Guitar Pedals

I bought a Zoom G3Xn and I think it's pretty sweet. Especially for a beginner. You get to try a bunch of different effects without breaking the bank and to my ears they all sound pretty decent. It also has a looper.

Pedals are to do multiple different kinds of things:
1. To improve or replace the drive channel of your amp to give your guitar tone more breakup, distortion, etc. There are literally thousands of different drive pedals (boost, pre-amp, treble booster, overdrive, distortion, fuzz, etc) to choose from.
2. To enhance EQ control and dial in frequencies.
3. To add effects to your guitar that can’t naturally be generated by your hand (chorus, delay, wah, phaser, flanger, modulation, pitch shifters, univibe, reverb, etc)
4. To add more control to the effects you already have (loopers, kill switches, a/b, power supplies, etc)

What pedals you’ll want will depend on:
1. What kind of music you want to play
2. What kind of amp you’re using
3. Your imagination

What pedals you should get is an extremely open-ended question. I recommend going to your local guitar center and trying out some pedals. Most GC locations have a Boss display that allows you to experiment with different kinds of pedals. Boss isn’t always the best or the cheapest, but they are a reliable company that’s essentially the industry benchmark against which all others are judged.

For beginners, I recommend getting a digital multi-effect pedal to try out a lot of different kinds of stuff and learn what you like. Then, you can start getting specialized pedals from there.

Another recommendation is to go on YouTube and subscribe to JHS Pedals. Their videos are fantastic for learning about how to use pedals, what kinds are out there, the history of developing the pedal brands as well as different kinds of effects, etc. It’s a tremendous free resource and entertaining to boot.

Personally, as a primary classic rock and pop punk player, I never leave home without overdrive, distortion, delay, chorus, phase, reverb, and a tuner. I would also bring a looper, but mine os on the fritz

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kingbob

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Thanks...that was very helpful!

Fender Mustang II has great onboard effects you can try out to learn what sounds you like.

If you’re playing 90’s grunge, I recommend a electroharmonix big muff pi (either classic or mini) with an eq pedal (behringer makes an eq pedal for $20) giving it a mid boost in front. For lighter 90’s rock, a boss ds-1 or ibanez tube screamer with your amplifier’s drive channel should be sufficient to get those gin blossoms, better than ezra, and third eye blind tones. For Green Day, there’s an ehx Dookie pedal that’s a tone print of Billy Joe Armstrong’s two amps he used on that album with a blend nob to mix the two together (he had one amp clean and the other providing distortion).

A tremolo pedal will also be necessary for playing 90’s music, as tremolo effects were used frequently in solos during that time period.

For playing christian music, it’s all about ambient reverb and delay. A classic option is the line 6 DL4. If you’re on a budget, the behringer vintage analog delay is fantastic for $30. A big step up from the behringer with tap tempo included (which makes it more user friendly in a live setting) would be the carbon copy deluxe. The standard bearer in the industry for delay is the strymon timeline for your high end delay.

For reverb, I recommend a holy grail reverb as my low end model. The strymon iridium would be my choice at the high end, and it has tremolo included as well.

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What's the board's opinion on what my first pedal should be?

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All of them

A looper could be a very useful practice tool. I'd personally go with that or a simple delay. Delay can be such a versatile effect.

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.I have a Fender Mustang II amp

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I don’t see any reason for pedals if this is your only amp. Since it has so many onboard effects it can help you figure out what sounds you like though.

Good pedals are expensive. I’d save to get a better amp rather than invest in pedals.