Effects Pedals

[Gary1953]

Originally Posted by coolarrow

As I enter the "Electric World" with my new LP Studio, what are some basic effects pedals I should be looking at?

Thank you.

CA

Tuner
Volume pedal
Compressor
Overdrive
Delay

Those would be a good start. Next step up would be to add distortion, chorus and reverb.

You know you’re a pedal junky when you start looking at fuzz, phase shifter, flange and looper pedals. I know this from experience.

[JeffreyAK]

You don't say what amp you have, or what sound you want, but first for me would be some fuzz - whether that's a pedal with a clean amp (what I used to use, a Boss DS-1 plus a crystal-clean transistor amp), or a dirty amp (what I use now since I picked up a JVM210 combo).

Next would be reverb, I use a Strymon blueSky pedal in preference to the onboard Marshall digital reverb (the spring reverb on my old transistor Gibson amp was much better and I just used that, no pedal).

Next would be a chorus, I used a Boss CE-5.

Next would be a wah, I use a Fulltone Clyde Standard.

Next would be a delay, I use a Boss DD-500.

But you may want to wind up with a completely different sound than what I like, so it's really up to you. No pedals at all is fine too, if you're happy with that and/or you don't like to tinker with pedals.

[klav]

Options out there are endless, but you've got some good pointers for where to start. Figured I'd post my board as well!

- Power (Voodoo Lab Pedal Power 2 Plus)
- Tuner (Boss TU-3)
- Compressor (Keeley - 2 knob)
- Reverb (T-Rex Tonebug)
- Overdrive (King of Tone)
- Delay (Deep Blue Delay)
- Loop/Playback (Boss RC-3)

There was a website that had signal chains from tons of artists, don't remember it and can't seem to find it. I'll update the post if I do. It's always good to look at other chains and play around.

[redir]

I'm rebuilding and re-cabling my pedal board now. It's a journey down a rabbit hole I'll tell ya You buy just one and you are gonna need another

Now I'm at the point where I could make two pedal boards, one out of the stuff I don't use much anymore.

[Lister]

Someone mentioned a looper, that's a great suggestion! I use mine all the time for song ideas or working out solo's.

I started off with a Ditto, but returned it as I wanted more loops. I now have a EHX 720 Stereo that has 10 loops available, but I probably wouldn't recommend it anymore. It was fine for about a year, but lately it's started losing my loops after a time and I'm not sure why. When they disappear all that's left on the loop is a really annoying da-da-da noise. So now any loops I want to save I go ahead and run into my DAW just so they don't get lost. I'll definitely get another looper, I'm just not sure what brand just yet.

[KevWind]

Originally Posted by coolarrow

As I enter the "Electric World" with my new LP Studio, what are some basic effects pedals I should be looking at?

Thank you.

CA

I think a tuner pedal is essential
For practicing leads over chord progressions etc. A looper pedal is pretty handy.
Beyond that it is a lot of subjective wants.

For my journey back into electric after 47 years away I have just a few for starters .

A Boss looper ( I already had a Boss tuner from my live acoustic gear)
A basic analog delay MRX "Carbon Copy". and a fairly conservative drive pedal a "Soul Driven by Xotic Effects.
First had a homemade board then found a price drop on a discontinued model from Holey Board

Looks like this below,,,,,, (The Supro pedal is a Footswitch for the onboard Tremolo and Reverb on my Supro Amp. ) Oh and a power supply under the upper tier of the Holey Board


The next pedal will likely actually be an ABY switcher from Lehle to run a two amp "wet dry" system

[Nymuso]

If you are truly not conversant with the various pedals, I suggest an inexpensive multi effects pedal. This will allow you to get a feel for what the various effects do and how they might fit into your music. This way, it won't cost you $100 to find out you don't have a need for a phase shifter or a ring modulator. For less than that you can sample them all and then zero in on the ones that interest you and for which you might be amenable to investing a bit more money to get higher quality.

[Davis Webb]

Originally Posted by Nymuso

If you are truly not conversant with the various pedals, I suggest an inexpensive multi effects pedal. This will allow you to get a feel for what the various effects do and how they might fit into your music. This way, it won't cost you $100 to find out you don't have a need for a phase shifter or a ring modulator. For less than that you can sample them all and then zero in on the ones that interest you and for which you might be amenable to investing a bit more money to get higher quality.

The Zoom multi stomp comes to mind. I used to have a ton of pedals but really, one multi does the trick. And much much much much cheaper.

[Nymuso]

Originally Posted by Davis Webb

The Zoom multi stomp comes to mind. I used to have a ton of pedals but really, one multi does the trick. And much much much much cheaper.

Yes, this is my solution as well, specifically the Zoom G1Xon. But for many the multi effects do not provide the sound they are quite looking for so they opt for the more expensive and more cumbersome route of individual effects. Fortunately for me, I don't need all that much nor am I all that picky.

[pf400]

Starting out with a multi-effect pedal, as I did, will give you some great effects, but also some bad ones that could mislead you into thinking that a given effect is not for you. I would advise you to start out with "average" but reliable reverb, delay, distortion, overdrive. The Boss RV5 or 6, Behringer VD, Boss DS1, and Boss Blues Driver all sound great to me, and are not that expensive...I've never bought a used pedal that didn't work as it should so save money and buy used. Next up I'd add a chorus pedal and a flanger. Either one, and low intensity levels, give you a "bigger" sound. Don't be mislead into thinking that the more expensive effect pedals sound better. Some of them don't really, and you'll waste time trying to tweak them to get that elusive perfect tone that you may not find, and even if you do, will become tiresome.