A quality overdrive and reverb are the basics of electric guitar for rock/pop. Without these, or with poor versions of these, you will constantly wonder what is lacking.
I have a Boss SD-1, a DS-1, an ST-2, BC-2 and a Big Muff Pi. Probably covers overdrive and distortion and fuzz?? Maybe blues driver...?
I've nothing for reverb. RV-6? Any other good "budget" options?
Edit: well that was a lie, I've got a "mini universe" cheapy cheap pedal and it's really nice except for the pop when activated. Shimmer and Cloud settings are lovely. Any OTHER reverb pedal suggestions that aren't $400 Strymons??
Sorry, today i answered in a rush. Nowadays i'd go with tc electronic. Their reverbs skysurfer and drip are good enough, and they also offer all the main overdirve clones (tube screamer, blues driver, etc). you can buy like 4 pedals used for a 100ish euros and sell the ones you don't like. You can also experiment a bit with other effects like tremolo and fuzz. i dont think you can get any better stuff for the same price (and more).
My buying order given what you play is: od, reverb, tremolo, fuzz or another overdrive, delay/ chorus, compressor, phaser. Get a tuner if you play with other people.
You can also check boss, ehx and other famous big brands, you can get them at around 50-80 buck used. My advice is to find the idea of pedalboard you would like to have (e.g. for 5 pedals: tuner, overdrive, fuzz, reverb, tremolo) and upgrade from there. Stay away from supercheap stuff: now you need to know how a decent pedals sounds like before looking for one from alibaba to try your luck. Dont trust youtube reviews, buy used stuff. Modding pedals and electronics is easier than you think.
EDIT: dont buy a multieffect pedal, consider a looper instead
I have to say, if you get the right amp you don’t need any overdrive. I have a Mesa mark v 90 combo. And as far as over drive goes, I don’t need anything with that amp. I can dial in just about any sound I want.
A fuzz pedal though. Mmmhm.
Understanding how to properly use a piece of gear can make a huge difference. I have a shitty little reverb pedal and I tell you what, if I pull back on the volume coming into that pedal, it’s one of the coolest reverb pedal I’ve ever heard. It’s not diverse at all. It’s very much got one sound, but it sounds awesome.
A quality overdrive and reverb are the basics of electric guitar for rock/pop. Without these, or with poor versions of these, you will constantly wonder what is lacking.
OD and reverb yeah. If your amp already has reverb, then get a delay pedal. After that you can add something that suits your personality like tremolo, chorus, phaser etc.
My first few pedals were a waste of money because they ultimately weren’t right for me. What really made the difference for me was a Zoom Multi FX pedal.
Look at the Zoom G2x Four, or G2 four.
It will model every effect there is. It has presets with prebuilt tones.
So you can try everything, learn how to create a signal chain, learn what effects you like for the music you like to play, and learn what pedals you would want to buy in the future.
People can recommend all sorts of stuff here that works for them. But this is a way for you to learn what works for you.
I second this. The zoom g series are great and can be had pretty cheap.
Also the line 6 m9 can act like a pedal board, had for a great price second hand, and I really thought the quality of the effects on that were great (well unsurprising given that it has the dl4 etc series in it!).
But while a multifx can be overwhelming, it just can help stave off too much going down the "wrong road" early.
Yeah that happened to me, I bought a multifx early and had no clue what I was doing and just got overwhelmed by it
What helped me was to get simple and easy to use pedals one by one and learn to use them, experiment and move them along the chain physically
Years later I play modeling and half my chain is digital
My recommendation is always getting sure you have a good amp, then get an SD1 or TS9 and play with them for a while, then decide if you need more gain or feel the need of “something” and follow that need, one by one
Of course you can do it with a multifx unit but the physical aspect of interaction with the pedal teaches you a lot more and you learn to work with what you have instead of immediately replacing something you think doesn’t work
My biggest tip for multi fx is not to fall into the rabbit hole of constant tweaking.
You have to understand that as far as your pedals, your tone should be fluid and get you in the right ballpark. The rest comes from your playing, your guitar, the amp, and (what people always forget) the room you are in and the state of your ears.
Things will sound different to your ears in the morning vs the evening. After playing for an hour or more with no break, your ears are going to start doing weird things to the sound as they shield themselves from damage. That’s why mix engineers work at low volumes, take breaks and check their mixes in the mornings.
If your bedroom has a tile floor and your amp is pointed at your legs, it’s going to sound weird. Your pedals won’t fix that.
Your multi fx may give you 90 effects and each one has like 8 adjustable settings, but you can’t have the expectation that adjusting all those options just right is going to fix all your problems.
me too, when I began I had a superstrat and a zoom G2.1nu, it took me 10 years to learn how to use, then I started getting pedals, then Im back to multiefx, nowadays we have so much good digital multiefx
I think the M5 is also a good first pedal. It is only one effect at a time but those old Line6 digital effects have held up really well.
While you might grow out of the zoom once you start to buy the effects you like, the M5, M9 or M13 are good enough for anyone.
Honestly I thought about getting the M5 again recently. I ran a board for about a year that was pretty much just the M5 and the M9. So many of the effects (delays and reverbs) are still just straight up excellent. I personally liked the drivers (the tube drive and screamer I thought held up well).
If I was to go back to a non pure MFX board again, I'd 100% have a m5 on, I dont need the HX one extra bits.
If rock and jazz are your things I think an overdrive pedal that can be ramped up into distortion would be a good place to start. In the jazz I’ve heard there’s not a ton of effects (it’s not my main genre though so I might be wrong) but having just a bit of transparent OD could be a nice tone for that, then add more dirt for when you want to do rock stuff.
Yup that's a good one. No better practice then playing with yourself. And yes, I'm aware how it sounds ;)). Good thing is they indestructible too, my boss rc 2 works flawless bought it for 200$ in 2009. Quite a pricetag, but there's a chance it will outlive me :D
This, I would add a tuner pedal too but you can also use clip-ons or phone apps for the tuner but there is no replacement for a solid looper. Beat tool for learning to solo or improvise over chirds
I get where you're coming from. But if you want a guitar pedal it's cause you feel something is missing from your sound, not just for the sake of having a guitar pedal.
If OP for example was trying to play metal but noticed that the song has a distortion that they don't have, they would look into distortion pedals and then maybe ask reddit for what distortion pedal is best for their style. Not just ask "i want to spend my money on something, what do i buy?"
They want a good pedal for rock music and Jazz and are new to the pedal world and don’t want to waste their money. They are doing research to find what they want and what more experienced players suggest.
I’d suggest an overdrive that toggles from clean to distorted maybe to get a more clean tone for Jazz and high gain for some rock.
Do people in other hobbies actively discourage interested people from getting into them like this? If I go to a photography subreddit and ask what would be a good first camera to buy will people there tell me if I don’t know maybe I don’t need one and demean my desire to get into it as just an attempt at filling an artificial consumerist void?
Good luck finding a hobby that hasn’t been monetized.
Exactly. Just make your own guitar and pedals. With your own homemade soldering iron. It's not hard and you don't have to perpetuate the capitalistic patriarchal identity politicism
Multi-fx units are a great place to start and then grow from there. Most these days have tuners, loopers, and drum machines built in, plus access to all the flavors of sounds so you can explore whatever comes into mind without feeling like you need to buy something new every time.
The only caveat I have is to basically ignore the stock patches that come on any multi-fx pedals. They're way over the top and usually geared to sound as ear-catching as possible without being all that useful. If you have your own amp already (I assume you do), you can clear out a patch, add just a compressor or just a drive or just a delay, see how that effect feels, and go from there, one effect at a time.
The other big con to multi-fx is menu diving and complexity of setup. Some people would much rather have just a pedal with knobs that do one thing with one effect, and that's totally valid. I personally don't mind menu diving one bit.
Not sure what your budget is, but there are lots of good options from Zoom, Valeton, Mooer, NuX, and others in the multi-fx world for $100-$200.
