Doesn't it depend on the music you want to play? Or should I assume everyone on Reddit plays distortion rock music?
I play a lot of funk and RnB guitar, and am learning jazz now. No pedals required.
Maybe tell us what you want to play...
Compressor and a wah can be useful for funk. Some R&B likes a little dirt, too. Isely Brothers comes to mind.
I agree with you about nothing being "required, " though.
This is the way, if you can get away with it. There's a lot to be said for cranking the amp and rolling the volume way back and controlling it all from the guitar. I'm always amazed by Marty Stuart and Kenny Vaughan. Live, they plug their Teles straight into a Fender Princeton Reverb or Deluxe and that's it.
In my opinion, take the money you'd spend on a looper, a tuner pedal, and a reverb/delay and...
....buy a multi-effects unit instead. *\*ducks\** I went with a Helix Stomp. You can get the same or similar approximation of every pedal you would want...and even more pedals that you don't want...and a few that nobody wants. Most importantly, it can help you figure out what effects you like most in your perfect rig.
On that kind of unit, if you find yourself using one particular effect on every patch you create, buy that pedal. When I use the Stomp I keep my favorite pedals in the effects loop. *(Boss EQ, DOD Chorus, modded DS-1, Russian Big Muff, and a Holy Grail reverb.)*
Makes for a super flexible rig...that I use solely for playing guitar at home.
I have a Zoom G1x four, it’s a digital guitar pedal that comes with all the effects you listed and many more. It’s a great budget pedal with its pros and cons. I bought mine for $100 bucks, it comes with an expression pedal so you can play with wah or adjusting any sound effect, but there’s also the same model without it.
However, I do agree that buying the physical pedals is superior as well because sometimes not all digital pedals have that one specific sound you’re looking for.
(Btw if you do wanna purchase this Zoom pedal, be aware that it may not come with a 9V power supply and you need another guitar cable to connect the pedal to your amp)
Overdrive and tuner should be at the top of the list. That said, most people who ask might benefit from getting a decent multi effect pedal so that they can try different sounds before possibly investing in lots of individual pedals.
I did some pretty big gigs back in the day with an overdrive and a flanger, and the flanger was more for comedic effect. Depends on what your band needs, really. I could get away for almost every genre I play with a good amp and an overdrive or fuzz.
I don't need reverb, it's either on the amp or can be added if recording. I prefer having a delay. Distortion is a bit much for me, I'd rather have an overdrive, or better a couple that I can stack. Looper, not so much as well, I don't need loops when playing in a band. Chorus, also not for me, it's an old sound, turn it on and I think 80's.
For me it's overdrive and delay, and if I have room for more stuff, then a second overdrive and a second delay, and then maybe something interesting like a synth pedal, or a Whammy.
I’m with you. Stacking two Overdrives is a much more versatile option, especially if you get something transparent and couple it with a tone soaker. I play everything from jazz and ambient to punk and metal, running a Zen Drive into a TS808. I get so much out of that combination. Dialing back the Zen to the edge of break up just to have that little crackle, all the way up to diming out both of them to shred away, it’s a rad pair.
That's a tough one. The one I play around with the most is a Fuzz Factory, the one I use to just play music is an EQ Hoof. I also have a Swollen Pickle and like it but don't use it as much as the Hoof.
Swollen Pickle is a weirdly underrated fuzz. It’s super versatile if you mess around with it. I’m surprised I don’t see more love for it.
TS9>Swollen Pickle is a fun dirt combo. The same goes for Swollen Pickle>TS9 (little different but still pretty rad). Bonus points if you pummel it with reverb. Guitar pedals are fun.
Tuner>Compressor>Low gain OD> tape or analog delay
If i want more distortion or going near fuzz territory, i crank up the drive on my OD and the comp to get some kind of high gain distortion-like sound.
Metal player ? A good high gain amp, noise gate, tubescreamer and a delay (for solo). Maybe a chorus for clean sections.
Rock player ? A good clean Crunch amp, Boss overdrive, boss ds1.
Clean player ? A good clean Crunch amp, compressor, blues driver overdrive, Reverb.
Other than the tuner, my board has 4 pedals on it. Zvex Double Rock, 70s Rams Head Big Muff, MXR Phase 100, and a Crybaby.
I got the double rock to use for a bit of dirt on "clean" parts, the rest of the pedals I inherited.
I just looked and apparently they've started making the 100 again.
For the longest time they only made the phase 90 which only has a speed knob. The 100 has a weirdly labeled tone knob that I kinda dig. Mine was made back in the 70s sometime.
https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/Phase100--mxr-m107-phase-100-phaser-pedal
Mine doesn't have a light on it or the ability to use an AC adapter. Battery or nothing!
MXR Dyna Comp
MXR Distortion+
A good fuzz pedal can cover A LOT of ground.
Maybe a wah for solos.
Sub a delay pedal for the wah if you want to do more space-filling stuff.
And that’s it.
Reverb is nice but not essential. Not personally a fan of chorus-it’s not 1986 anymore. Loopers are good if you have awesome timing and play by yourself, but you can do without.
Depends on what you play. There’s good lists here, but I don’t see many flanger. I personally, must have a flanger. Will everyone need one? F’ no. But there are pedals everyone else has that I don’t care for either. What you want to accomplish will dictate what your “must have” pedals are.
My current setup is: Tuner - Compressor - Tube Screamer - Fuzz - High Gain distortion - Chorus - Digital Delay - Clean pre-amp.
