Most essential effects?

[Eric]

I loaned out my Boss ME-50 a few months ago, and as that was my only source of effects, its absence has allowed me to figure out what effects I actually like/need.

What I determined is that I like dirt, reverb, and wah. I could also use some chorus once in awhile, which is probably the only effect I actually miss. I really really thought I'd miss delay, but I've been surprisingly fine without it.

So my question to all of you is this: what effects do you put at the top of your list? Which ones do you find most essential? I'd like to know what everyone else relies upon to get their preferred tone.

 

[Commodore 64]

I wanted a compressor pretty bad, and got the ED-1 from you. I've yet to find a setting on it that I like. That said, Jackhammer that I got form you, I really like. I also like the Boss DS-1 and my Boss Blues Driver (Allum Blues Stack). I keep those 3 pedals plugged in and switch between them often, just for fun.

I've never been able how to use Flanger, Phaser, Chorus or Delay for anything other than farting around for 30 seconds...I just can't ever make them sound good.

So in answer to your question, I guess I'd have to say "Dirt Pedals", too.

I really, really, really, really need a looper. I missed one last week on Craig's List, a Line 6 JM4, for $150. Called the seller about 15 minutes too late. :/

 

[marnold]

Overdrive and delay are the only ones I consider "essential." Even then, I prefer sometimes to just plug in direct and let 'er rip! The other pedals I have (chorus, fuzz, and the various ones on my EX-7) I use to change things up a bit.

 

[Tig]

Overdrive and delay are the only ones I consider "essential." Even then, I prefer sometimes to just plug in direct and let 'er rip! The other pedals I have (chorus, fuzz, and the various ones on my EX-7) I use to change things up a bit.

+1 on OD and delay, with delay coming out slightly on top for me. While I love a bit of reverb, I can make relay work better for my sounds.

 

[hubberjub]

I've recently been jamming with a new group of musicians and decided I was too lazy to bring my Pedaltrain Pro and Mesa. I've been just grabbing my DVM Compressor and my Lovepedal Eternity overdrive and playing into an 1960 something Univox tube amp that I picked up for a hundred bucks. Everyone says it sounds great. I do miss my delay but I don't really need it for what we're doing.

 

[Eric]

Even then, I prefer sometimes to just plug in direct and let 'er rip!

I was going to mention that when I say dirt and reverb, I really just use what my amp gives me -- no separate pedals. In fact, other than my amp, all I use these days is wah. It's really pretty sweet in its simplicity.

 

[markb]

Dirt and delay. A bit of wobble (chorus or tremolo depending on material) is nice too sometimes but I can live without it.

 

[omegadot]

OD and deloy for me. I throw on chorus sometimes for a little fun. The rest don't excite me.

 

[duhvoodooman]

I'd add an analog delay to the list. A good phaser is pretty cool, too.

In addition to considering pedals that add various effects, here's an "essential" pedal that removes that which you don't want. Anybody who likes high-gain pedals--ESPECIALLY if they play single coil guitars--needs one of these. This is the Boss version, but there are several others available:

 

[Eric]

In addition to considering pedals that add various effects, here's an "essential" pedal that removes that which you don't want. Anybody who likes high-gain pedals--ESPECIALLY if they play single coil guitars--needs one of these.

You know, noise suppressors are something that I'll use if I have access to one, but never think to buy/get if I don't have one.

 

[R_of_G]

Tremolo and reverb. I can live without them, and often play clean, but when I want affected tone, those are the two I reach for first.

 

[FusedGrooves]

I also run the ME-50 along with the Boss looper RC-50.

With some of the cheaper guitars I'd use a few more effects, playing my custom Ibanez and Yammie SA2200 I usually only go clean....ONLY adding some reverb. On that I've noticed others commenting on how bad the ME50s reverb is and I'd sorta agree.....however I ONLY use the 'MOD' type and find it to sound the best to me, and only JUST...the setting would be the lowest on the MOD type.

So for me, top of list
Reverb

Occasionally I use:
Chorus, Trem, Delay (delay more so than any other on this line).

Very Occasionally for lead/solo's I use OD - I like the BD-1 setting for blues

Foot Pedal:
The WAH on the ME50 is rubbish as you'd know, but having the volume pedal is a great feature.

Octave -1:
I don't yet have a bass guitar or rig, so when looping I add bass lines by using the OCTAVE -1 setting. This is fairly limiting and you need to chop the notes since 2 notes won't work together....I assume it's some sort of simulator since adding more than 1 note or playing notes too close together confuses it easily....LOL however it's ODD handy when using with the looper and only requiring fairly basic bass lines.

Lastly but not leastly, I have configured one of my Presets for a clean sound using just reverb and some delay. The delay is run very fast and close together with only 1 repeat so it's barely detectable but and how to explain it....kind makes it sound like a hollowbody/acoustic I guess....not really and the other button that does this does a much better job of emulating those HB and Acoustic sounds but yeah, not quite sure how to explain it but I use it (fast single delay) frequently.

 

[hubberjub]

I'd add an analog delay to the list. A good phaser is pretty cool, too.

