I'm going to start picking up a pedal here and there, and I figure that if I don't know what most of these pedals do, others are probably in the same boat.

So if you have a pedal that you love, or just recommend, tell us what they do, and why you like them.

I bought the Wylde Berzerker OD pedal after Gone_Shooting recommended it, and he was absolutely right. It really improved the tone I'm getting. I run through it, into my interface, and the tones inside the box are much better. Instantly noticeable.

Tell us your favorites...

Usually second or third from the left.

I really like Rose pedals and Lilly pedals.

Most of my effects come out of my amp, so the only two pedals I use are Digitech Drop pedal (because I am not down-tuning a whole guitar with a Floyd just to screw around) and the ISP Decimator noise cancellation pedal. Dig them both.

Pedal, like on your bike.

That's hard. I'll name 4.

Keeley Loomer - Fuzz and reverb. I use the fuzz as my primary fuzz now due to the convenience of it. The reverb is great, too.

Keeley Dyno My Roto - I use all 3 settings but have been using the rotoflange the most. It helps make my clean sound lush.

Boss Tera Echo - Ultra ambience when coupled with the Loomers reverb. Volume swells larger than life. I punch it on and off briefly when I go from a heavy sound to clean abruptly. 

EHX B9 - I would really prefer a Mel9 for my bands sound but this does well. I really want to make a 9 series side board and run two amps. I use this specifically in a few places to add thickness or twinkle using the bell organ. 

Blues lead/rhythm player. I mostly flatpick a Martin now, but played blues/blues-rock for many years in ATL bars until a couple years ago. I still fill in sometimes, and I still use:

My rig : old Strat (I have two early 60s and 2 late 50s - not for sale until I'm dead), sometimes an ES-345, or old yeller ("58 LP Special w/ P-90s) ->  "65 Fender reverb "tank" -> effects -> tweed Deluxe or Bandmaster (Clark Tyger), depending on bar size. Sometimes I used a blackface Pro Reverb or Deluxe Reverb and left the tank at home for convenience. Boss tuner plugged into input 2 of the amp, and later I got a Turbo tuner (stomp) I use as first in chain. I only use 4 pedals :

1. Homemade tremolo based on Electronic Arts trem published long ago, handwired on perf board, "true bypass", with several improvements (as published) and mistakes fixed. A lot of blues tunes you need tremolo, like for Magic Sam tunes, Slim Harpo, swampy feel stuff - you know. Mine has great speed range, and shape can be set for hard (square) to sine with a knob. I mostly leave that knob in one place and adjust the speed to match the tune, and the level so there's no vol change when I kick it in/out (unity). This is the trick with tremelo: adjust the speed to match the song tempo!

2. Wampler Ego: a very musical compressor, used mostly on slow blues, hell, it sounds great on everything. You need a power supply, though, no batteries.

3. Roger Mayer VooDoo-1 fuzz: near as old as me, used as a clean boost for leads only, with drive set for just a little tiny bit of sizzle. The bass gets big, deep, and tight which is what endeared me to this black box.

4. Homemade tube screamer:  My own design and build Tube Screamer clone based loosely on an old green Ibanez a friend had that I reverse-engineered, plus mods of my own. I made it over 15 years ago and do not have the schematic anymore. I recall I put in a mil-style machined pin socket for the op-amp, and tried many many different amp chips, and one day stuck in a Analog Devices amp designed for video and voila - nothing like it. Set mostly as a boost with a little grit, switched on especially with Strat when covering a certain Texas player. I handwired this one on perf board.

Honestly, I played a ton of gigs with no pedals. Blues, ya know. Always got more compliments on my tone than my playing, go figure. LOL

Tech 21 SansAmp Bass Diver DI - Very versatile. Can go from very clean, to some great dirt and grind, or just boost the signal. I usually use it on about 60% blend as an effect pedal, but there I times I'm feeling lazy and just use it as a DI and let the mixing board and p.a. do the work. Tried it with a guitar a few times with less than stellar results.

EXH Big Muff Pi Bass - Great boost and fuzz with no low end loss. Can mix it with the dry signal as well. For guitar I prefer the original version.

Digitech Bad Monkey - Inexpensive, decent overdrive.  Works best for me when it feeds into the Big Muff.

As for pedals I use when messing around with guitar:

Morley Mark Tremonti Power Wah - Optical control, good boost if needed, good wah tone. Works better for my basses than the pos Snarling Dogs Bootzilla Bass wah that I've had for what seems like forever.

EXH Big Muff Pi : Sublte to nasty fuzz/distortion. Classic tone.

Boss Tuner.  When I play I'm going straight into the amp after the tuner.  Been doing it that way for several years.  Granted the Peavey 6505+ doesn't need a boost.  I use to use an Ibanez green box in front of the Marshall.  I like a clean sound so I don't use delay or chorus anymore.  Never been a fan of the wah.

I use an Ibanez Tubescreamer and that's about it. Plug it into a couple old daisy-chained Marshall JMP's and it's that perfect 70's/80's metal tone.

