What Are The Essential Pedals? - FX Discussions on theFretBoard (2024)

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• mike_l Frets: 5700

  July 2015

  Wah

  OD or distortion (or a multi-channel amp)

  Delay and/or reverb

  Non essential

  Chorus

  Phase

  Flanger

  Having said that, non are essential as long as the guitar/amp combinationsounds awesomes

  Ringleaderof the Cambridge cartel, pedal champ and king of the dirt boxes (down to 21)

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• UnclePsychosis Frets: 13052

  July 2015

  There are no essential pedals. (Although a pedal tuner is probably a good idea).

  The only time pedals become "essential" is if there is a sound you are trying to make that you cannot make otherwise. That may or may not be the case.

  That said, probably the best pedals for pedal beginners are delays, fuzzes, phasers, wah-wahs. All sounds that you cannot make normally and all very common in many types of music.

  My trading feedback

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• Branshen Frets: 1222

  July 2015

  I'd say it depends on your music. I use delay and verb for a fair bit of my band stuff, so the pedals are key to my sound. I have delay on my modelling amp but it wouldn't give me even close to what I need.

  If you're playing ska/reggae, you'll want a wah/autowah. You'll want phaser and chorus if you're into '80s rock stuff.

  If you're playing blues and jazz, then arguably you don't "need" anything, but it's always fun to expand on your sounds with effect pedals.

  And of course everyone ('cept the snooty tube-breakup folk) needs a drive pedal.

  What music do you play?

  My Shortfilm Soundtracks:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TexE7gi0wwc&list=PL4UQJSI-nOemwOZLdxDnBuN-Edpe5E3QZ
  Band Stuff:https://navigationofficial.bandcamp.com/album/silhouette-ep
  

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• jpttaylor Frets: 473

  July 2015

  The only two I'd need are a tuner and a delay, and even the tuner is dubious if you have a clip on.

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• Gassage Frets: 31153

  July 2015

  comp dist od flanger delay
  

  *An Official Foo-Approved guitarist since Sept 2023.

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• guitarfishbay Frets: 7966

  July 2015

  For me, tuner, noise gate, volume pedal. That is the utility stuff - if you use a gate it makes sense to also use a volume pedal after the gate, as using the guitar volume pot then might cause the gate to cut off the tail of quieter notes. Anything else is an actual effect so depends on needs.

  If you don't play loud with high gain you might not need a gate, which might mean no need for a volume pedal, so only the tuner would be necessary if you had no other means of tuning. Personally I'd still use a volume pedal regardless as I prefer to have both hands free for playing.

  Music

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• rsvmark Frets: 1404

  July 2015

  Compressor, tuner, delay

  An official Foo liked guitarist since 2024

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• d8m Frets: 2434

  July 2015

  Depends what sort of music you play but a tuner and delay are a must I reckon.

  A metalzone is always an essential just as a baseline of how bad dirt pedals can be!

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• Teetonetal Frets: 7834

  July 2015

  Well, essential to me is a two stage phaser, a tap tempo delay, a tap tempo tremolo and a tuner.

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• IanSavage Frets: 1319

  July 2015

  Always need a tuner.

  As a guitarist who largely plays rhythm in bluesy / rocky outfits (usually doing deps or jam nights), I find that I need an overdrive of some sort in case I can't use my own amp, and I like using tremolo (tap-tempo ideally for dropping it in on-the-fly).

  An awful lot of lead guitarists I play with can't do a solo without delay, and there often needs to be a boost pedal to go with it; I can't see why you shouldn't be able to cover most mainstream ground with a tuner, overdrive, boost and delay.

  What I play:http://www.jhs.co.uk/iansavage.html

  Shite I write:http://www.themidlandsrocks.com/

  Stuff for sale: http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/smokingbeagle101/m.html?item=351605534957&ssPageName=STRK%3AMESELX%3AIT&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2562

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• daveyh Frets: 692

  July 2015

  Tuner, and possibly an overdrive/distortion depending on the amp.

  Trading feedback:https://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/57836/

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• topomorto Frets: 68

  July 2015

  If you already think you have loads of options then you probably don't need any more.

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• John_P Frets: 2756

  July 2015

  Definitely at least one red one.

  my trading feedback Highway to Hull - AC/DC tribute

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• hugbot Frets: 1528

  July 2015

  Rat.

  I always recommend the rat when someone wants a distortion, just because I think before you start going boutique it's worth trying through the obvious things first. Rat, tubescreamer ect. A lot of boutique stuff is just tweaks of classic designs anyway.

  Nothing is truely essential mind.

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• Sassafras Frets: 30320

  July 2015

  I wouldn't like to be without a light touch of reverb if the amp doesn't have it.

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• AxeWieldingBastard Frets: 156

  July 2015

  I'd say a good eq pedal should be fairly high up on the list of pedal priorities. After that, a compressor can pretty much be applied to any style of music. As a tuner has already been mentioned, i'd say those three types are the essential utilities.
  

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• EricTheWeary Frets: 16404

  July 2015

  Wisdom to UncleP.

  Off the top of my head the main categories would be something like eq, boost ( overdrive/distortion/ compression), modulation and time based. So something in each category covers a lot of ground ( plus a tuner!). So, for example - wah, tube screamer, rotary and reverb would be a good blues-rock set up but would do rock, reggae,etc, impersonations.

  Tipton is a small fishing village in the borough of Sandwell.

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• Lew Frets: 1657

  July 2015

  Essential? A muff variant.

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• DesVegas Frets: 4640

  July 2015 edited July 2015

  Welcome to your first day of schoolin

  a good place to start is with a phaser, preferably the mxr one with the joined up writting (script 90 they call it.)
  "most" pedals are 60 uk bucks, but our friend gassage up there has bought em for 350

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• monquixote Frets: 17916

  July 2015 tFB Trader

  Nothing is really essential.

  But assuming you are playing in a covers band

  If you don't have a multi channel amp then some kind of OD or distortion is going to be required.

  Wah is one of those things where if you need it for a song then you have to have one.

  Modulation is entirely optional unless you are doing something like "Ain't Talking Bout Love" where it's really central to the song. If you do have one you really don't need chorus, flange and phase. Just generic "Swirly Thing" will do.

  Many people will disagree with me, but I also tend to think of delay as inessential unless you are doing U2 type stuff. I have one, but I hardly use it.

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