The Top 3 Effects Pedals (Almost) Every Guitarist Needs

When setting up your guitar pedal board, you are more than likely to spend hours and hours in the shop trying to decide which pedals you need in order to pull an awesome sound with your guitar/amp combination.
As tempting as it is to buy every pedal in the shop, you will most likely only be able to afford a few pedals when starting out.
So to help, here is a list of the top 3 pedals every guitarist needs.

1. Tuner: A tuner is the most important pedal in my opinion. If you aren't playing in tune, than it's going to sound bad full stop. One of my favourite tuners is a bright Korg LED style tuner. A really simple tuner that is really easy to see when you look down at your board. There is nothing worse than no being able to read the tuner when it's dark on stage.
2. Overdrive Pedal: I once heard a guitarist say, "A good overdrive pedal is like a favorite pair of old jeans." This is true in so many ways. A good overdrive pedal should be a staple part of the guitarists tone. Classic examples of this pedal include the Ibanez Tube Screamer and the Electro-Harmonix Big Muff. A few more modern effects pedals incorporate valves, but usually these still run at voltages that are too low for the valve, resulting in a "starved plate" configuration that generates harsh and buzzy distortion. Distortion pedals usually also provide signal gain, which can be used to drive the input stage of the pre-amplifier harder, resulting in further distortion and, in some cases, higher volume.
3. Delay Pedal: A delay takes a sound and repeats it back without altering its tone or pitch, like an echo. You can alter the time between each repetition, measured in thousandths of a second, or milliseconds. Available in Analogue or Digital. The most obvious example is The Edge of U2, whose classic guitar parts couldn't have been written without a delay pedal.

In summary, there is no right or wrong when choosing guitar pedals. One of my favourite aspects of the music industry, is that someone is always trying something new and breaking the 'traditional' rules. That being said, with these 3 pedals you should be able to pull most good sounds with the right amp/guitar combination.

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