What's Your Essential Pedals?

[cousinpaul]

Boss FRV-1 reverb for cleaner sounds (amps have no reverb).
Boss DM-2w delay for higher gain
Chicago Stompworks Blues Breaker v1 with strat
Modded SD-1 or Machine Head Pedals 98 Degrees with tele
Served up on a Pedaltrain Nano

This simple board works great for me. I can get all the variety I need by simply using the guitar's controls.

 

[Mark617]

For now…..lol

 

[ShortintheSleeve]

Specifically, the Wampler Tumnus and the Boss Wazacraft Dimension-C are my only two essential pedals in the sense that they give me the light/medium OD and modulation tones respectively that best suit my ear and our music. More broadly, pedal types that are essential for me are fuzz, light/medium OD, high OD/distortion, chorus-like modulation, delay, and reverb.

 

[ZeCo Guitars]

I have always kept the Carbon Copy on my board. I love the warm analog that works just great for most things and pairs well with the Strymon TL. The Cali76 stacked compressor is just magic. The Protein is my favorite drive, both sides are incredible and versatile. I boost the Protein with the Tumnus which can also EQ as necessary. The Mercury7 is the perfect plate reverb and can do so much.

 

[AngelStrummer]

I'm surprised by the high incidence of BD-2s. 50 million Elvis fans can't be wrong, as they say.

For me, essential pedals are: wah=>comp=>dirt=>delay

If I have to add to that, further dirt, chorus, trem and looping would be the next step.

Brands, models and other details are also a function of the amp and the guitar, so no specifics here.

 

[Charlie Bernstein]

Reverb is most important for me. Then overdrive. Then trem.

Then more overdrives. Of course!

 

[Jakedog]

Absolutely essential-

A comp, a mid hump OD, a transparent OD, and a clean boost.

Doesn’t even really matter what they are as long as they’re good at what they do.

Currently I’m using an EHX Tone Corset, TS mini, Emerson Em Drive, and a J Rockett Steam Punk.

Modulation, delay, etc are all really cool, but ultimately just gravy.

Almost forgot, if an amp doesn’t have reverb then I need a reverb for the fx loop. If the amp doesn’t have a loop, it should built in reverb.

 

[That Cal Webway]

I love using a compressor, especially since I have so many different flavors of them.

But it is not essential to my sound since I play clean. A little bit of amp reverb is fine.

.

 

[Dan German]

I think I need everything that is currently on my board. Well, the fuzz isn’t essential, but I’d hate to lose the option. So that makes it: fuzz, distortion, clean boost, with delay/tremolo in the loop. I think I want reverb, but I can always switch to my PRII for built-in (although I lose the FX loop then). Some of those are not essential in a specific sense; the delay and tremolo could be replaced with a different delay and tremolo, and I have never tried any clean boost other than the TC Spark, which I love. I’ve never found anything to replace the Funny Cat distortion, and my Phoque Face is the only fuzz I’ve ever gotten along with.

 

[teleforumnoob]

My essentials are:
Some type of Fuzz Face circuit
(sometimes an env filter after the fuzz for the Disco Dead stuff)
tuner
phaser for modulation
at least 2 OD/gain stages that stack well
delay
reverb and tremolo on the amp

But right now my main board is a bit more experimental in the reverb/delay dept:
Dunlop Hendrix mini FF
Boss auto wah
Boss Tu3
Walrus Lillian
Brown Protein
EQD Special Cranker
OBNE Procession
OBNE Black Fountian
EQD Afterneath

 

[Endless Mike]

This will sound facetious and/or flippant, but it isn't. Everything on my board is essential. They've all been in place for years, and serve specific purposes. The things that aren't essential never stay. The exception being the boost pedal, the tremolo and Zen Drive. I can make do without those, but they're nice to have. The compressor, volume pedal, tuner, the other three drives, delay, chorus and reverb.

So that leaves:
Barber Tone Press
EB Volume
Blues Breaker clone (self built over a decade ago)
Barber Small Fry
Barber Direct Drive
TC Flashback x4
TC HOF
Chase Tone Secret Preamp

 

[darkwaters]

TC HOF
Trem
OD/EQ

That’s it. I’m a man of simple tastes.