Pedals To Compliment The Only One I've Ever Owned.

[Lucius Paisley]

One day back in 1996 I figured the one pedal I'd buy would be the only one I'd need.

Turns out, 22 years later, I was wrong.

Anyway, the one pedal I own is a DOD FX92 Bass Grunge, which is kind of an overdrive/fuzz sort of hybrid for bass guitar. I've used it more for guitar and get some nice sounds from it, but I'm looking to build a pedal board based around this one. Is anybody familiar with these pedals or something similar? I think maybe it's similar to a Boss Bass Overdrive, but I'm not entirely sure as there's no real paperwork for DOD pedals anymore to check these kind of things.

I've looked at some basic pedalboards and they all seem to follow a tuner/compressor/overdrive/delay configuration (with the standard wah pedal chucked in most of the time, but I have other ways to distract me from just straight playing the guitar as it is.)

Since this whole thing is new to me, I'm wondering if starting smallish (i.e. cheap) and working my way up as it gets more affordable to me/seeing what works/my own preferences change, etc. is the way to go. I mean, if the option for a mini pedal is put up against a brick that's advertised as doing the same thing it shouldn't matter, or am I being incredibly naive? Like thinking the sound of the pedals is dependent on what's being played through them?

Successfully confused yet? Basically... HELP.

Thanks.

 

[PFDarkside]

Re: Pedals To Compliment The Only One I've Ever Owned.

You are looking for pedals for a guitar, not bass right?

The advice I can give is several fold:
-Identify your needs
Don’t think that because everyone has a pedal X, Y and Z that you do. Determine what types of effects you actually need and want, narrow your choice down to maybe three, then try all three with your rig to choose the right pedal for you and your rig.

-Start slow
If you buy 5 pedals all at once and connect them based on the “standard” wisdom, it may work out for you if you really like experimenting with knobs or it may frustrate you and never end up getting the most out of your purchase. Buy one pedal at a time when you figure out what you want, then really get it dialed into your rig. That way when you add another one, the focus will be on the new pedal, not trying to figure out how they all interact.

Buy the pedal you really want
This may be semi controversial around here, but buy the pedal you like the best, price and stigma be darned. For example, if you decide you want an OCD type pedal, try the OCD, the Joyo Ultimate Drive and the EHX Glove. If you like the OCD best, who cares if the others are half the cost. If you like the Joyo best, who cares that it’s a ripoff of the OCD. Get the one that sounds best with your rig and amp.

-Start with the most important thing first
For most people that is drive and boost. Crazy pitch shifters, phasers, flangers, etc. are fun but get your core tone first. Gearjonser really changed way I look at drive pedals a few years ago. Most of them on the market are great, but you need to find the one that pairs with your guitar and amp, not necessarily the other way around.

-Have fun!
If the journey of finding your Pedalboard isn’t fun, then the point is missed.

Good luck! The other guys will have great tips too.

 

[Blille]

Re: Pedals To Compliment The Only One I've Ever Owned.

So you’re looking for a recommendation of a tuner, bass comp, delay, a small pedalboard where to put that plus your OD, cables and a way to power it all?

If it’s to experiment and figure what you like you may be better off with a small multieffects like the Zoom B3 or B1.

 

[Lucius Paisley]

Re: Pedals To Compliment The Only One I've Ever Owned.

So you’re looking for a recommendation of a tuner, bass comp, delay, a small pedalboard where to put that plus your OD, cables and a way to power it all?

If it’s to experiment and figure what you like you may be better off with a small multieffects like the Zoom B3 or B1.

I should have specified for guitar, not bass. However, multieffects is probably plan B. I have some idea how cabling boxes together works, power, etc. However, seeing the connections on a Joyo Power Tune was quite the eye-opener.

 

[Lucius Paisley]

Re: Pedals To Compliment The Only One I've Ever Owned.

You are looking for pedals for a guitar, not bass right?

Yeah, I should have specified guitar, but I'm highly caffienated.

The advice I can give is several fold:
-Identify your needs
Don’t think that because everyone has a pedal X, Y and Z that you do. Determine what types of effects you actually need and want, narrow your choice down to maybe three, then try all three with your rig to choose the right pedal for you and your rig.

I'd probably start with a tuner plus another pedal, because it seems to make sense to have a tuner.