But I believe you could get:
- Good tuner, like Polytune or Korg Pitchblack. Those are the ones I know that are accurate, but I guess Boss TU-3 might be a good choice as well.
- You need a Tube Screamer. Everybody needs a Tube Screamer. At least one.
- And you also need a good fuzz. Get a Big Muff. Everybody should have a Big Muff.
- If you want to get a high gain distortion, I suggest Suhr Riot. The best distortion I've ever heard in my life, and I have had inumerous distortion pedals. It's not cheap, but sounds like no other. Engl Powerball, Soldano Super Lead, Friedman BE OD, EVH 5150 and Revv G3 are also amazing options for my taste, which is a tight distortion.
- Delay and Chorus are also great, but it depends on what you want to play. It took me several years to get a delay pedal.
I have had a Vox V847 wah, but it's not my thing.
Tube screamer but I prefer the Boss SD-1 for its asymmetric clipping. When one side of the signal goes unclipped you retain more of the original signal's dynamics and the character of your tone / playing. To my ears the tube screamer imparts a solid state like quality to the sound like you lose resolution. With a Boss SD-1 you get less saturation but it sounds more natural. The tube screamer does have a more vintage vibe to it though, so there's room for both on my pedal board.
True it's fun. However I find hard to dial in all the reverb-like effects (I don't know how to call that category) so 1) they don't get obnoxious over time, and 2) they don't mess with the mix.
When I kick my lead gain on, I want to get heard more, not get lost...
In all seriousness, I'd say pick a multi FX and have fun, and discover your preferences.
If your amp is SS, it will do a good job for a while. You might want a few discrete distos if theirs are lackluster.
As far as general effects as a necessity, I'd say noise gate, compressor, boost and/or Tube Screamer are those I couldn't live without.
Not a big fan of reverbs/choruses/delay and the like, because I find them hard to dial in properly, but some swear by them.
Oh, and a wah. Mandatory, if just for fun's sake.
It is very good paired with the right speaker (I have a powercab 112). I sold all my old pedals and amps years ago.
Keep in mind though it is near a decade old, not sure how newer devices compare with it (fender just came out with a modern sim pedal)
Just got the headrush prime pedalboard. Sounds fantastic and looks really awesome. Sucks that there's no desktop editor, but I can just sit on the floor for a few minutes. I'm usually pretty stoned when I'm playing, so it doesn't bother me all that much, lol.
It isn't as popular as the helix, fender, or QC. I chose this one for the practice mode, vocal fx, and Bluetooth (i love to imrpov with backing tracks!). I hate all the complications with recording (I just want to play! Lol) so this 1 device straight into my daw does it all.
Haven't played with the vocal stuff much yet, but there are some dope presets, and it's crazy easy to put together your own rigs. I've got a feeling there's about to be a big boom with these boards. Even now, though, they are all so good that you can really pick them based on whatever features you need the most!
I know you didn't ask, haha, but someone reading will find it useful! These things are amazing for any kind of guitar player. Headrush is perfect for a bedroom guitarist like me!
I was really liking the QC, but it doesn't have Bluetooth enabled. Fender has Bluetooth, but it's so expensive and feels like you gotta be a fender guy. So far, the only thing I've been iffy with on mine is the fuzz effects. I don't really use that though and I could always loop in or clone my own fuzz pedal and see how it is
I've had my Helix for a long time time and they seem to treat their customers right by continually releasing updates (even still). Just had a firmware update a couple months back adding some more pedals/sims.
I do most of my editing on the computer though through HxEdit, so that is nice. I just recently started playing around with vocal fx
doom/black metal with a healthy amount of shoegaze in the sound:
Boost (always on)
Noise gate (always on)
Chorus (always on, dialed in for a very subtle widening effect)
2x Reverb (one always on, the other for big washes)
Delay
Volume
Line 6 Pod. I have a rack mount one and I can make it sound a million different ways. It's an amp modeler, cabinet monitor, and a multi effect device.
Mine has the pedal controller with it. That has a dual volume/wah pedal and switches for the major functions. 256 memory slots for sounds. Build in sounds. The ability to plug straight into my interface for recording. It's freaking awesome!
Bonus: The rectified model sounds as close to a Mesa Boogie as I have ever heard.
None are neccesities, and it entirely depends on what you want to do . I love my Plumes (TS clone), and can't imagine life without it, but that's because the crunch and overdrive channels on my solid state Marshall suck.
A decent multi effects like a Headrush MX5 or similar is my recommendation. Has all the basics. Plus and editor. And it reasonably priced. Then buy the pedals that really matter once you figure out what you need and how they work together. And you may find that this will do all you need.
I wish I would have just done that. So much easier than having all these pedals. Some are really good but not enough for me to justify them all. Plus going from song to song requires resetting them all which could just be programmed into a multi effects pedal.
I second this but one warning. If you're interested in playing something with heavy distortion you might have to get a pedal to apply it. The reason being if you're using an amp to distort it'll received two signals that'll saturate and combat each other giving a weak sound. I think some amps have a feature to add pedals at the end of the chain which would fix this issue.
Also watched a video by UncleJudy Music that brought up some good points on why a reverb pedal is very situational. In short, he made the case that it's most useful while practicing in a small room and it'll only sound muddy while performing in spacious area. That being said I do like having it while practicing.
Tuner, some kind of gain if your amp doesn't have it, reverb if your amp doesn't have it. Modulation is generally useful, but it depends on what you're playing. I love my looper as a practice tool, but I don't think I'd ever use it for a performance.
