Starter pedals?

DaleVO

DaleVO

Poor Farm Productions
I'm a pedal-newb, 50-something rocker wannabe, and realize that this question will open a can of worms. My intent is not for this to degrade into a pissin' contest (as we call it down here on the Po' farm). I know that the answer to my question is preferential and subjective. However, I am looking for inputs to narrow my search and affirmation. I have been researching and have a couple in mind, but do not want to lead the jury. I am just looking to buy a few versatile, starter pedals, and get away from using the amp's modeling settings only.

What would be two to three reccomended pedals, to start a chain for a fledgling classic rocker?
Dale
 
Well what kind of pedals are you interested in getting? Distortion? Overdrive? Modulation? Reverb? Delays? They all do different things. What kind of amp will these pedals be feeding?
 
Boss and DOD pedals have been around forever. They are cheap, reliable and many pro musicians have and still use them.
Now its up to you to figure out what you need soundwise.
 
Sorry- as Ron White says "that's important information to know right there."
Greg- I'm glad you chimed in... I respect your opinion.

Definitely distortion or OD. Others, I am open to suggestions.
I'm a bedroom-concert rocker who only plays to relax, from the 60s-80s. IE. Boston, 38 Special, AC-DC, GnR, Black Crowes, ZZ Top, Allman Bros- Southern Rock-type stuff.

Bought a cheap (C/L steal) Behringer 1200 head and Bugera cab, just to make noise. It's a pain trying to adjust the modeling presets and find I mostly use the stripped-down clean presets, most of the time. I have decent guitars to feed it - Schecter HR DLX- w/ FR and a Gibson SG Std.
Dale
 
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RFR,
I've been looking at the Boss line, for sure. I agree on "I have to figure out ... sound wise." Right now, it's all based on emulating and my ignorance of how-to. So I am going to start experimenting.
Dale
 
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DaleVO said:
Sorry- as Ron White says "that's important information to know right there."
Greg- I'm glad you chimed in... I respect your opinion.

Definitely distortion or OD. Others, I am open to suggestions.
I'm a bedroom-concert rocker who only plays to relax, from the 60s-80s. IE. Boston, 38 Special, AC-DC, GnR, Black Crowes, ZZ Top, Allman Bros- Southern Rock-type stuff.

Bought a cheap (C/L steal) Behringer 1200 head and Bugera cab, just to make noise. It's a pain trying to adjust the modeling presets and find I mostly use the stripped-down clean presets, most of the time. I have decent guitars to feed it - Schecter HR DLX- w/ FR and a Gibson SG Std.
Dale
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Most of the distortion/OD pedals are designed to drive tubes, so you might be out of luck there. I'm not sure how the typical standard OD pedals will act with a Solid State amp. I suspect not very good. If you can get a truly clean sound from that amp, then an amp-in-a-box type thing like the OCD or RAH might work for the sound you want.

All those bands you listed get their tones from tubes. It's not really what you asked for, but I'd suggest you sell that modeling amp and just get you a small tube combo. Then there's a whole world of pedals that you can play with.
 
Greg,
Thanks for your experienced insight. "Truly clean sound"- I have not been completely satisfied with the amp's idea of clean. It's not pristine clean, as I think it should. Although the stripped-down is cleaner than the effects they modeled, I think I have reached the limit on what this amp can do. Didn't take long for this rookie to realize that. It will not be hard to flip this amp and make a few bucks, which was my intent for buying it. I rarely buy without the intent to sell.

Thanks again Cap'n.
Dale
 
You'd only be using the clean as a foundation for the dirt from the pedal. If you can get a clean clean, then you can use a pedal that has it's own dirt tone built into it.
 
Greg,
I appreciate you coming back to answer my newb questions and help me think this through. You are making me smarter.

"clean as a foundation for the dirt from the pedal" That's what I was leaning toward with my OP. I was wondering if I could drive the clean channel with outboard effects, and get a decent tone. But, I think I will drink the "Tube amp" koolaid, for my next C/L steal.

