Pedals, which to begin with?

[moominking13]

ive never really considered using pedals until now, sincei am starting to gig more and need them for convenience at gigs and obviously for the sounds.

i am just wondering as to which pedal is more important to begin with, distortion or delay? its either a jekyll and hyde overdrive or a boss dd-20.

which pedal will be more benefitial to begin with?

[indysmith]

well there's quite a difference between distortion and delay... it depends on what you want i guess.
If you want both though your amp already has pretty decent distortion that you like then it's probably wise to go for a delay...?

[moominking13]

i guess what i mean is if im going to eventually build up a pedalboard what is a good pedal to have first, im guessin that once you have a decent distortion then you should think about getting modulation effects etc. sound about right?

[Bird]

Whatever you have the most fun with is the pedal you should get first.  8) There aren't any rules or guidelines that you're required to follow when purchasing them. Only when you set them up.  

[hamfist]

First, you need a basic tone that you like. If you haven't got that yet, then spend money on a new dirt box or a new amp to try and get it.
   If you're reasonably happy with your base tone, then I'd say a delay is the next thing to get - and a DD-20 is a superb delay, which will do all you want from it.

  To be honest, only you can decide what pedal is needed the most, as only you know what sounds you need for your own particular use.
  Personally, I need at least a clean (or almost clean), a low gain crunch, a higher gain crunch and a boosted lead tone. You may not need all those shades of dirt. Whatever you buy, make sure you have all the basic shades of distortion you need before getting anything else. Remember you can get a lot of different shades of tone by using your volume knob !
  After that, I would advise getting a delay, then getting a modulation pedal of some sort (whaever tickles your fancy).

ALan

[HTH AMPS]

What kind of amp do you have?

What kind of tone are you aiming for?

I personally have zero use for a delay pedal - owned a few and they always sit there doing nowt.

A Wah is much more useful imo, so is a Compressor - you can set it up to compress nice and clean or whack up the levels and use it to boost the hell out of your amp.  I've got a Line6 Compressor that gives a fairly hefty gain boost to my Marshall Superbass.

 :twisted:

[Mr Ed]

Wah.
Delay.
Some sort of modulation or chorus.

[noodleplugerine]

I was thinking about this too recently.

Really want to get my hands on a Morley Bad Horsie and a Electro Harmonix Small Stone just for adding some texture to my playing when I want it.

[Henk]

I second the boost/wah idea, if you play two channels on your amp you could do with only a volume pedal like the ernie ball i had with me when gigging.

For a booster i have used Boss stompboxes like the OD-1, SD-1 and CS3. Just set it to soloing setting and yr rdy. Use The wah/volume for personal expression or (which does happen) when the pa man is sound asleep an you need to wake him up!  :lol:

Then there is the reverb/delay/chorus/flanger type of effect you can add. If you go with a delay make sure you can tap the tempo into it (or however you say that), unless your band uses a metronome but probably while playing gigs youll use a different tempo then you use at home. A bit of reverb and a very subtle chorus once in a while is all i ever thought necessary though.

[hamfist]

All this has gone to show that the effects and tones that you'll need are really dependant on what style of music you want to play.
  Moominking13, give us a clue as to what sort of stlye or what bands you will be wanting to emulate. We also need to know your current guitar/amp/pedal situation.

Alan

[38thBeatle]

Another "effect" to take into account is the "venue effect" in other words, the place in which you are gigging.  This is why it is important to get the core tone right before thinking about pedals and even then, your rig can sound  different from one venue to the next and you may be part way into the gig before you tweak things to the way you like them. But Hamfist made a very important point about getting the basic sound right. I might be stating the obvious but in case I am not, I say it anyway.

[Henk]

Obviously you need to soundcheck your gear prior to playing, however if this isnt possible an overconvident best guess setting combined with the appropriate adrenaline rush can work wonders  :lol:  8)

[gwEm]

i share almost the same view as everyone else. so maybe just to add a touch of extra weight.

you dont necessarily need any pedals at all, except maybe a tuner, depends how you want to sound. pedals are really something which depends strongly on personal taste. some people like things raw and minimal.

having said that, if you want to experiment a bit and get some inspiration, or just treat yourself, it might be a good idea indeed to get something.

if your not happy with your basic tone, then booster/overdrive/distortion would be an obvious choice.

if you are happy with the basic tone, then you can hardly go wrong with adding a wah-wah to your collection. so many classic tracks use it, and its fun to play around with one. having said that - i hardly use mine for anything serious and should probably get rid of it.

my own personal set up is this:

if i use my amp i take a tuner pedal and a modified Boss EQ (incredibly happy with this rig, the only thing i might do is get a more boutique EQ if one becomes available) occasionally i'll use a tube screamer or an sd-1 or my MI crunch box for fun.

if i need to go DI into a desk I use a tuner, modified boss compressor, and a sans amp gt2 (this sounds decent enough, but i'm always thinking of changing stuff with it - just not as gutsy and primeval than the marshall)

[moominking13]

well i play most rock/alternative kinda stuff so im after a good distortion and i will get around to getting a delay, just not sure whter to get it before anything else.

im soon gonna be getting a laney gh50l head with a 2x12 cab not sure what yet though. does that help at all?

[hamfist]

well i play most rock/alternative kinda stuff so im after a good distortion and i will get around to getting a delay, just not sure whter to get it before anything else.

im soon gonna be getting a laney gh50l head with a 2x12 cab not sure what yet though. does that help at all?

Do you have any pedals at all, at the moment ?   I'm assuming not.

 Well, the GH50 is basically a single channel amp, with 2 levels of gain available (switchable between with a footswitch). If you want a clean tone at all, without using your volume knob (I know a lot of folks (including me) hate doing it with the vol knob) then your base tone of the GH50 will have to be the clean tone. Then you would only have one flavour and level of distortion available (with the footswitchable gain boost), using the amp alone.
  Personally, I would then want more levels and flavours of distortion before I got any other effects. So, therefore, I would suggest getting an OD/distortion box (or two), to go with the amp, before thinking about delay and modulation.
  Both of the VIsual Sound dirt boxes have two channels, and are both good pedals. You could do a lot worse than getting one of them.
  However, please check out the Blackstar HTdist and HTdual, before you buy anything. These two Blackstar pedals are in a class of their own, in their pricerange, IMHO.
  I have loads of soundclips if anyone's interested.

Alan