Thats good advice. I saw an old blues driver a little over a year ago at a pawn shop, for $45 USD. It was an old one with through hole components. They are great for modding I now know. Unfortunately I didnt know that then and it was before I was brave enough to play with them too much I was not really even playing electric guitar yet. When I went back a couple of days later to grab it, it was already gone. I have not seen an old one for that price since and have been kicking myself.
Pedals are generally very robust, They are made to be stomped on.
I mostly buy used ones and never had a problem. I try to go for ones that look in good, clean condition and prefer something with original box. I figure that means the owner was aware of resale potential and would have taken better care of it.
I was mostly curious if there are any issues unique to pedals that I need to watch out for. sounds like thatās not a huge deal. Iām not afraid of used gear in general. My Les Paul was used. My Blues Jr. was used.
Only thing I can think of is that a used pedal make have (or have had) velcro stuck to the bottom to fix to a pedal board. If you are super concerned about condition it might be an issue although itās never bothered me. Also worth checking the power requirement if it doesnāt come with a supply - most are 9v center negative, but some vary.
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I donāt mind that unless a huge slab of velcro was on there before and they left a giant clump of sticky residue behind. Iām using velcro on my pedalboard, but Iām using relatively small bits on the pedals themselves.
I found a used one listed for sale nearby thatās close to half off of MSRP. itās just far enough away that Iām still asking if the seller will ship. but itās not the end of the world if they wonāt.
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ended up buying that used RC-5. price was better than anything I saw on other music-specific sites for used gear (GC, sweetwater, reverb). the seller was willing to ship, and didnāt charge more than it actually cost to send.
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Very cool. You wonāt be sorry.
Ahhh thank you @Mustela !!! Iām trying to wrap my head around pedals and how to make my Gretsch sound goodā¦or frankly, acceptable. Iāve bookmarked your post for later reading so I can have a proper think about what I want to buy. Iāve been playing my acoustic and really would like to get some good and dirty sound and see what that sounds like.
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I can definitely dial in some crunch through my amp and guitar settings, but then I donāt have a way to switch between crunch and clean within a song. The overdrive pedal definitely does that and lets me tune the crunch a little better to my liking. Someone else posted a vid about ā80ās soundā and they covered in that video that another way to get a similar sound is to use an EQ pedal (they used an MXR 10 band EQ pedal for it).
But I understand wanting to wrap your head around pedals before diving in. I spent quite a bit of time reading, watching videos, and such before settling on the list Iāve described here as my starting point.
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I must say, @Mustela, you started the ball rolling for meā¦ but in a good way. When I started looking at possible loopers for you, I spent some time checking out the Boss RC-10R in more detail. The more I learned, the more I liked it. Then I saw my local buy/sell shop had one on sale, so I have now bought it and sent them the Boss RC-5 to sell for me.
Iāve only had it a few days but I am loving it. Took some readjustments after the RC-5 but I think it suits me a lot better.
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Iām definitely going to have to grow into the looper pedal. I havenāt ever used one before, so just figuring out the controls will be a thing. but the whole point is growing into it, right? Iām definitely going to pause buying any more pedals (unless it becomes REALLY obvious that an expansion footswitch is super important to accompany the looper) until I get more comfortable using these. Donāt want to overwhelm myself with new gear so much that I get paralysis over it and donāt learn anything.
It looks like I could get something like that Morningstar MC8 pedal in the vid that @Majik posted for extra controls on the looper. and I could run midi from the beat buddy pedal through it to the looper in order to sync the clocks (the MC8 would occupy the midi in on the looper, so the through function would be important). Iām not entirely sure yet if there would be any other midi functions from the BB that the looper would need. BUT it looks like itās possible that I could get a midi footswitch with enough switches that I could use it for expanded control of either the looper or the BB. Thinking about how that might work gets complicated fast, though. A pedalboard with all that stuff starts to get kinda wild with all the cable routing. Would it be possible/functional to set a loop of midi commands? so each device gets some commands routed through it to the next device down the line? Would I be better off using a separate midi footswitch to accompany each one? I could definitely see getting in trouble with purchases (buying something that wonāt work) without having an idea what I want and how to achieve it.
