I find that most players fall into one of two categories. A) Those who have a few pedals and use them a lot and B) Those who bought 1 or 2 a few years back and use them as paper weights. Which category do you fall into and if you do use pedals which do you find are an absolute necessity?

I only own what I like which is a Wah, Tubescreamer, Big Muff and Delay pedal. Though I did by both Digitech Hendrix and Clapton pedals which I found to be amazing pedals that you can use for your own originals. In fact the clean for the Wind Cries Mary on the Hendrix was so good it became my main clean.

The only pedal I have is a Danelectro FAB Overdrive. The only reason I got it is so I can just leave my amp settings as "clean" as I want them and easily add some dirt without having to muck around too much with getting the amp itself to overdrive.

I might get a compressor as a lot of people seem to say that for a Tele its very good to have one and I will probably get myself a Big Muff in the next week or so as a lot of music I'm currently into has a more distorted / fuzz sound rather than an overdriven sound.

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MIM Std Tele, MIM HSS Strat, Homemade Mongrel Tele, Blues Jr, Champ600, coupla pedals...sweeeet!

i own an old jen cry baby super from the 80's and also use a marshall jackhammer for a wee bit more grunt for solo's with the strat and a beringer tuner pedal as well

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Back when I was playing professionally I used a Big Muff PI,Cry Baby wah,Bad Stone phase shifter,Electric Mistress and an Ibanez DM1000 digital delay because we did some Hendrix and Jeff Healey covers and other songs that needed these effects but lately at home I just use my old Clyde McCoy and Marshall Guv'nor through my Vox Pathfinder 15R but mostly I play clean.If I want to have an effects drenched blast I'll go to my Vox AD120VTH but that's rare.What can't understand is why some people will spend hundreds or thousands on a guitar that sounds great as is and use it only when put through a chain of several effects essentially destroying the tone of the guitar.I've seen that so many times,aguy buys a great guitar and then disguises it's character by running it through tone killing boxes only.In order to be a real good guitarist you have to be able to pull off playing clean rather than mask your shortcomings with a pile of effects.

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'65 Strat,65 Mustang,65 Jaguar,4 more Strats,3 vintage Vox guitars,5 Vox amps,'69 Bassman with a '68 2-15 Bassman cab,36 guitars total-15asst'd amps total,2 vintage '60s Hammond organs & a myriad of effects-with a few rare vintage ones.

Nope - I fall into another category:

C) Those who have quite a few pedals and multi-FX - and use most of them as paper weights most of the time.

I mostly use my pedals to get amusing sounds through small practice amps. My proper grown-up amp gives me all the clean and drive sounds I need, so with that I just use a bit of delay, occasionally a compressor and sometimes a touch of chorus on the clean channel. Bit of wah very sparingly too.

Cheers - C

Try to play clean most of the time, I use a tubescreamer as a boost on leads, a crybaby wha, and blues driver for more gain on some classic hits songs.

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2012 American Vintage Telecaster 1958
09 Fender american deluxe strat.
97 Gibson les paul special P90's double-cut
65 Princeton reverb re-issue
2010 Guild Gad-F40e

I have no effects pedals at this time but plan on maybe a couple in the future just to match some sounds I cannot duplicate on either of my amps. I'd like a decent fuzz effect and a good wah.

edit: darn typos

I own a Dunlop Crybaby Wah (Hendrix Model), DOD Fuzz pedal, Danelectro Distortion, DanEcho, Tuna Melt tremolo and a Morley volume pedal. I sometimes use the wah, used to use the fuzz as a boost for leads and never really use the rest.

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I have these in order of most used:

Lee Jackson Reverb
TS9 High Level, Low Drive
TS9 Low Level, High Drive
Jen Wah
Dunlop Wah
Biyang Fuzz

I have a Dunlop Hendrix Signature Crybaby (JH1-B) that is wonderfully throaty and I use it in the odd solo. Its usually coupled with an Electro-Harmonix Little Big Muff Pi which I use for a solo booster or a complete wall of sound.

I also have Electro-Harmonix Nano Small Stone Phaser and Nano Clone Chorus. The Small Stone is fantastic and I use it for slight colouration on clean verses. This was intended for the Clone too but I'm getting rid of it, too noisy, can't be daisychained and eats batteries and 30% volume drop. Using it at rehearsal til I get it replaced but would never use it live.

As well as those I have a Boss FDR-1 which I use mostly at home to give me more options through my Champion 600 plus I love the trem on it. Came in very useful yesterday too at rehearsal as the amp I usually use was broken and I had to use an ultra clean Vox, the FDR-1 gave me that slight Fender gain I love and made me sound like me again.

I have the staple that is Boss TU-2. But thats a tool, not an effect.

Cheers,

CC

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Fender Stratocaster (parts build)
Fender Telecaster 72 Custom RI
Fender Telecoustic Deluxe
Gretsch Electromatic Pro-Jet
Gibson Les Paul Standard Plus
Gibson ES-135
Zenith Type-17
Marshall 70's JMP Superbass 100w
Blackstar HT-5

I fall into even another category :

D) Those that have signal processors and use some for recording
only and some for certain live gigs.

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Being able to play and enjoy music is a gift that's often taken for granted.

Don't leave home without it!

Don't use pedals when playing at home for myself but have to in covers bands and yes, sometimes the character of the guitar will get lost in the wash, but not too often, I hope!

depends on the situation. Lately, as I don't gig anymore i am usually straight into a practice amp, with maybe my old TS808. But lately i did dig out the ole pedal box from gigs gone by. It's fun to play around with them, but I just can't seem to find the right tones anymore.

i have always preferred the sounds from a good guitar/amp matchup anyway. rather get the OD from a good amp, than a little solid state box.

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I'm not an expert, but I play one on the internet.

Cat:E Those that have pedals but can take or leave them.
Theres loads kicking around here mainly I just use the guitars volume control for clean to dirty. Theres the mid boost for when I want mental and a Digitech Bad monkey or Burford octave fuzz for utter insanity. All the gain is basicaly the amp. I dont really need a compressor as the valves are usually blistering the vinyl of the amp and giving a lot of compression anyway. Sometimes theres a delay, sometimes theres a wah. Its a take it or leave it affair though.

Theres also a sub octave, a reverb and a couple of tremolo pedals.

Everything just sounds too generic these days. I have a hard time finding pedals I think are actually worth putting my hand in my pocket for. Never mind take cash out of.

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No no and no