Building a pedal box - where to start?

crazymoose · 06-09-2009, 06:06 PM

I've been thinking about holding off on getting a new guitar for a while, and instead replacing my Boss ME-20, which is ok, but not really great, with some single pedals instead. I just don't really know where to start and how to get it all set up and what not. I'm getting $600 to spend on guitar stuff at the end of the school year, so I will have a decent amount to spend.

Oh, and specific pedals... I'll need distortion for sure. Maybe EQ? I'm not really sure how much I need that. Tuner would be cool cause the one I have now that's not on my ME-20 is crap. I'd also probably want metal, OD, wah, and maybe reverb.

Suggestions? Where do I start?

Almost Enough · 06-09-2009, 07:19 PM

What style of music are you playing? What kind of amp and guitar are you using? To be completely honest I would consider getting a good tube amp with a drive channel and reverb, then getting a tuner and maybe a delay.

If you're dead set on getting only pedals, I would buy used to start. 600 could get you a lot of very cool pedals and you could still have some cash left over.

What effects did you use most with your multi effects? What did you like and not like about those effects?

My personal recommendations for pedals (from experience) would be a Visual Sound Jekyll and Hyde for overdrive and boost, EHX Small Clone for chorus, a Vox V487 for wah, a Boss DD7 for delay, and any EHX Big Muff for fuzz or metal. The metal sound is pretty vague. I prefer fuzz for the bR00tz, not a metal pedal. To each his own.

Another option is going with fellow forumite SB Nichols for pedals.

crazymoose · 06-09-2009, 07:39 PM

^Oh ya... Silly me. I have a Fender HotRod Deluxe Amp. It's a great amp, but the gain on it is pretty... bleh. It's ok for some lighter bluesy stuff but not much else imo. It has good reverb actually now that I think about it, so I don't really need a reverb pedal.

Guitar I'm using is a Schecter C-1 Hellraiser. I play a lot of metal and rock, some classic rock, and some lighter stuff when I'm doing worship.

With the ME I mostly use the distortion, metal, overdrive, and wah. One thing I don't like about the pedal is the sound is kind of piercing and high, but if you turn the highs on the EQ down it just kinda sounds flat. I'd prefer more bass, but still with enough high end for solos and such, just not so piercing.

1/2-Fast Player · 06-09-2009, 07:50 PM

Have you though about a Line6 PodXT Live? I'm using one at church and love it.. Easy to program with a PC, and it'd give you dozens of boxes.

crazymoose · 06-09-2009, 10:28 PM

^so with that I could replicate any box I want? Like I could put say a Jekyll and Hyde pedal on there? Or is it like the Boss ME where it's only Boss pedals, in this case POD, and then you can mess around using the options that provides. Cause I'm really not a fan of PODs, and I've tried quite a few cause my church has a whole whack of them.

LesPaulPlayer · 06-10-2009, 02:01 AM

I would suggest a fulltone OCD. absolutley amazing pedal.

The Jekyll and Hyde is great also.

SB Nichols's pedals looks awesome to.

You may want to check out my pedals also.
Oldskoolguitar.com

1/2-Fast Player · 06-10-2009, 07:22 AM

No, it can't replicate any pedal you want; just the ones that are modeled, but there are quite a few. Lincoln Brewster is using one in his rig:

Welcome To Lincoln Brewster's Official Site

Nothing says you have to go all one way or the other. I use a PodXT as well as a digitech RD250 plus a few discrete pedals.

IMHO, I think you can get more bang for the buck by using a multi-fx box in conjunction with a few special pedals.

crazymoose · 06-10-2009, 05:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 1/2-Fast Player

No, it can't replicate any pedal you want; just the ones that are modeled, but there are quite a few. Lincoln Brewster is using one in his rig:

Welcome To Lincoln Brewster's Official Site

Nothing says you have to go all one way or the other. I use a PodXT as well as a digitech RD250 plus a few discrete pedals.

IMHO, I think you can get more bang for the buck by using a multi-fx box in conjunction with a few special pedals.

Well I'll be able to try combining it cause I'm planning to buy pedals before I sell my multi-fx

crazymoose · 06-20-2009, 12:13 AM

Alright, I bought a Boss Metal-Core off eBay after hitting a bunch of music stores and trying out some pedals.

Now what I'm wondering is, what should I look at if I want a smooth distortion? Like I want to be able to have light to heavy distortion but have it smooth and less harsh sounding than a metal pedal. The thing is a lot of times when I ask about this in stores they hand me a Boss DS-1 and mess around with the settings so that it's a light kind of crunchy distortion. I don't want light crunch, I want pretty much the opposite. Smooth sounds that can have a lot of distortion but still not sound harsh at all.

Sorry, I'm doing my best to describe what I heard. A guy had a really nice distortion in church but I have no idea who he is (6000 person church) and I think he's gone. I haven't seen him up in a long time.

If the pedal can do crunch too, that's even better, but if not I can find one to do that pretty easily.

relient nelson · 06-20-2009, 02:21 AM

Correct me if I'm wrong, but it sounds to me like you're describing more of an overdrive sound?

crazymoose · 06-20-2009, 05:17 PM

No. That's what all the people at the store thought. I still want to be able to have heavy distortion, but I want it smooth and not very overbearing at all. I've been trying to find an example somewhere... I guess kind of like Thrice the whole Illusion Of Safety CD. The distortion is fairly heavy, but it kinda blends in and sounds kinda softer compared to like a death metal band.

I'll keep looking for better examples.

**bread man** · 06-20-2009, 09:27 PM

I'm pretty sure Teppei used a ProCo Turbo Rat on that album, so it might be worth checking out one of those. Also try a Crowther Hot Cake or an MI Audio Crunch Box.

crazymoose · 06-21-2009, 12:12 AM

Thanks. I'll look into the Rat. I've heard about them quite a bit but I haven't seen any in the stores I've been to. I'll try and find one.

crazymoose · 06-24-2009, 03:55 PM

Ok, I found one turbo rat in all Calgary. People in the other stores hadn't even heard of it before. It was kinda funny, with one guy it was like

"Hey, do you guys have Pro Co Rat pedals?"
"Rat brand? Ummm, let me check. [puts me on hold before I can correct him] No, we don't have Rat brand pedals. But we do have a great selection of Boss and Digitech pedals along with many other brands and selections that should help you discover that sound you're looking for."
"No, rat isn't the brand, Pro Co is the brand."
"Oh... [checks] Sorry we don't have those either. But we do have a great selection of Boss and Digitech pedals along with many other brands and selections that should help you discover that sound you're looking for."
"No, I'm looking specifically for the Rat sorry, I'll check later if I'm looking for another pedal"
"Well if that does happen, we do have a great selection of Boss and Digitech pedals along with many other brands and selections that should help you discover that sound you're looking for."
"Alright thanks, bye."
"You sure you're not interested? I mean we do have a great selection..."

I hung up at that point. He was a born salesman...

Anyway, I really liked the turbo Rat. The filter thing for me is what made it stand out for other pedals I tried. And I just liked the sound overall. As soon as I have enough money I'm going to buy it.