for surf you'll probably want the Boss/Fender FRV-1 unless you've got a fender tube amp with spring reverb already

Appreciate the input. I fell in love with the sound of the deluxe memory man but decided on the memory boy because of the price and the expression pedal input, which opens up a lot of possibilities for on-the-fly sonic mangling. As for analog vs digital... it's impossible to emulate the sound of twisting the "time" knob on an analog delay. I'm sure the carbon copy sounds great but the memory boy just seems more versatile. The new hazarai memory man would be perfect if it were analog. The old deluxe memory man would be perfect if it had a pedal input. Any other suggestions? Am I putting too much importance on useless features here?

check out the brand new Catalinbread delay unit...sounds really good for $150 based upon the Youtube video they have up. Emulates tube echos.

haha, that thing is wild! Tempting, but in a live situation I don't think anyone will care or notice that I'm using a cathedral or digiverb rather than "the real thing"

the catalinbread and capistan units are cool, but it's not enough to de-throne the memory boy IMO, at least not for the usage I have in mind. Capistan is particularly tempting though, maybe further down the line... How many delay pedals is too many?

Spring Reverb: Malekko Chicklet

+1 the difference in depth and tone in analog pedals is not subtle compared to digital, you won't regret pairing down your wishlist and focusing on a few really good analog pedals.

for good quality mid-priced analog, can't go wrong with zvex, lovepedal, EH, MXR, etc...

also +1 on the DC brick, i've got two of them they're rock solid, never had a problem

That's a great list , now we are talkingsome nice stuff. The fulltone tte is also nice but I would rather have more pedals than that single effect.

Such a broad topic, but here are some thoughts:

• DELAY: Like a few others have said, the Diamond Memory Lane (either the original or the new second version) is analog delay magic. Granted, it costs have your budget, but with all its functionality and tone, you'll never want for another delay. (Just get a good volume pedal for real control over it, and perhaps a second expression pedal to control mix, feedback, and other functions.) There are lots of great analog delays out there (I like the Carbon Copy on the inexpensive side), but the ML is king, in my experience.

•*TREMOLO: I don't think it's been mentioned yet, but I love my Empress Trem pedal. Tap trem, different waveforms and tube emulation, asymmetrical rhythms. Unbelievable tone. This is the the trem you want.

• OD/FUZZ: Lots of great products out there, and this is all about matching guitar, pedal, and amp, of course. I will say this: EVERYTHING Zvex makes is awesome, and the Super Hard On boost, one of their oldest and simplest offerings, is sublime. It sits on the end of my board. I also love the old Crowther Hot Cake (from NZ!), but it works better with Vox/Marshall-inspired amps than Fender topologies in my experience. (I play a Bad Cat, which is Vox-derived.)

Carry on...

Do it live, with your foot:

Tone In Progress Third Hand guitar pedal is a controller for stompboxs and effects. Real Time tweak and dialing in parameters, Use with time length controls or depth control, tremolo speed, vibe fuzz delay distortion!

you can do it on the memory boy w/ expression pedal:



although this is a pretty dope solution...

http://www.musictoyz.com/guitar/pedals/tip.php

Or, for a more robust, less noisy sound, do it with an expression pedal and a Memory Lane 2.

haha, this is brilliant. But I meant that pitch-sliding sound when you modify the delay setting on an analog knob... can't really get that with digital. Same goes for the funky self-oscillation **** these pedals do.

Memory Lane is indeed the holy grail. Someday...

danelectro spring king, all the way... real springs, sounds great, and not expensive...

video quality isn't great, but you get the idea... pedal sounds better than the video and when it's run the an amp bigger then 3 inches tall...

There's already some great info here, but I'd like to reiterate a few points and give my own two cents.

First, banish all concerns for a noise gate - that won't do what you want. It'll cut out hum between playing, but the hum will come right back every time you play, and you'll likely lose the tails on sustained notes or really quiet passages entirely. What you want are good noiseless pickups (like Kinmans) or good shielding. I've got a custom Strat with "Big Dipper" single coils, and with shielding paint on the body cavities, a shield behind the pickguard, and good wiring I get virtually no hum.

