Passing Afternoon

So if you love to play guitar, more specifically electric guitar, and even more specifically love effects pedals, then there is a bit of info that could be helpful.

I started collecting effects pedals like 2 years ago. I wish someone would have told me what I know now back then, I also have looked at beginner musicians that I know and wish someone would have told them, it would have potentially saved me and some friends of mine a lot of money. But live and learn I guess.

To give you an idea I played lead guitar in a band, I owned a Fender Nashville Tele for a while, now I modified a SX tele with Seymour Duncan pickups, I also now play both rhythm and lead, so versatility is key when it comes to tone.

I guess what every starting musician starts with is always a standard pedal(s), you know the distortion’s, simple delay, tuner, volume pedal(not needed). I am not trying to say these are not needed, they are exceptionally necessary, but it’s usually clockwork for starting musicians looking for pedals. What I did was I went out and got the simplest version as well, so I purchased the Boss DS-1, a simple but kind distortion, a little buzz/feedback, but do able, and then I wanted a clean boost at the time, considering at the time I had a old Crate V8-212 it didn’t produce a lot of power because of its age, but again do able, so I went and picked out the Ibanez TS-9 (tube screamer). I like this pedal a lot, it can be used as a boost, or a good solid drive pedal, but I used it as a boost, or to add color. Next I purchased a few odd pedals, kind of was just feeling out sound, so I got a couple Danelectro’s used, and the Holy Grail Plus Reverb pedal, so over time I also picked up the Line 6 DL4, the Marshall Guv’nor Distortion, the Pro Co Rat Distortion. So over time I have spent a lot of greenbacks on pedals, I home made my own pedal board to save money because I spent so much on pedals.

What I learned from all of this is GO to a guitar shop before you bye a pedal, test it out not once, but twice or 3 times, try different guitars different amps, see if that is the pedal you’ve been looking for. Then go somewhere else, amazon or craigslist get it cheaper, you can do whatever to purchase it, but all in all test that pedals, and if you already have pedals and don’t want to rid of them, Modify them many custom shops online will modify pedals for less then it would be to purchase a new one. The place I love is (http://www.jhspedals.com ). There is also similarities in pedals when shopping. The holy grail plus is honestly not really different then the standard Holy Grail, sounds the same, It’s just more expensive. The delay pedals, unless your gonna get crazy, just get a standard Boss Delay pedal. But when it comes to like simple distortions and fuzz, and overdrives those are the ones that the more expensive they get, most likely the better they get, again I can be wrong, I love my Pro Co Rat, and it was under 100. The main point is test your pedals, but I just went out and bought them without testing there true tone, maybe I am the only compulsive buyer alive, but I am pretty sure I’m wrong. Then when you find a pedal with true tone, and rich sounds, then all of your testing pays off.

-mike