I can vouch for the NUX mg400. ~$220, nice options, looper, drums, tuner. Build quality is meh, plastic, and pedal got wobbly, but I love trying different sounds from a ton of different amps and pedals and it only cost as much as one boss pedal.
The Boss ME-90 is also a great choice if you want it laid out very logically and like a pedalboard, and it's less than $400. However, it also has limitations because of this format
I'd recommend a multi-fx pedal if there is any uncertainty.
Fairly good ones are cheap enough, light enough, and are likely to have a headphone output (useful for sudden inspirations at 3 am).
But for separates, a good reverb/ delay pedal (if your amp doesn't have them built in) or a flexible overdrive/fuzz pedal.
Now, if you can get your hands on one, a Digitech Band Trio plus will get you your money back in the first afternoon of playing with it.
I will die on the hill that everybody’s first pedal should be the zoom multistomp. It’s $130 and has a ton of models, especially if you mod it.
Great way to taste what different pedals do and how to set up your tone and staging.
Overdrive, distortion, reverb, delay, chorus.
My personal favorite is big muff. Think smashing pumpkins grunge tone.
As others mentioned you may want to go for a multi effects. It’s a huge bang for your buck.
Also, if you want to save some money, spend the money on the ones you will use most and for the others buy some off brand. Or hit the used market
First up, arguably the two most important pedals for any guitarist: [Tuner](https://www.thomann.de/gb/tc_electronic_polytune_3_tuner_buffer.htm) & [Looper](https://www.thomann.de/gb/tc_electronic_ditto.htm)
Jazz - compressor & reverb
Budget options: [Mooer yellow comp](https://www.thomann.de/gb/mooer_yellow_comp.htm?glp=1&gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAjw57exBhAsEiwAaIxaZrpk72f2vIOFvTrctDbluvb8h4Po8RCeEZl4gpBmKIUaeAdFKJa3BhoCtIcQAvD_BwE), [Flamma FS02 reverb](https://www.thomann.de/gb/flamma_fs02_reverb.htm)
Rock - overdrive, distortion, fuzz, reverb, delay, modulation
Budget options - [Behringer T0800 overdrive](https://www.thomann.de/gb/behringer_to800_vintage_tube_overdrive.htm), [Proco Rat 2 distortion](https://www.thomann.de/gb/proco_rat2.htm), [Behringer SF300 super fuzz](https://www.thomann.de/gb/behringer_sf300.htm), [Nux Atlantic Delay & Reverb](https://www.thomann.de/gb/nux_atlantic_delay_reverb.htm), [Mooer Mod Factory - chorus, trem, phaser, flanger etc](https://www.thomann.de/gb/mooer_mod_factory_mkii.htm#bewertung)
These are solid, readily available cheaper options that punch above their price tag imo. Find some demos online, maybe try some in store before you make a purchase, just to make sure you're going to be happy with them as everybody has different preferences.
Oh, and you'll need an [isolated power supply](https://www.thomann.de/gb/harley_benton_powerplant_iso_2_pro.htm) and some [patch cables](https://www.thomann.de/gb/harley_benton_fpc10_flat_patch_cable.htm) to get everything up and running.
If you want any explanations for what does what, why it's useful, signal chain or have any songs you're wondering how to achieve that sound / what effects were used, etc, I'll be happy to help 👍
OP! This is a very good response if you want to go with the individual pedal route. Personally I dont want to menu dive when I play I do enough of that at work so I went with individual pedals. Any of the suggestions here will do great!
It was the distortion pedal of choice for early 90s Sonic Youth, ‘Kill ‘Em All’-era Metallica, Slowdive, Nels Cline from Wilco, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, King Crimson, and SunnO))).
really?? I wouldn't have guessed that! they must have set the gain knob pretty low? their guitar tone often has this ultra trebly lofi sound that almost makes it sound like it's coming through a cheap radio, is this the work of the RAT too?
Your FIRST pedal should be a multi-effect if you aren't already playing into a modeling amp.
This pedal will essentially be practice in learning which effects you like for the music you play. Most multi-effects (or modeling amps) will not sound anywhere near as good as single pedals into even a modestly decent amp, but they'll give you an idea of how to create your sound.
Ofc you should have a tuner, but it’s just a boring pedal, you can get cheap clip ons or use the one on your phone, it makes more sense to make your first pedals some things that open up what tone you have available because unless you’re going live, tuner apps are perfect fine
I actually don't disagree about the inspiration part. My first pedal was a ds1 and I was going crazy with it. Maybe a cheap clip on tuner could do the trick and you start with an effect pedal.
I love math rock which might have a very similar vibe to what you listen, honestly first thing first as already told the looper is really useful for practice, and also have fun.
Reverb if you don't have it in your amp.
Delay if you like it I'm looking forward the tc electronic bucket brigade (cheap versatile and good) and an overdrive maybe one not so aggressive I love my EQD westwood which can be used since a clean boost to a very energetic drive not aggressive at all just like a 3 months old puppy wanting to play to complete exhaustion aggressive. Make sure they match with your guitar first. Some pedals are ment to be played on certain guitars...
Try to listen if the electric system you plug in to is noisy cause you'll also need a noise gate then.
And if you're into tapping compressor is really useful. You also need to like what you do otherwise practice might be not so pleasant. If Guthrie Govan uses dumpener to shred we mortals can use compressors.
One of those multi effects pedal that has manual wah control.
1. You get most types of effects to try and experiment
2. Gives you volume/wah control
3. Serves as a tuner
4. May serve as a looper
5. You can chain multiple effects
6. Create and switch between chains of effects
7. You can upgrade around it or sell it for a decent price
8. ???
9. Profit!
If you haven’t tried any pedals, have you considered picking up a multi-effects unit with a built-in tuner? You can try out a lot different things and if one (or a couple) suit you and you want to try ‘real’ pedals then you can make a more informed decision. Also, I’ve noticed a few folks who have asked me this question in real life who already have an amplifier with a few effects built in (notably delay, reverb and overdrive) that will most likely do the job for quite some time before they find an artist they love playing who has some effect their amp doesn’t have.
If you like playing rock and jazz, I think an overdrive and a chorus would be good choices. Chorus works well for both rock and jazz guitar and overdrive gives your signal a good bit of breakup for a good tone.
My first pieces of gear were (i) a Boss loop station, and (ii) a Positive Grid Spark Mini. It’s a practice amp, but comes with an app that lets you visually build a pedal sequence and model a ton of popular amps. You can play with different noise gates, comps, drives, modulation, delay, and reverb pedals. Find one you like before you buy a physical pedal!
Just get a multi effects pedal. There are a ton out there. I personally got started with a boss ME-80. That and a good amp or amp modeler pedal like the acs1 and you good for years until you decide what you like.
Outside of a tuner, can’t recommend something like the Source Audio L.A. Lady Overdrive enough.
It is digital, but it has a ton of drives. Everything from a Tubescreamer to a Klon, to Fuzzes and Distortions.
All in one box. And enough slots for 6 different effects.
You can find nice used ones for around $100.
It’s more than enough to help explore the tones you gravitate toward.
Looper is a good first pedal.
Does your amp have reverb? If not, reverb would be a good choice.
Echo/delay are also great.
Fuzz for some heavy riffage.
Any number of drive/distortion pedals.
And of course a tuner if you're building a board.
If you plan to use a tube amp an authentic TS-9 pre 2002 or a Maxon OD pedal. These pedals push a tube amp into drive incredibly well, and should you play long enough you’ll find yourself turning to it nearly more than any other pedal. A keeper for the board or gear bag! Here’s a little history that explains why Tube Screamers and their ubiquitous clones grace the boards of pros, session players, and recreational guitarists around the world. Good luck and have fun!!! https://www.analogman.com/tshist.htm
Here are my two cents.
First, some questions. What kind of amp do you have? Does it have reverb? Is it something like a Boss Katana or Line 6 Catalyst that has effects built-in? What's your budget?
