Everything You Need To Know About Buying Your First Guitar Pedal! 

Can I just say something stupid here . It just makes me so happy to see these grown up men having fun just muckin about with their gear and the music . It's so childish and so funny and just makes me wanna jam with me buddies

Justin’s delay prank was pure gold 😂

Long video for what should be just Lee standing in front of a camera in a dimly lit room and mouthing the words "Metal Zone".

To summarise - We have never had it so good. Cheap Guitars play well and cheap amps and effects sound better than ever before :-)

Loopers are specially great when you have no friends to jam with. **Cries in corner**

That "playing his own delay" gag at around 18:00 was very funny. I really enjoyed those three guys sitting together having fun, whilst showing us some stuff.

My first pedal was looper. Then I just bought multifx unit to tinker with and to find out what i want on my pedalboard.

I setup the first JustinGuitar facebook group back in the day (as a fan), he then asked to take it over and was very happy to give it up. Awesome content and started a lifelong passion.

I'd always recommend a multi-fx for a beginner - it lets you discover loads of effects and new sounds and have fun with it.

Yes, beginners should absolutely use effects. Either on the amp, through pedals or through a multi-effects unit. Sounding like the music you like will go a long way to keeping them interested.

I absolutely agree that a looper is probably the best pedal you can buy at an early stage. As a beginner, the biggest jump in my playing ability came from getting a looper, trying to get the timing just so it'll loop perfectly, and noodling over the top of the backing track I created for myself. The looper is also where other pedals tend to come into play as an absolute beginner, and particularly your first overdrive pedal might be worth it - as rightly said, very few of these small beginner-segment amplifiers have an effects-loop so the only way to change your sound without also changing what's coming out of the looper is by putting a pedal before the looper. About tuner pedals, I actually disagree with Justin a bit - mostly from a precision point-of-view. Most headstock tuners are pretty fiddly, inaccurate, and prone to picking up insanely subtle things that make the headstock resonate. Pedal tuners don't have that problem nearly as much, going off the guitar's output signal rather than what the headstock is doing. Also, as rightly said, it's much easier to lose a headstock tuner than a pedal. Lastly, chorus. DO NOT buy a chorus pedal (or any other "modulation" type effect) if you're still learning to play guitar - there are many audible mistakes that chorus and other modulation-y effects will obscure.

When the first pedal you bought was a wah pedal.

It is worth pointing out that all these pedals will need cables, while not expensive it is definitely an additional cost.

You always assume that beginners only have a small budget but a lot of people (especially those learning through RU-vid) are older, with more resources. You could make a series of videos on where the sweet spot is if you don't know what to buy but are looking to put together a future-proofed rig. A beginner's rig that you won't need to upgrade.

Justin - please do a looper tutorial series for beginners to intermediates. I know you have a single how to vid which is great but more of the what would be great. Would be good if you could look at the different levels of looping, how to do a simple 12 bar blues etc. Would lend itself to a series very well and there is a definite gap in the market.

The most compliments I've ever gotten on my playing came after a show where I ran a ts-9 into a hot rod deville. That says something about overthinking pedals. That being said, I own like 20 pedals.

This discussion is pure GOLD- because I am standing on the precipice right now- my looper is already on order. Appreciate you guys for this! Thank you! 🙏🏻

4:16 watch as he ropes out 100ft of cable here, I thought it would never end 😂

The Zoom is a no brainer. If you had done your homework you'd see it has a really good looper that syncs to a built in drum machine. It also has excellent amp models so you can get great sounds for recording or just practicing with headphones. For that price everyone should own one.

That tip from Pete about the distortion in front of the looper and then you can solo was extremely helpful.

What I love about this video is that it proves you don't have to spend a fortune initially to sound "good". If a new guitarist can have a guitar that plays easily and sounds good they will play longer and enjoy guitar for the long term. Great job guys.

I had no idea I needed pedals until this video. I’ve been playing off and on since 2001.

I've never owned a clip on tuner but i've used them at a few jams/open mics. What i'll say is in a band situation i'd still prefer a pedal tuner because the headstock tuners they tend to pick up on vibrations from other loud instruments in the room making it difficult to tune whereas with a pedal tuner you don't have that issue. The headstock tuners need quiet to work lol obviously they are fine for the bedroom etc and are a good option for beginners but pedal tuners will always have there place unless you can magically make yer drummer/bassist/other guitars shut up when you're tuning :p!

Pedals are something I always want, and there is just so much variety in terms of effects, brands, designs, etc to take into account. Highly appreciative of this indeed as a result! Cheers!