Also, if you're concerned about noise, I wouldn't put all my eggs in an Electro-Harmonix basket. Don't get me wrong, they make some great pedals; in fact, they are pioneers for a lot of effects (I even own a few). However, many of their pedals (especially the less-expensive lines) can be glitchy and noisy and don't use true-bypass or buffered bypass switching, so they can be tone-suckers too. There's a bounty of good boutique pedals that will get you even better tone with all that analogue quirkiness, but with higher quality components and better signal path integrity.

Next, I'd really consider your goals. If you're already set on using plugins for studio work and you just want a rig for gigging, then I'd seriously consider a multi-effects unit like a Line6 M9 or M13 to get all your delay, reverb, and mod effects and then grab a couple good dirt pedals (since digital modelers generally don't give you the tone or playability of a good analogue drive pedal). You lose out on some of the fun quirks of analog pedals, but realistically you won't miss it during a show. And you get the added benefit of being able to program scenes and setlists so that you don't have to tap dance or manipulate knobs during a gig. Plus, the tonal benefits of analog mod and verb pedals will be lost on the more-or-less inebriated patrons of a club who are there to party, not cork-sniff guitar tone.

If you are set on building up an analog arsenal (especially if you intend on using it for recording) then you should take the advice of several previous posters and go quality over quantity. Like I said, there are a ton of great pedal builders out there, and there's also a ton of good resources online like Proguitarshop.com and Harmony Central (and gearslutz, of course) that will provide demos, reviews, and competitive pricing to help you narrow down your choices and set your financial priorities. As far as suggestions go, there are some great builders like Fulltone, Lovepedal, Diamond, Empress, and Keeley and you can't go wrong with any of their pedals. For some specifics, I'll list a few for each category that I think are worth checking out. At the end of the day, though you should trust your ears and hands to find the pedals that work best for you by going and trying them out for yourself.

One final note on drive pedals (since you asked). Overdrive pedals are intended to simulate an amp driven to saturation and can range from light dirt to an amp pushed to the point of near failure. Whereas distortion pedals are intended to give you all out saturation that is often more gnarly and scooped than tube-like or dynamic (hence, metal players will often reach for a distortion pedal over an overdrive because it gives them the sound and level of gain they need - though there is a degree of overlap between the two). Fuzz pedals are a totally different beast that use a different type of transistor system to provide somewhat unnatural clipping. Generally speaking, fuzz pedals won't work well with complex chords or detailed, dynamic passages. Like distortion, they are meant to be rude and saturated rather than detailed and musical. They certainly have their utility, but you'll probably find them too rude and not versatile enough to make good use of them in a surf/folk set. So, while the EHX Big Muff is a great fuzz pedal, you'll probably find it too saturated and flabby on the bottom end without enough dynamics for surf style. You may want to grab one, but don't plan on it being your go-to drive, you may be disappointed.

Here's a basic list for some guidance. Keep in mind that I tend to prefer versatility almost as much as tone:

Overdrive:
There's a ton of good drive pedals out there with Klon Centaur, Hermida Zendrive, Landgraff Dynamic Overdrive, Rockbox Boiling Point, and Paul Cochrane Timmy being some of the most popular among tone gurus
If price weren't an option, I'd get the Effectrode Tube Drive
others to consider:
Jetter Jetdrive
Lovepedal Les Lius, Kalamazoo, Kanji, and Englishman
Fulltone OCD
Rothwell Hellbender
ZVex Box of Rock

Fuzz:
Like overdrive, there's too many good ones to list. I'd check out pedals from Death by Audio, ZVex, or Devi Ever
some really versatile ones to consider:
Death By Audio Supersonic Fuzz Gun
ZVex Fuzz Factory
EHX Germanium Big Muff
Blackout Effectors Twosome

Compression:
There are a ton of Ross compressor clones out there, with one of the most popular being the Keeley Compressor.
others to consider:
Visual Sound Comp 66 (ultra-quiet and transparent, with a high quality buffer)
Barber Tone Press
BYOC 5-knob (you can find them pre-built)
Rothwell Love Squeeze

Tremolo:
Frantone Vibutron
Seymour Duncan Shape Shifter

Chorus:
For swampy, murky chorus sounds, no one beats Elector-Harmonix. My personal favorite is the Polychorus, though you should get it modded for true bypass.
For glassy, clear chorus tones, the most famous is probably the TC Electronic Chorus/Flanger, but I love the Visual Sound Liquid Chorus - same tones, but cheaper, smaller, built like a tank, and it has a high quality buffer