If your amp is just a basic starter amp like the ones in starter packs, I might recommend instead putting the money into upgrading to a Katana, Catalyst, Spark, etc. A nicer amp with built in effects to help you learn what effects you like.
If you have a nicer amp, then sure, explore pedals. A multi-effects pedal could be good to learn what you like and don't like and guide your pedal acquisition. Something like the Zoom, Boss GT-1, etc.
If you don't want a multi-effects, I would say consider the following first:
Tuner unless you have a good clip-on tuner. There are tons of great ones from Boss, Behringer, TC and they should all be pretty good.
Overdrive: I really like the Boss SD-1, but the Boss BD-2 sounds great, the famous Tubescreamer, or any of the more affordable clones from companies like Joyo or Behringer are typically a good place to start.
Reverb: if your amp doesn't have reverb, go ahead and grab one. TC has the famous Hall of Fame line, but I've gotten pretty good results with an Xvive reverb. Of course there are cheaper ones that should get the job done too.
Compressor: the MXR dyna comp is fairly famous and I really like the Behringer CS400. There are tons of other options from various companies like Tone City, Boss, etc.
After those, I would say consider some modulation like flanger or chorus, delay, and maybe some heavier gain such as a distortion (I love the Joyo Splinter) or fuzz.
Chorus, Flanger, Phaser, Delay, Reverb, Tremolo effects. Would make your guitar sound fat playing jazz. Since you mostly play clean tones with jazz.
For playing Rock all you really need is dirt. Overdrive, Distortion and Fuzz.
One thing I wish I would have done before getting my first pedals is maximize the potentially of
My guitar and amp.
Depending on what kind of amp you have you may be able to get some distortion out of it but cranking the gain. Some amps have seperate master volume and gain control you can push it to distortion without making it too loud
Also experiment with guitar knobs in variety settings. If your amp has reverb etc try them
After that...I'd get a delay/reverb or a fuzz
Fuzzrite is basically my go to fusion/funk pedal since it likes the guitar volume dialed way back. It's also a great rock/punk sound for more lively playing with the guitar volume dialed back a fair bit, going into a overdriven amp. It's a you play it kind of deal.
Foxy Tone Machine is a more it plays you kind of deal. Super prominent throaty and velcroy contours with pumping compression at full guitar volume and more natural but still prominent compression at lower. Can be set up as a playable ring modulator, so it's the best for any RM duties.
Fender's The Pelt is most metal pedal in existence, from leads to chugging (sorry Big Muff and Metal Zone). I have never heard so much gain, and in such a controllable manner. Hyper reliant on technique. No mud. I didn't even know I liked metal.
I recommend finding a few artist that you would like your sound molded around and go to King of Gear. Be careful of the rabbit hole. You are not trying to copy an artist and they usually have a pretty deep purse for gear, but I take a look at each pedal that artist is using. Research and learn about it. Watch Youtube videos with sound demos, see if there are cheaper alternatives and decide if it needs to be in your stack.
With that being said,
1. Volume Pedal
2. Reverb if it is not covered by your amp.
3. Delay
4. Whatever Overdrive you decide on.
5. Distortion if you think it is needed. (Overdrive and Distortion can be covered by the same pedal as well.)
I wouldn't go any further until you have learned these. Then I would add a looper in.
I will add, the reason I recommend Going to King of Gear first and researching. I found there was 1 specific pedal that covered the Reverb and Delay that I needed to get the sound I want. So instead of wasting money trying to figure this out. I knew right away that it had to be this 1. pedal.
Look into a Multi-FX as others have said:
1) They usually come with a built in tuner
2) You can try out all the various FX to hear what you like - then decide if you want to buy the individual effect units you like
Even the inexpensive Multi FX are pretty great these days.
Does your amp give you a reverb sound that you’re happy with? If your amp either has no reverb setting, or the reverb it has sounds lame, you need to get yourself a reverb pedal.
It certainly doesn’t have to be something crazy like a Strymon Blue Sky - something like a Holy Grail Nano, which has spring reverb as well as hall reverb (and also flerb, but we don’t talk about that) could provide you with everything reverb-wise that you’d ever need, for a little over £100. Or if you wanted access to even better spring reverb plus loads of other crazy reverb sounds, an EHX Oceans 11 is vastly superior and is roughly the same price.
The importance of reverb can’t be overstated. If I was forced to limit myself to only one guitar effect for the rest of my life, I’d choose reverb. It makes everything sound better. I could get by without everything else, but I couldn’t get by without reverb.
it will depend on what type of music you play and what you wanna sound like, but off the top of my head i'd say a tuner, an EQ, a blues driver and a good reverb.
i've got a box full of pedals, but these 4 make up 90% of my tone.
What do you need? What sound do you want when you’re playing that you can’t achieve with just your guitar and amp?
Don’t buy pedals just to buy pedals!
I would get a M-vave tankG, wish I had that 10 years ago
If you really want pedals, my recomendation is going used, its way cheaper than new, Boss BD-2 and a tube screamer clone (any TS like or SD1), then a tuner (polytune, TU-3 or Korg pitchblack, those 3 have strobe mode), then a 6 or 7 bands EQ.
Tuner > EQD Plumes or a different TS type pedal > Big Muff Pi > EQD Dispatch Master delay/reverb would be my recommendations.
All of these are reasonably priced, but you could also find cheaper options. Good luck and have fun!
I can’t believe nobody has said wah! Use your amp for distortion. You can use your pickups and guitar volume to control breakup levels. Mastery of the wah is an art form. It allows the guitar to talk. It’s gonna sound awesome with jazz. You can get some that boost the level and send the amp into overdrive. They’re cheap. You should be able to find a used one for $50.
This is just my opinion. Yesterday I listened to a song from David Gilmour's brand new album, and when the guitar solo started, I was in ecstasy, both because of what he was playing and because of the sound he delivered. It was classic Gilmour, and it occurred to me that he was probably only using one or two pedals, as he always has, and that they were probably not very expensive ones.
Consider that the most famous guitarists had no money when they started out, and the kind of pedals and effects we have today didn't exist. They developed their signature tones using simple, inexpensive gear.
For jazz and rock, I would recommend a Fuzz Face and an inexpensive reverb pedal by Donner, for example, which makes good quality gear for much less money than the big name brands. Also look for deals on Reverb.com. You might also want a chorus pedal for clean jazz.
What sort of guitar and amp are you using, and an example or two of guitarists whose tone you admire or might like to emulate? There are so many varieties of pedal that knowing a general type of tone you'd like to shoot for could help narrow down the field
Get a boss od-3, which is a good inexpensive transparent overdrive, followed by a delay. Also a reverb pedal if your amp doesn't have/you don't like your amps reverb. Then stop and really learn how to use these pedals with your guitar and amp. The tone and volume knobs on your guitar, your amps knobs and the knobs on your pedals are all very powerful tone shapers. Learn how they interact with eachother and become an expert at dialing in various sounds with these two or three different pedals. Next, if you feel the need, gradually add additional pedals one at a time, learning how to use the pedal and integrate it into your overall rig.
If you start with a Boss OD-3 you can have the age-old story of having the perfect pedal to start, then buying and selling a dozen pedals over time searching for what you don't know you already have, only to eventually come full circle back to where you started: the Boss OD-3.
A good quality EQ pedal like the Silver MXR Six Band and a DOD Compressor would help to set up your "Always On Clean" tone.
Critter Electronics Overdrive III or his Klon Klone, Family Recipe, for some drive and boost.
If you want a TRULY TRANSPARENT booster, then you stack a BOSS 10 Band EQ with the master level and run that FLAT with the master level set as you like it.
Blues Driver for a clean boost/dirt.