Although it was mentioned briefly in the video, I don't think it can be stressed strongly enough for beginners that, unless your amp has a built-in effects loop, the sound coming from your looper pedal *will* be changed by whatever modifications you make to your amp - unless you have a bunch of pedals in front of it. This means that your rhythm will have the same tone/drive etc. as the lead you want to put over it. I would have loved to buy the 50W Katana because of its more compact size, but I was forced to buy the 100W because it is the first amp in the Katana range with an effects loop (and I didn't want a pedal board). Please ask manufacturers (Boss) to consider adding effects loops to [more of] their cheaper amps!

Please note that the Boss GA-FC footswitch is NOT working with the Katana 50. It does with the 100 and above. The FS-6 pedal is working on it tho.

Boss MetalZone. Everybody needs a Boss MetalZone.

You guys need longer cables. Oh, and Pete and Justin need to play together in a video at least once a month.

Best audio for these type of videos in my opinion Capt...it's real & gives the authentic sounds...especially to those of us who don't mic amps when we play. GREAT JOB GUYS ! ! ! ! ! ! !

Guitars, cool people and a dog, love this room

The three of you together just works.

#1 Noise gate, #2 Wah,#3 Tube screamer,#4 Looper, Done

Ooooh doggo. I think your first pedal should be a foot-switch for your amp and a looper pedal.

Gotta agree on the looper. It’s a fantastic practice tool for everyone from beginners to pros. It’s also a great compositional tool.

Your channel is like an online guitar school which teaches stuff that normally a typical online guitar class wouldn't.. With a lot of useful info along with a subjective approach in decision making and understanding the guitars and the technicalities involved along with it.. As a beginner guitarist I love your detailed discussion kinda videos! And a huge fan of Danish Pete's guitar playing.. Love from India

Looper is necessary if you're a bedroom player. If you have beginning friends who are going to start the next garage band sensation, then get the katana, a tuner pedal, and distortion or overdrive right away. Tuner pedals are nice because the clip-on tuners break so fast you'll always be buying new ones. Buy a tuner pedal once and be happy.

Pedals for a beginners: 1. Tuner 2. A noise gate if you use a guitar with single coils, an acoustic electric guitar or a hollow body guitar and or hear a bunch of unwanted hiss coming through the speakers. 3. EQ pedal which will double as a clean boost. 4. A looper They will be forever pedals More advanced pedal: Multi effects pedal which will save you money buying separately a reverb pedal, a delay pedal, a compressor, a chorus, a flanger and a some allow for Wah effects either an auto Wah or a Wah pedal. That's just 6 effects and if each pedal averages 50 pounds, that's 300 pounds worth of sounds for less than 230 pounds. Some amps have multiple effects if not just reverb, but the ones with multiple effects may limit you for instance you have the choice of compression and overdrive, but not at the same time.

The musicians interaction was priceless. Thank you for 3 great videos.

The Zoom G3N does have a looper, with tap tempo, and synced drum tracks, but the total loop time is something like 20-30 seconds. A dedicated looper pedal will do several minutes, but may lack the tap tempo/rhythm tracks, depending on the model.

The advantage of the Katana is that it really sounds great on day one. Cheap amps sound mostly bad even with an experienced player. There is no work to getting a Katana to sound. As soon as a new student can play a chord or two cleanly, they will like what they hear and be inspired.

For all of us "olds" out there it used to be that entry level stuff was barely playable. Nowadays learning to play reasonably well isn't an equipment battle issue.

Just bought a trio+ and I'm really enjoying experimenting with it.

My first pedal I bought was a original crybaby wah because I love srv, hendrix, and Hammett, and I loved it for every second, the same day my cousin gave me a swollen pickle fuzz 2 and a east river drive overdrive pedal for free, one of the best vacations I’ve ever had.

“Pete’s a master looper” Good thing he doesn’t bait hooks lol! Somebody had to say it!

Lee, it has to be said, your enthusiasum and honesty in trying to find the best options for new guitarist is awsome! Keep it going, love it.

my very first pedal was a *little big muff* from woodruffs in brum .and was quickly followed by a *KP phaser* .then a *carlsboro* fuzz . and yes theyre addictive .4 plus decades later im still purchasing .but its costing a fortune in pedal cases !!!

First pedal I'd recommend is a looper. Second must have pedal is amp channel selector

Zoom G1xon multi effects pedal. 100s of effects built in tuner , looper, drums and expression foot pedal all for around 60 quid. May not be the sturdiest bit of kit but for a beginner sat in their bedroom absolute bargain.

