I had i little look into pedals, because I dont have any… and I can see they can really change the game. I own electric guitars and acoustic - one of them is electro acoustic and thats my main, I am using electric only for unplugged F chord learning and scales or when I am watching The Walking Dead in TV late night and learning some pattern… my main goal is to play fingerstyle but I like finger strumming and pick. So maybe one day fingerstyle with finger strum? That would be cool!
I am grade 2 fresh and I am pretty tired from playing Old Faithful Plus with changing few chords in 1st four frets. But that pattern is so natural for me to play… I would like to spice it with some pedal and I found Boss OC-5.
I would like to ask you if its really necessary to use pedal on acoustic or not… I can see John Butler is using it and he plays really good.
Do I need to compress sound? Preamp? Chorus and so on?
I got Boss Katana MK2 50 and it has chorus, delay and some FX… these pedals are just better than these AMPs, so AMP is just “speaker”? I can put distortion through cable to that AMP and few FX from Boss Tone Studio.
Is there really some universal set to go and have it? Like I can see I would need 20 pedals to be satisfied and I dont wanna drop into this, so help me. That OC5 is next generation of OC3 which is stated as really great pedal, but who knows? This guy is saying it and it sounds great when he is using it.
Dumb question… if I buy this pedal can I use it also for my electric guitar? Guess it should work.
If there is any acoustic main player please feel free to share with me your experience and even pedal names so I can check them.
Thanks anyone for your time to explain my questions. If there is topic for OC5 and stuff like this then I am sorry, I guess this is something that is spoken on daily basis, but I did not find it so you can point me to anywhere.
Also I would like to add that the ultimate goal to be even as half as good is like Eddie van der Meer and I know hard it will be and I wont be there maybe any time… but his sound is really great to me. Maybe it can help to someone point me to pedal.
Yes you can use the pedal for any guitar, the advantage of that pedal over any of the others in that you can selectively apply the octave effect which means that you can actually make a six string guitar sound very much like a 12 string guitar also like Mike demonstrated make the lower strings sound like a Bass. It’s a great pedal if that’s something that you would like to be able to do; otherwise the octave effect in your amp would be fine!
Edit: it looks like you can do the same thing with the built in FX, watch this:
I don’t know who John Butler is, but I’m quite certain that he is not good because he uses this pedal (or any pedal).
That’s Mike Dawes, of course it’s gonna sound great when he uses it. It won’t sound great when you use it.
Here’s how to get good: learn how to play fingerstyle guitar. How many fingerstyle pieces can you already play? That’s what you should concentrate on, not on getting effects pedals.
Of course, if you want some toys to play with, go for it. Just don’t think they are going to help you become a better player.
@DarrellW Thank you very much, this looks great. Maybe I should first get to know my AMP first and then look for pedals, because with this knowledge you probably saved buck of money to me. Thank you. Definitely gonna try it at home.
@jjw I understand your thinking about this and yes… I really dont take pedals and effect as something how to hide my “non experience”. I was just wondering whats the deal, because almost everyone is using it and I know they all need to play good so the effect sounds good too. I am gonna check my AMP and maybe that will be enough for the beginning. I just wanted a little change. How I said, I am at grade two, so I cant play much of fingerstyle. I really like Anouk Lost with that nice hammer on… dont know your grade, but it could be really “nothing” for you.
I don’t know a lot about pedals. I also have a Boss Katana MK2 50 and a Boss Waza Air (for when I have to be quiet). They both have a lot of effects which have been enough for me so far. I’ve definitely got a lot more exploring and playing with these before I start buying a lot of pedals too
Don’t get me wrong, I am interested in checking out and exploring pedals too, and will probably buy a lot of pedals once I start but I don’t think it’s necessary to begin with.
Probably quite a few
Also, just saying… I reckon John Butler could make any guitar sound great with whatever
A guitar isn’t necessary if you think about it. I don’t see the need for special pedals for acoustic electric guitars. I use the same pedals for my electric guitars as I use for my acoustics. The pedals function the same. Why would they not?
I personally don’t think so.
Not that I havn’t, but surely I don’t think it’s necessary.
I have a acoustic guitar to play ‘acoustically’. Like not plugged in.
When I have used a pedal w/my acoustic/electric guitar, it’s when I’m recording. When I’m plugging into my audio interface. I think I have one or two recordings like that.
I don’t have any of the pedals you’ve ask about. The pedal I have used is a tremolo pedal or sometimes a compressor. It just seemed to go well with whatever I was recording.
But I surely don’t think I ‘had’ to do that.
If I were you, I’d keep playing with your modeler amp. Sounds like it has many features to experiment with. Unlike you, my amps are just amps. They have no effects built in other than reverb and one has tremolo.
Again though, I play acoustic to be playing acoustic w/o having to be plugged in.
I’m also of the opinion that effects might be used to cover up poor playing. Which I think they can do that to a degree.
fwiw, my effect pedals are compressor, overdrive, delay and tremolo. I try to use them sparingly as I want to play my guitar and sound like me, not sound like any of the pedals (or some other guitar player) that I have. I also don’t use effect pedals much when playing electric, some, but again, I try not to over do the pedal thing. This is just how ‘I’ feel about pedals, ymmv.