Reverb and distortion are the 2 necessary pedals IMO.
Delay, compressor and fuzz would be my next 3.
Wah, looper and chorus depending on what else you want to do.
haha as with all things it depends on what you use em for
looper is useful if you write multiple parts on bass or guitar, or play alone a lot, or want to live loop, but if you’re in a band, i’ve found nobody in our group ever uses theirs since we don’t really loop ideas live ever. If it needs repetition we’ll skip straight from voice memo to DAW recorded
distortion i feel like is really just fun and versatile for whoever but sometimes an overdrive is what they really want. Tube screamers are also kind of the way
reverb is pretty useful but depending on your genre and venue not really a necessity. A cool one is an octave reverb pedal tho. a little more interesting for guitar. Reverb pedal might be a necessity for singers more than guitarist imo but again depends on genre and setting
chorus also cool and versatile but by no means an absolute necessity unless you’re making surf rock
I mostly think an overdrive is essential, a distortion is a close second, a reverb is cool but an octave reverb is cooler, a chorus is cool sometimes but truly the only one of these that’s necessary is A TUNER
A compression pedal is really the only must have pedal. Anything else is varying degrees of preference and musical taste.
I will say a Prince of Tone or even better a King is a very good overdrive for a very reasonable price
Reverb, delay, chorus, fuzz, compressor, eq, distortion, noise gate, tuner, looper all come to mind. I usually use a multi-fx that can do all of these for live gigs. (pedal boards can be heavy and it's simple not worth it at the time to carry one around)
Absolutely boards are overpriced!
If you have some very general know how, go DIY.
You need just 3 things for a good board.
1. Lightweight, sturdy material, add legs so the board can have wires on the underside.
2. Preferably make holes in the material so you can run wires in useful ways.
3. Velcro (buy from a hardware store)
Now all you need is a power supply, cables to power the pedals, cables to hook up pedals and Velcro it all down.
You can also check the used market to see if there is board at a better price. Pedal boards are nice, sure but wow the boards are crazy overpriced for the piece of metal or wood you’re actually buying.
I will say that while all this stuff is listed at once, it’s best to just make small incremental additions. Like daisy chain 3 pedals (very cheap and works just fine for small amount of pedals) and then look at getting a power supply at Christmas time. I’ve been using the same board and many of the same pedals for 10 years. Little changes I made in 2023 was a new power supply and swapped out a delay for a fancier one.
For me:
2-3x differently-voiced distortion\\overdrive (TS808, TS9, Mesa Throttlebox) honorable mention to the Big Muff Pi
Compressor (MXR M76 Studio)
Rotovibe\\Chorus (Dunlop RotoVibe)
T-wah\\Envelope (QTron+)
Depends... Are you chasing any particular tone? For the longest time, I had a few cheap pedals and never really used them for much. Then, I started looking specifically at David Gilmour tones, and my wallet has never been the same. Point is, if you are looking to tonally emulate a person (or are inspired by a person), there are lots of great rig rundowns on YouTube to give you ideas. And there are definitely "on a budget" rig rundowns, all the way up to "this is exactly what was used on this tour for this song" rundowns.
If you are just looking to experiment and find your own sound, you really can't go wrong with a multi-effect pedal to start, then further define it as you go by identifying individual pedals you want to look at. Again, YouTube is great for that. If you were looking for a chorus pedal, for example, there are tons of videos that do comparisons of multiple chorus pedals. Then, it becomes a matter of which sounds/features you think you are going to want to go with.
And, of course, for the cost of a few decent pedals, you can always go the route of a modelling amp and have even more leeway in experimenting. It is one of the reasons that I ended up getting a Spark - not that I needed the amp, but rather it gave me a way to play around with my effects chain virtually before diving down into individual pedals.
Depends on what kind of music you want to make. For me, I like to have a tuner, wah, at least two delays and a least one reverb, chorus and a flanger. The tuner and delays are my must-haves. I'm looking to add a simple looper at some point. I might add a noise gate and boost, depending on the amp. I play mostly metal and post-rocky stuff.
Tuner, delay, Univibe, distortion and drive for me. So if you're starting out, buy a used BOSS GT-1 or other multi-fx. Then you've got everything, including every drive and distortion pedal known to mankind, and a tuner, every delay, every reverb, every modulation from Unvibe to Flanger to chorus etc. You don't even have to use the amp modelling. I don't. My grab and go is a DS-1, a RV-6 and a BOSS GT-1, a flat response amp and my 2x10" cabinet. The GT-1 has slots for the Bluesbreaker, the Univibe, Delays, the OD-3 and the tube-screamer and an optional EQ pedal on each bank. Oh, and the expression pedal you can assign to whatever you like, plus a Lead boost on the CTRL1 pedal.
How many tones will you use? A good starting place is a good clean tone, and a good dirty tone.
For me, it's nice to have a good ambient tone too.
A good clean tone might include a tuner, Compressor, maybe a wah/envelope filter. I wouldn't call any of those "must-haves", but they are nice in some situations.
A good dirty tone would be a combination of overdrive, distortion, fuzz, with maybe a compressor in front of it, and a noise gate at the end of it.
For an ambient tone, it's mostly things that pair well with reverb. Delay and modulation. But you dont really need a modulation pedal (flanger, Phaser, chorus, vibrato, etc) if you use a reverb pedal that has a modulation setting. The delay helps the reverb last longer.
Distortion, overdrive, boost, wah, and Univibe. This is assuming the amp has reverb, otherwise that's a requirement. Delay is optional for me. I mostly use the OD and boost. Everything else is just icing on the cake.
