Flashback, writer’s, chemically-inspired, one each: The first band I was ever in. We were just beginning to cook (knew most of the notes on my Hagstrom bass, our drummer had a five-piece set of Slingerlands with two big cymbals, Farfisa Duo-Compact organ, etc.) when our guitar player broke his hand in a motorcycle wreck and had to quit.

Inquiries at the local billiard parlor led us to a guitarist from a nearby neighborhood who was supposed to be really hot. We called him up and asked if he would come over and jam with us, and he agreed. A few nights later he showed up with equipment in hand: a Fender Telecaster, a big Silvertone amp from Sears, and a funny little wedge-shaped gizmo called a “Fuzz-Tone” that none of us had ever seen.

Being anxious to impress this guy with our music, we tuned up and immediately broke into “Shapes Of Things” by the Yardbirds. The new guitar player jumped right in, and when it came time for the solo, he kicked that little gray box and played the solo note for note. More importantly, his guitar sounded just like it was supposed to, thanks to the mysterious little , box, the Fuzz-Tone.

We were jubilant. Straight into ^Satisfaction” we charged, playing louder and louder until finally, the cops came and told us that the neighbors just couldn’t take it anymore. But no matter, we had found our man.

I have often wondered how impressed we would have been had he not had a Fuzz-Tone. Probably not as much; perhaps not at all. But that guitar player knew what he had to have to deliver the popular sounds of the day. Fortunately for him and for us, there weren’t that many sounds that were considered prerequisite to rock guitar playing. But today, a guitarist whose function it is to deliver all the special effects sounds when necessary must spend a lot of money for equipment, and (if he’s smart) a lot of time trying to use these various effects properly.

It is no small feat to effectively operate three or four effects units, play guitar and sing harmony, all the while maintaining stage presence. Effects pedals can be troublesome little critters, what with batteries going dead, switches and pots failing, and they can only take so much abuse before they fall apart under your feet.

Lately instrument manufacturers have taken a new approach to special effects by building them in rack-mountable enclosures, providing AC power instead of batteries, and using electronic circuitry to achieve once mechanically-encumbered effects such as echo, wah-wah, and so forth. One of the best examples of this that I have seen so far is the Ibanez UE400, a multi-effect unit that combines four essential effects in a versatile design.

The UE400 is rack-mountable, AC-powered, and comes equipped with an umbilical cable that enables the user to activate any of the effects via a multi-footswitch box. The UE400 has a compressor, a phasor, a distortion unit and a chorus/ flanger, as well as an external input which allows the use of echo or other effects in conjunction with the four that are provided. These effects can be operated one at a time or in various combination, and the order in which they affect the guitar signal can be changed. This is achieved by a switching system called the Insta-Patch. On each of the four sections of the unit, and on the .external effects loop, there is a five-way rotary switch. Any effect can be placed in any of the five positions in the signal path, provided that no two effects occupy the same spot at the same time. When this happens, say for example when compression and flanging both are switched to position two, a little red light starts clinking, indicating that there is a patching error. The error will be immediately pbvious to the user, however, because the unit will cease to function until the error has been corrected. But the light lets you know that the problem is in the patch, not in the guitar or the amp or whatever.

This patching system is very important because it allows the user to instantly rearrange his effects chain without unplugging and repatching them. Imagine what that would be like on stage; it would be unthinkable to stop and scramble one’s effects. But why do it, anyway, even if this patch system makes it so easy? Because a different sequence of the same effects, set exactly the same way, will sound different when they are used together.

Think about the compressor, for example. If it is placed first in the chain, it compresses, the incoming signal. That altered signal can be phased, flanged, chorused, echoed, or whatever, but it has already been compressed, so the other effects have only so much signal to work with. Turn the sequence around, use the flanger first, then the compressor, and the results are different because the compressor dealt with an already flanged signal. With a little practice at home and some careful listening, the guitarist will begin to hear the difference in these sequences, and only then can he apply the UE400 in the best way.

Both the compressor and the distortion unit have separate level controls, so that the amount of each can be independently altered. The compressor has a sustain control as well, and the distortion unit has an amount control and a tone control as well as level. The phasor has speed, width and feedback controls. The chorus/ flanger also has speed, width and feedback controls. The chorus can be activated by pulling straight out on the width control; when this is done, the unit has chorus. However, the “wet” signal only appears at the master output, and the “dry,” or unaffected portion of the signal appears at the effects send jack. This means that in order to get a full chorus effect, the unit must be connected to two channels on the amplifier, or to two amplifiers. Otherwise, the sound of “wet” signal only is just half the chorus effect, and it sounds like a warped record: the pitch changed slightly without a steady pitch (the “dry” signal) to counterbalance it, and the true chorus effect is lost. That is the only drawback to the unit, as far as I can see, and it should be changed. Other than that minor flaw, the UE400 performs beautifully. The send jack can also be used as a switchable output to carry the signal out at any point in the chain, and the receive jack can be used as an auxiliary input. All the effects can be deactivated and bypassed by a master switch on the footboard, and the on/off switches are free of annoying pops dnd clicks. Status lights indicate which effects are engaged, and the unit operates with very low noise.

The Ibanez UE400 costs no more than four good quality effects of the same type would cost if purchased separately. It offers the user convenience, portability, and unprecedented flexibility in the application of special effects. I daresay that if the guitarist in my first band had had one, we would still be there jammin’ away!