500 Words with Adam P Hunt- Pedals!!

Adam P Hunt is a freelance writer who has previously written for The Library Journal and Premier Guitar Magazine. We are so happy to have him join us here at Guitar Radio Show.com. 

500 Words On Pedals

I love pedals and I’ve gone through my share of them. There’s been a handful I bought but later traded away. Even though there are some pedals I wished I had kept while others I regret purchasing in the first place.

I don’t mean this to be a definitive pedal board checklist but more as a guide to a useable, low cost, flexible pedal set up that you could use in a lot of different playing situations.

BD-2 Boss Blues Driver. Even though the Ibanez TS9 Tubescreamer is more famous and has a dedicated following, it’s not my favorite boost/drive pedal. Personally I like the Blues Driver better because I think it’s more transparent, you can use it as both a clean boost and a drive pedal.

PWOV Morley Power Wah Volume. I love this pedal partly because it’s two pedals in one. I’ve had a bunch of wah pedals from a well-known company that starts with a “D” and they’ve all crapped out in short order. Phooey, who needs that? My PWOV just keeps on trucking and after twenty years of loyal service I think the PWOV is a viable alternative to a “D” pedal.

A delay. For my needs I like the Electro – Harmonix Memory Toy a lot. I had a popular brand digital delay until one day it gave up the ghost on me. Don’t get me wrong, on a dark sounding amp it added a nice sort of brilliance to the notes as they decayed but other than that it was a little “glassy” for my liking. When I was shopping for a replacement I tried about a half dozen delays and played them back-to-back. I was very surprised that this basic delay stacked up nicely to ones costing two or three times as much. Yeah, it doesn’t have a tap tempo or other advanced features but if you don’t need to switch the delay or feedback rates on fly it’s a cool little pedal.

A compressor. If you lack finesse the way I lack finesse you need a compressor. As the name implies a compressor squeezes the dynamic range an amplified instrument has and evens out some of your playing irregularities. I like the Toadworks Mr. Squishy and Xotic SP compressor equally as well.

E.W.S. Fuzzy Drive. Like the other pedals, the Fuzzy Drive wasn’t my first fuzz box. I’ve tried some classic fuzz pedals and what I like about this it can go from mild to wild and still sound musical. Sure, it’s not as crazy as an Angry Troll or a Big Muff Pi but I think it’s a little more flexible.

With a setup like this you can easily play blues, classic rock, punk, psychedelic and even some country, if you use the right guitar and amp. Your musical likes change as you evolve as a musician, solid foundations will take you far, and so will a solid pedal board. Your needs may be different than mine but this should be a good place for you to start.