What Should I Have On My Pedalboard?

A guitarist pedal board can be his greatest friend and also his greatest enemy. Understanding and knowing how to implement different sounds and effects at different times will really take your playing to the next level. Worship music is in a day and age where dotted-eighth delay and reverb is king. Heavy distortion and and wah pedals (my favorite pedal of all time btw) are not as essential as they use to be. People often ask me what are the most essential pedals to get for their pedal board or rig for worship music. So I am going to list out in order what pedals you should get in my humble opinion! (This is not the order you should have them in your chain, that will be a different blog)

First thoughts, before you get pedals, be thinking about the power you get for pedals and the patch cables you use for your pedals. Bad power and cheap patch cables can make some great pedals sound really good. Invest in quality and you will have a quality sound.

1. Tuner pedal. This is the most boring and frustrating pedal you could possibly buy, but nevertheless it is the most essential. You could go through a whole set playing everything exactly right with all of the best techniques, but none of it matters if you are out of tune, because it will sound really, really bad. There are now clip on tuners for the headstock that you can purchase for cheaper if you are looking for a work around to buying a pedal for your rig!

Good tuner pedals: Boss TU-3, T.C. Electronic Polytune 2, Korg Pitchblack

Video example: https://www.youtube.com/watch? v=37jXn9KUL44

2. Volume pedal. I am so sorry, this is another annoying pedal to buy at times, but let me explain. With worship music today, there are an infinite number of times where an electric guitarist is expected to play swells or utilize different delay trails. If you are trying to play and do a volume swell with your volume knob, it will be very difficult to get as clean of a swell as you would if you had a volume pedal. This might be a purchase that you realize how great it is once you implement it, then you’ll never want to go back. Trust me.

Good volume pedals: Ernie Ball VP Jr., Ernie Ball MVP, Mission Engineering Inc VM-Pro-PZ

Video example: https://www.youtube.com/watch? v=-cOpiuWgAcM

3. Overdrive Pedal. Now we are talking. A good overdrive pedal can give you the tone that you are looking for from your guitar. I say an overdrive pedal and not a distortion pedal for a reason. With an overdrive the intention is often twofold: either to provide a gain boost to “overdrive” a tube amp into distortion, or to approximate the mildly distorted sound of a slightly overdriven tube amp. In practice, most do a little of both. Overdrives look to modify what your sound is, whereas distortion pedals change what your sound is to something that the pedal wants it to sound like. In worship music, an overdrive pedal or even a clean boost pedal is exactly what you are looking for to give your guitar a little grit and crunch to make to cut through the music and really sing. My favorite pedal that I’m not sure I have turned off in the 2 years since I have bought it is the Xotic EP Booster pedal that really gives my guitar the sparkle that I want out of it. You can also combine different overdrive pedals to get different effects. Try out some and see what you like! This is a preference pedal!

Good overdrive pedals: Selah Scarlett Love , Ibanez TS9 Tube Screamer, Teletronix Mulholland Drive, Fulltone Fulldrive

Video example: https://www.youtube.com/watch? v=UORGoM3uJ9g

4. Delay Pedal. This is where you are really beginning to start to sound like a worship guitarist. Delay is king in this world of worship music at the moment. What is delay? It is essentially an echo on your guitar signal. It is more than an echo effect though, it is a strategically sounding delay sound that is often associated with the tempo of the song that you are playing. There are a bunch of ways to utilize this effect with the possibilities almost being infinite. You can really start to create some great tones and sounds with a great delay pedal. My biggest suggestion for getting a delay pedal is to get one with programmable BPM or milliseconds or at the very least a tap tempo feature. This will help your delay effect be in sync with the music that you are playing.

Good delay pedals: T.C. Electronic Nova Delay, Strymon TimeLine, Eventide TimeFactor, Korg SDD-3000

Video example: https://www.youtube.com/watch? v=xO3iyAxvj8k

5. Reverb Pedal. Reverb brings a sense of space, depth and drama to even the most basic guitar parts. This can be essential to your guitar and being the icing on the cake of your tone to bring it from a stale sound to a sound that has life and energy in it. Often you will find amps that have built in reverb effects, and those can sometimes work great, and sometimes not. There are some excellent rack mount reverbs as well as pedals to accomplish this sound. More intense reverb sounds can give you an ethereal, ambient sound that you will find in some worship music today. This can really transform your guitar into sounding like a pad and can fill up a sound space instantly.

Good reverb pedals: Malekko Chicklet Reverb, Strymon BlueSky, Eventide Space, Electro-Harmonix Holy Grail

Video example: https://www.youtube.com/watch? v=70oVouoJMrQ

Other pedals. Above are all of the essential pedals that I would suggest to start with. A compressor pedal almost made this list, but not quite because often a soundboard can give you all of the compression you need if you are running through a PA. Outside of these you can get into some more creative sounds such as an octave pedal that can create some great effects. Also, a straight boost pedal can be great for your rig for different times when you need a hook or lead to get out over a mix. Outside of those, a chorus, or tremolo pedal can have their time and place, it is just not as common with worship music today.

Good other pedals. Strymon OB.1 Compressor, Xotic SP Compressor, Electro Harmonix Micro POG, Strymon Flint Tremelo, EarthQuake Sea Machine Chorus

Video example: https://www.youtube.com/watch? v=5bqSLl_r3ok

The bottom line is to have fun with your sound and get a great tone for what you need! If you have any questions or comments, please shoot me an email at tysondoddmusic@gmail.com or contact me at www.tysondodd.com. I would love to help! Rock on!