What are the "essential pedals"?

Re: What are the "essential pedals"?

I can go direct, but for a lead boost its all about the boss bluesdriver to me at the moment, though dependant on the lead the SD Pickup Booster works wonders too.

Other than that for me wah is cool, but not as essential. And if i'm performing my TU-2 Tuner
 
Re: What are the "essential pedals"?

I could gig with just my guitar, cable, and amp if I had too. However, I prefer to have a tuner and wah as well, especially the tuner. I also usually have a chorus and delay on hand, but I don't use them much and can easily get along without them.
 
Re: What are the "essential pedals"?

I need some kind of delay for a little bit of slap-back for solos, but other than that, I'm good to go.
 
Re: What are the "essential pedals"?

To me a pedal is a handicup, so I try to use them as little as possible. I do like having something that adds a blues distortion to boost my solos but thats all I'd ever let myself use.
 
Re: What are the "essential pedals"?

Owning a single channel amp, I need my TS808 and V-Stack.

Bluesy overdrive from the TS and the crunch of a dimed vintage marshall from the V-stack.

I have a Wah...but it's not something that I couldn't do without.
 
Re: What are the "essential pedals"?

I've always considered my TS9 and any delay pedal my essentials. But for the last month or so, I've also been practicing direct into the amp and realising that I could probably do without my pedals....

However in a live setting, I think I'd really need the TS9 as a booster.
 
Re: What are the "essential pedals"?

If I'm using my Marshall amps (both of which are dual channel) then I can get along just fine with an amp changer footswitch.

If I'm using my Orange, then I set it crunchy and use an OD pedal to kick it up a notch if need be, as it's not a high gain amp.

That's it for 'essential' pedals as far as I'm concerned.

Although, I usually do have a Tuner pedal there too :)
 
Re: What are the "essential pedals"?

Nothing is essential, however depending on your style some may border on essential. If you only play blues rock you can get away with nothing all the time, but if you play rockabilly it doesn't matter how hard you work your a$$ off, you still need a slapback. Same with some country, you still need a compressor. Extend that out to music like Floyd and more effects are "needed".

That being said I own a compressor, OD, Fuzz, Delay, phaser, chorus and Univibe. I've never plugged all of them in at once, (thanks to limited patch cables ;)) I usually average around three depending on style. However, oftentimes I will just plug straight in to the amp and rock.
 
Re: What are the "essential pedals"?

I'll give you an answer... since no one else will -

Get a Fuzz if you want the Hendrix territory. I recommend the boutique one's from Foxx or Frantone, Fulltone. Otherwise get at least a good OD or distortion - anything from Boss or Ibanez will do unless you want a specialty tone.

Get some kind of modulation, I personally like the Univibe knock offs as they are cheap and sound nice, esp the chorus.

You must have a reverb/delay - I quite like the Line 6 pedals. Good tone!

if you wanna do country get a nice compressor,

and you MUST have a wah just in case it gets called for. You would be shocked how many people request it. Vox 847's are a no-brainer.
 
Re: What are the "essential pedals"?

I need certain pedals and I'm not gonna lie. I consider phaser, delay, and wah to be essential guitar effects. Those are things you need to own if you play music in a modern context. Indie, Metal, Rock, Emo, and everything in between uses those three things at least on a superficial level. You can interchange the phaser with a flange and add a tremolo in there, but certain pedals are just essential nowadays.

I'm not talking about all styles in all time periods though, just from a modern perspective all the bands I enjoy listening to use pedals (that I consider "essential") or some form or another. The foundation of any good tone, indeed, if a great guitar and a sweet amp, but I think that's a given (a pretty implicit given, but a given none the less). You might as well say a guitar pick or electricity are essential if you just go with the guitar+amp theory. I just think it's pretty obvious if you put a pile of effects into a crappy amp with a cheap guitar in the hands of an unskilled or uncreative player you'll get a crap sound (although this itself isn't always the case).



I dunno, I agree "no effects are essential" but I think in certain contexts you simply need to have certain pedals to acheive certain sounds. That's my two cents.
 
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Re: What are the "essential pedals"?

ErikH said:
Like already stated, none are essential. At home I play straight in to the practice amp, nothing else. If I want more overdrive or a different sound, I'll use an overdrive but I don't "have to".

One that is essential for my halfstack is the buffer, but it's not even a pedal. It's in a small Hammond 1590A enclosure with an LED indicator so I know it's on and it sits in the effects loop, always on. Believe it or not, a simple little buffer does wonders to your tone when you have almost 30 feet of cable between you and the amp. (10' between the amp and booster pedal, 18' between the guitar and the pedal).

Anything else is just gravy.
Click to expand...

OK, for the tyro, buffer? Does that differ from a booster, i.e. the SD SFX-01?
 
Re: What are the "essential pedals"?

Guitar Toad said:
OK, for the tyro, buffer? Does that differ from a booster, i.e. the SD SFX-01?
Click to expand...
A buffer boosts your signal, but not so much like a booster such as the SFX-01 does. It's more of a signal recovery tool. It's great to have one at the end of your signal chain through a pedal board right before the cable that goes back to the amp if you have a rather large pedalboard. Since I run one, maybe two pedals out front, I don't need it there. It's perfect in the loop right after the delay though.

A booster like the SFX-01 actually boosts your signal by several db that is very noticeable, more for boosting for leads and such. The buffer just adds back what's been lost from the long cable runs and large pedalboards.
 
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Re: What are the "essential pedals"?

ErikH said:
A buffer boosts your signal, but not so much like a booster such as the SFX-01 does. It's more of a signal recovery tool. It's great to have one at the end of your signal chain through a pedal board right before the cable that goes back to the amp if you have a rather large pedalboard. Since I run one, maybe two pedals out front, I don't need it there. It's perfect in the loop right after the delay though.

A booster like the SFX-01 actually boosts your signal by several db that is very noticeable, more for boosting for leads and such. The buffer just adds back what's been lost from the long cable runs and large pedalboards.
Click to expand...

Erik, did you make your buffer?
 
Re: What are the "essential pedals"?

Guitar Toad said:
Erik, did you make your buffer?
Click to expand...
Sure did. Easy as pie.....well, if you can bake...LOL LOL. You can see pics of the first build I did on my site, in a different enclosure. The one I have in the Hammond 1590A enclosure is the Tiny Layout. It's really really small. Check it out. Link is in my profile, go to the DIY Effects and Mods section. It's the Simple IC Biffer in the Projects list. You can get the schematic and other notes on it from General Guitar Gadgets.
 
Re: What are the "essential pedals"?

The only pedals I feel I really NEED are my footswitch (if it counts) and my noise suppressor. Other than that it's just fun to fool around with my wah and EQ, although I find the EQ to be essential to my tone right now; the Randall's just too shrill without it.
 
Re: What are the "essential pedals"?

When I'm at home, I rarely use a pedal, I'll tune with the TU-2 and then plug directly into the amp. When playing out, I prefer to have the TU-2, an OD and my chorus. The OD is generally just as a solo boost, the chorus is just for "shimmer."
 
Re: What are the "essential pedals"?

Wah and tuner in front of the amp. Ambient delay in the loop. And whatever way suits you best for boosting your solos.
 
Re: What are the "essential pedals"?

Not really an essential pedal, if I have my El Diablo amp. Otherwise Overdrive (OD-3), Distortion (Silver Dragon), Compressor (ED-1), and Delay (DD-6).
 
Re: What are the "essential pedals"?

Guitar-cord-amp

Single channel amp, ad an OD.....

That said, I use a wah-->OD-->OD/Fuzz-->Replex (reverb & delay)-->cord-->amp :D
 
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