The Five Best Guitar Effects Pedals for New and Pro Players


If you or someone you know is looking to build a collection of the best guitar effects pedals then let me start by saying, “Welcome to the best club ever.”

I love guitar gear.  It’s an obsession for me.  I spend so much of my free time researching gear that it only seemed logical that I should start putting some of this passion into a website. So, if you want information, I have already done the research.

Why trust me?  I have been playing guitar for over 20 years and I have experimented with tons of pedals. During my lunch breaks, I sneak off to Guitar Center and New York City’s boutique guitar shops to try out all the new (and vintage) toys.  I have the product lines practically memorized for all of the major guitar companies.  My brother is also a gear head and it’s all we talk about.  Did I say that I love gear?

Now is perhaps the best time to buy guitar effects pedals because there are tons of options, quality is at an all time high and prices are cheap.

Below is my list of the five perfect pedals to start with. I tried to keep prices in the $100 range with one pedals as low as $49. (Click on the links to check the prices on Amazon.)

I have strived to suggest pedals that are easy to use, sound amazing (duh) and have stood the test of time.

Anything you pick from the list below will be cool today and something you will still use years later.  Many of these pedals appear on the boards of touring rock stars.

I’ll list these in the order I think you should buy them and then I’ll list the order you should connect them once you hook them all up together.  Here we go!

1: Tube Screamer – Classic or Mini (click links to see prices):

This is the most famous overdrive pedal and with good reason. The Tube Screamer has managed to remain in constant use by professional guitarists for decades.  Everyone from your weekend warrior to Stevie Ray Vaughn have used a Tube Screamer to define their sound.

The Tube Screamer is now available in a less expensive “mini” option, making it easily fit onto a pedal board.  Please note that if you buy the Mini you will need an external power supply.

If size isn’t a concern, I would suggest getting the full size Tube Screamer because you can run it off of a battery.   You can see the size difference in the video above.

Why start with this as your first pedal?

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Filter Freakout: Line 6 FM4, Moog MF Flange, Buddy Guy Wah, Blues Driver

Hi, I’m Jeff Starr, a filmmaker who also loves guitars and gear, especially the Line 6 FM4. This video is part of my series of improvised guitar solos.

This recording is very much influenced by Frank Zappa and the sounds he used on Ship Ahoy. I’m also happy with some of the deep bends I made and how I really worked one fret to see how much I could get from a single position. I felt like this was a carry over from my sitar lessons.

Note that I put the Moog flanger at the start of the signal chain. Previously I had been using this at the end or in the effects loop. I really liked how this early placement influenced the tone and how the blues driver accepted it and pushed it.

The star of this video is the Line 6 FM4 and it’s wacky sounds.

This song is called: Filter Freakout

Gear Used (click links to check prices):
Moog MF Flange: http://amzn.to/29NjGU
Boss Blues Driver: http://amzn.to/2e35VSc
Buddy Guy Wah: http://amzn.to/2drwkub
Line 6 FM4 http://amzn.to/2evW8Uf
Boss RC-2 looper: http://amzn.to/27R1qjl

PedalTrain Pedal Board: http://amzn.to/1rveVDG
Voodoo Lab Pedal Power 2 Plus Power Supply: http://amzn.to/1YyVV4u

Fender Stratocaster: http://amzn.to/29zse2t
Guitar Amp: Fender Mustang 3 http://amzn.to/1T1Ex5I I love the ease of the USB interface for recording.

Recorded in LogicX.