EFFECT PROCESSORS

I got my first electric guitar when I was still 13, thinking that the overdriven sound is only produced by electric guitars. But I was disappointed that I couldn't replicate the drive sound from my Fender Pampanga plugged into a stereo. One of my biggest project during my summer vacation in Japan was to go to the music store and get what I need to produce the rock sound that I was dreaming of.

In the store, I asked how to create the sound by explaining verbally without the knowledge of any words such as overdrive or distortion. The staff brought out several effects for me to try out. I don't remember if I got to try any overdrive or distortion, but I got my first effect pedal, which was the Boss PH-1 Phaser. It was only a year after, a friend of mine who came from Japan showed me how to produce that sound using his overdrive pedal.

During my high-school years, I've collected several compact effects and created my own sound through it. What you see on the right photo is my effects board with a Power Supply / Bypass pedal -> Compressor -> Octaver -> Distortion -> Phaser -> Digital Delay, all by BOSS except the Octaver by Pearl. Yes, Pearl, famous for its drums used to make compact effects and their stuff were great. I've tried many Octave effects including Boss, but this is what I got and I still believe its the best Octave pedal to date.

The kid holding my first decent guitar is my young brother who is 12 years apart from me. He should be laughing his ass off every time he sees this photo! To my disappointment, he never got to play the guitar, and never got into the same music I'm into. The guitar he's holding is a Japanese made guitar originally only with 1 humbucking pickup and an FRT3 copy tremolo unit. I attached the mirror pick guard and sanded the head stock erasing the logo of the unknown brand. I Also changed the pickups to Dimarzio Super Distortion. I felt so good playing Gary Moore on this guitar which had a similar look to one of the guitars he had.

In 1988, I sold most of my compact effects and got a rack system as you can see. The photo was taken within a couple of months in Japan after I got the rig, and is the first edition of my system. By the way, this is the time I placed an advertisement on Manila Bulletin's classified ad and got a call from the late Teddy Diaz. I wish he did buy all my stuff because I ended up not being paid by this Swedish guy who went back to Sweden and never came back for the payment!

Maxon Wireless System

The best wireless system I've ever tried as far as the sound is concerned. However, I believe the Shure system I later used is the most durable. There was an incident that I dove into salt water (in the sea!) with it but it still worked! By the way, this Maxon was later sold to Francis Reyes.

Furman Power Conditioner and Light Module

A power conditioner (similar to a power strip) with a light which lights up the entire effects rack, great for the stage.

Korg DT-1 Tuner

A great digital tuner visible on stage even from a far in the dark. Too pricey for what it could do though.

Korg SDD-3300

A triple digital delay unit in one! More than what you need, and what I needed. This was later stolen from a rehearsal studio sometime in the 90's.




Korg DRV-3000

A multi-effect rack but I only used the parametric eq and some reverb. This was later stolen from a rehearsal studio sometime in the 90's.

Rocktron Pro Chorus

A great sounding chorus using simple knobs, not but could create many variations with a traditional knob,

Rocktron Hush IIC

The best noise reduction for guitars!

Tascam Patch Bay

Patch bay to patch all my different effects. I needed this because I didn't have a programmable system in my rack.

During my solo days, I had an operator to do all the switching and patching of my effects. And therefore, the signal chain was changed almost everyday, all the time, even between songs sometimes.

When I joined The Dawn, I had to change the system dramatically. Because The Dawn required so many different sounds, for example from a straight forward overdrive sound to a chorus+delay clean sound. And also because I couldn't get me a dedicated tech. I've always wanted to own a guitar amp, but I had to get myself a programmable system. The TC Electronic 2290 was the perfect choice.

TC Electronic 2290 Dynamic Digital Delay

Still the best delay unit in the world! The great thing about this unit is not only the sound but also because it has 5 programmable effects loops.

For the Prodigal Sun album, the come back album of The Dawn in 2000, I used various equipment from old to new. Audiophile Components Inc., helped us a lot with the equipment. For the Prodigal Sunrises tour, I got myself a Digitech RP-3, an affordable, simple, easy to use multi-effects, which was the only thing I used along with my Marshall preamp in some gigs.

My current setup is very simple. "Back to Basics". Gibson Les Paul Standard 1970 or Tokai 1978 1950's reissue -> Boss Volume Pedal with Tuner out -> Jim Dunlop Cry Baby Wah -> Lee Jackson preamp.

Since the preamp is always on drive mode, I control the clean/drive sound on the Les Paul. There are some songs which requires total clean sound, but what the heck, Francis is there to back me up, as his tone is always based on clean.

I've modified the Wah not to hit too much treble. Sometimes I use it like an equalizer similar to what Michael Schenker is famous for.

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