Guitar Pedals Suggestion

Hi guys!

I hope you’re all doing great!

Could you please suggest 4 essentials pedals?
I don’t have any idea about analog pedals. I’m just using a focusrite 2i2.

Thank you! :slight_smile:

1 Like

Its really subjective because it depends on your guitar, amp, and preferred sound. There are so many brands and variations for each kind of pedal that i wouldnt even attempt at being specific. In general…
Tuner
Overdrive
Noise gate

Those are the three most essential and then i would go with delay. Beyond that, wah, flanger, chorus are all nice to have when the song calls for it.

This opens up something that is probably more important than the pedals and that is how they are connected. While there isn’t a definite rule i would say there is a general consensus…
Front of amp, tuner, wah, overdrive.
Fx loop, chorus, delay, flanger

Noise gate, i prefer one capable of the 4 cable method

There are many more pedals available this is just my opinion on what the core ones are.

1 Like

IMO…

  1. Wah pedal
  2. Overdrive
  3. Chorus
  4. Delay

Mark,

I agree this depends on your music and the tone you are going after.
I’ve used the Boss TubeScreamer on the crunch channel for years, to get the Carlos Santana “sustain”.
I also have a George Lynch Dragon 2 wah pedal for lead guitar work, and a noise gate and volume pedal for added control.

All my reverb/chorus/delay are in my rack unit that I run through the effects loop.

1 Like

I’m curious about the tuner pedal. It is a lot more fun to play on a guitar that’s in tune, no question there! But they seem a lot more expensive than clip-on tuners. Are they really that much more accurat? I can see benefits like never having to change batteries, and it’s always there for the guitar you’ve got plugged in, but I can’t help thinking they’ll just add noise to the signal chain when not in use?

1 Like

As I said it’s all preference, if you’re gigging the tuner pedal on your board is more practical in my opinion. Any noise they may add to the chain is minimal and outweighed by the benefit. Most cut off the signal from going to the amp when turned on so in that aspect they are sort of like a kill switch. Most are also well lit and can easily be seen on a dark stage. Good ones are also very fast and sample changes in pitch very quickly. It’s my experience that they also pick up the lower frequency of extended range guitars and basses better than clip-on tuners. With that said, I also have a couple clip-on tuners that I use regularly because I don’t always have my board setup and they do the job.

2 Likes

Thanks. The gigging aspect didn’t occur to me, as I only play at home, but it makes sense! I have also noticed that my clip-on struggles a bit with the low E, so can imagine extended range guitars would be even worse. Thanks!

2 Likes

Like some people mentioned. It depends on what music you want to play and how.

But if I had to recommend some first pedals those would be an overdrive or distortion, a tuner, a delay, a chorus and a wah, thing is there are so many on the market. Depending on your budget and preferences (like giving us examples of tones you want to start from) we could provide more specific options.

1 Like

Hi Aram,

Thank you! :slight_smile: I want to sound like Martin Miller.
Check this video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FX3aY3569mY

1 Like

Here is some of the stuff he uses.

But since he uses some modelling stuff it’s gonna be kind of hard to guess.

Have you tried engaging him on social media? It may sound silly but many people have been lucky getting answers from big musicians.

You can also do a web research on how he uses his gear.

1 Like

I don’t have any physical pedals. I use software: biasFX, biasPedal and Amplitube. Between those and BiasAmp, I have endless tone options.

I use a tuner app on my iPhone. My two favorites are GuitarTuna and n-Track Tuner. For quick tuning I use GuitarTuna and when I am adjusting the intonation I use n-Track Tuner. I check my tuning every day first thing when I pick up my guitar even though it rarely goes out of tune.

2 Likes

I only have 3, and rather than recommend them I will justify them. Firstly I strictly play for my own amusement, so read these justifications through that lens. Secondly I have many built-in effects in my amp (a Yamaha THR 10) that are “good enough”, so I don’t need pedals for delay/reverb/chorus. The pedals I have are, in order of purchase:

  1. My first pedal was a looper (a Boss RC-1, to be exact), and it’s great fun to play around with, creating complimenting layers. It’s useful for practice too, to lay down a simple chord progression and practice soloing over. I found that helpful in the beginning, rather than trying to hunt around for a backing track that was “slow enough” for me :slight_smile:
  2. A Tube Screamer mini; this to go with the looper, to help my lead “cut through” the backing track on the looper. (I found it a lot easier to get a nice tone than using the volume pots on the guitar.) It breaks up the clean channels on my THR beautifully.
  3. An ElectroHarmonix Pitch Fork. I got this mainly for the ability to pitch down my guitar an octave and add bass-lines when playing with the looper. It’s my least used and most expensive pedal, but it’s a lot cheaper (and takes a lot less space) than a bass! :grin:

While not really a pedal, as a secret weapon I’d add a good clean power source (I use Voodoo Pedal Power for example). Some pedals (especially the likes of digital delay) go through batteries like there’s no tomorrow while daisy chains and regular adaptors will add noise and the higher the gain the worse the noise will get.

The good ones aren’t cheap, but they’re worth it. I get my distortion from a KHDK Dark Blood, but is is unuseable with a regular adaptor due to the immense gain it has. Its either battery or a clean power source. I also use a digital delay and once I spent around half the price of a pedal power on batteries in a rather short period of time I had enough and invested in a pedal power.:slight_smile:

1 Like

When you says you are just using a Focusrite 2i2, are you using an amp sim? What are you doing for your sound? If you don’t have a physical amp, I would probably just use more plugin “pedals”, other than a wah.

Thank you for this. I’ve got three pedals in a cheap daisy chain and am noticing noise some of the time. (Depends on other power use in the house, I think.) I’ve been thinking of upgrading my power supply before investing in a new pedal, and your recommendation makes me more confident that’s the right decision.

1 Like

And don’t forget to do proper research before investing, as some companies sell stuff that look the part but aren’t, meaning that the product is just a daisy chain a box and doesn’t provide isolated and noise free current to your pedals. they are priced accordingly, so no real scam there, but at first they can be deceiving.

I use my HX Stomp. So, in this case, maybe the Helix Native? It still doesn’t sound like a real amp BUT it does sound great.

Thanks! I’ve done a bit of research already, and am planning to splurge on a Generator and an Isolator from https://www.thegigrig.com/power. (You don’t need their Distributor if you have fewer than 4 pedals, apparently.)

A good power supply is a must, IMO.

Voodoo Lab, Walrus Audio, Cioks and Strymon all offer great solutions.

One Spot Pro is also good if budget is tight.

You can still daisy chain the non noisy/less demanding pedals from one of the outputs while giving a separate output to each of your most demanding ones. That way you get the most out of your outputs.

For example, I’m powering ten pedals with a Strymon Ojai. No noise!

Don’t know if your still looking but I like multi-effects pedals. I picked up a Boss GT100 used for $300.