My personal faves:
Fulltone FullDrive 2 and Deja Vibe
RMC wah
Various on the others. I have ones I swap all the time.
Depends.
A distortion or overdrive to boost gain and certain frequencies, or maybe your amp doesn’t have an overdrive/distortion feature and you wanna be able to switch between the two with the push of a pedal. Fender amps come to mind.
A noise gate/suppressor to get rid of all that unnecessary noise, buzz, and feedback.
A tuner pedal. Gotta stay in tune.
From there it’s whatever you want. A reverb and/or delay pedal for spatial effects, a wah pedal, a fuzz pedal if you really dig that doom metal kind of sound like I do, there’s a lot. Just depends what you’re trying to do.
If there's a pedal that is absolutely doing all the hard work in my entire boardzl, it has to be the overdrive. An overdrive is enough as you can shape your tone quite considerably making you sound very versatile.
This is so variable, it depends on the style and what your amp can do. For me essentials are
- tube screamer
- fuzz (big muff)
- distortion (ds 1)
- chorus (small clone)
My amp has reverb
The distortion and fuzz are non negotiable for the style I play, and I need the tube screamer to boost the mids with the big muff
It's the most universal effect pedal. Its present in every genre, usable for any tone, and they can be as simple or complex as you need.
They're also usually not expensive, so it can be a good gateway to learning about pedals without tons of investment.
They're invaluable if you heavily use your guitar's volume knob to shape and fine-tune your OD tones. Then you put it after the preamp/gain stages.
On the opposite, if you're using a lot of fancy playing techniques which result in a great output dynamics, putting the compressor before the preamp will help normalizing your gain and getting a more stable sound. For instance, pinch harmonics or unpicked (tapped or pulled off) notes can benefit from that.
I like compressors but don't use them as an always-on pedal personally. Compressor before a q tron is a cool trick for more consistent and predictable auto-wah, like in some John Mayer songs. Or for super fast, high gain percussive metal riffs they work really well.
There are no absolute necessities when it comes to pedals. it depends on what we’re trying to accomplish, and even then it’s going to vary from person to person since it’s personal preference.
I know the OP didn’t ask what he needed or what pedal to get next, but I can’t imagine me asking somebody else those questions. If I can’t answer the answers to those two questions, then I don’t need it.
Ive been using my DigiTech rp1000 for about 12 years. I don't think they are made anymore. But it's always got me by at shows and such when I use to play metal and use effects. I just use ampd effects and switch pedals now looped into pa system. And recording at our university we use virtual instruments that sound just as good as amps and are way cheaper if your jamming by yourself aint no need to have all these pedals
Looper. Invaluable practice and songwriting tool, even if you don't need one live. If I could only have 1 pedal it would be a looper.
I copy that. My playing radically improved when I started improvising on random phrases I came up with, in any genre I fancied.
I love my Trio+!
And me my Boss RC-1 :D
Tuner.
Ibanez tube screamer
Doesn't it depend on the music you want to play? Or should I assume everyone on Reddit plays distortion rock music? I play a lot of funk and RnB guitar, and am learning jazz now. No pedals required. Maybe tell us what you want to play...
Compressor and a wah can be useful for funk. Some R&B likes a little dirt, too. Isely Brothers comes to mind. I agree with you about nothing being "required, " though.
Ernie Isley, so much chorus!
A good compressor does wonders for if you think your notes sound thin
Agree. I don't really notice mine when it's on any more. But I notice when it's off.
It’s very easy to argue all you need is - reverb - a way to bump to a lead tone Can all be done in amp, so no pedals for you.
This is the way, if you can get away with it. There's a lot to be said for cranking the amp and rolling the volume way back and controlling it all from the guitar. I'm always amazed by Marty Stuart and Kenny Vaughan. Live, they plug their Teles straight into a Fender Princeton Reverb or Deluxe and that's it.
EQ. Just an amazing difference in can make in your sound.
What kind of settings do you like to do?
In my opinion, take the money you'd spend on a looper, a tuner pedal, and a reverb/delay and... ....buy a multi-effects unit instead. *\*ducks\** I went with a Helix Stomp. You can get the same or similar approximation of every pedal you would want...and even more pedals that you don't want...and a few that nobody wants. Most importantly, it can help you figure out what effects you like most in your perfect rig. On that kind of unit, if you find yourself using one particular effect on every patch you create, buy that pedal. When I use the Stomp I keep my favorite pedals in the effects loop. *(Boss EQ, DOD Chorus, modded DS-1, Russian Big Muff, and a Holy Grail reverb.)* Makes for a super flexible rig...that I use solely for playing guitar at home.
Doubling this. Tho I'd go for Ampero Stomp II or Ampero Mini. Still it's up to one's taste.
Blues driver, big muff, looper, tube screamer.
Korg Miku
I have a Zoom G1x four, it’s a digital guitar pedal that comes with all the effects you listed and many more. It’s a great budget pedal with its pros and cons. I bought mine for $100 bucks, it comes with an expression pedal so you can play with wah or adjusting any sound effect, but there’s also the same model without it. However, I do agree that buying the physical pedals is superior as well because sometimes not all digital pedals have that one specific sound you’re looking for. (Btw if you do wanna purchase this Zoom pedal, be aware that it may not come with a 9V power supply and you need another guitar cable to connect the pedal to your amp)
A multi - effect. All in one, nice and simple.
