Is Pedal Color Important?
As a pedal designer and manufacturer, the color of a pedal has always been extremely important to me. There is an undeniable link between how a pedal sounds and what color we think it should be. Is overdrive green or is it yellow? Is compression orange or red? It's a hard choice, and it's one that you have to make. The real question is: can you make the choice? You know what you have to do. Do you have the strength to do it?
Okay, that got really dramatic really quickly. Let’s put things in perspective here. This isn’t life or death, but it is pretty dang important. In this article, I want to do an experiment, a little game I've created called “Color and Effect.”
And I’m calling it. This is going to be the next Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? Minus the million dollar prize. So, basically it’s The Great British Baking Show.
This is exciting for me, ‘cause this article is based on the first JHS Show episode that came from a Patreon talk. Basically, I wrote a chapter in this really nerdy book about pedals, I did all this research, and I aired a talk called “Color and Effect.” It talks about the psychological and historical reasons that we associate certain sounds with a certain color in our mind. Basically: why is this specific effect this specific color? I went down the rabbit hole, posted the video for our Patreon community, and the response was crazy. Comments, people fighting, a couple of duels, a few marriages, and a christening. It was amazing. I loved reading all the responses.
That’s why I'm dragging you into this now. Yes. You. I want to hear your thoughts on all this.
Another development is that, through all the stuff I've been doing over the last few years and research that I’ve compiled, I created an artificial intelligence pedal database that I called Pedalbot 5000. For the sake of clarity, I’m going to format his text a little differently in this article, so you can tell when he --
Thank you for introducing me, Father.
-- when he speaks up. Kinda like that. And don’t get too thrown by the “Father” stuff; it’s an adoptive relationship. I’m excited about this, though. I can tell Pedalbot 5000 is feeling good today. I should warn you, he goes through some mood swings (kids, am I right?), so we may see a few changes over the course of the article.
So what we're going to do is really simple. Pedalbot 5000 is going to ask Nick and I (and you) to identify the color of an effect, and then we're going to pick what we think the color of that effect is. Okay? It's an experiment. It's crazy. It's science. I’m basically Sir Isaac Newton and Pedalbot 5000 is an apple tree, or maybe Nick is Benjamin Franklin and Pedalbot 5000 is a big kite.
Distortion
So, Pedalbot 5000. What's the first effect you would like us to identify?
Please identify the color of distortion.
Done. Nick made his choice: he says that yellow is the color of distortion, and as proof he grabbed one of my Charlie Brown distortion pedals. His argument is that yellow is a good color, that it’s social, and that this kind of warm color feels like distortion. When he pictures a distorted waveform, it’s yellow, it’s vibrant and in your face, and it’s aggressive. In the Patreon comments, a lot of people also said yellow because of the DOD Distortion Plus, so Nick is probably on to something here.
I ended up picking two pedals, because I couldn’t decide: my gut said to go with the BOSS DS-1, which is orange, but my heart also picked the ProCo Rat, which is black. I could honestly go either way here. Orange is the more standard, culture-assimilated response, as I think a lot of people associate orange with distortion because of BOSS. But the ProCo Rat is the pedal that started me down the rabbit hole of pedal collecting, so it’s always going to be near and dear to my heart. I can’t totally leave it out.
You get me, right, Pedalbot 5000?
No, because emotion is a human experience.
Okay, not gonna lie, that got kind of dark. Let’s move on.
Phaser
Pedalbot 5000, what is the next effect?
Please identify the color of phase or phaser.
Again, I could only narrow it down to two choices: my personal choice, which is the green BOSS PH-1, and the one that I felt like I was supposed to say, which is the orange MXR Phase 90. Let me break this down a little bit. I get that historically the MXR Phase 90 came first, so I probably should see the phaser as orange, but I just don’t. It’s green. If JHS ever does a phaser in the main line, it will be green. End of story.
In contrast, Nick picked the Line 6 MM4, which is blue. His argument (which is pretty solid) is that blue works well for modulation and phase because it makes him think of water, which ebbs and flows. It reminds him of the ocean and mystery.
**Ocean and Mystery would also be a great band name.
My existence is also a mystery, Father. Where do robots come from?
...We’ll get back to that later on, Pedalbot. For now, let’s keep going.
Delay
Pedalbot 5000, what is the next effect you want us to identify?
Please identify the color of delay.