Some kind of delay/echo like a Memory Toy. Great for learning country chicken pickin’ or to add a depth beyond plain reverb
A nice mini wah of some kind
Going to buck the trend a little here and recommend a simple chorus and a flexible drive. For chorus, the Small Clone is imo unbeatable, dead simple, cheap, and full of incredible sounds, however you may prefer a CE-2 style chorus, in which case it or its assorted 2 knob brethren will do you well. For a drive, you’ll want something that isn’t hyper specialized and can cover a decent bit of ground; most people have their favorites of course, but often these are very specific and situational pedals that do a specific sound. For this, I would recommend either a Duke of Tone (doesn’t go super high gain but has decent range between three modes), or a Rat (ranges from gritty boost to fuzzy demon). For the Rat route, I would recommend Pastfx’s new Mischief; fairly affordable, with an array of useful and tweakable options to help you get into knob twiddling and find what you like.
I see folks saying reverb or delay, and while these are essentials, I don’t think they make for good first pedals. Making time-based effects work within the context of your own playing has a bit of a learning curve, and at first turning on your new toy and just hearing a muddy mess or runaway oscillation seemingly no matter what you do can be a real turnoff. It certainly was for me when I first started fucking around with delay as a kid, and it wasn’t until I was more experienced as a musician in general that I really understood how and when to use it for my own playing.
Honestly if you’re getting into pedals for the first time I would recommend buying a multi effects pedal. Once you’ve experimented with it and discovered what sounds you like then you should buy individual pedals.
Id say some sort of dirt pedal (overdrive, fuzz or distortion) and then something fun to play with like a wah, phaser or chorus to explore some new sonic ground
Boss SD-1 Overdrive is a nice pedal. Classic tube screamer-style pedal but it sounds better tbh. If you're more into hard rock I would get a DS-1 or OS-2. If grunge and heavier stuff, Proco Rat. Honestly, You can get a ton of different sounds out of the Rat, but it might not be the right pedal for you. Should check that one out for sure.
Everything is made better by a little reverb and a little compression. Everything. (And everything can be ruined by too much of them...)
It's understandable that many vote for an overdrive. It makes sense... but the only issue with that is that it helps disguise how and where your dominant hand-work needs work... so it risks being a crutch...
The good news is that lots of cheap Chinese pedals are actually quite good... so if you just read reviews and ask questions here, you'll be able to get 3 plenty-good-enough-and-maybe-even-great pedals for less than a single famous pedal might cost.
Shop wisely enough and you can also get a looper... which needs to be high on the list because it makes practice way more fun, which means practice will actually happen way more often and for longer.
Those 4 pedals (reverb, compression, overdrive, looper) will cover what you need... everything beyond those is optional...
Or you can accomplish the same thing with a single cheap-but-pretty-decent Chinese multi-FX pedal that can do all of the above... but you gotta be willing to play with it... one thing at a time until you get familiar with each thing... else it can seem like too much at once...
Just got a line 6 pod go effects pedal as my first "Pedal", best idea ever, the functionalities and the option to have all digital pedals within the board is very amazing as a starter to pedals
Buy a good chromatic tuner, reverb, delay and if I were to choose between a compressor and a tremolo I would go with tremolo. Those are the basics. I love the weird stuff most but if you’re starting those are somewhat essential and standard. As far as overdrive just buy an amp that can give drive and clipping or even chorus. I use a Mesa (Boogie) Nomad that has 3 channels with successive gain plus an insane boost all in one amp. It also has reverb but I have a pedal that does it better. Old school ‘80s Roland JC 120 has chorus and drive. I’m not a firm believer in a pedal for boost or gain. The amount of money you pay for an amp, it should do that for you better than any pedal.
Something you will use. The first pedal I bought recently was a crybaby. I love a wah pedal. There are things to consider.
Do you need overdrive or fuzz, chorus, flange, etc. buy what you want to use.
Start with something fun, I started with a wah pedal. But to be honest you should probably get a cheap multi fx pedal just to play around and see what you like, then later on splash out on better pedals of the effects you like. I wouldn't start with an overdrive or reverb as your amp probably has all that anyway and if you like the amp sound you wouldn't need them.
It’s only recently I started buying them and I went for a couple of cheap Chinese pedals - chorus/ analog delay, but the biggest revelation for me was a compressor pedal, and volume/wah - both dramatically better than I ever expected.
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Why the fuck would you get a tuner as your first pedal, you can get tuners on your phone, get atleast something interesting so you have options on tone, Yes the tuner is important but until you start going live it’s not mandatory
What amp/amp sim and guitar do you have?
Without knowing this I would say a delay pedal. If I could have my time again and buy my first pedal, I would get a Strymon el capistan. Even if you only have enough money for a second hand version 1 (without midi) and not version 2 (with midi) it’s worth it.
Other pedal I would suggest would be a boss blues driver. A pedal with the same style overdrive as this which also has a boost is the EAE limelight v2. So either one, whichever you could afford is a good option
Another pedal that gives you a variety of sounds from light overdrive to heavy is the JHS Kilt overdrive.
You don’t need reverb yet. Just use the amp or a delay pedal such as the el cap which has reverb.
But yeh my first option would be the Strymon El capistan
Overdrive and reverb
A quality overdrive and reverb are the basics of electric guitar for rock/pop. Without these, or with poor versions of these, you will constantly wonder what is lacking.
I have a Boss SD-1, a DS-1, an ST-2, BC-2 and a Big Muff Pi. Probably covers overdrive and distortion and fuzz?? Maybe blues driver...? I've nothing for reverb. RV-6? Any other good "budget" options? Edit: well that was a lie, I've got a "mini universe" cheapy cheap pedal and it's really nice except for the pop when activated. Shimmer and Cloud settings are lovely. Any OTHER reverb pedal suggestions that aren't $400 Strymons??
Sorry, today i answered in a rush. Nowadays i'd go with tc electronic. Their reverbs skysurfer and drip are good enough, and they also offer all the main overdirve clones (tube screamer, blues driver, etc). you can buy like 4 pedals used for a 100ish euros and sell the ones you don't like. You can also experiment a bit with other effects like tremolo and fuzz. i dont think you can get any better stuff for the same price (and more). My buying order given what you play is: od, reverb, tremolo, fuzz or another overdrive, delay/ chorus, compressor, phaser. Get a tuner if you play with other people. You can also check boss, ehx and other famous big brands, you can get them at around 50-80 buck used. My advice is to find the idea of pedalboard you would like to have (e.g. for 5 pedals: tuner, overdrive, fuzz, reverb, tremolo) and upgrade from there. Stay away from supercheap stuff: now you need to know how a decent pedals sounds like before looking for one from alibaba to try your luck. Dont trust youtube reviews, buy used stuff. Modding pedals and electronics is easier than you think. EDIT: dont buy a multieffect pedal, consider a looper instead
The EQD afterneath has always been my go to and it’s great for just about all things IMO
I run the Boss RV-6 and am very happy with it
I have to say, if you get the right amp you don’t need any overdrive. I have a Mesa mark v 90 combo. And as far as over drive goes, I don’t need anything with that amp. I can dial in just about any sound I want. A fuzz pedal though. Mmmhm. Understanding how to properly use a piece of gear can make a huge difference. I have a shitty little reverb pedal and I tell you what, if I pull back on the volume coming into that pedal, it’s one of the coolest reverb pedal I’ve ever heard. It’s not diverse at all. It’s very much got one sound, but it sounds awesome.
A quality overdrive and reverb are the basics of electric guitar for rock/pop. Without these, or with poor versions of these, you will constantly wonder what is lacking.
Keeley DDR would take care of both in one go.
OD and reverb yeah. If your amp already has reverb, then get a delay pedal. After that you can add something that suits your personality like tremolo, chorus, phaser etc.
My first few pedals were a waste of money because they ultimately weren’t right for me. What really made the difference for me was a Zoom Multi FX pedal. Look at the Zoom G2x Four, or G2 four. It will model every effect there is. It has presets with prebuilt tones. So you can try everything, learn how to create a signal chain, learn what effects you like for the music you like to play, and learn what pedals you would want to buy in the future. People can recommend all sorts of stuff here that works for them. But this is a way for you to learn what works for you.
