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Ask MusicRadar: what's the one stompbox you can't live without?
Name your favourite effects pedal
The MusicRadar Team, Fri 2 Oct 2009, 2:34 pm UTC
Welcome to Ask MusicRadar, a section devoted entirely to you - the all-knowing, gear-buying, gear-playing and all-round gear-loving community. This week we're asking: what's the one stompbox you can't live without?
Just imagine you could only use one pedal for the rest of your life… what would you choose? Whether it's distortion, fuzz, overdrive, chorus, reverb, wah-wah, phaser or whatever - if it's an essential part of your music-making arsenal, we want to know.
What to do know
Get involved! Choose your favourite pedal (no multi-fx units please – let's save that for another question!) and share your suggestion (tell us the make and model), and reasons why, like this:
- Via MusicRadar (log in and leave a comment below with a link as usual)
- Via Twitter (follow @musicradar and tag your submission with #askmusicradar)
- Via Facebook (become a fan at http://facebook.com/musicradar and post suggestions on our wall)
- Or via ask@musicradar.com (just send an email the old-fashioned way)
Once we've got all your nominations, we'll create a shortlist, a poll and finally your definitive list of essential stompboxes every player should own.
User comments (47)
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yeah Z vex makes some great pedals. For value for money The Distortron is a pedal i can't live without...
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zvex super hard-on. i leave it on pretty much all the time and it just makes everything sound better.
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Any decent Volume pedal,currently I favour a Fender PR-725 Volume-Tone pedal or a Boss FV-50 H. MXR Carbon Copy would be next. both are pretty indespensable parts of my sound.
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"My Marshall Jackhammer dist/od pedal. Amazing versatility, great gain range, clear, underwhelming tone, especially with the treble, bass and contour knobs used minimally. Highly under-rated IMO, especially in t...he shadow of the old Shredmaster. I use it as my main dst unit, and like to think of it as a beefier, more obscure ProCo RAT."
"Give it a look, a review, and don't believe the forums, it really does take some tweaking to make it work, but once it does, it absolutely bleeds tone." (From Josh via Facebook, thanks) -
"My Boss CS3 compression sustainer- always has the light on." (From @westlink via Twitter, thanks)
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"Keeley Compressor - MXR Carbon Copy is close second." (From @nickrundall via Twitter, thanks)
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(TU-2 as a given...)
Aside from that, Deluxe Memory Man - for all the flavours that you can add to the sound (even accidentally at times!). It's the pedal I've had the longest by far.
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Ibanez Tubescreamer, sounds incredible wouldn't be without it. Lots of people think of it just a metal distortion pedal, and yeah it produces the most awwsome tones for metal and punk music, but it is also capable of producing some very smooth meaty sounds.
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I'd have to say that I probably couldn't go anywhere now without my Keeley Modded TS-9, incredible overdrive! Next to that (if I had one!) I'd probably go for the TU-2, every player should be in tune :)
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It'd have to be a phaser, for me.
If I had to pick one from my ever expanding collection, it'd be the EHX Small Stone. It just sounds so swooshy!
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notbettyedwards
5 weeks ago.