Reverb:
Malekko Spring Chicken
Solid Gold FX Surfrider
T-Rex Roomate II

Digital Delay
Eventide Timefactor
Empress Superdelay (or vintage modified version)
TC Electronic Nova Repeater
Line6 DL4 (with Keeley mod) - or the M9 or M13 (which include all the DL4 delays plus a looper and a bunch of great digital reverbs)

Analog Delay:
EHX Deluxe Memory Man (or the Deluxe Memory Boy for tap tempo and a lower price point)
Malekko 616
Seymour Duncan Deja Vu (analog and digital blend)
Way Huge Aqua Puss (for slapback)

Sorry for the long post. Hope that helps.

Bungalow Bill, thanks so much for that post. The pedals are indeed mainly for gigging, and I'll be doing sporadic recording. I suppose the main reason I'm chasing "nice" pedals rather than a pedal unit is for my own personal pleasure when practicing and experimenting. I'm a knob-twiddler by nature, but after so long messing with digital on a screen I'm currently really craving some noisemakers which are physical (and preferably analog).

As for fuzz/dist/OD.. I really love the sound of germanium fuzz but I prefer to play clearly, with a just a snarling edge. Would the EH germanium big muff be capable of these more subtle crackling tones?

current, reduced list:
Germanium muff
danelectro tremolo
memory boy
cathedral reverb

I don't have any experience with the Germanium Muff specifically, though I've played a few different Muff pedals through the years, so I can't be sure how it will behave exactly. In my experience, fuzz pedals (and Muffs in particular) should't be considered "subtle" or "just over the edge grit". They generally are pretty balls-out saturated and don't clean up much. That's not entirely true for all fuzzes, but for the most part you won't be wanting to play diminished chords or major 7ths through a fuzz box as it just sounds like a big mess. They work great for leads and for power chords, but I wouldn't expect it to "clean up" when you roll off the volume knob, or to give you that slightly-furry-but-mostly-clean sound that you hear in a lot of blues music. That said, the Germanium Muff is advertised as being warmer and giving you a broader tonal pallet than your standard Muff, so I could be way off on that one. Go to proguitarshop.com and check out the demos of some fuzz pedals (and the germanium muff, specifically) and compare it against the Fulltone OCD, Lovepedal Kalamazoo or Les Lius, and you'll see what I mean tone-wise. Or better yet, get your hands on some at your local shop or Guitar Center.

If you want to snarl like Brian Setzer or Stevie Ray Vaughan, get an overdrive box. If you want a wall of saturation or blistering lead sounds like Smashing Pumpkins or Swithchfoot on "Mess of Me" than go for a fuzz. Considering that you've narrowed it down quite a bit - go for versatility and get both.

One more thing I meant to mention, if you get a fuzz box, make sure your power block has isolated terminals. You can't daisy chain pedals on the same line with a fuzz box, that could blow your fuzz's transistors.

I think you're thinking of reverse (non boss) polarity circuits like the Tone Bender that absolutely can't be daisy chained. unless you get something like the Godlyke psu that has a special adapter for this. or the Pedal Power like you said. just pay close attention to the polarity stickers near the 9V jacks. most modern pedals should work fine on a daisy chain, including the Big Muff

Yeah, that's exactly what I was thinking of. A lot of boutique makers are using old style transistors, so that problem comes up with a number of fuzz boxes, but I don't really know which or how many off the top of my head, so I just made a blanket statement to be safe.

Boss VB2:

BossArea - Boss VB-2 Vibrato

Was in a studio recently and one (quite literally) fell out of a cupboard. Fantastic little pedal when used subtly. Quite rare and therefore pricey on the ebay market.

I have some great pedals here.

But here is my view on the matter.

I'd get the Danelectro Coolcat Vibe. (35 euro)
The Danelectro Fab distortion (33 euro)
The octave up fuzz from Danelectro (Think it's called French toast) (35 euro)
and a Vox Wah. The Danelectro stuff mentioned above (90 euro)
are that stuff you do not use often, but are the cream on top of any solo.