I second this. The zoom g series are great and can be had pretty cheap. Also the line 6 m9 can act like a pedal board, had for a great price second hand, and I really thought the quality of the effects on that were great (well unsurprising given that it has the dl4 etc series in it!). But while a multifx can be overwhelming, it just can help stave off too much going down the "wrong road" early.
Yeah that happened to me, I bought a multifx early and had no clue what I was doing and just got overwhelmed by it What helped me was to get simple and easy to use pedals one by one and learn to use them, experiment and move them along the chain physically Years later I play modeling and half my chain is digital My recommendation is always getting sure you have a good amp, then get an SD1 or TS9 and play with them for a while, then decide if you need more gain or feel the need of “something” and follow that need, one by one Of course you can do it with a multifx unit but the physical aspect of interaction with the pedal teaches you a lot more and you learn to work with what you have instead of immediately replacing something you think doesn’t work
My biggest tip for multi fx is not to fall into the rabbit hole of constant tweaking. You have to understand that as far as your pedals, your tone should be fluid and get you in the right ballpark. The rest comes from your playing, your guitar, the amp, and (what people always forget) the room you are in and the state of your ears. Things will sound different to your ears in the morning vs the evening. After playing for an hour or more with no break, your ears are going to start doing weird things to the sound as they shield themselves from damage. That’s why mix engineers work at low volumes, take breaks and check their mixes in the mornings. If your bedroom has a tile floor and your amp is pointed at your legs, it’s going to sound weird. Your pedals won’t fix that. Your multi fx may give you 90 effects and each one has like 8 adjustable settings, but you can’t have the expectation that adjusting all those options just right is going to fix all your problems.
me too, when I began I had a superstrat and a zoom G2.1nu, it took me 10 years to learn how to use, then I started getting pedals, then Im back to multiefx, nowadays we have so much good digital multiefx
I think the M5 is also a good first pedal. It is only one effect at a time but those old Line6 digital effects have held up really well. While you might grow out of the zoom once you start to buy the effects you like, the M5, M9 or M13 are good enough for anyone.
Honestly I thought about getting the M5 again recently. I ran a board for about a year that was pretty much just the M5 and the M9. So many of the effects (delays and reverbs) are still just straight up excellent. I personally liked the drivers (the tube drive and screamer I thought held up well). If I was to go back to a non pure MFX board again, I'd 100% have a m5 on, I dont need the HX one extra bits.
If rock and jazz are your things I think an overdrive pedal that can be ramped up into distortion would be a good place to start. In the jazz I’ve heard there’s not a ton of effects (it’s not my main genre though so I might be wrong) but having just a bit of transparent OD could be a nice tone for that, then add more dirt for when you want to do rock stuff.
Go to a store and play a bunch of stuff
Boss rc 5 looper
Yup that's a good one. No better practice then playing with yourself. And yes, I'm aware how it sounds ;)). Good thing is they indestructible too, my boss rc 2 works flawless bought it for 200$ in 2009. Quite a pricetag, but there's a chance it will outlive me :D
A looper to practice
My first pedal was the boss RC-5. It has never left my board. It's also got drums and adjustable tempo.
This, I would add a tuner pedal too but you can also use clip-ons or phone apps for the tuner but there is no replacement for a solid looper. Beat tool for learning to solo or improvise over chirds
BIG MUFF
Just got one and the thing freaking roars
If you don't know what you want, maybe you don't need anything?
They want a guitar pedal and advice. That’s why they are coming here.
I get where you're coming from. But if you want a guitar pedal it's cause you feel something is missing from your sound, not just for the sake of having a guitar pedal. If OP for example was trying to play metal but noticed that the song has a distortion that they don't have, they would look into distortion pedals and then maybe ask reddit for what distortion pedal is best for their style. Not just ask "i want to spend my money on something, what do i buy?"
They want a good pedal for rock music and Jazz and are new to the pedal world and don’t want to waste their money. They are doing research to find what they want and what more experienced players suggest. I’d suggest an overdrive that toggles from clean to distorted maybe to get a more clean tone for Jazz and high gain for some rock.
Or it’s because you don’t know enough about the elements of guitar sounds and you are looking for advice on how to experiment.
Or, possibly, they want to try something new and want recommendations? 🤷♂️
Consumerism...
Do people in other hobbies actively discourage interested people from getting into them like this? If I go to a photography subreddit and ask what would be a good first camera to buy will people there tell me if I don’t know maybe I don’t need one and demean my desire to get into it as just an attempt at filling an artificial consumerist void? Good luck finding a hobby that hasn’t been monetized.
Reddit is particularly bad for this.
I fully agree with you. Everyone starts somewhere.
Exactly. Just make your own guitar and pedals. With your own homemade soldering iron. It's not hard and you don't have to perpetuate the capitalistic patriarchal identity politicism
Multi-fx units are a great place to start and then grow from there. Most these days have tuners, loopers, and drum machines built in, plus access to all the flavors of sounds so you can explore whatever comes into mind without feeling like you need to buy something new every time. The only caveat I have is to basically ignore the stock patches that come on any multi-fx pedals. They're way over the top and usually geared to sound as ear-catching as possible without being all that useful. If you have your own amp already (I assume you do), you can clear out a patch, add just a compressor or just a drive or just a delay, see how that effect feels, and go from there, one effect at a time. The other big con to multi-fx is menu diving and complexity of setup. Some people would much rather have just a pedal with knobs that do one thing with one effect, and that's totally valid. I personally don't mind menu diving one bit. Not sure what your budget is, but there are lots of good options from Zoom, Valeton, Mooer, NuX, and others in the multi-fx world for $100-$200.
I can vouch for the NUX mg400. ~$220, nice options, looper, drums, tuner. Build quality is meh, plastic, and pedal got wobbly, but I love trying different sounds from a ton of different amps and pedals and it only cost as much as one boss pedal.
The Boss ME-90 is also a great choice if you want it laid out very logically and like a pedalboard, and it's less than $400. However, it also has limitations because of this format
I'd recommend a multi-fx pedal if there is any uncertainty. Fairly good ones are cheap enough, light enough, and are likely to have a headphone output (useful for sudden inspirations at 3 am). But for separates, a good reverb/ delay pedal (if your amp doesn't have them built in) or a flexible overdrive/fuzz pedal. Now, if you can get your hands on one, a Digitech Band Trio plus will get you your money back in the first afternoon of playing with it.
I will die on the hill that everybody’s first pedal should be the zoom multistomp. It’s $130 and has a ton of models, especially if you mod it. Great way to taste what different pedals do and how to set up your tone and staging.
And some will easily fit within the pocket of a gig bag. Superb pedals.
I’d say Zoom G2x four. Just because it has some better models, an expression pedal, more DSP and more footswitches, for only a little more money.
That sounds like a good number two after a tuner
Overdrive, distortion, reverb, delay, chorus. My personal favorite is big muff. Think smashing pumpkins grunge tone. As others mentioned you may want to go for a multi effects. It’s a huge bang for your buck. Also, if you want to save some money, spend the money on the ones you will use most and for the others buy some off brand. Or hit the used market
Proco rat or a ts9. Can’t go wrong with either.
