New to foot pedals - what should be my basic start ups

As I switch form a digital effects amp (Katana 100) and move to a VOX tube amp with pedals for effects, what should be the basic ā€˜starterā€™ set. Types and vendor recommendations? Also is there an order in which I place these pedals?
Thanks community members

1 Like

Best effects for beginners

pedal order

Hi, there is a search window at the top right, if you enter your search query there you will quickly get to most questions you haveā€¦ Hope this helps
Greetings,Rogier

1 Like

The best thing to do is learn what you can do with the amp and guitar first before you spend a bunch of money on pedals you donā€™t need.

You can get alot out of a tube amp just by adjusting the Volume, Gain and Tone on the amp and guitar. To many people chase a sound buying pedals when the sound theyā€™re looking for is right under their fingers.

2 Likes

I fuel my GAS (gear acquisition syndrome) via these guys.

https://youtube.com/@ThatPedalShow?si=QiJq8ysekETS2s7-

Seriously, Iā€™ve learnt a lot by watching.

(But donā€™t think you need the boutique examples they use in the show, just gives an idea of what various types of pedal do).

Like others have said I would work out what the amp will do firstā€¦

ā€¦.

  • make sure you understand overdrive (soft clipping) vs distortion (hard clipping) that may get you pointed in the right direction. (I wish Iā€™d waited for a blues driver) - so yeah, do some research before jumping in.
  • delay and reverb are great for lush ambient sounds (amp may do reverb).
  • modulation will add some nice flavour in certain situations

Have fun :star_struck:

(One option is to buy second hand, then you can offload if theyā€™re not for you).

1 Like

What @stitch said.

I will add, if you have explored the vast number of (virtual) pedals you had available in the Katana fully, then you should already have a better idea than us what pedals would work best for you!

Cheers,

Keith

Hey Rick you act like one

But I have a vox tube amp myself and you can indeed get a lot more out of it than I expected :smiley:

1 Like

@roger_holland Everything you need to sound like Angus Young. Talent not included :wink: Your on your own for that.

5 Likes

No satchel ? :rofl:

2 Likes

:laughing:
And I foresee another problem that is typical of him, which will become a bit difficult :roll_eyes:

image
:sweat_smile:

2 Likes

youā€™ll never go wrong having a decent drive pedal. at one point or another most have owned one the Ibanez TS variants (or a clone of it). I really liked the EHX Soul Food myself. IMHO, a decent reverb pedal is another good one to have in the chain. I really enjoy the classic fender spring reverb style.

Delays are a hit or miss for me, I like them when used right but Iā€™m not very good at figuring them out to get the sound I want yet (I have the same feeling about phazer/flanger). however, the phazer/flanger/chorus seem to be essential to get 80ā€™s hair metal sounds :stuck_out_tongue:

also, depends on the sound youā€™re going for. But i agree with others that when youā€™re new to pedals the used market will keep you from breaking the bank searching. usually you can buy one used and try it out and resell if you dont like in a few weeks/months and not lose a dime. good luck, a friend of mine has a pedal addiction, he spends more time and GAS good will with his spouse on pedals than anything else. :rofl:

When I got back into elec. guitar. I just had to have some pedals too, I thought.

Since I ainā€™t rich, I needed to go on the cheap. Joyo pedals meet that criteria. And if ya can get them used theyā€™re even more cost effective.

I have stopped at 5 pedals. 3 used, 2 new.

Started with a joyo phaser, then a used tc elec. gauss tape echo delay. Got me a deal on a joyo compressor with the delay. Since I got used, the feller that sold it to me gave me money off if I got his joyo dyna compressor too. Which I took him up on. Lastly I bought new a joyo package of two, a vintage overdrive with a tremolo pedal. Thatā€™s all I have. Iā€™ve not bought any pedals for maybe a couple years now. What I have suits me.
And I agree with stitch. See what your new amp can do w/o pedals. I find that as of now, I mostly play w/o pedals on. Sans the compressor pedal. That one I might use half the time. But it donā€™t color the tone to much. I find I like the sound of my amps. The pedals are there if I want and they are in the input chain, but I play the amp mostly.
Pedals that I donā€™t have which Iā€™d consider would be a tuner pedal, a eq pedal and a looper. Doubt Iā€™m gonna run out and get them though. Clip on tuner works good enough, if I need a loop I can record myself and put it in the daw. The eq??? well, my amps got eqā€™s on them that work, so, guess I donā€™t just gotta have that one either.