Now you can get the OCD (170 euro) and maybe a CMAT Pedals BROWNIE (145 euro).
So that makes; 508 euro.
Harley Benton Powerplant (comes with all wiring nessesary) 38 euro
Dap Showmaster 24 or 48 (I have the 24 but should have gotten the 48) The 48 is 61 euro
I finished my Showmaster 24 with aluminium plating wich was around 20 euro. And I needed some jack inputs (4) Wich were around 4 euro each and a power input 4 eurostekker input.

So that's;
508 euro
139 euro for the powersupply and casing & finishing of that case

My box allso has an expressionpedal wich I use to controll the bassynth.




This brownie pedal, in front of a Fender Tube amp will give you a Plexi style overdrive. I've learnd that analog pedals usually work with a certain style amp but not with others as well. A certain overdrive may sound gorgeous on a Jcm800 but only decent on a Fender twin and vice versa.

I do own a that Harley Benton Powerplant and it powers around 7 pedals (Mesa Boogie Vtwin, Ibanez Chorus, Behringer Reverb and a bassynth pedal & a Vox Wah, coolcat vibe).

The Vox Wah, French toast (fuzz, octave up fuzz (switchable) and a Brownie will give you the Jimmie Hendrix sound on most tube amps.

And maybe a nice TC Electronics multituner (or the Korg). But Harley Benton makes one for 29 euro and it's steel, has leds and works a treat.

For reverb you may want to buy a Digitech Hardwire rev7 wich has a lexicon chip. It has a Lexicon chip inside for reverb. So it's very cleanish.

647 for the lot above mentioned
and 140 for a reverb pedal

787 euro for the lot and may be 29 euro for a tuner;
http://www.thomann.de/nl/harley_benton_pt100.htm

So for 816 euro you get;

Overdrive & Distortion; Brownie, OCD & French toast (Fuzz & octave up) Fab distortion
Reverb; Hardwire REV7
fx; Coolcat vibe
modulation; Vox Wah
tuner; Harley Benton PT100 (steel casing and led display)
housing; flightcase & additions
power; Powersupply

The DAP Showmaster 48 will give you room for other bigger pedals and something like a looper (wich usually are quite big)

For the change you save I'd buy a Sennheiser 906 for micing up your guitarcab.

that's funny...I much prefer the way digital delays "freak out" vs analog...but I also never have owned a tape delay, that's probably the ultimate

I think the answer is "one million." I'm on a pedal spree right now..

I wanna make a list, too of my idea of "safe bets" with a bit of variety

OD/DIST/FUZZ
Turbo Rat
your favorite Big Muff version
Ultimate Octave, OCD, Fulldrive II, or Fat Boost
DS-2, SD-1
Deltalab Rock Distortion
Biyang FUZZ, Baby Boom Fuzz Star, Max Distortion, or OD-X
Ibanez Tube Screamer, MXR Classic Overdrive or GT-OD, Behringer TO800
Reverend or GarageTone Drivetrain or Drivetrain II
Throbak Electronics Stone Bender MK II
SOS Pedals Defibrillator (Shredmaster)
Radial Tonebone Classic
Klon (yeah right)
D*A*M Meathead

TREMOLO
4ms Tremulus Lune can do lots of tremolo sounds
Demeter Tremulator
any one you like, really, this one's pretty personal

CHORUS
Small Clone or Polychorus
Deltalab Stereo Chorus on a budget, for a different sound (cleaner)
Boss chorus for that "Police" sound
botique if you wanna/needta

CLEAN BOOST (Volume boost)
MXR Micro Amp, love this pedal
Super Hard On
anything else with one knob

PHASER
Small Stone is kind of my favorite, some prefer an MXR
4ms makes a crazy tweakable one the Phaser Fleur
Danelectro Chicken Salad (univiiiiiibe!)

FLANGER
I have no idea

REVERB
Line6 Verbzilla, Digitech Digiverb, whatever else speaks to you

COMPRESSOR
again no idea

DELAY
I really like the boss units, DD-20, RE-20
Deltalab Digital Delay is very basic, easy, and sounds terrific
Biyang Baby Boom Time Machine looks very promising
Danelectro PB&J
Memory Man
Carbon Copy if you want really mellow vibe

ENVELOPE FILTER/AUTO WAH
General Guitar Gadgets 440
Electro Harmonix
You're probably going to want some Moogerfoogers if you have money

WAH
Vox 848 is my baby, there are many other styles, again personal taste.

