As a guitar player there are several guitar effect pedals you simply cannot do without. These pedal help to shape your overall sound. The bulk of your sound will come from a good amplifier, but to kick up your tone a notch, nothing beats a good stomp box. Here’s some pedals you should consider adding to your overall rig.

Overdrive Pedal
You should consider getting a good overdrive pedal. This isn’t a full on distortion pedal this is more like the driven sound of a loud tube amplifier. If you don’t have a tube amplifier a good overdrive pedal is essential as it gives you that classic “warm” tube type of sound. It’s also a good pedal to have if you want a slight “dirty” sound but don’t need full on rock style distortion. Overdrive is great for bluesy style licks and light rock playing. There’s tons of great overdrive pedals out there to experiment with.

Genre Specific Distortion Pedal
Most guitar players have one major genre that they play in. For example you may be a heavy metal player or a hard rock player. You want a distortion pedal that matches your genre. For example, it makes no sense for a metal player to buy a blues based overdrive pedal because you’ll never use it. You would get better use out of a Boss Metal pedal or another type of distortion pedal that’s dedicated to metal style riffs. There are many distortion pedals geared for certain styles such as grunge, death metal, hard rock, and so on. If you’re creating older rock you might want a fuzz style distortion pedal. You’ll save money and headaches if you buy a distortion pedal that’s geared towards your style.

Delay Pedal
A good delay pedal is an essential part of your rig. Many amplifiers that have delay built-in just don’t sound that great and can interfere with your overall guitar tone. A good delay pedal can really help to thicken up your sound so it stands out more. You don’t want to rely on delay that’s built-into an amplifier as this usually won’t cut it, although it’s fine for most beginners.

Wah-Wah Pedal
Nothing beats a good wah for creating those classic sounds. Most digital wah effects are just garbage when compare to rocking on a good Morley pedal or Jim Dunlop wah-wah. This is an essential pedal to have in your rig if you like that type of sound. A wah can also make your solos sound great too. There’s also a lot of signature wah pedals you can pick up from artists such as Jimi Hendrix or Dimebag Darrell which help recreate the tones of those famous artists.

Volume Pedal
As a guitar player you often have to fight with volume. A good volume pedal is great to have. You can change and shape the volume of your playing, but keep the same tone in your playing. This is great when playing softer passages and then going into full-on playing. These pedals are great for volume swells that you might normally do with your guitar.

Compressor Pedal
A good compression pedal can help you with your overall tone. It can smooth out sounds and give you more attack as well as sustain on notes. If you don’t use distortion a whole lot, a compressor can still help you get some nice clean tones and give your playing a bit of bite. A compressor can also help with rhythm sounds.

    Every guitar player is different, but these are some of the pedal types you should have around to help create your own signature sounds.