Effects Pedals

[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

[perttime]

Pedals are not compulsory.
But... Does your amp have reverb, and can you get pleasing overdrive sounds out of it, without shattering your windows?

[Steel and wood]

Most people will suggest first up an overdrive or distortion pedal of some sort but I like my sounds mostly clean. (Would prefer to drive the amp anyway if that's the sound I wanted).

I'm a fan of reverb, delay and potentially vibrato although I use each pretty selectively. (I'm currently a lounge room player who doesn't use pedals and instead plays into a solid state amp using a number of in-built effects).

Good luck!

[Song]

My pedal chain is simple.
All Keeley: Omni reverb -- Dark Side workstation -- Compressor plus

Good luck!

[Lister]

When I was first starting out with electric, my first pedals were a distortion, a chorus, a compressor and a phaser. Over the years I added a fuzz, a flanger and a wah into my chain. Now days, I get the dirt from my Marshall and I'm down to just a wah, a Keeley Monterey(rotary speaker, vibe, wah, autowah, octave up/down and fuzz in one pedal!) and occasionally a MXR Phase 95 for pedals. I'm planning on adding a volume/expression for the Keeley(so I can ditch the wah and its tone suck) and a 10 band EQ and that's probably going to be about it. For me, less is more these days...


There's so many pedal makers and pedals that you really need to have an idea of what sounds you're going for before you head out on a buying trip. Trust me, it's easy to get lost in pedal hell with so many choices. Youtube has tons of pedal demo vids, though I'm not a fan of youtube's sound compression, but you can at least get an idea of what each pedal does before you spend your cash. Don't overlook used pedals. You can save a ton of cash going the used route and you don't take a huge hit to your wallet if you sell or trade if you decide that a particular pedal just isn't working out for you.

Something else you might consider is a modeling amp...I know, I know, but they've come a long way in the last few years. For the price of a couple of pedals, you can get an amp with a boatload of built-in effects. From a cost standpoint, it's really hard to beat. Take the Boss Katana, it has 55 built-in effects and you can use 15 of them at once. Add in the software to customize each effect and it's pretty impressive from a users prospective.

[stevecuss]

This is a wide open question. You might chime back in with the style of music you like/guitarists whose tone you like. Also, are you wanting suggestions on brand/model or just type of effects?

Meanwhile, if I were building a beginner rig, I'd start with:

Barber Gain Changer for overdrive and distortion
Rat for fuzz.
Boss Delay pedal (DD20 in my case but almost any Boss delay will do the trick.)
Danelectro Tuna Melt tremelo
Ernie Ball Volume
Barber Compressor
Some sort of reliable power like a T-Rex Fuel or Voodoo.

I'd buy as much of it used as I could and save $$.

I don't do much with chorus/flange and modulation effects, but if I did, I'd get a multfx for that, like the Line 6 M5

[jdmulli]

I like delay.

MXR Carbon Copy for longer settings and Way Huge Aqua Puss for shorter.

[perttime]

Originally Posted by Lister

When I was first starting out with electric, my first pedals ...

When I first got an electric, I just played through my amp. Then I got an Ibanez Tube Screamer to add more overdrive. At some point a wah, distortion, chorus, and possibly a flanger were added.

I still have the Tube Screamer and the wah. What I actually do is plug into my amp and use its overdrive and reverb capabilities.

[muscmp]

dial in your amp first. then, take your guitar to your big box store and play thru a bunch of different pedals and, if possible, thru that same amp. you MAY want to try some overdrive or boost pedals, some reverb(if your amp doesn't), some delay, and perhaps tremolo.

play music!

[Johnny K]

Originally Posted by Lister

When I was first starting out with electric, my first pedals were a distortion, a chorus, a compressor and a phaser.....

Same here, the exact ones with the addition of a parametric EQ pedal. 30+ years ago, All DOD, still have it. I have 5 because I bougth the DOD powered pedal board station and it only held 5 DOD pedals. I guess we were both going for the David Gilmour sound.

I added a Morely wah/volume and that was it.

My very first pedal was a bright yellow DOD Super Distortion. I never put it on the board and always used it with the Wah pedal only when I gigged. I had a Twin Reverb, we were a blues band, so I didnt need more than that. I still have it and it works.

Now that I have a Hot Rod Deville 410, I dont think I need anything but a compressor, chorus and wah/volume, so that Morley and those DOD's are gonna get refurbished and put back in service.

Been thinking about a looper too.

[Song]

Originally Posted by Lister

For me, less is more these days...

Fewer pedals=fewer cables=fewer potential problems=less tone suck=more fun for me...

[perttime]

Yep. Adding cables and electronic devices can add good things to your signal. Pretty inevitably it also takes away something from the signal. Somewhere along the line there's a solution that works best for whatever you want to do.

[DukeX]

Everyone has to take their own path.

I don't use pedals. I use guitars, amps, and speakers to get the tone I want.

5e3 or AC4 for overdriven tones--both have nice cleans as well.

Princeton Reverb for great clean tones--seldom use the reverb or vibrato.

[M Sarad]

Since I use Tweed Deluxe amps, I bought a Boss Fender Reverb pedal, which was as close to the old chocolate milk color tolex Reverb that Fender made. It sounded as good as the old fender and about $99 at the time. It’s great for a Fender Sound or surf music drip. For the Floyd tone I bought a TC Electronics T2.
My bag of pedals I rarely use include Electro Harmonix QTron Envelope filter. Small Stone Phasor, Boss DD 5 delay, DOD Analog delay, Zen Drive, Tube Screamer, Boss CE 2 Chorus, Moog ring Modulator, TC Ditto Looper, and two overdrive pedals I can’t remember that I never use.

Usually it’s reverb, Zen Drive, Delay.

Speaking of Princeton Reverbs, I just got one repaired. I first played through it my Freshman year in ‘69. All the original tubes and capacitors were still good. The pots were totally noisy and required lots of spray. A three pronged plug was added and a broken Reverb spring was replaced. The on light was burned out too. It hasn’t been used in maybe 30 years.

[muscmp]

Originally Posted by M Sarad

Speaking of Princeton Reverbs, I just got one repaired. I first played through it my Freshman year in ‘69. All the original tubes and capacitors were still good. The pots were totally noisy and required lots of spray. A three pronged plug was added and a broken Reverb spring was replaced. The on light was burned out too. It hasn’t been used in maybe 30 years.

30 years, that's tragic...play that puppy. it is a classic that everyone now wants!

play music!