EHX Superego: Drawbacks? Placement?

[arcadesonfire]

Are there any potential drawbacks to inserting a Superego in my guitar's signal chain? Does it affect the dry tone when bypassed? 

I'm also wondering where you all place it in your signal paths. I understand that having it after effects would let me have different effects running on the frozen sound versus whatever I play over the freeze, so my question is more like: "Does the frozen sound sound better when the distortion is before or after the Superego?"

I would need to fit the pedal on my board, and I need to be able to transport my board and set it up on a stage in a snap, so practicality is a major issue for me. Thanks fellas!!

[iodine74]

 

The one thing I've noticed is a slight buzzing added to my signal (on or off). I think I need to isolate the power better.  Tonewise-- which I had a true bypass looper to test the signal with, all i've got is a Boss LS-2 (I need to run a test with that actually).

Ironically I just made a post about the SE over on Offsetguitars this morning.  Someone was debating selling his.  Here was my response in that thread:

I was where you are with mine, was about to sell mine... until yesterday. I know that the SE definitely didn't sound like I thought it would (not nearly as good as some of the clips I'd heard). But now I have to agree with VeryRedTomatoes. 

 

Like I said, yesterday that changed for me when I did some experimenting, leveraging some of the other pedals I had. I'm not sure what type of sounds you were hoping to get with it, but IMO chorus isn't enough. I'm was after more pad-like sounds, and out of the box, it just doesn't do that IMO, it's overly "dry".

 

I dropped my Eterna in the loop and voila it came to life. Then I dropped my Magicstomp after the Eterna in the loop so that I could add trem, or phaser, or flanger, even more shifting, or dirt to the sustained signal. Then I decided I wanted a little more control over the signal so added a Volume pedal in the loop right before the return so that I could mix in the sustained signal.

 

I discovered I could get sounds I liked in all 3 modes. I had two knob settings (forgive me I don't have it infront of me), one worked on two of the modes, the other worked on the other. If you're that interested, I can report those back later.

 

Basically I was running the comp from my UE-405 into the SE (Eterna and MagicStomp, and volume pedal in the loop) then into (the rest of my board, which ends with) a Big Sky reverb (which helped blend the two sounds IMO). I do need to change some things around with this, because I don't want the sustained signal going through my dirt and modulation. I want it to have it's own effects to shape the sound (which I get with the MagicStomp in the loop). Thinking that maybe a Zoom G3X alone might be enough instead of the 3 pedals I had (since the G3X has an expression pedal).

 

If you have any type of pitch shifter and a verb or delay, try that in the loop. This will help make things more pad like... any modulation can help make it breathe/undulate a little too. 

 

One of the most important things is that mentally you have to think of it almost as a separate instrument just triggered by your playing, and you get to decide how to trigger based upon the mode. I could get sounds that worked for leads, and in the other modes I could 'sample and freeze' the a chord from a rhythm pattern. Be mindful, there's so much that happens normally with a guitar from a dynamics perspective with your pick attack and the sustain of the note, with the SE you have to almost think of it more like you are freezing the notes...almost like a synth trigger, and you do kinda have to practice with it a little to understanding it's timing with your pick attack (this affects the tone and the volume of the sustained signal).

Since I posted that thread, I've messed with it some more, including moving it behind most of my dirt and modulation.  One key thing I didn't mention in the post was how sensitive the sustained tone is to when you engage it, and how much smoother/better the sound is with chords if you pick/pluck the chord with your fingers (at once) instead of strumming with a pick.

As for distortion/overdrive, keep in mind that alot of the sound/tone you are used to is due picking dynamics, so if you are expecting the distorted sound to be the same, it won't.   

Overall placement... do you want to be able to have a clean note/notes sustained to play a distorted lead over it?   Or maybe vice versa?  if so, you'll want your SE further back in your chain after your dirt.  And I mentioned in that other post. I'm fully convinced that it needs it's own set of effects in the loop to make the most of it and differentiate the signal from your main tone.  It really can become like it's own instrument, just triggered at your will.

[Shine-ei]

I have it early on. It will freeze any modulation you have so I find it much better before and mod delay or reverb. I haven't messed around much with the effects loop as I run it completely wet most of the time.

 

I haven't noticed any noise in my signal chain from it. Just make sure you have a good power supply and you're fine.

 

Sounds good before and after dirt. First in the chain seems most logical to me since it's a digital signal but it actually sounds good with dirt before it too. I'd just try both and see which you like better

 

[arcadesonfire]

Thanks guys. I've got the big voodoolabs power supply, so it should provide clean, isolated power. I've got a Dano chorus and a homemade delay pedal lyin around that i'll try in the loop, but I'll definitely have the Superego before my TimeFactor, and I use that TF on everything. So even though the Superego won't sound like a separate instrument, I'm hoping it'll still sound organic.

Thanks for the tip about finger picking too. I guess I should go ahead and buy one from a store, play with it for a few days, and see if it'll be useful.