A/B/Y
the cheap Morley works for me, but I'm not picky

TUNER
Peterson for the ultimate in precision

PEDAL BOARDS
Rondo Music .net sells them cheap!
Pedaltrains are pretty fancy looking

6296.1
I am a graduate student at Mississippi State University and I am conducting market research on the guitar pedal industry. I have compiled a survey that will seek to gather information about the guitar pedal industry and consumer buying habits. If you complete this survey, you will have an opportunity to win a FREE distortion pedal, or a t-shirt. All information collected will be used for academic research and kept strictly confidential. If you have any friends that would be interested in taking this survey, please share the following link with them. Also, feel free to share the link on your Twitter and Facebook. Click the following link to start the survey. Thank you for your time.
https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/guitarpedalsurvey

I had a revelation...

well, if you're handy with a soldering iron you should look into veroboard/stripboard/perfboard layouts. and/or etching your own PCBs. just do a google image search for "big muff veroboard" for example, or visit DIYstompboxes.com (great website with a lot of resources) or freestompboxes.org ... there's also madbean pedals, guitarpcb, tonepad, and general guitar gadgets for those hard-to-find PCB layouts or they'll sell you a pre made pcb with instructions, layout, bill of materials

but vero and DIY pcb was the real mind blower. I just built a Ram's Head big muff for probably $25 or so in parts. incredible! I'm going to do a million and a half of these things, mostly vintage fuzz circuits and boutique and rare things. pretty excited about all this, right now

Id go for less but qualitly.

keeley compressor $250
ss-20 valve pre amp $280
fulltone OCD $135
mxr carbon copy analog delay $130
fulltone deja vibe $230

total $1025

Ive got all the above and another 15 pedals on my board. If you have a
marshall tube amp the ss20 will blow your mind. If your a tranny amp man
dont bother about the ss20. Get some mxr phase flang and chorus for the $250...Hope this help
my 2cents

what amp are you using. no point putting $1000 dollars worth of pedals in front of a non tube amp.

for pedals my picks are

reverb,
spring reverb tank (any of them, must have a wet/dry mix)

chorus
eh small clone

delay
digitech pds1002
ehx memory man

fuzz/overdrive (on the clean channel)
trex mudhoney
catalinbread dirty little secret
overdriven tube head beats pretty much anything if ytou have 2 channel amp. set one clean with your pedal array and the other tweaked for dripping overdrive.

i find distortion/overdrive/fuzz really depends on your amp/guitar combination. some pedals just don't sound as good with some amps.

i also really like my tc m300, has some great digital reverb, delay and chorus. i really like the slapback delay and the chorus/flangers and reverbs on guitar. not foot pedal i know and your amp needs an effects loop to work the best.

you could also look at a blender pedals for mixing tones.

a vote for the Z vex Wooly Mammoth. man that thing is amazing. I would build it yrself though somehow, due to the ridiculous price, and simplicity of the circuit, madbean and guitarpcb.com have PCBs if you can't do vero. really cool on guitar

Oh man, if you're in to surf music (or really any music) you'll NEVER find a nicer sounding delay than the Strymon el Capistan tape delay. It's $299, has 10 editable parameters including settings to adjust the "age" of the tape from new and crisp to old a worn (complete with the occasional crackle if desired) and it does fixed, multi, and single head configurations. And the best part....if you know what a nice analog tape delay sounds like, you'll already be familiar with the sound. It's THAT close. From slap to crazy washed out swells, it can do it all perfect.

This thread made me consider a few things -

1.) How many pedals I own

2.) How much money I have spent in pedals

3.) Exactly how much of a pedal addiction I actually have

Upon Consideration, I have concluded the answer to both is - it's INSANE = )

That said I could not be any happier with my insanity or addiction.

All of these boxes the - Cheap - Boutique - One-offs from random guitar shows - Personally made PCB variety & Assorted homemade Franken-Pedals... Are a lot of fun and terribly addictive.

BTW... I just bought a distortion pedal sold at Target... It's so awful that it's wonderful ;-) (I expected it to be awful)

Happy Playing - Happy Chaining

Cheers,
Alexa

this guys pedals are the best i've ever heard.
hands down

hand made in the us.

Effects Pedal Boutique

no affiliation.

Eventide - Stompboxes