What are your pedal test riffs?

[Beaker]

You know the scenario - you've just finished building a circuit, you've strapped it to your version of Miosol's Test Box, fired up your amp, plucked a few notes and twiddled the knobs and "yay it works!".

Do you find yourself busting out the same riffs over and over when testing pedals?

I know I do, I find it makes comparison testing with other pedal easier. Someone please tell me you do the same, as my wife thinks I'm crazy.

So what is it guys?

[Muadzin]

I play whatever has inspired me. Usually something I recently heard. But I play it into a delay with a looper function. Excellent way to be assured of a constant riff while fiddling around with a new circuit, or worse, troubleshooting it. I used to use an oscillator for it but I learned that even though I get sound, doesn't mean its the right sound. A looped guitar signal >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> some oscillator for testing.

[rocket88]

great thread topic beaker. for me it depends on what i'm doing when i fire up the pedal, and what kind of pedal it is. am i comparing it to another? am nd i just testing it to see if it works?

what i've found i do is usually play something that fits the pedal. like every time i fire up a muff and i hit the first note, i usually end up breaking out some nasty heavy doomy riffs. when it's a chorus or phaser i end up playing tool 46 and two. if it's some nasty 60's psych fuzz, it ends up being something in that vein.

[Travis]

You mean you can play riffs other than "Smoke on the Water"?!

[Silver Blues]

I just end up improvising some shit in E whenever I test a pedal.

[rocket88]

Haha. Travis I'm for jersey. Every guy with a guitar can play the first 30sec of stairway. No joke it's like Wayne's World when you go to Sam ash or guitar center.

[Chris60601]

I typically start off with some blues, maybe some Nugent then go off on some chord progressions that may end up as some original at some point. Then wrap it up with "Its Late" by Queen.

All that goes out the window if I'm doing a pedal like the Sabbra. Then its just a dedicated jam of the songs by the artist, in this case, Black Sabbath.

[Travis]

I bow to the guitar gods of jersey. For he who masters the first 30 seconds of stairway shall enter the league of immortal tone

[Beaker]

No travis, I'm afraid Smoke On The Water is not one of them. And as for Stairway, I'm in the "No way!" camp - I don't know if I should be ashamed, or proud of the fact that I have never even attempted to play any of Stairway, let alone a whole 30 seconds of it.

It stands to reason that it's going to depend on the circuit - obviously you're not going to try to play Sultans of Swing on a Big Muff, but I would be delighted if someone said they did!

I do have a few favourites though, the Stooges "No Fun" and "Search and Destroy", Mudhoney's "Touch Me I'm Sick" seem to come around on a loop when trying out heavy fuzzes.

Heavy distortion pedals get a workout to "Summertime Blues" - the Blue Cheer version.

Teenage Fanclub's "Everything Flows" and Love's "7 and 7 is" get used a lot when I'm trying out light overdrives and compressors.

Chorus pedals seem to require me playing "Unsatisfied" and "Answering Machine" by The Replacements.

Bass pedals need to be tested using "Everything Flows" (again), and "Some Velvet Morning",
by Lee Hazelwood and Nancy Sinatra!

There are a bunch of other Spacemen 3, Dinosaur Jr., Sham 69 and Pavement licks too.

Am I weird or what?

[Travis]

Beaker, I like your style buddy

I'm especially a sucker for Pavement and Stooges. Have you built a Big Cheese?

[clockman]

"we play both kinds here, country and western"
1 point to anyone who knows which movie that's from.

To beaker and rockett, I agree it all depends on the circuit. The right tool for the job as they say. some things just gravitate you to play a certain way or certain things.
 One COULD use a fork to eat a bowl of ice cream but might not be the first utensil you'd grab...but this is also our art and our expression, so grab that fork make that fudge ripple rue the day! hell yes you should play "sultans of swing" with a big muff!
 
As of late I've been playing vocal melodies on guitar.  Current faves (don't laugh.. or laugh loudly, I do) "close to you" the Carpenters and "it was a very good year" Sinatra. they usually get played when I build a "noise" circuit. perverse fun.

but when it's work time, In general I just play chords when I first fire up a new OD/dist or Fuzz, listening closely to the the attack, texture and decay characteristics. Lots of questions come up at this stage.
 
Is it compressing the attack and making mush? do I like said mush?
How's the frequency response or EQ? do I need to tweak my amp much or at all with this new device?
Am I hearing excess noise in the chain? is it inherent to this type of device?
does it make me play differently?  (that can be good or bad depending on the device)
is it fun? and will I feel the same way about it tomorrow?
Am I just thrilled I got something to work or is it getting boxed?