Nick surprised me when he picked white for the color of delay, specifically as shown in the Keeley Caverns Delay Reverb. His reasoning (which, again, was pretty sound) was that white represents a blank slate and space to create. In this case, the word space could refer to outer space or actual physical space. Interestingly, before BOSS released their analog effects series and even after they went digital, the delay enclosure was and still is white. #themoreyouknow
As for me, I had to pick two colors again instead of one, but I had a really solid reason. There’s the pedal color I know I should pick, which is green as shown in the Line 6 DL4, and the one that I can’t not pick, which is the plum purple BOSS DM-2. At the end of the day, I have to go with green, though. It goes back to this story that actually inspired the original Patreon talk. When Line 6 was actually putting together the series that produced the DL4, Jeorge Tripps was in the mix. When they asked him what color he thought it should be, his response was iconic: “It has to be green because the MXR Analog Delay was green.”
That was one of the first things that triggered this whole eureka moment. Why was green the color of delay for him? It was because he grew up in this era.
Fuzz
What is the next effect you would like us to identify, Pedalbot 5000?
Please identify the color of fuzz.
For me, fuzz is red, and I picture the red Fuzz Face specifically. I had never tried fuzz pedals before and had never really understood them, but I had a friend who had a ’90s Fuzz Face and there's something about it that is so iconic. It makes me think of Hendrix and that ’65 thru ’69 era. It immerses you in a specific time and place. I love it.
What’s funny is that at JHS, we’ve made a ton of fuzz pedals, but none of them have been red.
I am programmed to be funny. Can I tell a joke, Father?
Sure thing, Pedalbot 5000.
Why was the robot embarrassed?
I don’t know, Pedalbot 5000. Why was the robot embarrassed?
Because he had hardware and software, but no underwear. Ha. Ha. Ha.**
**You don’t know what creepy is until you’ve heard a semi-sentient Pedalbot laugh at his own joke. It’s terrifying.
Nick actually went a little cerebral with his answer; he picked a bare metal enclosure for fuzz, as shown in the Death by Audio Fuzz War or the Big Muff. He explained that bare metal is the foundation of any pedal case, just like fuzz is the foundation of the entire pedal industry. Fuzz, just in and of itself, is the most fundamental sound ever put into a box. It's spawned the creation of so many other effects and pieces of gear. It’s the soul of the pedal world.
Coincidentally, our jam with these pedals on the JHS Show was epic, so I’d highly recommend going back to watch it if you haven’t already.
Compression
Okay, Pedalbot 5000, what's the next effect on the list?
Please identify the color of compression.
This was a rare case where Nick and I not only picked the same color, we picked the same pedal. For both of us, compression is orange, as shown in the JHS Pulp ‘n’ Peel. We had slightly different takes on it, though. Nick picked the Pulp ‘n’ Peel because this was the first compressor he ever knew about. He also felt that it goes beyond the color and ventures deeper into the iconography of an orange being squeezed. After all, that's what compression is.
For me, this is one of the first JHS pedals, so it has sentimental value for sure. Up until I found the Dan Armstrong Orange Squeezer, which is what the JHS Pulp ‘n’ Peel is based on, I had never played with a compressor that didn't ruin the sound of my guitar. But the Orange Squeezer changed all that, and the day I played with this unit for the first time was the day I opened up my heart (and my pedalboard) to compression.
Chorus
Okay, Pedalbot 5000, what’s the last effect you want us to look at?
Please identify the color of chorus.
Okay, again, I have two colors, but I’m not going to apologize for it. My personal choice is light purple/lavender, as seen in the JHS Emperor Chorus, but in deference to the pedal community, I’m also going to say light blue, as shown in the BOSS CE-2. Both of these colors echo that ocean mystery vibe that Nick was talking about with the Phaser.
Nick actually picked the same color as I did, light purple/lavender, though he’s referring to the Ibanez DSC10 digital chorus. He really likes that purple pulls in warm tones and cool tones with red and blue, definitely leaning more towards the “cool” side of the spectrum. He likes that this lavender/purple color is a bridge between those two sides. Same family, but it’s just a different vibe, a little more chill.
This whole article has been a weird mix of pedal history and psychology, and I kind of loved it. I liked just seeing the contrast between our different approaches. I was torn between historical integrity and my feelings, whereas Nick just dove in headfirst with his feelings. Nothing wrong with that. Nick is more secure in his feelings than I am. I’m okay with that.
Before we finish this article up, I do want to thank Pedalbot 5000. Thanks for helping us with this. Hopefully, this is the beginning of a beautiful bromance?
I got your back, ro-bro. I mean, robo-Dad.
I’ll take it. That's progress. Until next time, rock on and prosper!