I played for over 20 years without effects of any kind, and was quite proud of that, for whatever reason. I just picked up a Rane compressor two years ago, but with the intent of protecting my speakers more than creating a 'sound'.
Recently, however, I started playing in a Zappa-Rep ensemble, at times with no guitar player (imagine that...), so I've had to fill the void. Rather than try a bazillion pedals I know nothing about and enter a learning curve that I didn't want to mess with, I got the Boss GT-8B. There was enough learning curve in that single unit to make me almost turn my back, but I've figured it out at least to the point that I can cover many specific sounds that there was no way I'd be able to otherwise. Scott Thunes, Zappa's studio and touring bassist during the last 10 years of his rock career, pretty much, made frequent and elaborate use of a phaser, and I fill out other songs or sections with chorus, distortion (when we have no guitar), Octaver and even some AutoWah.
On any gig outside of this group, though, I am completely Au Natural and still like it that way.
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Brian Casey
Portland OR
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