November 27th, 2009 | 
Author: I have a cheap Celebrity Stratocaster guitar and 15-watt amp (starter pack) and I was thinking of buying an effects pedal for it. My range would be from $10-50 using TradeMe (the New Zealand version of eBay). New or used would be fine and I was wondering if anyone knew what to look for and how to get the best of my money for this price?
completely depends on what you are looking for. Most brand names will be comparable. run away from behringer pedals. they are an embarrassment to the guitar community. i got an eq pedal from them and ti was so bad. completely colored my tone, and introduced a bunch of noise. not only that but made my guitar sound really thin even when faders were set flat.
true bypass is a thing some people like their pedals to have. all that means is that when the pedal is off the signal runs straight through without being colored by buffer. These actually can cause a click sound when you turn them on and off. not always but sometimes. This is a touchy subject. really more a preference than a necessity on a small pedal board. the bigger the pedal board gets the more conscience you have to be of tone degradation because the length of chain.
some pedals hold their value really well. boss stuff even when abused still gets reasonable resale. price difference is sometimes not large enough to warrant buying used.
also i would recommend against digital pedals. aside from preference, they are a pain to wire into a pedal board if they use voltages higher than 9v.
i’ve been pedal hunting for the perfect distortion pedal and i have yet to find it. but i have come very close with the biyang ds-8. inexpensive, low noise, and versatile. very hard to beat considering price. 3 voicings, plenty of gain, usable tone control.
Posted in guitar effects
the sound is of the effect you want is completely on you and the music you would like to play. However i would go for a digitech or Boss pedal, most of them are right in your range and their quality is simply the best. Line 6 makes some good stuff too but i would have to say im more of a fan of digitech. The sound that they make are usually said in the name, and are pretty obvious sounding for the most part.
References :
Have a bunch of them.
completely depends on what you are looking for. Most brand names will be comparable. run away from behringer pedals. they are an embarrassment to the guitar community. i got an eq pedal from them and ti was so bad. completely colored my tone, and introduced a bunch of noise. not only that but made my guitar sound really thin even when faders were set flat.
true bypass is a thing some people like their pedals to have. all that means is that when the pedal is off the signal runs straight through without being colored by buffer. These actually can cause a click sound when you turn them on and off. not always but sometimes. This is a touchy subject. really more a preference than a necessity on a small pedal board. the bigger the pedal board gets the more conscience you have to be of tone degradation because the length of chain.
some pedals hold their value really well. boss stuff even when abused still gets reasonable resale. price difference is sometimes not large enough to warrant buying used.
also i would recommend against digital pedals. aside from preference, they are a pain to wire into a pedal board if they use voltages higher than 9v.
i’ve been pedal hunting for the perfect distortion pedal and i have yet to find it. but i have come very close with the biyang ds-8. inexpensive, low noise, and versatile. very hard to beat considering price. 3 voicings, plenty of gain, usable tone control.
References :