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starter pedals?


plunky

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Recommend me one or a few inexpensive pedals that I can start to mess around with? I don't really know much about them, and I don't want to hang out in GC for days. I've played a little over a year, my gear is Standard Strat and AD30VT. I like hard rock. This will be purely for my own amusement/education.

 

I'm thinking I want at least a distortion pedal. Anything else standard that I should learn to use?

 

Thanks.

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Originally posted by plunky

Recommend me one or a few inexpensive pedals that I can start to mess around with? I don't really know much about them, and I don't want to hang out in GC for days. I've played a little over a year, my gear is Standard Strat and AD30VT. I like hard rock. This will be purely for my own amusement/education.


I'm thinking I want at least a distortion pedal. Anything else standard that I should learn to use?


Thanks.

 

 

 

Does'nt that amp have build in effects already?

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Originally posted by plunky

Yeah, it has effects. I'm looking to get distortion so I can switch without fiddling with it...was wondering if there is anything else really basic.

 

 

Check out Danelectro. Their cheapest pedals run about $15 each.

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Originally posted by plunky

Yeah, it has effects. I'm looking to get distortion so I can switch without fiddling with it...was wondering if there is anything else really basic.

 

 

big muff RI is good, or the dano pedals. i'd get modulation first though, the gain knob will give you all the distortion you need, but the built in effects combos are pretty limited

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The AD30VT has about all you will need built in to the amp, I would start by tweaking the presets on that. The amp really is not made to be used with pedals.

But as to a basic set of pedals to use with non-modleing amps...

1. One or two distortion/OD pedals. A good pedal for classic rock stuff is the Digitech Bad Money - or for more aggressive overdrive - a Boss DS-1 or Metal Zone.

2. A delay pedal is always fun to learn to use..

3. Last would be some sort of modulation pedal. I use a chorus pedal myself, but a flanger and/or a phase shifter are good pedals to know how to use.

Those are the three basic pedals. Once you start establishing
your own style and sound you can add or subtract from those as you see fit, but those are the three basic classes of pedals that you will run into the most in hord rock....

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I bought this Behringer pedal new for $29 from music123.com http://www.music123.com/Behringer-Vintage-Distortion-i156745.music

This is a fairly big pedal. I love the sound from it. Very creamy distortion, and is one of the few pedals I own that sounds good with single coil guitars and humbuckers. P-90s sound good too. The sustain feature is nice. It is a copy of the more expensive Electro-Harmonix pedals, like the Big Muff pi and such.

The Boss DS-1 is also a good pedal for $39. I like the Behringer better, but they both are good. The Behringer can get a little muddy if you play complex stuff, but for most rock and blues it is pretty good.

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Another suggestion is to not get any pedals until you know you need one. I've only bought pedals when I wanted to have a particular effect that I heard somewhere and I wanted to get that effect.

Your best bet is to use your amp's onboard effects and be able to foot switch among them (don't know if you can on that amp).

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IMO, don't get pedals just to get them. You don't necessarily have to spend a lot of money to get a good pedal (Bad Monkey for example, gets rave reviews), but there ARE plenty of cheap, {censored}ty pedals out there which will end up collecting dust once you realize your amp had a better sound to begin with. I've got a Boss DS1 and a EHX Russian Small Stone that are so bad I'm pissed at myself for buying them in the first place.

That's my experience at least, I'm sure others will say differently. But the difference between some pedals is like night and day. It's crazy.

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Originally posted by metallica_00

IMO, don't get pedals just to get them. You don't necessarily have to spend a lot of money to get a good pedal (Bad Monkey for example, gets rave reviews), but there ARE plenty of cheap, {censored}ty pedals out there which will end up collecting dust once you realize your amp had a better sound to begin with. I've got a Boss DS1 and a EHX Russian Small Stone that are so bad I'm pissed at myself for buying them in the first place.


That's my experience at least, I'm sure others will say differently. But the difference between some pedals is like night and day. It's crazy.

 

 

I'm surprised you don't like the DS-1. I guess it can be modded too for better sound. Most people like 'em, and a number of famous people have used them, not that that means anything.

 

I think for the OP, he just wants to mess around at home, and even though he has a good modeler amp, there are still a lot of sounds it doesn't make. Boss and Digitech in general make good pedals at reasonable prices. There are boutique pedals out there that may sound better, although that is subjective, but their prices usually are not subjective, they can cost as much or more than this guy's amp, which seems silly.

 

Dano and Behringer to a lesser extent make decent pedals, especially if you just play at home and won't be too hard on them.

 

Once you get better, and the kind of amp you have too, better pedals make more sense. You could also go with something like a POD or a Toneworks SE and get tons more effects in one unit. Not cheap though.

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Originally posted by plunky

Yeah, it has effects. I'm looking to get distortion so I can switch without fiddling with it...was wondering if there is anything else really basic.