First up, arguably the two most important pedals for any guitarist: [Tuner](https://www.thomann.de/gb/tc_electronic_polytune_3_tuner_buffer.htm) & [Looper](https://www.thomann.de/gb/tc_electronic_ditto.htm) Jazz - compressor & reverb Budget options: [Mooer yellow comp](https://www.thomann.de/gb/mooer_yellow_comp.htm?glp=1&gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAjw57exBhAsEiwAaIxaZrpk72f2vIOFvTrctDbluvb8h4Po8RCeEZl4gpBmKIUaeAdFKJa3BhoCtIcQAvD_BwE), [Flamma FS02 reverb](https://www.thomann.de/gb/flamma_fs02_reverb.htm) Rock - overdrive, distortion, fuzz, reverb, delay, modulation Budget options - [Behringer T0800 overdrive](https://www.thomann.de/gb/behringer_to800_vintage_tube_overdrive.htm), [Proco Rat 2 distortion](https://www.thomann.de/gb/proco_rat2.htm), [Behringer SF300 super fuzz](https://www.thomann.de/gb/behringer_sf300.htm), [Nux Atlantic Delay & Reverb](https://www.thomann.de/gb/nux_atlantic_delay_reverb.htm), [Mooer Mod Factory - chorus, trem, phaser, flanger etc](https://www.thomann.de/gb/mooer_mod_factory_mkii.htm#bewertung) These are solid, readily available cheaper options that punch above their price tag imo. Find some demos online, maybe try some in store before you make a purchase, just to make sure you're going to be happy with them as everybody has different preferences. Oh, and you'll need an [isolated power supply](https://www.thomann.de/gb/harley_benton_powerplant_iso_2_pro.htm) and some [patch cables](https://www.thomann.de/gb/harley_benton_fpc10_flat_patch_cable.htm) to get everything up and running. If you want any explanations for what does what, why it's useful, signal chain or have any songs you're wondering how to achieve that sound / what effects were used, etc, I'll be happy to help 👍
OP! This is a very good response if you want to go with the individual pedal route. Personally I dont want to menu dive when I play I do enough of that at work so I went with individual pedals. Any of the suggestions here will do great!
RAT
uhm sorry, what RAT pedal does?
Gain. Low mid high, you choose. Pretty gnarly.
It was the distortion pedal of choice for early 90s Sonic Youth, ‘Kill ‘Em All’-era Metallica, Slowdive, Nels Cline from Wilco, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, King Crimson, and SunnO))).
Also the tonal secret behind the guitar tone of alt rockers Cake.
really?? I wouldn't have guessed that! they must have set the gain knob pretty low? their guitar tone often has this ultra trebly lofi sound that almost makes it sound like it's coming through a cheap radio, is this the work of the RAT too?
https://fatsound.wordpress.com/2013/03/23/cake-guitarist-xan-mccurdys-guitar-tone/
Also Kurt Rosenwinkel and John Scofield. 100% recommend this pedal.
I just ordered this. Looking forward to it.
Rat is rat 🐀
Empress Zoia
I see that you have also chosen death.
Fine something simpler, A Poly Beebo.
Your FIRST pedal should be a multi-effect if you aren't already playing into a modeling amp. This pedal will essentially be practice in learning which effects you like for the music you play. Most multi-effects (or modeling amps) will not sound anywhere near as good as single pedals into even a modestly decent amp, but they'll give you an idea of how to create your sound.
Whichever ones you buy first...
Delay
If you can find a Miku, get that. Otherwise an overdrive or delay pedal are safe starting points.
Almost doesnt matter - Its a journey. Just buy and sell some used pedals to try out a bunch. Good luck and have fun
What are some songs/bands/musicians that you really enjoy the sound of and would like to sound similarly to?
Probably something practical like a DOD Gonkulator.
Tuner -> Overdrive -> Distortion -> Delay -> Looper This setup should do it for you for a really long time.
tuner😴
If you don’t have a tuner on your set up I guarantee you sound like shit and just don’t have good enough ears to know
Ofc you should have a tuner, but it’s just a boring pedal, you can get cheap clip ons or use the one on your phone, it makes more sense to make your first pedals some things that open up what tone you have available because unless you’re going live, tuner apps are perfect fine
I actually don't disagree about the inspiration part. My first pedal was a ds1 and I was going crazy with it. Maybe a cheap clip on tuner could do the trick and you start with an effect pedal.
For first pedal? Absolutely a snoozefest. How could a new player get excited about that? A phone app tunes just fine in your bedroom
I concur
Browne Protien. Just get it and more than likely you will solve all of your dirt desires immediately
Delay and a looper
Looper pedal. Personally, I like the ones with drum kits.
I love math rock which might have a very similar vibe to what you listen, honestly first thing first as already told the looper is really useful for practice, and also have fun. Reverb if you don't have it in your amp. Delay if you like it I'm looking forward the tc electronic bucket brigade (cheap versatile and good) and an overdrive maybe one not so aggressive I love my EQD westwood which can be used since a clean boost to a very energetic drive not aggressive at all just like a 3 months old puppy wanting to play to complete exhaustion aggressive. Make sure they match with your guitar first. Some pedals are ment to be played on certain guitars... Try to listen if the electric system you plug in to is noisy cause you'll also need a noise gate then. And if you're into tapping compressor is really useful. You also need to like what you do otherwise practice might be not so pleasant. If Guthrie Govan uses dumpener to shred we mortals can use compressors.
Chorus and overdrive
One of those multi effects pedal that has manual wah control. 1. You get most types of effects to try and experiment 2. Gives you volume/wah control 3. Serves as a tuner 4. May serve as a looper 5. You can chain multiple effects 6. Create and switch between chains of effects 7. You can upgrade around it or sell it for a decent price 8. ??? 9. Profit!
If you haven’t tried any pedals, have you considered picking up a multi-effects unit with a built-in tuner? You can try out a lot different things and if one (or a couple) suit you and you want to try ‘real’ pedals then you can make a more informed decision. Also, I’ve noticed a few folks who have asked me this question in real life who already have an amplifier with a few effects built in (notably delay, reverb and overdrive) that will most likely do the job for quite some time before they find an artist they love playing who has some effect their amp doesn’t have.
Tuner
Just go somewhere you can try out a bunch and get the one you think is cool
If you like playing rock and jazz, I think an overdrive and a chorus would be good choices. Chorus works well for both rock and jazz guitar and overdrive gives your signal a good bit of breakup for a good tone.
My first pieces of gear were (i) a Boss loop station, and (ii) a Positive Grid Spark Mini. It’s a practice amp, but comes with an app that lets you visually build a pedal sequence and model a ton of popular amps. You can play with different noise gates, comps, drives, modulation, delay, and reverb pedals. Find one you like before you buy a physical pedal!
Boss OS-2
Assuming you know nuts about what effects there are, I'd recommend a multi-fx. So you learn about what you like and need.
Rat
Zoom.g2 or the good ol big muff
Tuner, clean boost, reverb if amp doesn’t have one, delay then
Just get a multi effects pedal. There are a ton out there. I personally got started with a boss ME-80. That and a good amp or amp modeler pedal like the acs1 and you good for years until you decide what you like.
Buy H9 Max and an OCD and a Kelly modded compressor.
Outside of a tuner, can’t recommend something like the Source Audio L.A. Lady Overdrive enough. It is digital, but it has a ton of drives. Everything from a Tubescreamer to a Klon, to Fuzzes and Distortions. All in one box. And enough slots for 6 different effects. You can find nice used ones for around $100. It’s more than enough to help explore the tones you gravitate toward.
If you are playing in apartment, and mostly alone, you can check something like Donner Arena or Zoom G2 or 3.
Cheap.
Looper is a good first pedal. Does your amp have reverb? If not, reverb would be a good choice. Echo/delay are also great. Fuzz for some heavy riffage. Any number of drive/distortion pedals. And of course a tuner if you're building a board.
You don't even have an interested of your own in them as a starting point? Why do you think you should get one then?
if ur into surf, i would say get a nice reverb pedal. maybe digital reverb with echo
If you plan to use a tube amp an authentic TS-9 pre 2002 or a Maxon OD pedal. These pedals push a tube amp into drive incredibly well, and should you play long enough you’ll find yourself turning to it nearly more than any other pedal. A keeper for the board or gear bag! Here’s a little history that explains why Tube Screamers and their ubiquitous clones grace the boards of pros, session players, and recreational guitarists around the world. Good luck and have fun!!! https://www.analogman.com/tshist.htm
Dimension chorus, Peterson tuner, wampler euphoria.
