Most Essential Pedals Discussion

[Roubster]

So there has been some discussion about distortion pedals and building pedal boards. I have also been slowly trying to put together a nice pedal board set up which will be the most versatile, compact and practical in most applications.

I thought it would be interesting to discuss what everyone thinks are the most essential pedals for their rig, which ones and so on.

Personally I have 3 main things that are an absolute MUST for me. #1 being of course a Distortion Pedal and Overdrive...both are essential to me for 3 different gain structures (Distortion, Overdrive and than of course both on together for lead shinanigans). #2 has to be a delay pedal! I CANNOT play or live without a nice delay. #3 Chorus is another must for some nice crunchy riffs, and almost always engaged on the clean channel...just sounds so much more interesting than a dry clean sound.

So those are my MAIN 3, but here are the following pedals I am working on to obtain for some more versatility: 1) Compression unit - for both clean and dirt 2) Boost pedal 3) and Reverb for some nice ambient type things 4) And of course there must be a tuner! Almost forgot about that. 5) and last but not least, a volume pedal to control the effects in the loop ala Mr. Morse .

 

[Metropolis777]

Just picked up a Flashback delay...best delay pedal I've ever used!

 

[Gio_Force_One]

Boss dd3 delay pedal , ts808 and a wah that's all I really need. Now I have more then that but those 3 are always with me.

 

[Roubster]

Yes the all mighty Flashback...this is definitely going on my board next to the DD3 next week. Eventually I want to replace my DD3 with possibly a Strymon Timeline. That thing looks and sounds amazing.

 

[peterd79]

I have a few things that i look for when making a new board...

1) OD
2) Distortion
3) Delay

Mind you i have a ton of pedals on my board right now but they always start around those three pedals...
1) Im using a Barber LTD SR
2) VFE Distortion 3
3) Cusack Tap-a-Delay

my most recent find is the TC Electronic Trinity reverb and it's pretty flippin awesome... almost awlays on.

 

[Metropolis777]

I used to use a DD5, a chorus ensemble, and the reverb in my Mesa to get my tone. The flashback replaced them all and sounds better!

 

[nobozos]

Really depends on what type of music you are into. Obviously, if you are playing U2, Rush, or Vai stuff, for example, your going to require a lot of different kinds of pedals than you would for Led Zeppelin or AC/DC.

For the type of music I play, mainly classic rock, I use an overdrive in front of the amp, and chorus and delay in the effects loop, with the amp's reverb.

I used to use a variety of stomp boxes in the effects loop, but now I just use a Boss ME-70. The effects are all at your fingertips, without too much work. You can program in your standard sounds, and use the presets for specific songs. I never play with a Flanger, except for the beginning if Spirit of Radio and Ain't Talking 'Bout Love.

I know you can probably geek out on getting the best of the best pedals to achieve the sound you want, but the Boss I have is adequate. Honestly, the only person that really cares about the difference between the sound of the chorus in the ME-70, and a Liquid Chorus is the player. Nobody else notices, at least that's been my experience. Never had somebody come up to me during a break and ask, "Hey man, your delay sounds incredible. What do you use?"

 

[JMD]

In order of priority
1) Tuner
2) Dirt
3) Verb or Delay (anything with a little 'room' for single note leads)
4) Wah

My board currently:
Korg Pitchblack > OCD v.4 (approx roundtrip 12'oclocks) > Fulltone Clyde Deluxe Wah > Voodoo Lab Chorus > Sparkle Drive (bit of boost, bit of extra crunch) > T-Rex Roomate II > Line6 DL4 (programmed slap, long and a setting I use for ambient volume swells)

 

[KevTN]

For me I use the blues driver. And overdrive the same. Then my phase 90 and carbon copy delay.

 

[dkannen]

As for the compressor, have you looked into the Keeley compressor? Back when I had actual pedals running instead of my rack setup now, the Keeley was ALWAYS on. Just made everything sound better.

As for boost, can't go wrong with a classic ibby ts808/9 or even a maxon.

 

[Metropolis777]

What is everyone's preference on noise gate/suppressors? I'm running through a 5 watt Blackstar that I crank nearly all the way. It gets a great power tube distortion (very good brown sound) but feeds back like crazy. What noise gate is best to help with that?

 

[mtrejo]

For delay, check this out. I just got it and it's incredible. Eventide - TimeFactor

 

[dkannen]

What is everyone's preference on noise gate/suppressors? I'm running through a 5 watt Blackstar that I crank nearly all the way. It gets a great power tube distortion (very good brown sound) but feeds back like crazy. What noise gate is best to help with that?

I used to use a boss NS-2, which is a great little pedal. The only thing is, for cranked tone like that, you might want to consider doing the NS - BOOST- NS setup, for extra tightness. I had NS2 - TS808 - NS2 which sounded fantastic. Also look into the ISP decimator pedals. Great stuff there as well.

 

[Roubster]

Hey Peter, is that TC Trinity that much better than the regular Hall of Fame? Really like TC toneprint pedals. It will be awesome once or if they release the software!

Here is what I have in mind for my board. Some I have and some I have to get :
1)wampler ego comp 2)xotic EP Booster 3)Xotic BB Preamp 4)Suhr Riot 5)Wampler Pinnacle
Loop: 1)TC Corona chorus 2)TC Flashback delay 3)Boss DD3 delay (will change eventually) 4)Strymon Blue Sky reverberator

 

[dkannen]

Have you considered putting them all in a rack with a Voodoo labs GCX?

 

[ScoobySteve]

The Must Have 3:

-Overdrive
-Delay
-Volume Pedal

I almost always use my amps distortion for dirt. I use the OD for overdriven clean tones, and to push distortion settings for a lead tone.

 

[Roubster]

Have you considered putting them all in a rack with a Voodoo labs GCX?

Actually yes I've been looking into that as well. But this is planning for the future haha. So far I only have 4 of the listed pedals with the 5th being the flashback coming next week. Now I would need the GCX and also the ground control. Another possibility is a smaller pedal board friendly switcher by GNI called the LS1 pathfinder switcher. That looks pretty interesting and would probably suffice for the board I am planning out.

 

[Astrofreq]

My distortion come from my amp, so OD isn't a requirement for me in a pedal. I do need my DM3 delay, wah, and dimension C pedal. I love my Frazz Dazzler as well.

 

[beej]

If I paired it down to three things it'd be-

Phaser (Phase 90), Delay, and a Boost or compressor. (Reverb would be a close 4th.)

That and a decent amp and I can get everything I need. The phase 90 covers the slow phase, univibe and rotary sounds. Boost or compressor thickens things up or gooses the amp, and delay has a lot of sonic functions.

 

[Jamie M]

Xotic BB Preamp
MXR Carbon Delay
MXR Dynacomp
Boss CH-1 chorus
Blackstar reverb
EVH Wah