And of course, with all this stuff rattling around in my head about midi, it makes me wonder about using a wireless midi device (WIDI Master) so that I could then connect to my tablet and my songbook app (can handle some midi functions as I understand). Of course I have doubts that Iād actually need that tablet connection for anything. But because my brain likes to wander and think about possibilities and connections and links, itās an interesting thought experiment. Even if I donāt bother using the tablet to control anything while I play, it looks like the WIDI Master device could go a long way to cut down on cable clutter on the pedalboard if Iām using multiple devices. expensive once you start adding multiples of these, though.
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Yeah, itās sort of a Catch 22 situation. You need a looper pedal to find out what you need from a looper pedal. But the RC-5 is a good option - plenty to learn but lots of possibilities.
I found this a big improvement as I didnāt like that double tap for stop business. But see how you go with that.
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Yeah, only way to know is to try. If the controls donāt agree with me, at least I know there are options to set things up in a way that will work better for me. the pedal got delivered today, so Iāll get to start learning it this weekend. I want to spend some time working on my guitar builds so that time will probably be limited.
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I had my looper for a number of months until I got the switcher. You will know when you need it. Personally I would wait until you are really in need and thinking to yourself āman I really need that because it is getting nuts without it.ā
Poking around with the pedal a bit today. Got the firmware updated on it and downloaded the Boss Tone Studio for RC computer program to see what itās about. Rhythm backing tracks. Handy.
Now I need to wrap my head around how to make it do stuff. Poked around in the settings menus and with the abbreviations, Iām not sure what most of them do. Found the manual and will be spending some time there. Iāll probably need to put together a cheat sheet.
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Hereās another option that I have only just found out about. It may suit you.
Itās an old product now (7-8 years?) but is still listed on the Boss site and sold in the shops (and seems to have a lot of love online). I have just picked up a used one for less than half price, which works out the same as a couple of reasonable pedals. It has over 100 effects built in, plus you can add in 3 external pedals if you have some favourites. Also can be used as a footswitch for Ctrl1/2 on a looper or can send midi signals.
@majik did a good write up here:
He has sold it now, but Iām sure he knows a lot about it if you have any questions. I think mine is coming today so will need to spend some time with it.
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That looks interesting. I can definitely see some ways to use it.
I donāt know how I would do with having patches or discrete fx on the same multifunction board Iām using to control my looper or drum pedal. I have a sinking feeling that Iād lose track at some point during a performance.
I think when it comes to multifx units, Iām going to try to stay small but that will come later. Not sure if Iāll want amp simulation capability in that pedal or if Iād just get that from a separate pedal.
Ah, this Boss MS-3 is great. I can see why people love it. My pedalboard now consists of two unitsā¦ the MS-3 and the Boss RC-10R looper.
I have made 4 presets for clean guitar, slightly OD for lead, an octave effect for bass and the last switch is assigned to stop/clear for looper control.
So thatās rhythm guitar, lead guitar, bass and drums all taken care ofā¦ who needs a band? 
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thatās pretty cool. you donāt have your vocals addressed yet, though. 
I havenāt had much opportunity to really dig into the looper yet. I will get some time with it this weekend. Might throw a backing track on it to see how that process works.
I wondered if one of the effects it could do would be an octave effect. Thatās making me think a little more about whether I want a separate pedal for that or if I seek that function from a multifx pedal. Save a little space for extra switches to control the looper and drums. what I do might just come down to cost.
thereās a guitar show coming up locally in a bit over a week. I wasnāt going to go, but now Iām thinking I might go so I can check out pedals. the instruments there are almost never a deal - itās more about people looking for specific things (it is a vintage guitar show after all). Last time I went I didnāt even have an electric guitar yet. I really only went so I could ogle the instruments. I DO remember lots of pedals and having no idea what I was looking at. Now I do know a few things to look for, and it may be a good opportunity to shop.
Yes it does.
itās worth looking at the parameter guide to see all of the available effects:
Itās a great little unit. My main criticism would be itās a little awkward to program, but I guess with the power it has available to it, itās never going to be completely user friendly.
The other thing is you can add external footswitches and expression pedals to it if you want. I had a dual foot switch from Bright Onion which matched the form-factor of the MS-3.
The other thing worth noting is that it has both guitar and bass effects available.
Cheers,
Keith
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