I've just been trawling t'interwebby for any informeation about the Moen effects company. In my travels, I came across an article from my old website. It's a bit dated now, but I've copied it here for posterity...

From being a 'bass-to-amp-to-speaker' kind of a guy, I've developed a minor obsession with effects pedals. My (admittedly warped) reasoning is that each one has been chosen for a particular sound with a particular guitar on a particular track. My family and friends are waiting to see whether this obsession becomes even more extreme, to the point where I start to justify having a pedal for each note in the scale... and then the men in white coats will smile sweetly, make no sudden moves, and drag me gently from the attic.

There's an accepted convention for the order that pedals should be placed in the signal chain. And you probably won't go far wrong if you stick with convention. However, one of the joys is that you can mix and match seemingly endless combinations simply by unplugging and replugging a couple of patch leads. Hours of carefree plug-swapping have yielded up some stunning sounds - only for them to be lost for ever because I simply couldn't remember what pedal I had where in the chain. Add in the fact that each pedal has at least one adjustment knob for shaping its particular sound - and pretty soon you have chaos.

It might sound sad (and a little anal) but I started keeping notes while "auditioning" combinations of pedals. Sad or not, it's certainly a process that's helped me avoid a LOT of frustration. It's also thrown up some interesting points about my own pedal collection. Some effects simply do not like to be placed in combination with others. And I'm talking here about specific models of the same generic type of effect. For instance, I have a Moen Holy Choir chorus that hates being placed after a Biyang DS-7 distortion pedal. My Moen Shaky Jimi or DOD FX64 Ice Box work just fine in the same position. If I drive the Biyang DS-7 with a Moen Deep Blue overdrive, it displays a bizzare frequency shift. This doesn't happen if I drive it hard with any other pedal.

Along with all the individual pedals, I also have a few multi-effects. When I first started out with electric guitar back in May 2007, I thought a simple multi-effect pedal was the modern answer. Everything in one box. When I handed over the cash for my somewhat battered Zoom 606, the guy in the shop said, "These are great for finding out just what real pedals you're going to want to buy in the end."

At the time I couldn't help feeling smug. I knew that I would NEVER go down the route that would lead to a pedal board with the power consumption of a small town. I was in touch with the modern way of doing things. One box, many options. Only, he was absolutely correct! It only took about three weeks before I was heartily sick of the way the pre-set order of effects in the Zoom seriously hampered my attempts to recreate the sounds I had in my head.

The Zoom 606 still has a place here. I like the amp modelling, particularly the high-gain American sound. I also used it as a straight wah pedal for a while, then even that took a back seat when I got my Jim Dunlop Cry Baby.

My all-time favourite multi-effect has got to be the Yamaha MagicStomp! I've spent hours with the software, tweaking every possible parameter, dialling up sounds I didn't even realise a guitar could make. However, it has yet to find a place on any track I've recorded. The sounds are amazing, but it's more like a video game than a serious tool for music at the moment. One day I'll stop tweaking for tweaking's sake and try to find a sound that's actually usable.

Originally written in 2008. Things have obviously moved on a little here at Casa Dragondreams in the last couple of years...