 

 

 

Get a BOSS DS-1 if you want a distortion pedal. It's a great intro pedal. Very durable/ gigable with good useable distortion tones. You can buy them brand new for under $50.

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Originally posted by IRG

I'm surprised you don't like the DS-1. I guess it can be modded too for better sound. Most people like 'em, and a number of famous people have used them, not that that means anything.


I think for the OP, he just wants to mess around at home, and even though he has a good modeler amp, there are still a lot of sounds it doesn't make. Boss and Digitech in general make good pedals at reasonable prices. There are boutique pedals out there that may sound better, although that is subjective, but their prices usually are not subjective, they can cost as much or more than this guy's amp, which seems silly.


Dano and Behringer to a lesser extent make decent pedals, especially if you just play at home and won't be too hard on them.


Once you get better, and the kind of amp you have too, better pedals make more sense. You could also go with something like a POD or a Toneworks SE and get tons more effects in one unit. Not cheap though.

 

 

I understand that the OP is not playing through a fancy tube amp or anything, but I bought my DS-1 when I had my original guitar and a 65W solid state Fender amp. At the time, I remember thinking, "oh a distortion pedal, cool, this will be fun", but it ended up being a waste of money. I've found it to be fizzy, harsh, and generally un-amplike, in stock form. I will say it is well made, however. I guess I've always though it makes sense to get gear you can grow with rather than outgrow. Something that won't be rendered useless if the OP ends up getting a better amp in the future, etc. Pedals are kind of a trap because the can be cheap and you can buy them on a whim, unlike guitars/amps. If had bought the Barber in the first place I'd be $50 richer today and would have had better tone no matter what, ya know?

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Originally posted by metallica_00

I understand that the OP is not playing through a fancy tube amp or anything, but I bought my DS-1 when I had my original guitar and a 65W solid state Fender amp. At the time, I remember thinking, "oh a distortion pedal, cool, this will be fun", but it ended up being a waste of money. I've found it to be fizzy, harsh, and generally un-amplike, in stock form. I will say it is well made, however. I guess I've always though it makes sense to get gear you can grow with rather than outgrow. Something that won't be rendered useless if the OP ends up getting a better amp in the future, etc. Pedals are kind of a trap because the can be cheap and you can buy them on a whim, unlike guitars/amps. If had bought the Barber in the first place I'd be $50 richer today and would have had better tone no matter what, ya know?

 

 

 

Comparing the Barber direct drive with the DS-1 is a bit misleading. The Barber is a classic Overdrive voiced pedal. Thats a BIG dif' to a distortion pedal like the DS-1 is. Two dif wave forms.

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Originally posted by RaVenCAD

most useful pedal you can buy is an EQ..

 

 

That's probably not a bad idea.

 

I was going to suggest a bad monkey. They are cheap and you can use them to boost the bass if you want more thunk.

 

But the EQ will do that for you too and you really don't need the extra distortion with that Vox.

 

I like the recommendation above for a wah wah pedal too.

 

But one thing that I do think is F'd up about that Vox series amp is that you can't combine delay + reverb.

 

So I'd recommend that you purchase either a separate delay or reverb pedal so you can get the Reverb + slap back sound going.

 

Lots of choices to choose from in that department.

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Originally posted by dughaze

Another suggestion is to not get any pedals until you know you need one. I've only bought pedals when I wanted to have a particular effect that I heard somewhere and I wanted to get that effect.

 

 

I get what you're saying here. But...I'm not taking lessons and I don't play with other folks, so I would just never "know I needed one". Well, except for distortion that I know I need at the moment. I would have bought the DS-1 that I see suggested in so many places, but I'd read that it was only for tube amps, so thought I'd ask here first.

 

 


Your best bet is to use your amp's onboard effects and be able to foot switch among them (don't know if you can on that amp).

 

 

This would be wonderful, but I have no such foot switch.

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Well, I love my stock DS-1 and I'm about to mod it with monte allums' mod.

However, I use most of my dirt boxes with my drive channel on my classic 30 with the volume all the way up and the dist all the way down.

So you really can't listen to us, you have to try a few.

The two I would try for od/dist would be the Boss DS-1 and the Digitech Bad Monkey.

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Originally posted by plunky

Recommend me one or a few inexpensive pedals that I can start to mess around with? I don't really know much about them, and I don't want to hang out in GC for days. I've played a little over a year, my gear is Standard Strat and AD30VT. I like hard rock. This will be purely for my own amusement/education.


I'm thinking I want at least a distortion pedal. Anything else standard that I should learn to use?


Thanks.

 

 

You might wanna check out some kind of multi-effects processor, like a Line 6 Pod XT, or something similar. You'll get a good idea of how all the different effects work, etc. Plus they sound damn anyway.

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