Meanwhile, I am up for experimentation to see if outboard effects can make this amp get a decent tone. So that takes me back to my original question.. which pedals to play with?
Dale
 
Are you budgetarily constrained? There are some fantastic noise making devices out there for modulation and similar effects, none of which I own. Strymon, Electro Harmonix, ThorpyFX etc... not cheap though.

I'm on a Facebook guitar group and all these guys seem to talk about is pedals... not sure if they make any actual music, but they sure have fun with their pedal boards. Could be worth doing something similar?
 
If you can get a good clean sound out of the amp get an amp in a box pedal like an OCD. It's such a useful sounding pedal that even if you do upgrade the amp you'll still get use out of the pedal.

Every review I've seen of the new Fender Bassbreaker amps suggests theyre great though and they're cheep too!
 
In the short term you canget something cheap like the GFS Brownie Classic which can be cleaned up to OD a tube amp but also has a wide range of "classic' tones in the gain & even though most of the Utub vids feature a tube amp the pedal doesn't rely on them.
 
Armistice said:
Are you budgetarily constrained? There are some fantastic noise making devices out there for modulation and similar effects, none of which I own. Strymon, Electro Harmonix, ThorpyFX etc... not cheap though.
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Arm,
I wouldn't say "constrained" but frugal. I have adopted a philosophy of "A poor man has poor ways." all of my life, to make sure that I avoid living beyond my means and try to keep my feet on the ground.

I appreciate the suggestions. I have seen a few Strymon and E-H units, but not the Thorpy. I will put them in my radar.
Dale
 
JDOD said:
...an OCD. It's such a useful sounding pedal that even if you do upgrade the amp you'll still get use out of the pedal
new Fender Bassbreaker amps
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JDOD,
I will take a look at that pedal. It looks like I will be hunting a Toob amp. So having pedals to try on the SS amp, that will work later, will be my approach.
Thanks for the tip on the Fender amp.
Dale
 
For the style you play, get a combo tube amp (maybe consider one with a reverb unit and a tremolo footswitch and save yourself from buying those pedals), a tube screamer for the southern rock, and a rat or big muff for the harder stuff like GnR.
I like the BYOC flanger a lot because it's a flanger, chorus, and phaser all in 1 pedal. You probably don't need a flanger for the style you play, but you might want a chorus, and that pedal can do all three. You'd have to build it, though, unless you can find one pre built.
 
DaleVO said:
I wouldn't say "constrained" but frugal.
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Same here...but I'm frugal only to the point of not wanting to drop wasteful cash...otherwise, I have no problem dropping serious cash as long as I know where the money went. I'll often take some time when looking to buy, and I will review all my options. That way, when I do pull the trigger...there are no tears and little if any buyers remorse.

With a lot of audio gear...if you buy the good stuff, the tried-n-proven stuff...you will never lose out, because even if you don't like it, it will be easily resell-able eBay or wherever....and the stuff you do keep, you'll enjoy for many years.

Lots of great pedals out there.
Have you hit any music stores and just spent a couple of hours trying out pedals?
 
miroslav said:
Same here...but I'm frugal only to the point of not wanting to drop wasteful cash...otherwise, I have no problem dropping serious cash as long as I know where the money went. I'll often take some time when looking to buy, and I will review all my options. That way, when I do pull the trigger...there are no tears and little if any buyers remorse.
Click to expand...
Amen Brother.

miroslav said:
Lots of great pedals out there.
Have you hit any music stores and just spent a couple of hours trying out pedals?
Click to expand...

With the input gathered here, I am narrowing my focus. Then, I'll hit the GC for some test-drives.

I sincerely appreciate everyone's input!
Thanks.
Dale
 
DaleVO said:
JDOD,
I will take a look at that pedal. It looks like I will be hunting a Toob amp. So having pedals to try on the SS amp, that will work later, will be my approach.
Thanks for the tip on the Fender amp.
Dale
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Yeah, it's a great sounding pedal. Another I would recommend is a Boss SD-1. This sounds great in front of a driven tube amp but also sounds good in front of the OCD. I've got a nice Boss Chorus too which is cheap. Don't want too many Boss pedals though cos their buffered, but then you wouldn't want all true bypass pedals either.

Tone City and Dr Tone make decent cheap delays.
I quite like my Tone City phaser.
 
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