Guitar Pedals - A beginners guide to starting a Pedalboard

Building your sound as an electric guitarist can sometimes be as important as building your technique. Although I'm a firm believer that the finesse and touch of highly trained fingers create the best tone, adding guitar effect pedals to your basic guitar/amp sound will be like adding an extra dimension of sound dynamics to the music you play.

The place to start 
The place most guitarist start with is adding an overdrive or distortion type of pedal. This type of pedal adds more gain, sustain and power to your original sound and can enhance your crunchy rhythms and fatten and add presence your lead guitar work. Some popular choices would be an; Ibanez Tube Screamer, Xotic BB Preamp, Pual Cochrane Timmy Overdrive, Fulltone, Carl Martin Plexitone, Boss OD3, Suhr, and Wampler.

Next on the pedal list
The next pedal choice would be a delay and/or reverb. These pedals will give you the echo or reverberation of sound bouncing in stadium, cave or tunnel. This adds the spacial quality of the guitarist in bands like U2, Coldplay or Hillsongs. Some popular choices would be an; T.C. Flashback, MXR Carbon Copy, Strymon Timeline, Line 6 DL4, Boss DD-7, Line 6 Echopark, Strymon Blue Sky, T.C. Hall of Fame.

Add some more cool tones
Some fun and sonically interesting places to go with pedals are the time-based effects like chorus, phasers, flangers, uni-vibes, tremolos and filters. These effect give the guitar a whole new dimension of tonal expression; sometimes adding very non-guitar types of sounds. Check out the intro to U2's song, "Elevation" or this demo of the Strymon Mobius http://www.strymon.net/mobius/ and it will give you an idea of the dynamic quality possible with these pedals. Popular choices are too many to list in detail but some great companies to look at are; Strymon, Line 6, Boss, T.C. Electronic, Electro-Harmonix, Wampler, Mooer, and Eventide.

Possibilities never end! 
One of my favourite additions to my effects is the area of boost, compressor, and preamp pedals. These pedals can beef up a low quality amp; completely change the characteristics of the original sound; and smooth out the rough edges of your tone. I like to think of this type of pedal as adding good fuel to your engine; better performance, smoothness and efficiency is the result. Some good product choices come from; Xotic pedals, Wampler pedals, Custom Tones, Suhr, Keeley, Radial and MXR.

Take your time and do your homework
My suggestion would be to watch some product videos, talk with other guitarist, visit pedal companies websites, and demo out some pedals at local music stores. There is even a store dedicated to effects and pedals right here in Langley, B.C. called Guitar Effects Canada. For a choice of 500 pedals and some expert friendly advice, go to - http://guitareffectscanada.com/