more lush, full, striking. This would be for the parts of the songs that are a bit heavier. Does that make sense?

[RefD]

does this Rhodes have an instrument level out?

it'd be worth trying various really GOOD QUALITY (IOW, no RokTek or Arion) pedals on.

chorus, phaser, trem, EQ, compression and overdrive in various combinations are all classics on this instrument.

a good compressor pedal can pull things forward a bit, but it will also amplify any noise...likewise with overdrive pedals.

did you want it swirly at all?

some phasers can lend a bit of midrange grind when you lean into the instrument.

in chorusing, you can get a less comic book sound by using a unit that splits the frequency spectrum with a 2 way crossover and then choruses only the top half.

i hate to say it, but nothing beats actually trying things out with the instrument in question.

is she going DI or thru an amp?

[Sean Sullivan]

in chorusing, you can get a less comic book sound by using a unit that splits the frequency spectrum with a 2 way crossover and then choruses only the top half.

That's a really good idea. I think a tremolo pedal would be a neat effect on a Rhodes as well, but it isn't going to make it sound fuller.

I think an EQ pedal might be a good place to start, but I've never tried that with a Rhodes. The Boss GE7 7 Band EQ can be had pretty cheap. The new BBE Sonic Stomp might be worth trying as well.

[Kindly Killer]

rhodes has very similar character to clean electric guitar - same problems, same solutions. some tricks i use on guitar and sometimes on synth rhodes:

• roll off treble somewhere in front of the amp, even in a passive varitone type circuit
• delay - a short delay makes it sound bigger and a longer, lower level, feedbacky delay helps smear the notes
• more gain on the amp
• gain up a very subtile overdrive pedal, like RC Booster
• eq pedal into a tube amp is like a swiss army knife. you can get a gain increase and a decrease in the freqs that are too prevalent/make it sound thin
• chorus
• compression: tames the plinkyness

[zachary]

what about a very subtle amount of ring modulation... and i always like that crass bell-tone thing on electric piano.

[kayagum]

Have you tried an overdrive pedal on a low setting? Actually, I like RAT pedals for both keyboards and guitar for that....just set the drive level low, compensate with the volume/level, and you're good to go.

You could also try compressor pedals too. I personally like the Maxon CP101, but it may not be enough for what you're trying to do.

[lyman]

Have you tried an overdrive pedal on a low setting? Actually, I like RAT pedals for both keyboards and guitar for that....just set the drive level low, compensate with the volume/level, and you're good to go.

You could also try compressor pedals too. I personally like the Maxon CP101, but it may not be enough for what you're trying to do.

yeah, I think an overdrive pedal will give you the punch you're looking for. and a little grit too. keep it simple!

[Boogdish]

a booster or overdrive, I've never been lucky enough to have a Rhodes to experiment with, but I dig tubescreamers on keyboards in general. Or you can turn the amp to where it's barely distorting and then use a volume pedal to control the amount.

[mjau]

A ZVex SHO might be the ticket...adds some body to the sound, even if you don't use it to boost volume.

[mc437]

Wow, thanks for all the suggestions, guys. First off, I have a Boss OD-2, which I use to add a bit of overdrive. But, the Rhodes is going through a black face '65 Fender Band Master, so there is already a fair amount of tube overdrive. The amp has a great tremolo, which we use, so we're covered there. I like the delay suggestion, so we'll go try out some delay pedals. I used to have a dynacomp too, which I liked on guitar, so maybe I'll look for another one of those. I'll need to just go to the music store and try out pedals and see what sounds good.
Also I am surprised at all the chorus suggestions. I almost never like the sound of chorus, but perhaps it will find its usefulness with the Rhodes...

[llmonty]

i believe we got a great, aggressive, big rhodes sound using a jimi hendrix wha -- i think it is the white one. if you go to my band myspace page and listen to a track called "the Mighty" in the middle/end of the song you can hear the change for a cleaner sweeter rhodes to an aggressive sound. the main songwriter/drummer/piano/singer in our band is a huge miles fan and had seen keith jarrett use one on a rhodes.

[standup]

I got one of the EH holy stain pedals, and it definitely does dark/thick. You say you've got OD and tremolo covered, but this thing is a little different. The OD's are dark and thick, and the tremolo has a little chorus/leslie-ish effect to it. It might do something interesting to a Rhodes.