Right! effects? In my humble experience since 1993 if the drive/distortion is no better than the amp save your money. I would say the most important effect is a metronome. If you learn how to play anything with one you always sound better in tune and time. What a metronome does is to program your mindset by the repeats. So learn with one is much more than a loop. RU-vid has guitar tuner videos and if your guitar is setup and a certain quality tuning is not really an issue. Not even in bands and I have experience there as well. Back in 1993 the Digitech RP1 was the latest multi effects unit and I got caught up in trying to dial in heavy tones that my Marshall 8100 had already and somehow I got diluted by it. You got to figure out where you want to go and have a sort of vision for the future which will help you save money time and effort + GAS. These days you can research a lot prior to any purchase for effects, amps and guitars online so if you have a clear goal in mind for the guitar playing google and youtube is your friend. Test, try out and do not be afraid to ask how to get that sound. At some time maybe a drummer comes in and you need to have in mind to be loud enough.

Justin Sundercoe!!!! Learned a lot from him back in the days where I started picking up electric guitars. :D

The zoom G3n has a looper it's under the subsection that say looper in big bold letters

I am a big fan of modeling amps, but one advantage of pedals is you can turn things on and off on the fly while playing. Even with the Mustang GT and a foot switch, you have to remember the click combination to change things on the fly. If you are jamming with friends, pedals are much easier.

Chorus......Nirvana.Every other song on nevermind uses a chorus pedal to a degree.Not that I'm complaining. I love Nirvana ,and that album.

These three guys are a good team, relaxing and entertaining to watch, and you learn a thing or two about guitars.

I know Spider amps are not well received here, but they do include loopers, and can configure it to be before or after the amp modeler.

This was a great series! Maybe you three should do more videos together

the things that influence sound the most in order from top to bottom is the electronics of whatever the guitar goes into, the electronics of the guitar, the stuff the guitar is made out of/shape

I got the Katana not really loving it in the store but it was on sale and I had tried tube amps in my apartment and they just were too loud. After getting it home and playing around with it, I love it. The delays, overdrives and distortions, and reverb are all really great imo. Great starting point for me as the only pedal I had was a distortion pedal. Now I own several pedals and love mixing them in with the built in effects on the Katana. For a beginner, get a tube screamer, DS-1, the looper and the Katana and you'll be set for a good long time.

Wish all this stuff had been around when I started out. Seems like there's never been a better time to learn than now.

I still have my Zoom 300. I have always loved being able to test combinations and order of effects.

When you buy looper, you discover a whole new universe! At first I got Boss GT-8, It was great but then I sold it and bought Tc Ditto Looper, later TC x4 delay and Boss SD-1 and this Pedalboard is great!

if your a beginner learn to use your guitar and amp settings volume tone you can get great sounds just by doing that use heavy light touches your fingers techniques will create what you need as a beginner

* Luckily, thankfully, my first pedal was the Boss TU-2. (I bought it because the tuning thingy in the starter pack could not tune to save its life.) That thing faithfully served me all the way until the TU-3 Waza came along. Now, the Waza is my go-to. * The second pedal I ever bought was the Ibanez PD-7 Phat Hed. It was advertised as the bassist Tube Screamer, but it also had a switch for full-on distortion, which sounded amazing for guitar. Plus, we were teenagers at the time, so none one us could afford a ProCo Rat. BUT, a Phat Hed sounded every bit as good through our budget Crate amps, and was half the price, so that is what fuelled our 90s grunge movement. (Thank you, Ibanez!)

Have they done a looper shootout yet? I really want to see Boss Loopers vs Ditto.

Apologizing for just using room mics to record this one. Good room mics worked wonders for the Peel Sessions, and they work great for you here. There's nothing to apologize for.

Sweet video! Excellent info for beginners! I liked the amp behind the Boss the best! My beginners setup that I still use is a First act LP Junior style $50, Fender Greta $90 with a homemade 8” cab $20, and an Ibanez TS7 $35! Got em used and the FA is sweet. Nice flame maple neck with no sharp frets, rosewood board, and a solid wood body. Blues tones for days! And only $195 total!

18:05 such a cheeky joke from Justin there! what a guy

Pedals are very dangerous once you start, there are so many now. Do lots of research and demo them in store when you can. If not you get into a constant state of buy, play, sell/trade over and over. If you know the tone your going for its a lot easier. I agree with Pete, if you are just starting off and have a cheap Amp and Guitar get a looper pedal to learn timing and phrasing with before you start going crazy buying a ton of tone pedals.

Justin is cool. Even Knopfler recommended listening to his lessons to improve your guitar. Rumour has it that MK learnt some of those tricky licks in Brothers In Arms from Justin.