MT-2 and an Octave Divider

My pedal favorites aren't cork-sniffer delights. They're mass-produced appliances that work great for my skill level. I've recently overhauled my effects, kicking out the Boss GT8 and going back to pedals.

ISP Decimator G-String. It's a great pedal-based noise suppressor.

A TS-808 Tubescreamer clone does fine for my preamp gain. My current version is a Visual Sound Route 66 (compressor + TS) with the JRC4558 chip.

Sometimes, a little delay in either tape or modulated flavor can be nice. My current delay is a TC Flashback.

Fulltone GT-500 and a Behringer delay pedal for air.

That's going deep for me, generally a guitar-> cord -> amp guy.

I've always kept a BOSS CS-* for a little kick when leads come in, or I just needed a little more crunch.

Ramble FX

Idiotbox Han-Taun - A great overdrive pedal.  In front of my VHT Standard 18, creates some great crunch sounds.  

Iditobox Blower Box - About the only bass distortion I've ever liked, does some great Blackie-Voivod type grind sounds!  Doesn't neuter the bottom end like some drive boxes do.  

Don't have much need for delays and reverbs, but I've always liked the Earthquaker Dispatch Master for that kind of stuff.  I'll probably pick one up in the near future.

My favorite pedal is my Fulltone MDV-2 DejaVibe but when I don't want to treadle control my speed and have a set speed I use my Fulltone MDV-1 DejaVibe.

Xotic Effects SP compressor. I really like it.  You will have to google compressor to get the explanation of what it does, as I am not able to do it well.

Also, get a tuner.

Glad that the Wylde Overdrive worked for you! Here's some others I like:

Fulltone OCD. I have Version 4 and it's a great pedal. It's more transparent than the Wylde when used as an overdrive and has less of a mid hump. And when used for distortion, it's capable of some nice low gain tones and responds well to touch and the volume knob.

Seymour Duncan 805. I just picked this one up, but so far, I really like it. It's based on the tried and true Tube Screamer, but supposedly uses better components. I don't doubt it, because it sounds great. The 3 band EQ is also nice. It lets you dial it in how you want it, although, if you get too crazy with the EQ settings, it seems to not sound so good. It's spendy, but I'm glad I bough it.

Bogner Ecstasy Red. This is the red channel preamp from the Bogner Ecstasy amp. It has settings for 3 different versions of the amp along with other variables. I've been very happy with it, although it can be picky about what amp you use with it. But most preamp pedals are. It sounds best running into the front end of a Fender type amp, or into the FX return of many amps. But I have no idea how it sounds going into an interface going into an amp plugin. So, WMMV.

Well been using this one a lot

great for that 50's sound

Peterson StroboPlus HD Tuner - it keeps me in tune.

EHX Turnip Greens - it's a combination of their Soul Food overdrive and Holy Grail reverb

EHX East River Overdrive - another overdrive.

I'm digging that reverse reverb. That is a very interesting effect.

Boss OD-20:  If I was only playing my own tone I'd only need a Boss Blues Driver, but since I play covers I use the now discontinued Boss OD-20 to cover any overdrive sound I need.  It is a digital pedal but I doubt anyone in the audience can tell.  I can set up 5 preset overdrive, boost, distortions that are selected from a menu of 12 Boss products or 10 popular other brands.  Saves me from buying a bunch of pedals each of which might only serve a few songs.



I also like the TC Corona Electronic chorus.  It does everything you can ask a chorus to do and then some.

Just got this one today>$30
Such a deal.
no really people love this pedal and I can see why

1. Tuner - Keeps me in tune.
2. Fulltone OCD - It's an OCD.  Insert "Marshall in a box" pedal of choice here.
3. Volume Pedal - Its a volume knob for your feet.
4. DL4 - I use a lot of delays and this just happens to have decent emulations and handy presets.  Insert analog/digital delay of choice here.



I run a lot of pedals.  Sometimes too many.  Some nicer "boutique" models.  Here's my opinion on the most important factors to a good sound:

1: The player
2: The amp
3: The pickups

Pedals probably don't make the top ten.

What's a decent volume pedal?

Ernie Ball is the standard go to and I still recommend it, but I have broken a couple of them.  Fender FV-500 is probably a distant second in terms of commonality.

Using the Ernie Ball VP Jr in my effects loop and it's been working well for my needs.  I'm not keen about the string/spring setup, but it's working so far and I don't do a ton of adjustments with that pedal so should last a while.

To answer the original thread question, I'm using the new digitech pedals in the effects loop - Polara, Obscura and Nautila, and am very happy with the trio, the Polara especially.  In front of the amp, I have an OD808x and a Metal Muff (to satisfy my 80s retro metal needs - grew up on DOD American Medal pedals in the late 80s).  Most of the time, I'm just running distortion, but enjoy clean sounds with the stuff in the effects loop.

Thanks Guys. I'll grab an EB.