Guitar Pedal Blues, help me understand?

Ive been playing guitar for a little over 2 years, and im finally ready to try effects and pedals and stuff, but I know nothing about them. I have a Strat and a marshall half stack (VS100 head). I just want to know how pedals work, where a pedalboard is plugged into, what the power supply is like, basically a whole rundown. Im planning on getting a pedalboard, a digitech proscessor, and some various pedals, but again, I have no idea how any of it works yet, please help.

That’s a pretty big category to talk about in a little space. Since you have a strat, if you’re going to buy a multi-effect board, I would definitely get something with a noise suppressor/gate to cut down on the buzz from the pickups. Other than that, pedals are pretty easy to figure out just by the names usually. Boss has been making great pedals for a long time, and just by looking at the names, you’ll know what you’re getting. Not so with some other companies, but having said that, there are tons of other companies that make great pedals/effects.

You can either plug your guitar directly into the pedals or board, and then go out to the main input on your amp, or you can use the effects loop on the back of your amp. If you’re wondering why you would plug into the front vs. the effects loop, you can check it out on this informative thread:

http://www.ernieball.com/forums/music-man-guitars/7258-effects-loop.html

If I were you, I’d head to the nearest guitar store and ask to play around on a bunch of pedals/pedal boards and see what you like. Don’t be afraid to ask questions. Some of the main effects you might want to check out would be Distortion (although if you already have a Marshall with a foot switch, you probably don’t need this at all), Delay (basically an echo pedal), Reverb, Chorus, Flanger, Phaser, Wah Wah, and maybe an EQ. Most of the multi-effects will have this stuff (except some won’t have the wah wah pedal). Line 6 makes absolutely great effects, as do many other companies like Digitech, Hughes and Ketner, Roland and Morley.

My advice would be to just try out as many as you can, and ask all the questions that you can. Good luck!


Pedal power generator