-Start slow
If you buy 5 pedals all at once and connect them based on the “standard” wisdom, it may work out for you if you really like experimenting with knobs or it may frustrate you and never end up getting the most out of your purchase. Buy one pedal at a time when you figure out what you want, then really get it dialed into your rig. That way when you add another one, the focus will be on the new pedal, not trying to figure out how they all interact.

Well, since it took so long to finally get out of the one pedal what I've been looking for, I at least have a place to work from.

Buy the pedal you really want
This may be semi controversial around here, but buy the pedal you like the best, price and stigma be darned. For example, if you decide you want an OCD type pedal, try the OCD, the Joyo Ultimate Drive and the EHX Glove. If you like the OCD best, who cares if the others are half the cost. If you like the Joyo best, who cares that it’s a ripoff of the OCD. Get the one that sounds best with your rig and amp.

I usually have to build what I want, a stigma of being left-handed, which means paying more than I should. There's definitely a consideration of cost at play here, which will always have to come first.

-Start with the most important thing first
For most people that is drive and boost. Crazy pitch shifters, phasers, flangers, etc. are fun but get your core tone first. Gearjonser really changed way I look at drive pedals a few years ago. Most of them on the market are great, but you need to find the one that pairs with your guitar and amp, not necessarily the other way around.

It's definitely most important to me to find a tone, then tidy it up somewhat to complement my admittedly sloppy style.

-Have fun!
If the journey of finding your Pedalboard isn’t fun, then the point is missed.

Good luck! The other guys will have great tips too.

Excellent feedback, a lot to consider. Thanks.

 

[Mincer]

Re: Pedals To Compliment The Only One I've Ever Owned.

I agree with 'starting slow' and buy based on need. You've already decided on a tuner, so start there. Try a few out and see what will work for you. For me, I need it to be visible in complete darkness as well as direct sunlight, and it needs to be accurate and not influence the tone when it isn't being used. You might find other things to be important to you. Once you research and know everything you can about pedal tuners, go try a few out- set a budget and don't go over it, and buy one. Then wait until the need arises for the next pedal and start the process over.

 

[VinceT]

Re: Pedals To Compliment The Only One I've Ever Owned.

Great advice from others here, which I won’t repeat.

One thought I had is to be VERY careful of internet/YouTube reviews that make x or y pedal seem the only version of an effect type you should buy... EVER!!!

There’s a lot of talking up pedals as a way of having justified paying so much already (for example, “I just spent $300 on an Analogman Sunface, let me justify that price, and the hole in my pocket...”)

This particularly comes into play when trying effects that you have little/no experience of. For example, phasers - you’ll get loads of opinions on boutique this, that and the other. But you don’t yet know if you like what a phaser does.

For this reason, in any “uncharted” sonic territory, I would buy the cheapest thing you can just to see if you like it. Think Mooer, Joyo, Tone City - they’ll let you see if what they do is to taste - later on, if the sound becomes a fixture of your tone, you can upgrade to a bigger, better, costlier option (though you may not need to).

Best of luck!


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[Lucius Paisley]

Re: Pedals To Compliment The Only One I've Ever Owned.

Great advice from others here, which I won’t repeat.

One thought I had is to be VERY careful of internet/YouTube reviews that make x or y pedal seem the only version of an effect type you should buy... EVER!!!

There’s a lot of talking up pedals as a way of having justified paying so much already (for example, “I just spent $300 on an Analogman Sunface, let me justify that price, and the hole in my pocket...”)

Unless it's to hear something I'm thinking about buying anyway, I'll be staying away from YouTube reviews. Official or otherwise.

This particularly comes into play when trying effects that you have little/no experience of. For example, phasers - you’ll get loads of opinions on boutique this, that and the other. But you don’t yet know if you like what a phaser does.

Boss has a virtual pedal setup page which is quite nice, unfortunately, I now know all too well that I do not like what a phaser does. At least at whatever example setting they were using to demonstrate.

For this reason, in any “uncharted” sonic territory, I would buy the cheapest thing you can just to see if you like it. Think Mooer, Joyo, Tone City - they’ll let you see if what they do is to taste - later on, if the sound becomes a fixture of your tone, you can upgrade to a bigger, better, costlier option (though you may not need to).

This is definitely the plan I'm hoping to follow.

Best of luck!


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Thanks for your input.

 

[LLL]

Re: Pedals To Compliment The Only One I've Ever Owned.