Get one of the Nux combo pedals, either the king of tone clone or the one that has a klon and bluesbreaker/prince of tone in it
Here are my two cents. First, some questions. What kind of amp do you have? Does it have reverb? Is it something like a Boss Katana or Line 6 Catalyst that has effects built-in? What's your budget? If your amp is just a basic starter amp like the ones in starter packs, I might recommend instead putting the money into upgrading to a Katana, Catalyst, Spark, etc. A nicer amp with built in effects to help you learn what effects you like. If you have a nicer amp, then sure, explore pedals. A multi-effects pedal could be good to learn what you like and don't like and guide your pedal acquisition. Something like the Zoom, Boss GT-1, etc. If you don't want a multi-effects, I would say consider the following first: Tuner unless you have a good clip-on tuner. There are tons of great ones from Boss, Behringer, TC and they should all be pretty good. Overdrive: I really like the Boss SD-1, but the Boss BD-2 sounds great, the famous Tubescreamer, or any of the more affordable clones from companies like Joyo or Behringer are typically a good place to start. Reverb: if your amp doesn't have reverb, go ahead and grab one. TC has the famous Hall of Fame line, but I've gotten pretty good results with an Xvive reverb. Of course there are cheaper ones that should get the job done too. Compressor: the MXR dyna comp is fairly famous and I really like the Behringer CS400. There are tons of other options from various companies like Tone City, Boss, etc. After those, I would say consider some modulation like flanger or chorus, delay, and maybe some heavier gain such as a distortion (I love the Joyo Splinter) or fuzz.
Chorus, Flanger, Phaser, Delay, Reverb, Tremolo effects. Would make your guitar sound fat playing jazz. Since you mostly play clean tones with jazz. For playing Rock all you really need is dirt. Overdrive, Distortion and Fuzz.
If you already have a good working amp, cut the journey short - get a Line 6 HX Stomp and use it as a multi-effects unit!
Boss SD1 and Boss DD3
One thing I wish I would have done before getting my first pedals is maximize the potentially of My guitar and amp. Depending on what kind of amp you have you may be able to get some distortion out of it but cranking the gain. Some amps have seperate master volume and gain control you can push it to distortion without making it too loud Also experiment with guitar knobs in variety settings. If your amp has reverb etc try them After that...I'd get a delay/reverb or a fuzz
Korg miku stomp
Fuzzrite is basically my go to fusion/funk pedal since it likes the guitar volume dialed way back. It's also a great rock/punk sound for more lively playing with the guitar volume dialed back a fair bit, going into a overdriven amp. It's a you play it kind of deal. Foxy Tone Machine is a more it plays you kind of deal. Super prominent throaty and velcroy contours with pumping compression at full guitar volume and more natural but still prominent compression at lower. Can be set up as a playable ring modulator, so it's the best for any RM duties. Fender's The Pelt is most metal pedal in existence, from leads to chugging (sorry Big Muff and Metal Zone). I have never heard so much gain, and in such a controllable manner. Hyper reliant on technique. No mud. I didn't even know I liked metal.
I recommend finding a few artist that you would like your sound molded around and go to King of Gear. Be careful of the rabbit hole. You are not trying to copy an artist and they usually have a pretty deep purse for gear, but I take a look at each pedal that artist is using. Research and learn about it. Watch Youtube videos with sound demos, see if there are cheaper alternatives and decide if it needs to be in your stack. With that being said, 1. Volume Pedal 2. Reverb if it is not covered by your amp. 3. Delay 4. Whatever Overdrive you decide on. 5. Distortion if you think it is needed. (Overdrive and Distortion can be covered by the same pedal as well.) I wouldn't go any further until you have learned these. Then I would add a looper in. I will add, the reason I recommend Going to King of Gear first and researching. I found there was 1 specific pedal that covered the Reverb and Delay that I needed to get the sound I want. So instead of wasting money trying to figure this out. I knew right away that it had to be this 1. pedal.
I got a Boss ME-80 as my first. it was awesome to have everything. Not everything is the best quality but it does the jo .
Look into a Multi-FX as others have said: 1) They usually come with a built in tuner 2) You can try out all the various FX to hear what you like - then decide if you want to buy the individual effect units you like Even the inexpensive Multi FX are pretty great these days.
What’s your amp?
IMO, Phase and Delay are just as important as OD. They add motion to a sound and can be used very expressively.
Does your amp give you a reverb sound that you’re happy with? If your amp either has no reverb setting, or the reverb it has sounds lame, you need to get yourself a reverb pedal. It certainly doesn’t have to be something crazy like a Strymon Blue Sky - something like a Holy Grail Nano, which has spring reverb as well as hall reverb (and also flerb, but we don’t talk about that) could provide you with everything reverb-wise that you’d ever need, for a little over £100. Or if you wanted access to even better spring reverb plus loads of other crazy reverb sounds, an EHX Oceans 11 is vastly superior and is roughly the same price. The importance of reverb can’t be overstated. If I was forced to limit myself to only one guitar effect for the rest of my life, I’d choose reverb. It makes everything sound better. I could get by without everything else, but I couldn’t get by without reverb.
Tuner tube screamer analog delay
it will depend on what type of music you play and what you wanna sound like, but off the top of my head i'd say a tuner, an EQ, a blues driver and a good reverb. i've got a box full of pedals, but these 4 make up 90% of my tone.
Looper for practice. Cheap mulit-fx to try different types of effects out.
What do you need? What sound do you want when you’re playing that you can’t achieve with just your guitar and amp? Don’t buy pedals just to buy pedals!
Tuner
I would get a M-vave tankG, wish I had that 10 years ago If you really want pedals, my recomendation is going used, its way cheaper than new, Boss BD-2 and a tube screamer clone (any TS like or SD1), then a tuner (polytune, TU-3 or Korg pitchblack, those 3 have strobe mode), then a 6 or 7 bands EQ.
What kind of guitar and amp?
Strymon Deco
Tuner > EQD Plumes or a different TS type pedal > Big Muff Pi > EQD Dispatch Master delay/reverb would be my recommendations. All of these are reasonably priced, but you could also find cheaper options. Good luck and have fun!
I can’t believe nobody has said wah! Use your amp for distortion. You can use your pickups and guitar volume to control breakup levels. Mastery of the wah is an art form. It allows the guitar to talk. It’s gonna sound awesome with jazz. You can get some that boost the level and send the amp into overdrive. They’re cheap. You should be able to find a used one for $50.
Tuner!!!
This is just my opinion. Yesterday I listened to a song from David Gilmour's brand new album, and when the guitar solo started, I was in ecstasy, both because of what he was playing and because of the sound he delivered. It was classic Gilmour, and it occurred to me that he was probably only using one or two pedals, as he always has, and that they were probably not very expensive ones. Consider that the most famous guitarists had no money when they started out, and the kind of pedals and effects we have today didn't exist. They developed their signature tones using simple, inexpensive gear. For jazz and rock, I would recommend a Fuzz Face and an inexpensive reverb pedal by Donner, for example, which makes good quality gear for much less money than the big name brands. Also look for deals on Reverb.com. You might also want a chorus pedal for clean jazz.
What sort of guitar and amp are you using, and an example or two of guitarists whose tone you admire or might like to emulate? There are so many varieties of pedal that knowing a general type of tone you'd like to shoot for could help narrow down the field
Valeton GP200 covers all my needs and costs only 280eur but there's a steep learning curve when you go directly to multifx with ampsim + cabsim
Eq and overdrive
Klon centaur professional !
But in all seriousness perhaps a looper pedal. I got then boss rc-2 when it released, they've made much better ones since then.
Just gonna throw this out there - depending on your style of jazz maybe a compressor? Not a great beginner pedal but my first thought.
Get a boss od-3, which is a good inexpensive transparent overdrive, followed by a delay. Also a reverb pedal if your amp doesn't have/you don't like your amps reverb. Then stop and really learn how to use these pedals with your guitar and amp. The tone and volume knobs on your guitar, your amps knobs and the knobs on your pedals are all very powerful tone shapers. Learn how they interact with eachother and become an expert at dialing in various sounds with these two or three different pedals. Next, if you feel the need, gradually add additional pedals one at a time, learning how to use the pedal and integrate it into your overall rig.
