First Effect Pedal
It’s an exciting time in your guitar playing journey when you are thinking about getting your first guitar effects pedal.
Guitar playing is difficult enough to get your head around at times, never mind diving into the world of guitar effects and pedals.
Guitar gear can be rightly given it’s own obsession category because once you dip your toes in for the first time that starts the never ending journey guitar players…Tone!
Guitar players are a marketer’s dream customer. We are always on the search for that pedal or gadget that will improve our guitar sound or make us sound like our guitar heroes. The guitar effects manufacturers are only to aware of our pursuit for ” the best guitar sound ever” and really know how to capture our curiousity and encourage us to buy!.
However, if you are on the search for your first guitar overdrive or distortion pedal, the choice available out there can be overwhelming especially when you go online. There are so many options, from the very cheap to the very expensive all promising to deliver on your guitar sound needs.
I will recommend a few options for you when buying your first guitar overdrive or distortion pedal
Types of guitar pedals and what they do: Overdrive and Distortion pedals
Both overdrive and distortion pedals give you the tools to create a “classic” rock guitar sound. Think of songs like You really got me by the Kinks, Eye of the Tiger featured in the Rocky movies or The Boys are back in Town by Thin Lizzy or bands like AC/DC and Metallica and that is the guitar sounds created by overdrive and distortion.
If you want to play rock guitar, you will need to be able to create that sound. Many guitar players use their guitar amplifiers to create the rock sound. The overdrive or distortion pedal gives you the flexibility of being able to switch the effect on and off with your foot while you still play the guitar with your hands,
What is a guitar overdrive pedal?
An overdrive pedal gives you the sound of “overdriving” the tubes in your amp into high gain to give you that classic rock sound. Overdrive is dynamic – you can control the tones and sounds by how hard you strike the strings. Overdrive is warm and “crunchy”.
What is a distortion pedal?
Distortion gives us a much “heavier” sound. It is often called a “saturated” tone because the overall sound will be dramatically distorted despite dynamics in your playing or overall guitar volume.
Buying Guide – how to choose your first overdrive guitar effects pedal
You will see so much stuff online about Guitar overdrive pedal comparisons and this can be confusing when you are new to guitar effects pedals. Guitar effects pedals can be a bit like your favourite colour. Everybody has a different preference. Guitar sounds and tone can be a very subjective thing. What sounds great to one guitar player may not to another and that really is the beauty of music in general. Some of us will be rock fans and be not too fussed on country music while other people hate rock but love acoustic guitar music.
Check out some really cool overdrive pedals for your first guitar overdrive pedal. I have picked out a few options that are really very good for the price. You do not want to spend too much while you learn what it these pedals do.
The Joyo is a really superb first overdrive pedal for any guitar player. Superb sounds at a price that is crazy cheap for what you get! You can get the Joyo Vintage Overdrive on Amazon HERE
You can get the Joyo Vintage Overdrive on Amazon HERE
Check out this great demo of the pedal in action.
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This pedal is another great first overdrive pedal for the guitar player starting down the guitar pedal journey. Simple to use, a great sound and won’t break the bank. You can grab one on Amazon HERE
Check out this video of the Sub Zero Blizzard in action. You can grab one on Amazon HERE
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Boss is the boss when it comes to guitar effects pedals.
Boss pedals are on guitar player’s pedal boards in their thousands all over the world. For many guitarists, Boss is guitar effects. Boss pedals have really been at the heart many guitar star’s sounds and songs. You really cannot go wrong with a Boss pedal – they are a little more expensive but they are quality. I like many other guitar players have a Boss Super Overdrive on my board.
You can get one on Amazon HERE
I am using a Boss Super Overdrive in the solo sections of the song – check out the video below to hear it in action.
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You will also need two long guitar leads to connect up your overdrive pedal from your guitar to the amp.
Take one guitar lead from the output of your guitar and plug into the input on the pedal. Take a second lead and connect from the output of the pedal to the input of your amp.
These are good guitar leads to get you going HERE!
You can get buy the leads I use on Amazon.
Don’t forget you will need a power supply or batteries to operate pedals – you can get a power supply HERE
To all the guitar veterans that might be reading – I would love to what was the guitar overdrive pedal that you owned?