Thank you ATV! I loved these 3 videos, very helpful indeed and honest opinions... perhaps the next set of 3 could be when you’re a couple of years into playing with the first upgrades?

I started playing a few months ago, saved up the money to get some new gear. I got a Flashback 2 x4 loop/delay with the new gear and i love it.

I agree with Pete if you have a low budget, get something like an Eastcoast starter pack and a small cheap pedal board, a distortion pedal, delay, modulation pedal (if you like the sounds you can get from them) and a looper. A year later (or whenever they’re ready) buy a better amp because everything else will still be good enough to do a small gig with.

The zoom does have a looper! And tuner As well :)

A Looper and a Wah pedal is all you need at first and then when you get the Bug,buy every other pedal you can !!! (TC Electronic Mojomojo Overdrive is a good start)

I suggest looper and tuner for first buy

I already own a dumb amount of pedals, yet here I am purely to listen to Pete demonstrate a looper

A trio of legends =)

Well, I am starting guitar tomorrow with a Yamaha Pacifica and the guidance on this videois excellent.

My first pedal was a delay pedal because I wanted to branch out from just playing Blink 182 songs and do some Angels and Airwaves. Yep...

Great discussion! 100% agree on the looper pedal. They are both functional for serious learning and for goofing around for fun. The other effects...I do find having something that gets me closer to the sound of the record makes learning songs more enjoyable. That said, for practicing scales, chords, etc. I prefer no effects (other than maybe the looper) to hear accuracies. ✌🏻🎼🎸

9:17 well you can still kinda do that by putting the amp on crunch and then adjusting the guitar's volume.

Yes. I bought a TC Golden Plexi from the Captain just because I wanted to buy something from Andertons

You could pay a bit extra for the katana 100, which has an effects loop, for ~£100 more, which covers the cost of a bunch of extra pedals running into a looper.

Loved the two guests on this vid

Electro Harmonix Nano Looper 360 was my first.

ok Captain, a challenge for you, make two pedal boards, the first one must be the cheapest of the cheap and the second must be the most expensive version. then shoot a vid to show the comparisom.

New fender gtx 100 with pedal record loops with settings en you can change tone... And play other sound... See youtube from andertons mustang gtx at 37:08. 🤗

I love my Tumnus on a good decent crunch. It's awesome with my GLP

Everything was said from the very beginning : Do you need pedal at all ? I'm thinking maybe if we just think about getting a pedal ( other than utility ones as loopers, tuners, A-B etc...) , maybe it means we don't like so much our guitar or amp or the combation of the two. Would you put ketchup or whatever on a really tasty piece of beef or chicken ?

You just haven't gone through all the phases that guitar players experience, yet. We all have gone through the digital effects phase, but the Last stage for most players is realizing that analog is the only way to go... addicting and expensive... but freaking worth it all. (imho).

Very glad the peppers got a mention

A Champion 40 or 50, same price as Boss and with the 12 inch speaker, a great pedal platform.

This trio is mega!

yes I will definitely treat myself to a looper with a dedicated stop button and a chorus pedal even though I am running my Benson strat thru a Blackstar 10 V2 multi affects amp which is great, but an extra chorus effect would sound great. Great videos thanks guys

I own a katana so i really only need a looper and a overdrive so i can have a clean loop and a light gain improvisation over it. Im not a fan of modular fx but i use a tiny bit of reverb (on the katana)

**Question** - (guitar amp hack?) So, I am getting into playing around with effects, and I am wanting to use a looper. My amp has a lot of internal effects, with a line out and a line-in (headphone and line in). Can I run a cable out from the quarter inch headphone jack into a looper pedal, and run a cable from the looper pedal back into the line-in jack? Thus allowing me to run a looper on one effect, and then play over it with another effect. I don't have the home equipment to test this theory. If you start a new series called Music Hacks, I'll expect a little shoutout!

Great series, I hope you do some more stuff like this.

Everybody is different. For me the best pedals I could've had when I was a kid learning to play would've been delay and reverb. I always loved those big full sounds that guys like Slash were getting, but I would get frustrated because I was just plugging into a dry amp with a little overdrive and it sounded nothing like the solo to November Rain. If I just knew that adding a little delay and reverb would give me that full sound then I would've loved it and practiced a lot more.

So after all that demo Captain your telling me I can't sound like Pete even if I have the Dane, pedal, a purple tele, and an amp? I have to practice first :) That sounds like a lot of work :)

This was great, watching some of my favorite people on the planet having fun with pedals. I just wish you would have used tube/valve amps to play around with, though ...Thanks for posting and making me smile and laugh.