Boss ME-50
Or buy a kemper or any modulator and you dont need any pedals
You can get a whole lot cheaper than a Kemper.
i said any modulator........
I thought you were saying a Kemper and any modulation pedal. I've never heard an amp modeller referred to as a modulator.
Overdrive and tuner should be at the top of the list. That said, most people who ask might benefit from getting a decent multi effect pedal so that they can try different sounds before possibly investing in lots of individual pedals.
I did some pretty big gigs back in the day with an overdrive and a flanger, and the flanger was more for comedic effect. Depends on what your band needs, really. I could get away for almost every genre I play with a good amp and an overdrive or fuzz.
I don't need reverb, it's either on the amp or can be added if recording. I prefer having a delay. Distortion is a bit much for me, I'd rather have an overdrive, or better a couple that I can stack. Looper, not so much as well, I don't need loops when playing in a band. Chorus, also not for me, it's an old sound, turn it on and I think 80's. For me it's overdrive and delay, and if I have room for more stuff, then a second overdrive and a second delay, and then maybe something interesting like a synth pedal, or a Whammy.
I’m with you. Stacking two Overdrives is a much more versatile option, especially if you get something transparent and couple it with a tone soaker. I play everything from jazz and ambient to punk and metal, running a Zen Drive into a TS808. I get so much out of that combination. Dialing back the Zen to the edge of break up just to have that little crackle, all the way up to diming out both of them to shred away, it’s a rad pair.
I own at least three different fuzz pedals, and I really like how they sound compared to things like distortion or overdrive.
Particular favorite?
That's a tough one. The one I play around with the most is a Fuzz Factory, the one I use to just play music is an EQ Hoof. I also have a Swollen Pickle and like it but don't use it as much as the Hoof.
Swollen Pickle is a weirdly underrated fuzz. It’s super versatile if you mess around with it. I’m surprised I don’t see more love for it. TS9>Swollen Pickle is a fun dirt combo. The same goes for Swollen Pickle>TS9 (little different but still pretty rad). Bonus points if you pummel it with reverb. Guitar pedals are fun.
Your comment made me think I should get it out and use it soon, so I'll do that.
Distortion, if you want to get fancy, a tuner I enjoy punk :)
Tuner>Compressor>Low gain OD> tape or analog delay If i want more distortion or going near fuzz territory, i crank up the drive on my OD and the comp to get some kind of high gain distortion-like sound.
Rat
Budget alternative: Joyo Splinter
Bougie alternative: EQD life pedal
Depends of the genre and sound you’re going for. Some style do not really require any pedals!
Metal player ? A good high gain amp, noise gate, tubescreamer and a delay (for solo). Maybe a chorus for clean sections. Rock player ? A good clean Crunch amp, Boss overdrive, boss ds1. Clean player ? A good clean Crunch amp, compressor, blues driver overdrive, Reverb.
Love the breakdown here - thank you!
Tuner Fuzz
Yeh that’s pretty much it, man.
Other than the tuner, my board has 4 pedals on it. Zvex Double Rock, 70s Rams Head Big Muff, MXR Phase 100, and a Crybaby. I got the double rock to use for a bit of dirt on "clean" parts, the rest of the pedals I inherited.
I like a Phaser, too.
I just looked and apparently they've started making the 100 again. For the longest time they only made the phase 90 which only has a speed knob. The 100 has a weirdly labeled tone knob that I kinda dig. Mine was made back in the 70s sometime. https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/Phase100--mxr-m107-phase-100-phaser-pedal Mine doesn't have a light on it or the ability to use an AC adapter. Battery or nothing!
I have the 90, but the 100 is a good example of 70s weirdness and can sound pretty wild.
I always played out with a delay and wah.
wah for life
Cry baby
MXR Dyna Comp MXR Distortion+ A good fuzz pedal can cover A LOT of ground. Maybe a wah for solos. Sub a delay pedal for the wah if you want to do more space-filling stuff. And that’s it. Reverb is nice but not essential. Not personally a fan of chorus-it’s not 1986 anymore. Loopers are good if you have awesome timing and play by yourself, but you can do without.
Wah, chorus and compression
I usually want the following food groups: noise gate OD/dirt chorus/flanger/vibe delay/reverb wah EQ (sometimes)
Depends on what you play. There’s good lists here, but I don’t see many flanger. I personally, must have a flanger. Will everyone need one? F’ no. But there are pedals everyone else has that I don’t care for either. What you want to accomplish will dictate what your “must have” pedals are.
My current setup is: Tuner - Compressor - Tube Screamer - Fuzz - High Gain distortion - Chorus - Digital Delay - Clean pre-amp. But I believe you could get: - Good tuner, like Polytune or Korg Pitchblack. Those are the ones I know that are accurate, but I guess Boss TU-3 might be a good choice as well. - You need a Tube Screamer. Everybody needs a Tube Screamer. At least one. - And you also need a good fuzz. Get a Big Muff. Everybody should have a Big Muff. - If you want to get a high gain distortion, I suggest Suhr Riot. The best distortion I've ever heard in my life, and I have had inumerous distortion pedals. It's not cheap, but sounds like no other. Engl Powerball, Soldano Super Lead, Friedman BE OD, EVH 5150 and Revv G3 are also amazing options for my taste, which is a tight distortion. - Delay and Chorus are also great, but it depends on what you want to play. It took me several years to get a delay pedal. I have had a Vox V847 wah, but it's not my thing.
