I’m a guitarplayer and wasted a lot of time buying/selling pedals, chasing tone, fuelled by spending too much time on thegearpage.com forum. Although I found my way to some really great units that I will never change, the lesson was often that the grass is rarely greener. And you don’t need all the flavours of cool. One problem with those forums is that too many people tend to obsess with the re-creation of a classic sound (classic rock), rather than focusing on creating something new.
Despite all the boutique-options available I find it very refreshing to see a Premier Guitar Rig-rundown video with a band like Khruangbin to find that they mostly rely on a few stock Boss-pedals - like a DS-1. It just proves its not what gear you have but how you use it.
Ok, so off the soapbox. I plug my Microbrute through my pedalboard. I enjoy delays, my old phasers, reverbs and dirtpedals. Analog is analog, but there are a lot of digital stuff that sounds great.
I came across a Digitech Obscura delay in a pawnshop. It really sounds pretty great: analog and tape-simulation with lofi and reverse-options as well. I found the sounds inspiring.
There’s a lot of creative dsp-pedals coming out, like Chase Bliss, Red Panda etc. Sounds great on youtube, but they are really expensive. My solution to potential GAS, was to buy a used Organelle and use it as an effectbox, by loading up different patches created by the community.
Cheap tip: Boutique pedal builder JHS has a youtubechannel. I watched a clip where he checked out all the behringer-boxes. He recommended quite a few.
Another cool effect-option are the Boss/Roland SP-series of samplers. They can be used as pedals in series, or as aux-sends.
(oh well, I talk too much)
