What kind of guitar effects pedals should I get if I'm just starting out

Question

I'd like to know which guitar effects I should get as there are so many and they are pretty costly

I did find these http://guitars.musiciansfriend.com/navigation/guitar-effects-pedals?N=100001 338510&Ns=P_Price|0

There all pretty cheap beatween 15 and 30 bucks. But i am worried that they will be low quality, and I still don' know which kind to get. Also, do i need any kind of cords for the pedals?

Answer 1

The most common pedal for beginners is the distortion.  It gives you that "power chord" sound popular with rock and metal.

Chorus pedals give you the "jangly" sound often used in pop music.

Flangers give you this wierd wavy sound, great for solos.

Compression pedals can give a strong sound, but limit the high highs and low lows,  Not great for everything.

Delay give you the echo sound.  A cool effect, but not for everything.

A lot of pedals these days have strange names but they basically fall into the catagories above.

Yes, you will need another cord.  One for guitar to pedal and one for pedal to amp.  Also, unless you have a plug available to plug in the pedal, you should buy LOTS of batteries.  You can save battery life by unplugging both cords when the pedal is not in use.  Most pedals are active as soon as you plug cords into them, so unplugging will save battery life.

Enjoy.

Answer 2

Hi Jak

Get a nice Digital-Delat, a Chorus and a Distortion unit. Make sure that you plug the Digital pedal first and the Distortion at the end as your last pedal.

With this setup, you will get a fan halen sound if you can finger-tap. And, you get good amount of overdrive for the heavy metal or rock sound. You tailor the sound according to what you like.

Answer 3

You should resist the temptation to buy something during your first several months of guitar playing.  Ultimately, as you'll come to find out much later on - your "style" and your "sound" will occur between your head, your fingers, and your amp.  Learn your guitar for a while, period.  Unless you know specifically what you're looking for in a pedal, throwing in other devices that you need to learn to use can become frustrating and overwhelming, and it quickly becomes a distraction from practicing the fundamentals of playing to the point that your progression in learning to play may suffer because of it.

Now that being said... lol - If you must get a pedal, get something very practical like delay or reverb.  Distortion or overdrive is nice to have, if you don't have that option on your amp already.  Wah pedals are always a nice addition because they're such a distinctive sound; they really dress up your solos.  For the wah get a Dunlop Crybaby, for the others I've mentioned get a Boss.  Stay away from multi-effects pedals in general - they're a little complicated unless you really want to put in the time to program them and dial in all the useful patches.  Single effect pedals that do one thing well are the way to go.    

Check eBay and craigslist for the Boss pedals - those last forever so you almost never get a bad deal on a used one if it's been taken of, and people are always selling tons of those.

Good luck, and keep rockin.  Or chicken pickin.  Or whatever.  :)

- C