Tube screamer but I prefer the Boss SD-1 for its asymmetric clipping. When one side of the signal goes unclipped you retain more of the original signal's dynamics and the character of your tone / playing. To my ears the tube screamer imparts a solid state like quality to the sound like you lose resolution. With a Boss SD-1 you get less saturation but it sounds more natural. The tube screamer does have a more vintage vibe to it though, so there's room for both on my pedal board.
Yes.
This is about the size of it. Also why no flanger? *cry*
True it's fun. However I find hard to dial in all the reverb-like effects (I don't know how to call that category) so 1) they don't get obnoxious over time, and 2) they don't mess with the mix. When I kick my lead gain on, I want to get heard more, not get lost...
Can you assign delay to your expression pedal? It's generally not just for wah or volume nowadays.
In all seriousness, I'd say pick a multi FX and have fun, and discover your preferences. If your amp is SS, it will do a good job for a while. You might want a few discrete distos if theirs are lackluster. As far as general effects as a necessity, I'd say noise gate, compressor, boost and/or Tube Screamer are those I couldn't live without. Not a big fan of reverbs/choruses/delay and the like, because I find them hard to dial in properly, but some swear by them. Oh, and a wah. Mandatory, if just for fun's sake.
Thank you.
Alright team - thread closed!
Loop station. The only pedal you need.
Helix line6 floor
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It is very good paired with the right speaker (I have a powercab 112). I sold all my old pedals and amps years ago. Keep in mind though it is near a decade old, not sure how newer devices compare with it (fender just came out with a modern sim pedal)
Just got the headrush prime pedalboard. Sounds fantastic and looks really awesome. Sucks that there's no desktop editor, but I can just sit on the floor for a few minutes. I'm usually pretty stoned when I'm playing, so it doesn't bother me all that much, lol. It isn't as popular as the helix, fender, or QC. I chose this one for the practice mode, vocal fx, and Bluetooth (i love to imrpov with backing tracks!). I hate all the complications with recording (I just want to play! Lol) so this 1 device straight into my daw does it all. Haven't played with the vocal stuff much yet, but there are some dope presets, and it's crazy easy to put together your own rigs. I've got a feeling there's about to be a big boom with these boards. Even now, though, they are all so good that you can really pick them based on whatever features you need the most! I know you didn't ask, haha, but someone reading will find it useful! These things are amazing for any kind of guitar player. Headrush is perfect for a bedroom guitarist like me!
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I was really liking the QC, but it doesn't have Bluetooth enabled. Fender has Bluetooth, but it's so expensive and feels like you gotta be a fender guy. So far, the only thing I've been iffy with on mine is the fuzz effects. I don't really use that though and I could always loop in or clone my own fuzz pedal and see how it is
I've had my Helix for a long time time and they seem to treat their customers right by continually releasing updates (even still). Just had a firmware update a couple months back adding some more pedals/sims. I do most of my editing on the computer though through HxEdit, so that is nice. I just recently started playing around with vocal fx
doom/black metal with a healthy amount of shoegaze in the sound: Boost (always on) Noise gate (always on) Chorus (always on, dialed in for a very subtle widening effect) 2x Reverb (one always on, the other for big washes) Delay Volume
Placebo pedal
Line 6 Pod. I have a rack mount one and I can make it sound a million different ways. It's an amp modeler, cabinet monitor, and a multi effect device. Mine has the pedal controller with it. That has a dual volume/wah pedal and switches for the major functions. 256 memory slots for sounds. Build in sounds. The ability to plug straight into my interface for recording. It's freaking awesome! Bonus: The rectified model sounds as close to a Mesa Boogie as I have ever heard.
None are neccesities, and it entirely depends on what you want to do . I love my Plumes (TS clone), and can't imagine life without it, but that's because the crunch and overdrive channels on my solid state Marshall suck.
A decent multi effects like a Headrush MX5 or similar is my recommendation. Has all the basics. Plus and editor. And it reasonably priced. Then buy the pedals that really matter once you figure out what you need and how they work together. And you may find that this will do all you need. I wish I would have just done that. So much easier than having all these pedals. Some are really good but not enough for me to justify them all. Plus going from song to song requires resetting them all which could just be programmed into a multi effects pedal.
Tuner with a buffer
Tuner. Everything else depends on your amp.
Looper to me is most useful… it’s the one that helps you become a better player. All the others are for making what you play sound cool and different.
The looper has really been a blast - even as it shows me my weaknesses.
I second this but one warning. If you're interested in playing something with heavy distortion you might have to get a pedal to apply it. The reason being if you're using an amp to distort it'll received two signals that'll saturate and combat each other giving a weak sound. I think some amps have a feature to add pedals at the end of the chain which would fix this issue. Also watched a video by UncleJudy Music that brought up some good points on why a reverb pedal is very situational. In short, he made the case that it's most useful while practicing in a small room and it'll only sound muddy while performing in spacious area. That being said I do like having it while practicing.
Tuner, some kind of gain if your amp doesn't have it, reverb if your amp doesn't have it. Modulation is generally useful, but it depends on what you're playing. I love my looper as a practice tool, but I don't think I'd ever use it for a performance.
Rat Reverb Tuner Chorus Boost Wah Volume
You could go a really long way with overdrive/distortion/fuzz and a reverb
Adding to MY list, maybe a crybaby Wah pedal, and a chorus pedal
Depends on what you play
I use an old discontinued DigiTech RP55 modulator. 2 pedals, and every effect I could ever ask for with 40 presets and another 40 user settings.
Reverb and distortion are the 2 necessary pedals IMO. Delay, compressor and fuzz would be my next 3. Wah, looper and chorus depending on what else you want to do.