Assuming you dig your amp's stock tone, get the "severely underestimated" tools every guitarist should have:

- EQ (works fantastic as a boost!)
- Compressor
- Boost (not OD or Dist)

(OTOH, if you don't dig your amp's stock tone, then instead of wasting $$$ buying stomps to "fix" your amp, get a better amp)

(yes, it all starts with the amp -the most important piece of the puzzle- and goes from there)

 

[JB_From_Hell]

Re: Pedals To Compliment The Only One I've Ever Owned.

I’m gonna advise against cheapo pedals. Buy popular stuff, but go used. If you dislike them, they’ll resell for what you paid.

 

[Securb]

Re: Pedals To Compliment The Only One I've Ever Owned.

Starting slow is great advice seeing pedals can get very expensive. What I would suggest doing is picking up a used multi-effect unit like a BOSS ME-25 or Line 6 Pod XT. There are plenty of them sub $100 sometimes around $50 on the used market. This will allow you to experiment with multiple effects and tones on the cheap. As you find delays, modulations, filters and EQs that fit your tastes and style of playing you can then research and experiment with stand alone pedals in that class. Who knows the BOSS ME-25 or Line 6 Pod XT might just scratch your itch on their own.

 

[Lucius Paisley]

Re: Pedals To Compliment The Only One I've Ever Owned.

I’m gonna advise against cheapo pedals. Buy popular stuff, but go used. If you dislike them, they’ll resell for what you paid.

Point. And there seems to be a lot of stuff selling via Facebook in that manner.

 

[Lucius Paisley]

Re: Pedals To Compliment The Only One I've Ever Owned.

Starting slow is great advice seeing pedals can get very expensive. What I would suggest doing is picking up a used multi-effect unit like a BOSS ME-25 or Line 6 Pod XT. There are plenty of them sub $100 sometimes around $50 on the used market.

Saving money on cables and velcro in the process.

 

[Thundermtn]

Re: Pedals To Compliment The Only One I've Ever Owned.

Lots of good stuff in here, VinceT & LLL esp.

If you are not in an area were you can go try pedals make a trip to someplace with a SHIPLOAD of pedals (guitar city's like L.A., Nashville, New York) and try the highly rated ones and ask the employees to recommend some as alternatives to those as well.

I fired up a pedal board hunt last year and ended up with a bunch of stuff that was better than the normally recommended box, plus some of them had multi effects.

Also look at them from alternative directions. Like if I wanted a fuzz box that sounded like the Smashing Pumpkins on Siamese Dream. There's the original op amp big muff, which are big $ but there are also alternatives to it. Then there are also boxes to sound like certain rigs. Corgan talked about wanting a Black Sabbath type of sound for the fuzz, sure enough my Sabbra Cadabra with the right amp can be set to sound enough like the big muff that it works pretty well.

If you can try some Earthquaker stuff you should. I've yet to try one that I didn't like. Super quiet activation, easy but feelable buttons, true bypass, and low noise.

 

[Mincer]

Re: Pedals To Compliment The Only One I've Ever Owned.

I will say that cheap multi-effects don't sound anything like good individual pedals. Cheaper multis can help you understand what the effects are, and the types of sounds you might be able to get, but generally they are 'option anxiety' overload for people coming from using one or no pedals. I say, build your collection slowly, and learn how to use the 4 knobs on the pedals you do buy better than anyone else around.

 

[Securb]

Re: Pedals To Compliment The Only One I've Ever Owned.

The problem here Dave is the OP has not mentioned what style he plays or what he is after tone wise. I think a general knowledge of pedals and what they do would be a good starting point. Spending $100 on a BOSS flanger to find out you don't like flangers does not make sense to me. There is no one pedal that works for every guitarist outside of a tuner.

 

[Jacew]

Re: Pedals To Compliment The Only One I've Ever Owned.

When I started buying pedals I just started to check classifieds daily to see what's have come up. Jumping on a deal when seeing something interesting cheap enough I can sell it for same or more later has worked very well.

 

[devastone]

Re: Pedals To Compliment The Only One I've Ever Owned.

Wow, only 1 pedal in 22 years, think of all the money I could have saved

 

[Darg1911]

Re: Pedals To Compliment The Only One I've Ever Owned.

You need an original Klon Centaur ...

https://reverb.com/item/10954558-klon-centaur-professional-overdrive-horsie-1994-very-low-serial-204-first-year

:bigok:

 

[Gtrjunior]

Re: Pedals To Compliment The Only One I've Ever Owned.

Wow, only 1 pedal in 22 years, think of all the money I could have saved

Right?
I’ve got to be thousands deep in pedals over the years.