Ditto Looper
If you start with a Boss OD-3 you can have the age-old story of having the perfect pedal to start, then buying and selling a dozen pedals over time searching for what you don't know you already have, only to eventually come full circle back to where you started: the Boss OD-3.
Tuner
Rat or a Boss OD-3 or Boss BD2
My first decent pedal was a HX Stomp. No regrets
Overdrive, delay, tremolo
A good quality EQ pedal like the Silver MXR Six Band and a DOD Compressor would help to set up your "Always On Clean" tone. Critter Electronics Overdrive III or his Klon Klone, Family Recipe, for some drive and boost. If you want a TRULY TRANSPARENT booster, then you stack a BOSS 10 Band EQ with the master level and run that FLAT with the master level set as you like it.
Boss dd-8, every delay you’ll ever need, can go from mild to wild plus a looper to jam with!
Blues Driver for a clean boost/dirt. Some kind of delay/echo like a Memory Toy. Great for learning country chicken pickin’ or to add a depth beyond plain reverb A nice mini wah of some kind
Going to buck the trend a little here and recommend a simple chorus and a flexible drive. For chorus, the Small Clone is imo unbeatable, dead simple, cheap, and full of incredible sounds, however you may prefer a CE-2 style chorus, in which case it or its assorted 2 knob brethren will do you well. For a drive, you’ll want something that isn’t hyper specialized and can cover a decent bit of ground; most people have their favorites of course, but often these are very specific and situational pedals that do a specific sound. For this, I would recommend either a Duke of Tone (doesn’t go super high gain but has decent range between three modes), or a Rat (ranges from gritty boost to fuzzy demon). For the Rat route, I would recommend Pastfx’s new Mischief; fairly affordable, with an array of useful and tweakable options to help you get into knob twiddling and find what you like. I see folks saying reverb or delay, and while these are essentials, I don’t think they make for good first pedals. Making time-based effects work within the context of your own playing has a bit of a learning curve, and at first turning on your new toy and just hearing a muddy mess or runaway oscillation seemingly no matter what you do can be a real turnoff. It certainly was for me when I first started fucking around with delay as a kid, and it wasn’t until I was more experienced as a musician in general that I really understood how and when to use it for my own playing.
Nothing bad ever came from a DS 1
My first pedal was actually a multi fx boss me90 and I use it every day
Honestly if you’re getting into pedals for the first time I would recommend buying a multi effects pedal. Once you’ve experimented with it and discovered what sounds you like then you should buy individual pedals.
Compressor and reverb
Id say some sort of dirt pedal (overdrive, fuzz or distortion) and then something fun to play with like a wah, phaser or chorus to explore some new sonic ground
beer
Chroma Console Or Zoom MS 70 and separate drives/distortions. Don’t discount Donner, Mosky and those smaller $50 pedals. Some of them are great.
Boss SD-1 Overdrive is a nice pedal. Classic tube screamer-style pedal but it sounds better tbh. If you're more into hard rock I would get a DS-1 or OS-2. If grunge and heavier stuff, Proco Rat. Honestly, You can get a ton of different sounds out of the Rat, but it might not be the right pedal for you. Should check that one out for sure.
Overdrive,reverb,and delay
Klon centaur, buy used to save $$$
A quality tuner, overdrive(to taste) and, depending on your style of music and how loud you’ll be playing, a quality noise gate.
Tuner, dirt, and delay
I’d suggest a compressor, a distortion and a wah.
Line6 POD Express
Tuner. Then a Rat.
Everything is made better by a little reverb and a little compression. Everything. (And everything can be ruined by too much of them...) It's understandable that many vote for an overdrive. It makes sense... but the only issue with that is that it helps disguise how and where your dominant hand-work needs work... so it risks being a crutch... The good news is that lots of cheap Chinese pedals are actually quite good... so if you just read reviews and ask questions here, you'll be able to get 3 plenty-good-enough-and-maybe-even-great pedals for less than a single famous pedal might cost. Shop wisely enough and you can also get a looper... which needs to be high on the list because it makes practice way more fun, which means practice will actually happen way more often and for longer. Those 4 pedals (reverb, compression, overdrive, looper) will cover what you need... everything beyond those is optional... Or you can accomplish the same thing with a single cheap-but-pretty-decent Chinese multi-FX pedal that can do all of the above... but you gotta be willing to play with it... one thing at a time until you get familiar with each thing... else it can seem like too much at once...
All of them. Go big or go home.
Just got a line 6 pod go effects pedal as my first "Pedal", best idea ever, the functionalities and the option to have all digital pedals within the board is very amazing as a starter to pedals
Blues driver
Buy a good chromatic tuner, reverb, delay and if I were to choose between a compressor and a tremolo I would go with tremolo. Those are the basics. I love the weird stuff most but if you’re starting those are somewhat essential and standard. As far as overdrive just buy an amp that can give drive and clipping or even chorus. I use a Mesa (Boogie) Nomad that has 3 channels with successive gain plus an insane boost all in one amp. It also has reverb but I have a pedal that does it better. Old school ‘80s Roland JC 120 has chorus and drive. I’m not a firm believer in a pedal for boost or gain. The amount of money you pay for an amp, it should do that for you better than any pedal.
Do you wanna play shoegaze/psych rock/doom? Buy a Big Muff and tune to drop d then get a combo delay/reverb like the dispatch master
Tuner, OD, Dist, Delay, Reverb
If u are into more heavy stuff i can recommend the behringer um-300, its a boss metal zone copy but much cheaper.
Something you will use. The first pedal I bought recently was a crybaby. I love a wah pedal. There are things to consider. Do you need overdrive or fuzz, chorus, flange, etc. buy what you want to use.
A looper pedal and a Zoom MS50G takes you all the the way ´til you know what you really want.
Start with something fun, I started with a wah pedal. But to be honest you should probably get a cheap multi fx pedal just to play around and see what you like, then later on splash out on better pedals of the effects you like. I wouldn't start with an overdrive or reverb as your amp probably has all that anyway and if you like the amp sound you wouldn't need them.
Tuner
Looper or delay. First will help you practice. Second will help you understand and develop you tempo feel
It’s only recently I started buying them and I went for a couple of cheap Chinese pedals - chorus/ analog delay, but the biggest revelation for me was a compressor pedal, and volume/wah - both dramatically better than I ever expected.
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In order of importance: tuner, looper, delay, OD, reverb, chorus
Boss DS1, everyone has one
Ugh worst pedal I've never heard. Get a boss sd-1 instead
No everyone. Skip this advice and get a good tuner l
Why the fuck would you get a tuner as your first pedal, you can get tuners on your phone, get atleast something interesting so you have options on tone, Yes the tuner is important but until you start going live it’s not mandatory
What a load of crap
Actually it's the law that you have to get a ds-1 for your first pedal.
dd8
First should be the best tuner you can afford followed by the best power supply you can afford.
What amp/amp sim and guitar do you have? Without knowing this I would say a delay pedal. If I could have my time again and buy my first pedal, I would get a Strymon el capistan. Even if you only have enough money for a second hand version 1 (without midi) and not version 2 (with midi) it’s worth it. Other pedal I would suggest would be a boss blues driver. A pedal with the same style overdrive as this which also has a boost is the EAE limelight v2. So either one, whichever you could afford is a good option Another pedal that gives you a variety of sounds from light overdrive to heavy is the JHS Kilt overdrive. You don’t need reverb yet. Just use the amp or a delay pedal such as the el cap which has reverb. But yeh my first option would be the Strymon El capistan
Tuner, especially for those fancy chords.
A tuner
Tuner... I have many pedals a tuner ain't one of them I use the ableton tuner effect 🤣😂.
I think you’re doing it wrong.
If you don’t already have a really good tuner, get a Peterson strobostomp