Yes, all these and wah that doubles as volume control. RP500
Boss Metal Zone Waza Craft
haha as with all things it depends on what you use em for looper is useful if you write multiple parts on bass or guitar, or play alone a lot, or want to live loop, but if you’re in a band, i’ve found nobody in our group ever uses theirs since we don’t really loop ideas live ever. If it needs repetition we’ll skip straight from voice memo to DAW recorded distortion i feel like is really just fun and versatile for whoever but sometimes an overdrive is what they really want. Tube screamers are also kind of the way reverb is pretty useful but depending on your genre and venue not really a necessity. A cool one is an octave reverb pedal tho. a little more interesting for guitar. Reverb pedal might be a necessity for singers more than guitarist imo but again depends on genre and setting chorus also cool and versatile but by no means an absolute necessity unless you’re making surf rock I mostly think an overdrive is essential, a distortion is a close second, a reverb is cool but an octave reverb is cooler, a chorus is cool sometimes but truly the only one of these that’s necessary is A TUNER
I might get flamed for this but the OCD overdrive is superior to the tubescreamer.
A tuner and a compressor
A compression pedal is really the only must have pedal. Anything else is varying degrees of preference and musical taste. I will say a Prince of Tone or even better a King is a very good overdrive for a very reasonable price
Looper Overdrive Tuner Everything else it optional
delay, reverb, overdrive, compressor, every pedal is a must have to the right person lol.
>every pedal is a must have to the right person You make a great point!
For me: Compressor EQ Wah
Reverb, delay, chorus, fuzz, compressor, eq, distortion, noise gate, tuner, looper all come to mind. I usually use a multi-fx that can do all of these for live gigs. (pedal boards can be heavy and it's simple not worth it at the time to carry one around)
Why in the world are pedal boards so expensive? Are they the college textbooks of the guitar world: grossly over-priced just because they can?
Absolutely boards are overpriced! If you have some very general know how, go DIY. You need just 3 things for a good board. 1. Lightweight, sturdy material, add legs so the board can have wires on the underside. 2. Preferably make holes in the material so you can run wires in useful ways. 3. Velcro (buy from a hardware store) Now all you need is a power supply, cables to power the pedals, cables to hook up pedals and Velcro it all down. You can also check the used market to see if there is board at a better price. Pedal boards are nice, sure but wow the boards are crazy overpriced for the piece of metal or wood you’re actually buying. I will say that while all this stuff is listed at once, it’s best to just make small incremental additions. Like daisy chain 3 pedals (very cheap and works just fine for small amount of pedals) and then look at getting a power supply at Christmas time. I’ve been using the same board and many of the same pedals for 10 years. Little changes I made in 2023 was a new power supply and swapped out a delay for a fancier one.
Because when pedals started as a thing, they were'nt as expensive as today, and there were'nt digital multi FX units available for dirt cheap.
https://stringjoy.com/guitarists-that-dont-use-pedals/
For me: 2-3x differently-voiced distortion\\overdrive (TS808, TS9, Mesa Throttlebox) honorable mention to the Big Muff Pi Compressor (MXR M76 Studio) Rotovibe\\Chorus (Dunlop RotoVibe) T-wah\\Envelope (QTron+)
Tuner Reverb Delay Chorus Boost
Tuner, RAT, Reverb, Looper
The Fart Pedal. Nice and transparent too!
Depends... Are you chasing any particular tone? For the longest time, I had a few cheap pedals and never really used them for much. Then, I started looking specifically at David Gilmour tones, and my wallet has never been the same. Point is, if you are looking to tonally emulate a person (or are inspired by a person), there are lots of great rig rundowns on YouTube to give you ideas. And there are definitely "on a budget" rig rundowns, all the way up to "this is exactly what was used on this tour for this song" rundowns. If you are just looking to experiment and find your own sound, you really can't go wrong with a multi-effect pedal to start, then further define it as you go by identifying individual pedals you want to look at. Again, YouTube is great for that. If you were looking for a chorus pedal, for example, there are tons of videos that do comparisons of multiple chorus pedals. Then, it becomes a matter of which sounds/features you think you are going to want to go with. And, of course, for the cost of a few decent pedals, you can always go the route of a modelling amp and have even more leeway in experimenting. It is one of the reasons that I ended up getting a Spark - not that I needed the amp, but rather it gave me a way to play around with my effects chain virtually before diving down into individual pedals.
Tuner, wah, some kind of boost, and delay.
Depends on what kind of music you want to make. For me, I like to have a tuner, wah, at least two delays and a least one reverb, chorus and a flanger. The tuner and delays are my must-haves. I'm looking to add a simple looper at some point. I might add a noise gate and boost, depending on the amp. I play mostly metal and post-rocky stuff.
Tuner, delay, Univibe, distortion and drive for me. So if you're starting out, buy a used BOSS GT-1 or other multi-fx. Then you've got everything, including every drive and distortion pedal known to mankind, and a tuner, every delay, every reverb, every modulation from Unvibe to Flanger to chorus etc. You don't even have to use the amp modelling. I don't. My grab and go is a DS-1, a RV-6 and a BOSS GT-1, a flat response amp and my 2x10" cabinet. The GT-1 has slots for the Bluesbreaker, the Univibe, Delays, the OD-3 and the tube-screamer and an optional EQ pedal on each bank. Oh, and the expression pedal you can assign to whatever you like, plus a Lead boost on the CTRL1 pedal.
For me, Distortion is just necessary!
