And after a pleasant but unsatisfying relationship with an Orange Crush 15R (sounded okay for a cheapie SS, looked RAWK), I've gone tube. Night and day. Yum.
The next step, of course, is FX, since my happy-headphone Pandora is not going to cut it. Which gives you guys the opportunity to set me properly on the Path of Tone.
I'm really just learning, so it's mostly blues and classic rock, and mostly bedroom/apartment volume. So I'm thinking My First Pedal will be an OD. But wah and fuzz are also contenders, and I'm open to suggestions.
The insanely nice and cool guys at my local shop pointed me to the Menatone Red Snapper, which was like a really mellow make-out session (and I mean that in a good way). But spendy, and I know there are more TS808 variations out there than I can possibly try.
Where should I start? Bad Monkey? IMM, I'm in your hands.
― rogermexico (rogermexico), Friday, 3 February 2006 21:16 (eighteen years ago) link
I got a cheapo Danelectro Tremolo 'cause I just wanted to try one out, and see if I could get some good spaghetti western sounds. Now I'm hooked and I have the following pedals on my wish list:
Boss DD-6 Delaysome distortion pedals, recommendations?Boss Reverb
I feel kind of weird buying guitar pedals, because a) I'm not a guitarist, and b) I feel like most people already got this out of the way in high school.
― Jordan (Jordan), Friday, 3 February 2006 21:27 (eighteen years ago) link
Dude, I'm in my 30s. This is what keeps me young.
― rogermexico (rogermexico), Friday, 3 February 2006 21:43 (eighteen years ago) link
If anyone has advice about pedals that work especially well with keyboards (esp. cheapo keyboards), holla back.
― Jordan (Jordan), Friday, 3 February 2006 21:48 (eighteen years ago) link
I started playing guitar when I was 18.
I'm 31 now, and I still buy and sell 4 or 5 pedals a week.
Roger, OD is a great idea for a first pedal cause there are good ones out there on the cheap and cause it's a pedal you'll likely continue to use for a lot of stuff.
The Danelectro Daddy O can be had pretty cheap on eBay (and it's only like $60 new). It's a very good inexpensive OD with a lot of variation (because it has separate controls for high mid and low eq). I know a couple pros who actually use it, and not because of some endorsement deal either. (No, it's not a Menatone or other boutique pedal, but it's great for a "consumer model.")
There's always the yellow Boss OD. The current crop are decent stock, and if you decide you want to step it up later you could always send it to Analogman and have it converted to boutique specs and give it a TS808 sounding option to boot. (Or you can buy one premodded from Analogman online, though of course it costs more.) The Analogman mod makes that cheap Boss pedal a damn tone machine.
My favorite OD is the Frantone Hep Cat (or its decendant, the Brooklyn). Both are pricey though, and they are higher gain ODs than the Tubescreamer ilk.
Oh... a good cheap OD option if you don't mind buying used on eBay is the DOD FX50 Overdrive. It's yellow and has only two knobs. (The three knob version is later in the lifespan of the DOD OD.) It's nowhere near as pricey as the DOD 250, and it's a very nice OD for use with a tube amp.
What kinda amp you got? Cause you may be able to coax some nice natural OD out of it by investing in a decent boost pedal too.
The problem with overdrive is that there are just tons and tons of good pedals out there, and you probably won't find the one that suits your style and preference best until you've played through a decent number of them.
― martin m. (mushrush), Friday, 3 February 2006 22:55 (eighteen years ago) link
So I have come to understand in an astonishingly short time!
After checking out everything from the Epiphone Valve Special to the Blues Jr to the Bad Cat Mini Cat (phroar - and internet chatter claims that the Star Nova tops it), I snagged myself a Reverend Goblin. It's 5-15 switchable, so running it at 5W puts some nice crunch within reach. Just not at late-night volumes.
I'm still honeymooning, so who knows, but it's fantastically versatile (gain/EQ/reverb/selectable wattage), which is a real plus for someone who's still learning the electric guitar vocabulary.
― rogermexico (rogermexico), Saturday, 4 February 2006 00:13 (eighteen years ago) link
my entire sound is based on playing cheapo keyboards through a couple pedals and a small gtr practice am.
― no bones, Saturday, 4 February 2006 00:17 (eighteen years ago) link
― n/a (Nick A.), Saturday, 4 February 2006 02:37 (eighteen years ago) link
36 and rockin' in the free - in my blood, i'll give it up when they prise the six string from my cold dead fingers
RAWWW!!!!
― john clarkson, Saturday, 4 February 2006 14:36 (eighteen years ago) link
So I've been spending a lot of time on ebay and a couple of other places buying used pedals. Figure some'll eventually get resold and some won't.
First batch:Subdecay Liquid SunshineZoom PD-01Boss DS-1 (Boss, musical dyslexics everywhere thank you for humorously labeling your Distortion "DS-1" and your Overdrive "SD-1". Whoops. But hey, distortion.)
Next up: Compressor? Fuzz? Chorus? I suddenly understand the thing with girls and shoes. Seriously.
― rogermexico (rogermexico), Tuesday, 7 February 2006 23:56 (eighteen years ago) link
hi I'm pedal hunting for the first time! what are some pedals that make wacky ass sounds? particularly interested in pitch shifting and sustain type stuff, more than distortion
― stimmy stimmy yah (Simon H.), Friday, 12 February 2021 23:08 (three years ago) link