In addition to considering pedals that add various effects, here's an "essential" pedal that removes that which you don't want. Anybody who likes high-gain pedals--ESPECIALLY if they play single coil guitars--needs one of these. This is the Boss version, but there are several others available:

I'm surprised to see that. I've never found single coil hum all that much of a bother. Most people that I know who use a noise suppressor are metal players who use a lot of gain and want absolute silence in between notes.

 

[6stringdrug]

I'm surprised to see that. I've never found single coil hum all that much of a bother. Most people that I know who use a noise suppressor are metal players who use a lot of gain and want absolute silence in between notes.

+1 on that. I bought one cuz I had a ton of hum in my rig. Turned out it was the order of my line and bad power. Once I changed the order around and got a decent power supply, that fixed it and the NS-2 went to ebay.

As far as my gotta have pedal, my ts808. Can't live without it, love my chorus too, but it's not integral. If I lost my tubescreamer, I'm done.

 

[Spudman]

Dirt, wah and delay are my 'go to' pedals if I have to have any. I guess I've been using a wah so long I almost think of it as just part of the guitar anymore.

With dirt I can either have a slight dirt boost or a really overdriven sound. Then a delay will allow me reverb or room type ambiance or the standard multi repeat long delays. If it had to come down to just one pedal I would have to have a dirt pedal of some kind. Otherwise, the three sounds I listed can keep me quite happy.

 

[deeaa]

1. Dirt - love my Jackhammer
2. some sort of lead boost (I use the Marshall ED-1 for that a lot)...
3. I guess these days an analog delay, I've become quite addicted to it. (Used to be verb, but the Ceriatone sounds like it has the best verb in the world, although it has none, so I haven't needed a verb since that amp...it just sounds big like it'd have a verb, so I don't need one.)

But all in all, I'd rather have 3-4 different levels of dirt at my feet before I even start thinking about other FX.

 

[Duffy]

Pedals

I don't think you have a strat Eric, do you?

When playing my strats thru some of my distortion and overdrive pedals set at high levels and a lot of gain, I get mega magnified noise, especially in the non noise cancelling positions.

Don't know if a noise supressor would help me but it would be great if one would because I could then use a lot heavier OD and distortion possibly to good sounding effect, but maybe this is just better left to the humbuckers.

As far as essential pedals, I bought a digitech hardwire reverb and it is an awesome reberb, better than most you find on amps, so this is a good one to have.

I have a few overdrives and distortions of good quality that I like to use, including the Bad Monkey, which is one of the best, and the Danelectro Wasabi OD which is very interesting. I use the Bad Monkey the most and it is a very nice sounding tube type overdrive.

Another pedal that I'm really glad I got is the Boss Tremolo. I like tremolo much better than chorus and can get that Roland rotary speaker sound out of it when I turn the speed down and get the depth just coming up to where it can be heard spinning the sound. So I like a really slow speed, fairly shallow tremolo way better than chorus. I use this pedal when I want that rotary speaker sound for blues, etc., other slow stuff, and so on.

The real good ones to have are really nice overdrives and reverbs.

I have a few multipedals that are fun to use, but with a really good tube amp I have found that no pedals or really good single or double purpose pedals that work well with the particular amp are the best way to go for a really high quality tone, the multipedals subtracting from the superb tone of a great tube amp.

The next pedal I want to get is a boost pedal, like that Seymour Duncan pickup booster pedal. This way I can hit the preamp harder.

 

[markb]

Noise gates only mask the noise when no signal is coming from the guitar if the threshold is set correctly. Set the threshold too high and you will cut off note decay and other tonal subtleties. Use carefully.
If you use a modelling amp, you've got one built in. I always turned the gate on my DA5 and AD50VT off as I found them obtrusive. I'm stuck with the one on the Cube 60 but it seems to be less aggressive than the default settings on the Vox amps.
My strat was noisy as 'til recently when I got a local repair guy to sort out the ground path. It's about as quiet as a strat gets now. I also shielded the cavity with copper foil.

 

[Eric]

I don't think you have a strat Eric, do you?

No sir. No strats in my household.

 

[Brian Krashpad]

Dirt, delay, reverb. Rarely chorus.

I can't remember the last time I used a pedal besides the 2-button for my Super Champ XD, or, further back, a volume pedal.

 

[sunvalleylaw]

I will add myself to the list of Overdrive (ZYS is king!) and either a verb effect, in amph or through, pedal, or delay. As a newer player, my ear is still more comfortable with reverb, but I have learned how to use the MXR delay as a substitute. Beyond that, I want more dirt like a Rodent, and sometimes a chorus for fun. I would love to have the skill to really use a wah, but I am not at all there.

 

[Katastrophe]

An amph is the most important effect...:what

If I were starting from scratch (which I am), I would say reverb and OD are absolutely essential for me.

Otherwise, in a perfect world, I'd have reverb, OD, delay, chorus and a wah. Not much you can't do with that setup.

 

[Eric]

If I were starting from scratch (which I am), I would say reverb and OD are absolutely essential for me.

Otherwise, in a perfect world, I'd have reverb, OD, delay, chorus and a wah. Not much you can't do with that setup.

+1 on this whole thing.