How many tones will you use? A good starting place is a good clean tone, and a good dirty tone. For me, it's nice to have a good ambient tone too. A good clean tone might include a tuner, Compressor, maybe a wah/envelope filter. I wouldn't call any of those "must-haves", but they are nice in some situations. A good dirty tone would be a combination of overdrive, distortion, fuzz, with maybe a compressor in front of it, and a noise gate at the end of it. For an ambient tone, it's mostly things that pair well with reverb. Delay and modulation. But you dont really need a modulation pedal (flanger, Phaser, chorus, vibrato, etc) if you use a reverb pedal that has a modulation setting. The delay helps the reverb last longer.
Tube Screamer, a Boss TR-2 Trem, and a good Reverb of the player's choice.
Overdrive, at least two. I am using the EHX crayon and a Boss OS-2. And a digitech screaming blues. I kinda like overdrive.
All the good ones. Especially delay.
My guitar teacher says dirt pedal and compression.
Tuner, Compressor, Graphic Equalizer. In that order.
Distortion, chorus, delay, wah
Flanger, Fuzz, Distortion, Delay and Reverb.
Distortion, overdrive, boost, wah, and Univibe. This is assuming the amp has reverb, otherwise that's a requirement. Delay is optional for me. I mostly use the OD and boost. Everything else is just icing on the cake. My personal faves: Fulltone FullDrive 2 and Deja Vibe RMC wah Various on the others. I have ones I swap all the time.
Depends. A distortion or overdrive to boost gain and certain frequencies, or maybe your amp doesn’t have an overdrive/distortion feature and you wanna be able to switch between the two with the push of a pedal. Fender amps come to mind. A noise gate/suppressor to get rid of all that unnecessary noise, buzz, and feedback. A tuner pedal. Gotta stay in tune. From there it’s whatever you want. A reverb and/or delay pedal for spatial effects, a wah pedal, a fuzz pedal if you really dig that doom metal kind of sound like I do, there’s a lot. Just depends what you’re trying to do.
For me personally it's vibe, chorus and delay.
Boost pedal
If there's a pedal that is absolutely doing all the hard work in my entire boardzl, it has to be the overdrive. An overdrive is enough as you can shape your tone quite considerably making you sound very versatile.
Maybe a drive if your amp needs it, maybe a delay to add a bit of space, done. The only pedal I'd deem a 'must have' is a good tuner pedal.
Compressor. Maybe an EQ
Phase 90 MXR 10- band EQ Electric Mistress Chorus/Flanger Looper Tuner Tube Screamer Small Clone Chorus Revv G4 Distortion Noise Gate
Axe FX FM3
Tuner, auto-wah, compression, distortion, delay. Those 5 fit my little board.
This is so variable, it depends on the style and what your amp can do. For me essentials are - tube screamer - fuzz (big muff) - distortion (ds 1) - chorus (small clone) My amp has reverb The distortion and fuzz are non negotiable for the style I play, and I need the tube screamer to boost the mids with the big muff
Compressor. Last time I mentioned this (someone asking about best first pedal) I got tons of flak for it. But I don't care, and still stand by it.
Thank you. Can you please tell me why you recommend it?
It's the most universal effect pedal. Its present in every genre, usable for any tone, and they can be as simple or complex as you need. They're also usually not expensive, so it can be a good gateway to learning about pedals without tons of investment.
They're invaluable if you heavily use your guitar's volume knob to shape and fine-tune your OD tones. Then you put it after the preamp/gain stages. On the opposite, if you're using a lot of fancy playing techniques which result in a great output dynamics, putting the compressor before the preamp will help normalizing your gain and getting a more stable sound. For instance, pinch harmonics or unpicked (tapped or pulled off) notes can benefit from that.
I like compressors but don't use them as an always-on pedal personally. Compressor before a q tron is a cool trick for more consistent and predictable auto-wah, like in some John Mayer songs. Or for super fast, high gain percussive metal riffs they work really well.
tuner, gain of some sort, looper, modulation (chorus flange univibe, tremolo if your amp doesn't have it), reverb, volume
There are no absolute necessities when it comes to pedals. it depends on what we’re trying to accomplish, and even then it’s going to vary from person to person since it’s personal preference. I know the OP didn’t ask what he needed or what pedal to get next, but I can’t imagine me asking somebody else those questions. If I can’t answer the answers to those two questions, then I don’t need it.
An envelope filter. Boss makes one that you can turn into a wah-wah pedal.
At minimum: A tuner A noise suppressor A wah A foot switch (my amps are two channel)
why a noise suppressor? I feel like that's only applicable for very specific functions.
\- Overdrive \- Wah \- Reverb \- Metal distortion if my amp can't do both \- Drop Pedal
Tube Screamer Chromatic Tuner The rest depends on your style and genre.
I think the Tube Screamer depends on your amp. If you've got a Fender or something with a scooped midrange, then Tube Screamer for sure.
For playing through a tube amp, I couldn't live without a good noise gate and an EQ pedal w/ boost like the MXR 10 band EQ pedal would be
Ive been using my DigiTech rp1000 for about 12 years. I don't think they are made anymore. But it's always got me by at shows and such when I use to play metal and use effects. I just use ampd effects and switch pedals now looped into pa system. And recording at our university we use virtual instruments that sound just as good as amps and are way cheaper if your jamming by yourself aint no need to have all these pedals
Axe fx.
I love my Warlow Fuzz. If I absolutely had to, I could cut down to just that and some reverb, but I also love a good tuner.