My chain is
compressor, overdrive, delay, phaser, tremolo. Then to a aby switch where I spit and can go to this amp or that amp or run both together.
This has worked for me for a couple years now and I donā€™t have any gas to go much further as what I want is to hear my guitar through a amp and not a lot more. ymmv.
Guessin your vox tube amp sound real good w/o pedals too. :wink:
But I get it, pedals are nice to have around, myself, I just donā€™t wanna get obsessed w/ pedals for my sound. I want my sound to be pretty much unaltered me and my amp. Again, ymmv.

ALL of these responses are most awesome and very helpful!!
yes on used thatā€™s for sure
Yes I also like a fairly clean sounds but some songs just need that fuzz/distortion/???
And some of these I know but sometimes Im not sure of the sounds of certain type of pedals from their name. So one of the folks above posted a link that helps with that - Thanks
As I dig a bit deeper on this journey I will probably post another layer of questions :wink:
Thanks everyone - most awesome

1 Like

You have a Katana 100

Why dont you look at the presets you like most and see what they use.

Or start with a blank clean amp and add stuff and see how it sounds

1 Like

Josh from JHS Pedals is a pedal guru. His thoughts are in the youtube link below. His youtube videos are very interesting.

Keep in mind you already have quite a number of well known pedals emulated on your katana. Here is a list. On i the list you have quite a few overdrive/booster pedals including Boss Blues Driver BD2, two boss overdrive pedals the OD1 and OD2, a tubescreamer, a RAT (check out Joshā€™s video on the RAT) , two common fuzz pedals and more.

You also have a phaser, flanger, chorus, compressor (look into how these work) and more.

Select a clean amp (or something similar to VOX, maybe a katana owner could help here) and try them out. That should give you a good feel for what pedals to buy.

2 Likes

i bought a cheap ($100) used laney cub 10 tube amp a while back and it sounds so much better than any modeler iā€™ve ever owned (3). i donā€™t even think about pedals yet. having said that i bought another cheap ($35) used multi pedal zoom g1xon to try someday. that should keep me busy seeing what pedals i like, if any.

1 Like

i just wanna say thanks for posting this thread :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: now iā€™m going down a rabbit hole on pedals and starting to GAS over 'em. apparently now that iā€™m down this rabbit hole I have decided that I need to get a PaulC Timmy, an EQ, reverb and the full gamut of chorus/flanger, phaser, wah, compression, and gate.

and of course I need to get a proper power supply/board to handle all this nonsense.

ya know, yā€™all are a bad influence!!! :beers:

2 Likes

Hi all, Iā€™d second the suggestion to consider the JOYO (or NUX) pedals. I have a JOYO Power Tune which I find excellent for stage use. And from the NUX range I have a ā€œTime Coreā€ delay and a ā€œDrive Coreā€ overdrive. The delay pedal gets minimal use, if Iā€™m honestā€¦
Added to that are a NUX JTC looper and a couple of boost/overdrive pedals I built myself (from kits.)
A lot depends on how you will be using the setup - is it just for you or are you playing gigs? And what style of music of course!
The nice thing about the JOYO and NUX pedals seems to me to be that they are really robust but not too expensive.
Here is my (new!) pedal board; the rev/vib switch is controlling the deluxe reverb effects.


Cheers - Andrew

How can you find the tone you like, that will inspire you to keep playing and help you find your own voice on the instrument, if you donā€™t play around with tone a little bit?

I suggest starting with a one button looper. From there I would suggest some pedals to fatten your tone a bit, a digital delay an analog delay as well as a decent reverb pedal. Then some dirt pedals and lastly your flangers, phasers, etc. Do your homework, really good pedals can be had for cheap. Go get you some!