I'm sure we all do this on some level. we build. we test. we play. thank goodness for this place.





 

[rocket88]

Lol. Honestly I hate stairway, except for the Zappa version. It's been played to death, like many Zepplin songs.

But, beaker you're no way weird. Love the music choices for testing, and now you've got me thinking I should make a setlist for each pedal type for testing.

I can't believe the stooges never crossed my mind to play, but I have been known to for for dinosaur jr fairly often. I just actually was testing an Ezekiel for someone so I decided to switch if up with some ghost, 13th floor elevators, and the sword. God I love testing distortion and fuzz pedals, you get to break out some great nasty songs.

[Marbles]

Great  taste!

For me, fuzzes usually means TV Eye, the boring minor pentatonic noodling, Spacemen 3 - Revolution.
Heavier fuzz pedals include Ride from the Dandy Warhols, Deadbeat by A Place to Bury Strangers and Smashing Pumpkins - Cherub Rock and if it's nasty the bridge/middle riff from Rocket.

Haven't made a lot of heavy distortions, but Blood and Thunder by Mastodon is always in there.

For reverb- delay things it's always the 3 chords from 'Last chance for Love' by BRMC

[Beaker]

@Travis - no I have not built a Big Cheese yet, though it's on my hit list.

@Marbles - those are some fine choices.

@ Clockman - that's too easy. It's the woman bar owner in The Blues Brothers.


Try this one, huge brownie points for anyone who gets it (though I suspect Mirosol might know):

Drummer: "I'm afraid."
Guitarist: "Shut up and play."


Clockman, that's genius playing those vocal melodies, I really like that!

[motterpaul]

For Fuzz it's "Heartbreaker" by Zeppelin followed "Owner if a Lonely Heart" by Yes.

For overdrive its "Rock Me All Night Long" (the Solo) by AC/DC to see if you get that JCM800 sound.
Plus, "Livin' After Midnight" for pinch harmonics or "Cheap Sunglasses"

For hard drivin' rhythm it's "More More More" by Billy Idol.

For a tasty cleaner lead it's the solo from "Lights" by Journey, or "Little Wing" by Hendrix. For a more sustain-focused led it's "Badge" by Cream (Clapton)

I only play "Sultans of Swing" on a cleaner sounding Strat with chorus and compression.

I also almost always also play just a blues in E or A.  I try to throw in some country riffs to just to see if I can get the spank.

I learned parts of Stairway to Heaven, but quickly forgot due to not going to Guitar Center for several months in a row.

[clockman]

@Beaker- Yes easy, hence only 1 point. don't  try to spend it all in one place, I don't know the exchange rate overseas.  Thank you for the kind words. Would your Quote be from Airheads? fraser to sandler? total guess.

@motterpaul- You've done well to avoid The Big GC. I would hope the ones in Arizona would be a  nicer  experience than the one (yes one) here in Rhode Island. I swear Moms drop their teens at GC  like a daycare center while they shop at Target.

@rockett-ghost, the sword...nice. Do you by chance dig Baroness? "swollen and Halo" just floors me every time. those dudes like the pedals!

I've come to realize I don't think I remember how to play whole songs anymore. just bits. Ha!

[Travis]

Hey rocket wasn't the sword supposed to be at psycho CA? I didn't see them there, but I have seen them before (fucking epic of course)

[Beaker]

Clockman, nice try, but no it's not Airheads.

Here's the first lines of the movie (after the subtitles <Tundra>   <Wasteland>).

"That's crap."
"Why?"
"Not commercial. Go to America. Over there, they swallow any kind of crap."


I'm not really familiar with Baroness (I'm not much of a metalhead), but I do like Norwegian band Kvelertak - they toured with Baroness quite a bit.

This is a cracking riff to play when you are testing pedals!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iDyHhV9UK-4

[clockman]

Beaker, I'm stumped.
 funny though, this quote mentions swallowing crap and I mention Airheads. HA!!! Touche mon ami.

checked that link.  at the 50second mark, I like that a lot. thank you.
I don't feel an allegiance with any one genre. I love the metal, I dislike a lot of metal. I don't love Prog, but revere ELP's "brain salad surgery". go figure.
 I come from an art background. sound is art.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BjRloqAjFxM
 this  ALWAYS makes me smile. familiar tune, unique approach.

[Frank_NH]

I really don't have any specific riffs - mostly pentatonic noodling.  But I'll check out the low end using the opening riff of "Day Tripper" or chords with some lines from "Blitzkrieg Bop" and "Brand New Cadillac".