In the end for me, I’m sure I’m never gonna sound like my favorite musician. So I’ve given up trying. I play like ‘me’. If I don’t like ‘me’, then I need to work harder to play better, not cover my faults w/ pedals.
Lastly, have fun with whatever direction you go. We’re all different and all have different ideas as to which direction we want to go. And there for sure are many directions we can go…
A few months back I went down the same rabbit hole. I started using my looper a LOT more and wanted to see if I should use any pedals to fill out a pedal board. Watched lots of videos like the one above and figured working with chorus, reverb and delay were worth a shot. Turns out I already had that in my Fishman ToneDeq which I’d bought many years ago and didn’t use it a lot.
I found I good indeed get some interesting effects. I also realized it would take a bit of time an effort to incorporate those into my performances.
I think there’s a problem with comparing to others like John Butler. They are professional, full time musicians so they have plenty of time to not just get their guitar sounding great without pedals, they also have the time to get their guitar sounding great with pedals. And most of their performances are fully amplified to large audiences in large venues. Much different dynamics to what many of us have most of our performances.
For me, I’ve put the FX pedal away for the time being as I need to get my guitar sounding better unplugged, a life long challenge.
I’m not trying to discourage any from chasing the FX via pedals or amps or whatever, it’s a fantastic goal. It does carry the risk that many of us have chased becoming better because we need that shiny new guitar that so many seem to rave about on youtube whereas what makes us better is working hard on our current gear / technique.
I used to frequent a bar that had an acoustic duo every Wednesday and Friday. The guitar player had an acoustic guitar with a few pedals, including an octave pedal, and a looper, and he used them to great effect (pun intended) of course, a lot of skill and talent were involved too.
It also has compression, phaser, boosts, distortions, and an octave. I would recommend you explore those before you spend money on additional pedals.
If you are going to spend money, your best bang-for-buck is probably the Airstep foot switch for the Katana.
Are they? Who says? Have you tried the Boss Octaver that you already have?
My advice: get the Airstep Kat Edition, learn how to use Boss Tone Studio, you already have those 20 pedals. You just need to learn how to use them.
When you have, if you think you need to supplement them with one or two more, then you will know what ones they are.
Thank you all so much for reply and helping me. Gonna explore my Katana MK2 and I will see where I get. Fact that I dont have to think about pedals now is saving me lot of money and also LOT OF TIME and I better put that time into practicing than looking for something new that looks fancy.
Pedals can definitely enhance your sound, even with an acoustic or electro-acoustic guitar. The Boss OC-5 is a great choice if you’re looking to add some interesting effects. John Butler uses it, and it sounds fantastic in his performances.
is been few weeks and I did a little discovery in my Boss Katana MK2. It looks like it has every effect I need right now… only one thing I am missing is LOOPER. I think it could be really fun and nice to use.
Checked lot of topics here and I can see Ditto and Boss are good to go… but I also like idea to have drum inside and to avoid future must upgrade or change. So I can remember my friend year ago gave me for few days Digitech Trio+… its not cheap.
So I checked and found Digitech Trio+ Looper and it has everything I should potentialy need. Even if I graduade some day to songwriting - this is good device what I can see. Like this can save me lot of money in future if I dont buy now “only looper for 100 dollars” like Ditto. I found Digitech Trio+ Looper with official pedal kit that is new for 333 dollars and local seller is selling this used for 208 dollars.
What do you think about this device and price? My thinking about device?
Let me share Thomann offer with you, so you can see the device with pedal:
There’s a few folks around here with the Trio Plus and it’s often heard in anger on Community recordings. I have the plus and the footswitch but I have not used it for a while, as involved in other things. Takes a while to get used to it but rule of thumb when teaching it, keep it simple.
So if you get one and need advice, plenty of folk here to help you out.
Type Trio+ in the search window and you can find everything about it, it is almost impossible that your question is not listed, please feel free to ask
PS:There are also many tutorials on YouTube (which I still have to see …at least one )
yep. I am already browsing community web and there is lot of stuff. Let me dive in and we will see.
But when I checked that Trio it looks like its really complex to use. Honestly dont know if I will have will to learn it. But when I get in my mind price/value this devices seems like only one logical option.
Don`t say that Michal ,if people like Brian and Gordon say it is simple to learn than we have to figure it out too (they sayed it themself ey )… I’m only using the simplest option and I’ll have to look at how to make verses and choruses and bridges at some point
I believe it is easy but invest at least an hour or two
That OC5 is next generation of OC3 which is stated as really great pedal, but who knows? This guy is saying it and it sounds great when he is using it.
If there is topic for OC5 and stuff like this then I am sorry, I guess this is something that is spoken on daily basis, but I did not find it so you can point me to anywhere. 
but I don’t think it’s necessary to begin with.
)
(they sayed it themself ey 
)… I’m only using the simplest option and I’ll have to look at how to make verses and choruses and bridges at some point 